While some preservationists are balking at construction plans for the historic cobblestone streets of Vinegar Hill, the city insists the upgrading is imperative for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists, and necessary to bring the city streets into compliance with accessibility standards set by the American Disabilities Act.

The $20 million capital construction project “to reconstruct cobble roadways and subsurface utilities,” as the DOT website puts it, comes by way of a collaboration among the DOT, the DUMBO Improvement District, the Department of Design and Reconstruction and, according to DOT spokesman Nicholas Mosquera, community boards and local residents and stakeholders.

“At our last public meeting last month, we saw growing, enthusiastic support for this overdue work,” Mosquera asserted, noting that the Department has held three workshops in the last year to receive community feedback and display plans.

Mosquera also said that the DOT and its partners in the project are “discussing options to reuse as many cobblestones as possible.”

A plan presented at the most recent community workshop last month detailed how the reused stones will be used alongside new stones, with particular attention paid to the color, size and textural consistency.

The catch, as some news reports and neighborhood groups have noted, is that the current stones are not merely “granite cobble” — they are hand-cut Belgian blocks.

And the new stones the city plans to use — aside from the ones Mosquera hopes to reuse — are new laser-cut blocks that will be put through a tumbler to give them an older, weathered look.

However, the cobblestone streets are already covered with a smattering of asphalt patches: Mosquera says that half the cobblestones are covered by asphalt just to make the street navigable.

The issue is not only surface-level: as there have been no street improvements in over a century, underground utilities like sewers and water mains used by the homes, stores and restaurants in the area “are long overdue for reconstruction.”

“A huge part of this work is just to bring what’s underground into the 21st century,” Mosquera explained.

Ultimately, the goal is to make the street safer and easier to navigate, and implement ADA-compliant smooth crosswalks.

Mosquera emphasized “the most important thing… is that this is a complete street reconstruction that builds on similar projects elsewhere in DUMBO,” essentially maintaining consistency in street design throughout the neighborhood.

Similar, complete street reconstruction on Washington Street and another section of Water Street started more than three years ago.

Are the cobblestones protected landmarks?

Elisabeth de Bourbon at the Landmarks Protection Council said there are “a number of streets in some of the city’s historic districts that are landmarked by virtue of being in the boundaries of those historic districts,” like DUMBO, Tribeca and the Gansevoort Market Historic District.

Cobble roads in the Ninth Avenue-Gansevoort area are also undergoing some construction, according to the DOT’s website: on Ninth Avenue from Gansevoort to West 16th Street, the DOT has plans underway for “upgraded water and sewer lines, and a resetting of its historic cobblestones.”

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

The post Are NYC’s cobblestones on the way out for good? appeared first on Metro.us.

An upcoming exhibit being planned for the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center in Washington, D.C. will honor the Bronx as a “Place of Invention,” the NY Daily News reported.

The homage recognizes the Bronx as a birthplace of hip-hop.

“We wanted to show that it’s not just a single inventor who creates something, but really a community that creates the right recipe for an invention,” said curator Laurel Fritzsch, who is responsible for for the Bronx portion of the exhibit.

Th exhibit, set to open in spring 2015 at the Lemeson Center at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. will feature relics like boomboxes, vinyl records, hip hop flyers and videos, as well as a turntable that belonged to Grandmaster Flash and a lamppost powering music systems as a throwback to an old practice of hotwiring streetlamps to power sound equipment.

Flash famously created his own crossfader using spare parts. Fritzsch cited this kind of ingenuity as part of the reason for featuring the Bronx in the exhibit.

“Modern mixers and a lot of the speakers and sound systems came out of what [early DJs] created,” she said.

Visitors will also be able to try their hand at scratching and mixing.

Grand Wizzard Theodore, credited with inventing scratching said, “I think it’s really cool that they’re doing something like this.”

“Scratching plays such a major part in DJing,” he said. “It gives you the chance to express yourself, the chance to get into mixing. It’s just so important no matter the genre of music you’re into.”

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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Katheryn Winnick (center) plays a real-life shieldmaiden in “Vikings.”
Credit: History Channel

The mental image that comes to mind when you hear “Vikings” is usually bearded oafs drinking from skull cups in between fits of plundering. “People think they were just barbarians with horns on their heads,” says Katheryn Winnick, one of the stars of “The Vikings,” a new nine-episode docu-drama that airs Sundays on The History Channel. “That’s completely wrong. They were civilized, intelligent, sophisticated.”
The show is the latest from Michael Hirst, known for his way of turning history into highly watchable, often sexy trash, as he did in the “Elizabeth” films, “The Tudors” and “The Borgias.” His new show tells of Ragnar Lothbak (Travis Fimmel), a real-life Viking badass. But the women have meaty roles, too, specifically Lagertha (Winnick), wife of Ragnar, and Siggy (Jessalyn Gilsig), the Lady Macbeth to Gabriel Byrne’s evil lord. Lagertha, is a “shieldmaiden” — a female warrior — and spends the earliest episodes at home as her husband sails on an illegal mission. But that means organizing the community and fending off ne’er-do-wells in Ragnar’s stead. “What’s great about her relationship with Ragnar was that they were partners,” Winnick says. “It was true love.”
For Gilsig, best known as Terri Schuester on “Glee,” it was a chance to play evil again, this time alongside her TV husband.
“This was a team effort,” she says of the two characters. “This is a couple that has come to the highest position, and now they have to figure out how to keep it. You have to do that by identifying your enemies and any threat you have, and eliminating them.”
The secret to playing a villain is believing the character is right, Gilsig says. “Your job as an actor is to always make sense to yourself. Even a serial killer makes sense to themselves.”

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“We were out from 4am to 6pm,” recalls Qiana Martin, a Chicago resident who attended the 2009 inauguration. “It was amazing to see the millions of people who came. Everyone was really excited, and it didn’t matter that it was freezing cold. It’s an event that you’ll be able to tell your grandchildren about.”

Barring dramatic circumstances (like the assassination of the sitting president), new presidents always take the oath of office here, in front of the Capitol, on the 20th of January (or the Monday after if the 20th is a Sunday, as is the case this year).

The presidential oath has remained the same since George Washington was sworn in as the United States’ first president. But the ceremony, which started as a small, private event, has evolved into a day-long mass spectacle.

“Mostly it’s just a big party,” explains Jonathan Krasno, a political scientist at Binghamton University in New York. “A lot of it is about the big money that goes into the presidential race. The inauguration is payback time for the donors.”

The pageantry of the inauguration symbolizes the importance of the presidency, which, of course, includes being both head of government and head of state.

“The U.S. began as a revolution, but the more we get away from our revolutionary roots, the more our presidents move towards the trappings of a monarch,” observes Barbara Perry, Senior Fellow in American politics at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. “But they also like the populist air of having millions of people on the Mall.”

This year a crowd approaching the 2009 record of two million is expected to the Mall, the lawn that stretches from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial. Notes Perry: “Most Americans are not monarchical, but they do view the President’s family as almost royal, and they’re patriotic.”

A Congressional committee organizes the event, which includes dozens of inaugural balls, but each president adds a personal touch. Jimmy Carter, for example, chose to walk to the White House following his inauguration, forgoing the presidential limousine. President Obama will participate on a National Day of Service on January 19, a tradition he started before his 2009 inauguration.

Elizabeth Stern, a 16-year-old in San Francisco, will watch the inauguration with special interest: she sang at Obama’s 2009 inauguration.

“You could tell that the day was really special, but the people were just like tiny dots, so I had to remind myself how historic this event was,” recalls Elizabeth, a singer in the San Francisco Girls Chorus. She still feels a special connection with the inauguration: “The moment the significance of the event really hit me was when Obama walked off the stage and we heard the applause. Now, every time I hear the words ‘Inauguration of Barack Obama’ I get a smile on my face.”

Obama oath mistakes

At the 2009 inauguration, Chief Justice John Roberts stumbled slightly over the words while administering the oath of office to Barack Obama. Since the President repeats the words said by the Chief Justice in the swearing-in ceremony, Obama repeated Roberts’s words with the mistakes.

A debate ensued, with some observers arguing that Obama had not been properly sworn in as President. In a slightly embarrassing move, Obama and Roberts had to repeat the official oath in a small event at the White House the following day. Their faux-pas pales in comparison with William Henry Harrison’s inauguration, where he caught pneumonia and soon died. But this time, Chief Justice Roberts has no doubt memorized his lines to perfection.

The post The history behind the presidential inauguration appeared first on Metro.us.

The 52-foot figure has stood tall at the fairgrounds in Dallas since 1952. He was said to wear size 70 boots and a 75-gallon hat.

Smoke and flames were spotted coming out of his neck this morning and it wasn’t long before the larger-than-life Big Tex was fully engulfed in flames. Onlookers watched in horror as an legendary icon was destroyed.

Officials say it maybe have been an electrical fire, but a cause has not yet been determined.

In 1997, Big Tex’s skeleton got a makeover, allowing for a mechanical hand that waived to fair-goers. He got a new outfit every three seasons and was currently wearing a pair of 65-pound pair of Dickies jeans. His skin was made of fiberglass.

He often bellowed recorded announcements in a famous Texas-style voice — a voice his fans may never hear again.

(Photos via Twitter)

Big Tex on a better day.

The fire was spotted first near his neck.

Only his hands, feet and metal frame remained after the fire.

Officials hauled Big Tex away in a “body bag.”

The post R.I.P. Big Tex: Iconic 52-foot Texas State Fair mascot goes up in flames appeared first on Metro.us.

“It’s a time consumer but the project has gone too far not to go through with it,” Bob Olsen, general manager of Sage Cheshire Aerospace, responsible for the capsule and systems,” told Metro.  “It was a tough call to abort but you have to roll with the punches. Don (Day) is the best meteorologist in the world and you can’t take chances when a human life is involved.”

Olsen added that the team was “not disheartened” and expressed confidence that success was just days away. “Once we have dead calm, the systems we built can withstand anything up there.”

The historic jump from 120,000 feet represents the highest jump in history and is likely to make the Austrian Baumgartner the first human to freefall at the speed of sound. The project has attracted global interest, and the aborted jumps have added pressure.

A Red Bull Stratos spokesperson confirmed that changes were being made ahead of the new launch date Sunday. “We are still working and refining new forecasts,” the spokesman said. The team has just one back-up balloon remaining.

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Speaking to a reporter for an Australian TV show, Sir Elton John went below-the-belt in his criticism for Madge.

“Why is she such a nightmare? Sorry, her career is over. Her tour has been a disaster and it couldn’t happen to a bigger c***,” he ranted.

“If Madonna had any common sense she would have made a record like Ray Of Light and stayed away from the dance stuff and just been a great pop singer and make great pop records, which she does brilliantly….. But no, she had to go and prove… she looks like a f****** fairground stripper. She’s been horrible to Gaga,” he so eloquently added.

This time, he was firing back over Madonna’s criticism of Lady Gaga, who is a personal friend of John and the godmother of his son.

However, this is not the first time Elton John and Madonna (two of music’s biggest divas, one with a real British accent, one with a fake British accent) have been in the spotlight for their war of words. Allow us to reflect on the ye olde tale of one of the biggest feuds in music history.

It all started when back in 2004 at Britain’s Q Awards when Elton John said of Madonna, “Best f****** live act? F*** off! … Anyone who lip-syncs in public onstage when you pay 75 pounds to see them should be shot.”

Oh, snap!

It continued at the 2012 Golden Globe awards, when Elton John was asked to comment on his competition for “Best Original Song.” He was nominated for “Gnomeo and Juliet.”

“Mary J. [Blige] might win it for ‘The Help,’” John said. “Madonna doesn’t have a f****** chance.”

John later ate his words when Madonna did win the award. Later, Elton John’s partner, David Furnish slammed her on Facebook with a status that read, “Madonna winning Best Original Song truly shows how these awards have nothing to do with merit … And her criticism of Lady Gaga shows how desperate she really is.”

Elton John has also had very public feuds with other celebrities including Lilly Allen, George Michael and the late Princess Diana.

For a man who asks the world, “Can you feel the love tonight?,” Elton John sure is one hostile fellow.

The post Why have Madonna and Elton John been feuding for so long? appeared first on Metro.us.

Throughout its rich history, The Armory indoor track has played host to the world’s finest athletes, hundreds of them going on to represent their countries in Olympic Games. This year alone, 156 athletes from 40 nations who have competed at The Armory will face off against each other at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Built in 1909 as an armory for the 22nd Regiment of the Army Corps of Engineers, The Armory hosted its first track meet in 1914 and served as a launching pad for Olympic athletes through the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s. In 1984, the city — faced with a homelessness epidemic — converted New York’s armories into shelters. Athletes still tried to utilize The Armory’s facilities, even running around the thousands of beds that sat within the track’s center, but eventually even that became impossible.

In 1993, after fierce lobbying by non-profit The Armory Foundation, the city finally agreed to renovate The Armory and return it to its former glory as a track and field arena. Since then, The Armory Foundation has invested $50 million in the facility, which now hosts prestigious events like the UAA Championships, The Armory Collegiate Challenge and the Millrose Games.

“There have been more Olympians who have competed indoors at The Armory than in any building in America,” Dr. Norb Sander, executive director of The Armory Foundation, said.

Its long tradition of hosting future track and field greats raises the questions whether the historic sports landmark has some invisible quality that turns athletes into international stars. Is The Armory an Olympic lucky charm?  

“It is,” Sander said with certainty. “It’s considered among some to be the fastest track in the country.”

In fact, athletes who compete at The Armory form such a connection with the track, that some even return to the facility looking for careers. Aliann Pompey, a Guyanese national record holder in track, now works for The Armory’s college prep program for inner city youth, after competing there herself earlier in her career. Pompey is taking a brief sabbatical from work at The Armory to compete in the 400 meters for Guyana in London — it will be her fourth Olympic experience.

“It’s a great thing to be here and be around this great excitement and success,” Sander told Metro. “It’s terrific to be associated with it.”

Among the 156 athletes who will compete in London after passing through The Armory, 55 are Americans including Julie Culley, Ryan Bailey, Justin Gatlin, Lashinda Demus and Jenny Simpson.

“The history and the quality of The Armory track makes it one of my favorite places to race,” Simpson, who will run the 1500 meters in London, said. “The venue has been instrumental in providing great racing opportunities for many of the world’s best athletes.”

The post The Armory: NYC’s Olympic lucky charm appeared first on Metro.us.

Chan, 27, and Zuckerberg, 28, were married in Palo Alto after guests thought they were attending a party for Chan to celebrate her graduation from medical school. Instead, Chan walked down the aisle and became the wife of one of the world’s youngest billionaires.

So, who is Priscilla Chan? What kind of woman does it take to be the long-time girlfriend and now wife of the world’s most famous nerd? Their road to newlyweds was long and one that began when they met in college. Our new-found fascination with Chan led us to some in-depth research into the past of the tech world’s newest blushing bride. Here are  five facts about Priscilla Chan that you didn’t know:

1. Chan met Zuckerberg at a Harvard frat party and thought he was a nerd. The two bumped into each other while she was waiting in line for the restroom.

“He was this nerdy guy who was just a little bit out there. I remember he had these beer glasses that said ‘pound include beer dot H.’ It’s a tag for C++. It’s like college humor but with a nerdy, computer-science appeal,” she told The New Yorker in 2010.

Little did she know years later, this nerd would be a household name and one she would marry.

2. Though she had been his girlfriend for seven years, Chan and Zuckerberg weren’t “Facebook official” until 2011 when they both finally changed their profile statuses to read “in a relationship.”

And as the old saying goes, “First comes love, then comes marriage,” their Facebook timelines proved to be a precursor to a bigger commitment.

3. She speaks three languages. Chan is fluent in English, Spanish and Cantonese. She also encouraged Zuckerberg to learn Mandarin in preparation for a trip they took together to China. Zuckerberg studied each morning for a year and was able to carry on a conversation with Chan’s Chinese grandmother.

4. She made Zuckerberg sign a “relationship contract.” Chan agreed to move to Palo Alto to be closer to the Facebook mogul, but only after she negotiated a set of terms for their relationship. Most of the contract has been kept under wraps, but one thing we do know is that time together was one of the big sticking points.

“One date per week, a minimum of a hundred minutes of alone time, not in his apartment and definitely not at Facebook,” was one of Chan’s stipulations.  

5. Mark Zuckerberg personally designed her ring, according to a source close to the couple.
Instead of a multi-carat diamond, its focal point is “a very simple
ruby.”

Chan wore a sheer-backed gown with ivory embroidery called “Sky Between the Branches” by designer Claire Pettibone, who is known for her
whimsical, vintage-inspired creations. Chan’s gown is priced at $4,700.

Their wedding details were some of the best kept secrets in “celebrity” history. Less than 100 guests saw the couple exchange vows in the backyard of their home. Zuckerberg announced their nuptials on his Facebook timeline the next day.

The post Five things you didn’t know about Priscilla Chan, the new Mrs. Zuckerberg appeared first on Metro.us.

The President’s House
The President’s House: Freedom and Slavery in Making a New Nation presents slavery like never before — in view of the iconic Liberty Bell. Here, people discover what life was like for the people who worked in the executive mansion, including Presidents Washington and Adams and the nine enslaved people Washington kept there. The open-air site includes structural fragments of the original house, illustrated glass panels, timelines, video re-enactments and a spot for reflection.
215-597-0060, www.phila.gov/presidentshouse

Liberty 360
At the Historic Philadelphia Center, Liberty 360 surrounds visitors as they discover the nation’s symbols of freedom with the help of narrator Benjamin Franklin. Inside the 360° theater, the groundbreaking, 15-minute indoor show uses the most modern 3-D technology of its kind to spotlight the most treasured American value—liberty.
215-629-4026, www.historicphiladelphia.org

The post History continues to unfold in Philadelphia appeared first on Metro.us.

Breuning was born September 21, 1896, in Melrose, Minnesota, and
spent most of his early life in South Dakota before taking a job with
the Great Northern Railway in 1913, according to the Rainbow Senior
Living retirement home in Great Falls.

He moved to Montana in 1918 to clerk for the railway and married Agnes Twokey, a telegraph operator, four years later.

He
retired from the railroad at age 66. He attributed his longevity to
restricting daily meals to breakfast and lunch and to downing an aspirin
a day.

An aspirin a day? Totally gonna do that, and live to the year
2101. What will life be like then? Ponder that, while we round up some
things younger than Walter Breuning:

»Amelia Earhardt (born July 24, 1897)

»H. G. Wells’ "The War of the Worlds"  (published 1898)

»The second Boer War (began October 11, 1899)

»Australia (became a Commonwealth in 1901)

»The Rose Bowl (first held in 1902)

»The New York Yankees (moved from Baltimore to New York in 1903; known as the New York Highlanders until 1913)

»The Theory of Relativity (published 1905)

»John Wayne (born May 26, 1907)

»The Model T (first sold in 1908)

»Gene Krupa (born January 15, 1909)

»Boy Scouts of America (founded 1910)

»The zipper (patented 1917)

»Justin Bieber (born March 1, 1994)

The post Walter Breuning: What was the world’s oldest man older than? appeared first on Metro.us.

As numerous media outlets reported yesterday, scientists in the Czech Republic recently found a caveman whom they think may have been the first recorded prehistoric homosexual. As the Daily Mail put it:

During that period, men were traditionally buried lying on their right side with the head pointing towards the west; women on their left side with the head facing east.

In this case, the man was on his left side with his head facing west. Another clue is that men tended to be interred with weapons, hammers and flint knives as well as several portions of food and drink to accompany them to the other side.

[...] The ‘gay caveman’ was buried with household jugs, and no weapons.

However, today new scientists are casting aspersions on the story, as if it was not rigorously researched and fact-checked by every outlet that printed it. As anthropologist Kristina Killgrove wrote on her blog:

Just because all the burials you’ve found to date are coded male and female based on grave goods doesn’t mean there aren’t alternate forms you haven’t found and doesn’t mean that the alternate form you have found has a lot of significance.

In addition, archaeologists point out that the "caveman" skeleton actually came from the Bronze Age, tens of thousands of years after what we traditionally think of as "cavemen" ruled the earth.

So these scientists say that facts show that the "gay caveman" was not gay, and was not a caveman. However! There’s nothing we’ve seen that proves he wasn’t gay. And, since that’s the case, maybe he happened to like to dress up as a caveman — you know, a retro look! So basically, what we’re going to take away from this experience is that the gay caveman story was a true thing with no holes in it at all. Go Internet!

The post Gay caveman actually may have died closeted appeared first on Metro.us.

The pardon was said to have been signed by Lincoln on April 14, 1865 — just a few hours before the president left for the theater at which he was then assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.

But Thomas Lowry, an amateur historian, has admitted he changed the document’s date to increase the pardon’s historic importance. 

The post Lincoln pardon a forgery appeared first on Metro.us.