Archive for 2013

TWITTER, AND THE REAL ECONOMY OF JOBS. “The money that has flowed to tech companies in San Francisco and the much more important Silicon Valley has transformed these geographies, peninsula into something resembling glorified gated communities, populated by those lucky enough to have bought earlier and, increasingly, by techno-coolies shipped in from abroad.”

Both of these points are true. When I did my fellowship at Stanford last year, the immense feeling of big money everywhere in Palo Alto was amazing; the first time I was there, back in the late ’80s when Silicon Valley was new, the place still felt semi-rural. And the part about techno-coolies is also true

LIFE IN POSTRACIAL AMERICA: Brooklyn group of black youths blocks white couple’s car, bloody victims in racial attack: cops.

A group of 10 black youths — one of them a 12-year-old girl — surrounded a white couple’s car in Brooklyn, viciously beating the husband and yanking the wife to the pavement by her hair as they peppered the two with racial slurs, authorities said.

“Get those crackers!” some of them screamed, according to court papers. “Get that white whore!”

The confrontation erupted about 7 p.m. Monday, as the marauding group crossed Avenue U at E. 58th St. near Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Mill Basin.

This sort of thing seems to be happening more often, or maybe it’s just getting reported more.