Category: News

It’s good to know the rivalry is still alive. And, honestly, who would go through all the trouble of painting a cannon on Princeton red?

I’m back from Oregon, catching up on my RSS feeds, when I stumble on a few interesting articles. For those who went to Rutgers, anyway.

In the areas of Parking and Transportation, the most notable story is that parking permits may soon cost students $120/year. Hard to believe they were only around $30 when I was there five years ago. Pothole repairs are also underway, finally. Although I notice construction crews have been able to get away with some really crappy patch jobs throughout central NJ these days. And finally, the end of George Street where traffic exiting Route 18 to enter downtown New Brunswick when coming from Busch/Livingston may be turned in to a traffic circle. My confusion aboutw traffic circles continue, since for a time so much planning has gone in to eliminating them from busy areas. Going through a $1.5 million effort to put one in seems bizarre to me.

The gigantic reorgnization of undergraduate education in New Brunswick is underway. Beginning in 2007, incoming students will be able to select a residence hall on any campus. How many people will be dumped on Livingston against their will once this begins? The Livingston Theatre Company has nothing to worry about, though, with other groups fighting for a spot on Livingston once the various extracurricular groups are reorganized in to single entities. Seriously, who actually WANTS to spend any more time on Livingston than they have to?

Just kidding, Livingston folks. We love you, too.

And you can watch the video to see it.

Smoking is a zero sum game, where in most cases the only individuals happy are either the smokers or the non-smokers. Barring those few who don’t particularly care one way or the other, I must admit I’m among the happy few who saw the smoking ban go in to effect. And it’s that much better that the ban includes bowling alleys and bars as well as restaurants and diners.

Looks like it’s time to go bowling!

Not too long ago, I read a few articles about how Netflix slows down the shipping process for customers who view too many movies in a month (around 8 – 10 for the 3 discs at a time plan). Over the past few days, I sent in two DVDs and finally received replacements. Each one, as always, came with a return envelope addressed to the “Nearest Netflix Shipping Facility”.

The addresses?

PO Box 17699
New Brunswick, NJ 08906-7699

PO Box 49021
San Jose, CA 95161-9959

And my personal favorite…

PO Box 30720
Honolulu, HI 96820-0720

Because we all know Honolulu, HI and New Brunswick, NJ, are practically right next door to each other.

Is this guy for real? All hail our heros Tom Delay and Grover Norquist.

After posing as the “Wow Picture of the Day”, Sharpe James, the mayor of Newark, drops his bid.

Newark Mayor Sharpe James delivers his signatures for his petition to run for another term in office.

Protests in France (no surprise there) have broken out over a new labor law aimed at making it easier to both hire and fire workers. The choice quote in the article has to be this one from a civil servant.

Civil servant Nicole Beauregard, who marched with her teenaged daughter, said: “Young people are less well-armed than we are to defend themselves.

“Getting into the workforce is already hard enough for them, and now they are putting up another obstacle.”

Granted, I don’t know the details of the law. And often the deviler are in the details. But if you’re arguing with the concept, then you don’t get it. No company is going to take on a new worker that it can never let go, even if performance is poor or the company falls on hard times economically. Especially when there are plenty of other places in the world where it’s much easier to get the same quality work done without the headaches.

If these people want to protest for something, look for a fair safety net that helps cushion workers from unemployment while providing benefits to transition to a new career. That would be a more worthwhile investment.

Yet another entry in the how-does-he-find-this-stuff list – four friends blog about opening a new night club in Singapore.