As a guy who has been living less than 2 miles from the WTC for about 20 years, let me say that no one I know in downtown Manhattan is opposed to this Mosque in any way, shape or form. The “outrage” is completely manufactured by forces far from here. Most of us would hardly have noticed such a tiny new building, and those who did, would have simply been happy to see new money being invested in the neighborhood. Nothing is making my blood boil more than those who are attempting to stoke the flames of Religious Warfare, in my neighborhood, from as far away as Alaska.
My beloved colleague, Paul Miller, was less fortunate back in his Motorola Razr days — minor bruising from an attempted theft, but he kept the phone.
I thought my day’s been going well so far, until just now.
I was minding my own business at the Starbucks on Shaftesbury Avenue and Rupert Street (London, UK), and then this random geezer — probably Middle-Eastern — came out of nowhere with two “Starbucks Coffee at Work” leaflets in his hands. I didn’t pay much attention to this dude while he hassled a few other customers, until he came to me.
The man gave me a leaflet, so I looked, but didn’t take it. Then he mumbled something. I couldn’t understand this nutter, so I leaned forward — over my laptop and my phone on the left — and asked him to repeat. At this point, he put one of his leaflets over my phone (as pictured), and then somehow swiped the device and wrapped it inside his other leaflet.
Well, I still couldn’t understand a word, so he just tapped the leaflet on the table — sorta suggesting I check it out — and started to walk away as if nothing had happened. Then my spider sense triggered and noticed my phone was missing. Luckily, he was literally only two metres away then, so I got up and shouted “Hey! Where’s my phone?”
Well, I thought he was gonna do a runner then, but that loser just withdrew my phone — my white iPhone 4 (grrrrr…) — out of his leaflet, gave it back to me, and just walked away. What the fuck? So I started chasing after him and that was when he really legged it.
I only chased him out of the door and watched him run away — didn’t really want to leave my laptop in the shop after what had happened. Needless to say, the other customers were pretty shocked as well.
Even though I got my phone back, now I kinda wish I had grabbed hold of him and pinned him down.
Thanks for those who asked — I’m OK now, just a bit shaky. But hey, at least I got to triumphantly wave my white iPhone 4 around the cafe afterwards. :D
Trailer for Four Lions.
monicahasheart asked: where were you during the engadget show last night, mister?
I’m based in London! I’ll be heading over for the October show, though. Maybe see you then! :)
It’s been an awesome day — I won free tickets to tonight’s cinema screening of Four Lions plus Q&A session with the cast and director. Oh no, it’s not a new movie; this was just to celebrate its DVD launch. Regardless, thanks, @LOVEFiLM!
The story surrounds four hopeless British Muslims who are determined to become jihadists, but as time goes on, they continually let themselves down with some hilarious ignorance and missteps (no spoilers here, but let’s just say there are explosions).
While this dark slapstick comedy’s a tad slow at certain points, the laughs were big laughs, plus the thorough research put into it makes it worthwhile for a lighthearted evening. In fact, since it’s not the Simon Pegg kind of exaggerated humor (no disrespect, though), I actually left the cinema thinking these idiots could very well exist in real life. Touch wood.
Oh, and Kayvan Novak — the dude behind Fonejacker and Facejacker — was brilliant in the film.
My brand new iPad greeted me with a greyed out Wi-Fi option (and “Unavailable” for Bluetooth) in Settings. What a nice welcome.
Here’s how I fixed it: put the iPad into recovery mode (hold down both the power button and home button for about 10 seconds / until you see the iTunes logo on the screen), then use iTunes to restore, and finally set it up as a new iPad (so don’t restore from your previous backup).
Good luck!
In July 2002, Appled filed a patent for a “Breathing Status LED Indicator” (No. US 6,658,577 B2). They described it as a “blinking effect of the sleep-mode indicator in accordance with the present invention mimics the rhythm of breathing which is psychologically appealing.”
The average…
