In this morning’s useless inventions news, we have German designer Markus Gerke‘s concept for sunglasses that have Instagram filters built right into them. Design Taxi has this sneak peek of the innovative facial accessory. The lenses are to have a 5-megapixel camera allowing the wearer to take a photo of whatever it is they happen to be seeing, and in so doing, turning your life into an imitation fake Polaroid. Now you can look like you’re casually readjusting your sunglasses, when, in fact, you’re capturing a moment forever in such a way that your children will think you were born in the 1960s. And for those social fanatics among us, the glasses are to be equipped with wi-fi, so you can instantaneously upload your vision onto the Instagram app. Great. So soon I’ll have to look at every single cup of tea every single person in the goddamn universe has ever looked at.
Library Bandit Checks Out $163,582.00 in Embezzled Late Fees
The Yonkers Public Library brings in about $400,000.00 a year in late or missing book fees: $0.10 per book for most books, $0.50 for new releases. Librarian Margo Reed was able to put away more than $160,500.00 by skimming a bit off the top of these nominal fines. For the past seven years, Reed used white out to fudge the late fee paperwork after pocketing what was in the library’s deposit bag.
And she would have gotten away with it, too, if the library hadn’t hired a new business manager. The Yonkers Library director, Stephen Force said, “I was shocked when I saw the records. When you looked at them, it was very obvious something was going on.†Well, yeah. I can’t remember the last time I saw someone legitimately use Liquid Paper.
For her part, the library bandit has been sentenced to six months in the Westchester County Jail, and five years’ probation after that for grand larceny and filing false tax returns. Reed is said to be both remorseful and hopeful she will be able to make restitution for the stolen money. (Photo: CCAC North Library/Flickr)
Bodie (From “The Wireâ€) at Sunday’s Silent March
He may have played the young drug dealer Bodie on “The Wire,†but J.D. Williams is, in fact, simply another innocent black man sick of being profiled and stopped and frisked. Capital ran into Williams at Sunday’s Silent March to End Stop and Frisk, where he was marching with a poster of Trayvon Martin to highlight how dangerous racial profiling can be. As for how his celebrity contributes to his being stopped by police officers, Williams, pictured far right in top image, said, “I might get recognized, but they’re not sure where they know me from…So, a lot of times an officer might think he’s arrested me before.†(Photo: HBO)
Stuyvesant High Students Dress Sexy for a Cause
Forget last year’s Slut Walks in Canada, New York’s brightest high school students put together the most badass demonstration ever yesterday—or, as the students dubbed it, “Slutty Wednesday.†Stuyvesant High School students stripped to spaghetti straps and short shorts to protest the school’s new dress code, which was imposed September of last year. The mini-skirt-and-tank-top-wearing smartest kids in the city marched into school with flyers reading “Redress the Dress†and some with examples of the current dress code crossed out with red Xs.
The fresh sartorial regulations are as follows: “Sayings and illustrations on clothing should be in good taste; shoulders, undergarments, midriffs, and lower backs should not be exposed; the length of shorts, dresses, and skirts should extend below the fingertips with the arms straight at your side.†Since September, students have been butting heads with administrators not over the code itself, but “rather…the administration’s faulty, subjective enforcement of the policy,†as Tiffany Phan, a junior, writes in an op-ed in the Stuyvesant student newspaper. The Stuy Spectator is crawling with grievances by students, particularly by female students, who experience the code as being aimed at them directly. They have their students IDs confiscated (evidently some kind of guideline at Stuyvesant High School), and are even given long grey t-shirts to cover their inappropriate dress. Writes senior Jacqueline Krass, “I was advised to ‘think knees,’ or just wear pants. I was released with a warning, and left feeling like I’d been called out for wearing a bikini top to school, or a garter belt. It was an unpleasant, shaming experience.†Senior Lucinda Ventimiglia said an administrator told her, “the dress code was only instituted for [her] protection, because there are a lot of bad men outside school, and if [she were] raped, nobody would be able to take that away…Then, she said, ‘and you want a husband, don’t you?’â€
And so yesterday, in a radical act of free will, Stuyvesant students by the hundreds bared their shoulders and kneecaps. “We’re going to overpower the grey t-shirts,†Madeline Rivera, a senior, told reporters. “We’re outnumbering them now.†Senior Benjamin Koatz, who is credited with having helped organize the protest, is quoted as having said “It’s called ‘Slutty Wednesday’ because it’s not actually slutty.†(I can only wonder if anyone wore anything from Top Shop.)
Anyway, these kids are going to have an awesome time once they get to college, huh? (Image: Stuy Spectator)