Clipmarks | laurafries's clips

Columbia Heights - DC's "Little Baghdad"

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 19:52:53 GMT

clipped by: laurafries

IF YOU read the blogs, you can get the impression that Columbia Heights is becoming DC's little Baghdad with white gentrifiers the Shiites and poor blacks and latinos the Sunnis. Since poor blacks and latinos don't have too many blogs, we're largely getting one side of the story but, even so, it seems the level of hostility and cultural narcissism is unusual for Washington, which historically has done better than many places in ethnic relations. What appears to be missing is cross-ethnic involvement as well as consciousness that the newcomers are, in the eyes of many, invading their territory. There is also, among some, an assumption that is what's good for young white home buyers is the best for everyone.

Tags: dc, washington, washingtondc, columbia, heights, columbiaheights

Cinderella Fetish: Free dancer/stripper shoes VERY small 6-7

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 20:28:00 GMT

clipped by: laurafries
clipper's remarks: this dude totally wants you to come over to his apartment to try on too-small stripper shoes.

Clip Source: newyork.craigslist.org

These were NEVER worn outside, (except for the rhinestone ones from Playboy)

They are a size6-7 but the run VERY VERY small according to my girl.....

Also available is a LARGE assortment of lingerie,.....some still in packages

I would rather give this all to one women but if you want any of it come and get it!!!

Tags: shoe, shoe fetish, free, sex, feet, cinderella

Video of Terry Cutchin's Family (see source)

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 17:49:06 GMT

clipped by: laurafries

Clip Source: video.nbc4.com

Police Search For 13-Year-Old's Killer

Teen Shot In Northeast

Police investigate after a 13-year-old boy is shot and killed in Northeast Washington.

Tags: washington, dc, washingtondc, murder, terry cutchin

Dutch Invent Powdered Booze

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 15:52:47 GMT

clipped by: laurafries

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Dutch students have invented powdered alcohol which they say can be sold legally to minors.

The latest innovation in inebriation, called Booz2Go, is available in 20-gramme packets that cost 1-1.5 euros ($1.35-$2).

Top it up with water and you have a bubbly, lime-colored and -flavored drink with just 3 percent alcohol content.

"We are aiming for the youth market. They are really more into it because you can compare it with Bacardi-mixed drinks," 20-year-old Harm van Elderen told Reuters.

Van Elderen and four classmates at Helicon Vocational Institute, about an hour's drive from Amsterdam, came up with the idea as part of their final-year project.

"Because the alcohol is not in liquid form, we can sell it to people below 16," said project member Martyn van Nierop.

The students said companies interested in making the product commercially could avoid taxes because the alcohol was in powder form. A number of companies are interested, they said.

Tags: dutch, invent, alcohol, powdered

DC cost of living 42 percent higher than national average

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 15:48:10 GMT

clipped by: laurafries

Clip Source: dcist.com

Washington Business Journal reports on the Greater Washington Initiative annual report (you can download the whole thing here if you're willing to part with a little bit of personal information). Our region had the highest median household income in 2006 among metro areas, at $74,600, and nearly 46 percent of Greater Washington's residents 25 years or older have at least a bachelor's degree.

But the report also says Greater Washington's cost of living is 42 percent higher than the national average, and its current median housing price of $431,000 is the fifth-highest among U.S. metro regions.

Looking ahead, Greater Washington's population is expected to grow to 6.5 million people by 2012, or an increase of 6 percent, the report says. The median household income is projected to jump to $86,980 by 2012, an increase of 16.5 percent from 2006

Tags: dc, washingtondc, washington, sucks

Huff It, says HuffingtonPost.com

Tue, 29 May 2007 23:33:49 GMT

clipped by: laurafries

Clip Source: web.aan.org

HuffingtonPost.com debuted a redesign earlier this week that incorporates a “Digg”-esque feature, where logged-in members can vote on stories, indicating if one is of interest to them. The most popular stories appear in a special section of the site.

But HuffingtonPost.com chose an unfortunate name for this new feature: “Huff It” (huffit.huffingtonpost.com).

“Huffing” is slang for inhaling intoxicants like glue, paint or aerosol products. Gasoline, lighter fluid, and paint thinner are other common items that get “huffed.” [wiki]

This unfortunately renders much of the new functionality on HuffingtonPost.com rather humorous: “Register or sign in below to start huffing!”

Tags: huffing, inhalants, intoxicants, huffingtonpost.com

Happy Birthday to Me

Tue, 29 May 2007 19:26:59 GMT

clipped by: laurafries

Clip Source: laurafries.com

There are lines around my neck this morning.

Faint lines; deepened and reddened by yesterday’s sun.

They are my mother’s lines.

They are mine.

Twentyfive saw me, shattered, unsure, deciding on a hungover-soaked whim to quit and to travel and to figure out a happier way of being.

Tags: happy birthday 26

Corn-based Ethanol as Fuel Will Drive Up Food Prices

Fri, 25 May 2007 17:05:44 GMT

clipped by: laurafries

Clip Source: www.foodproductiondaily-usa.com

Soaring corn prices due to the expanding US ethanol market have already driven US retail food prices up by $14 billion over the last year, claims a study by the Iowa State University Center for Agriculture and Rural Development.

The report suggests that this rise in US retail food prices is likely to get worse and that they could be pushed even higher - to an annual increase of $20 bn. Crude oil prices could increase from $65 to $70 per barrel and US corn prices to $4.42 per bushel, compared to $2 per bushel in mid-August 2006.

In response to higher feed costs, livestock farmgate prices and therefore retail prices for meat, eggs and dairy will also increase.

The direct effect of higher feed costs would be to push up beef, pork and poultry prices by more than 4 percent, and to send egg prices rocketing by about 8 percent.

Tags: corn, food, ethanol, gas, prices, domestic, production

Dino did my hair

Thu, 24 May 2007 16:06:35 GMT

clipped by: laurafries

Clip Source: laurafries.com

A man named after a cartoon dinosaur dog did my hair this weekend.

Not conservative, not conservative, I told him - I am not from here, I am not one of them. But he persisted with “rich caramel highlights” that left my hair the same as before; only altering my wallet. I returned the next day and he protested; “I look at you and I don’t see studs. I don’t see a Ramones shirt. I don’t see wild and wacky. I see your green flipflops and your turquoise necklace, and you have your own style and that’s totally fine but I just don’t see a once a year girl needing the crazy color.” He gave me a red rinse and sent me along my way, and I held onto it until tonight, when I dared wash fragile red pigments down the drain.

I watched the pink water, as if knowing could stop it, arching my back in the dirty claw foot tub, seeing the color swirl out of me.

Tags: hair, haircut, color

Paris Hilton Loves Corn

Wed, 16 May 2007 00:57:35 GMT

clipped by: laurafries
clipper's remarks: True story, folks!

Clip Source: laurafries.com

I have no other words for this - other than, yes, that is the REAL Paris Hilton, and yes, I met her at Coachella.

So, post-show, I’m sweaty and totally craving roasted corn on the cob, which I’d been sweating (heh heh) all weekend, but waiting to eat for a midafternoon snack. I’m in line, cell in hand, trying to text “Paris Hilton at CSS. omfgwtf” … hitting send over and over … the cell dies … and who tries to cut in line but …

PARIS HILTON!!!

Paris of course has no luck getting corn from the vendors, so she bribes a gal named Shawanda in front of me to get her one: “If I give you money, will you get me a corn?”

And the billionaire hands her a $10. Ha!

q. She looks short.
a. Yes, I am 5′ 6″ and she was several inches shorter than me.

q. Was she nice?
a. She wasn’t mean.

q. Was she bony?
a. Yes, like the coccyx of Satan.

q. Did she smell good?
a. I could only smell corn.

Tags: paris, paris hilton, coachella, ca, california, corn, food, festival, concert

Watch What You Say - You Never Know Who is Blogging

Tue, 15 May 2007 01:14:31 GMT

clipped by: laurafries

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

All celebrities are accustomed to dealing with reporters; but fans represent a new, wild-card form of journalism. Franz Nicolay, the Hold Steady’s nattily-dressed keyboardist, told me that he now becomes slightly paranoid while drinking with fans after a show, because he’s never sure if what he says will wind up on someone’s blog. After a recent gig in Britain, Nicolay idly mentioned to a fan that he had heard that Bruce Springsteen liked the Hold Steady. Whoops: the next day, that factoid was published on a fan blog, “and it had, like, 25 comments!” Nicolay said. So now he carefully polices what he says in casual conversation, which he thinks is a weird thing for a rock star to do. “You can’t be the drunken guy who just got offstage anymore,” he said with a sigh. “You start acting like a pro athlete, saying all these banal things after you get off the field.” For Nicolay, the intimacy of the Internet has made postshow interactions less intimate and more guarded.

Tags: blogging technology

More Ways Not to Do It Each Day, say Abstinence Supporters

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 02:05:06 GMT

clipped by: laurafries

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Students who took part in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex as those who did not, according to a study ordered by Congress.

"This study began when [the programs] were still in their infancy," said Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association. "The field of abstinence has significantly grown and evolved since that time, and the results demonstrated in the Mathematica study are not representative of the abstinence education community as a whole."

Tags: abstinence, sex, sex education, sexuality, bush, administration, government, school, education

Teen's boyfriend was really a woman, 30, police say

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 19:53:30 GMT

clipped by: laurafries

Clip Source: seattletimes.nwsource.com

The 30-year-old woman even conned her 14-year-old "girlfriend's" family into believing she was a 17-year-old boy named Mark Villanueva, according to paperwork filed in Everett District Court. She lived with the Everett family on and off over the past two years and formed a relationship with the 14-year-old girl.

It wasn't until Monday, when the woman was arrested for child rape, that her real identity came out, according to court papers. She is being held at the Snohomish County Jail in lieu of $150,000 bail.

The girl told police that the couple had a sexual relationship, but that she never saw her boyfriend's genitals, court papers said. The girl also said that her boyfriend was abusive — she was bitten on the back twice and struck weekly.

When a Lynnwood police officer stopped Mark Villanueva in February for improperly displaying a temporary license plate, the driver's gender was not called into question.

Tags: teen, sex, transgender

Fashion and Materialism

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 19:51:48 GMT

clipped by: laurafries

Clip Source: www.montrealmirror.com

Like many such thoughtful magpies who indulge in both the fashion and the philosophies of the East, Jonah naturally wonders about whether intellect and materialism are mutually exclusive.

“I’ve had this internal debate going for a while now. I’m not a materialistic guy, so what the hell am I doing selling clothes? But there are material things in this world that are made with passion and love, and those things carry on that energy. There’s something really special about that. It speaks of humanity.”

Tags: fashion, materialism

FDA wants to nuke your food - relax irradiation rules

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 03:47:45 GMT

clipped by: laurafries

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government proposed Tuesday relaxing its rules on labeling of irradiated foods and suggested it may allow some products zapped with radiation to be called "pasteurized."

The FDA acknowledges in the proposed rule that allowing alternative ways of describing irradiation could confuse consumers: "Research indicates that many consumers regard substitute terms for irradiation to be misleading," the proposal reads in part. FDA officials were not immediately available for comment.

The Food and Drug Administration said the proposed rule would require companies to label irradiated food only when the radiation treatment causes a material change to the product.

The FDA also proposed letting companies use the term "pasteurized" to describe irradiated foods.

"This move by FDA would deny consumers clear information about whether they are buying food that has been exposed to high doses of ionizing radiation," Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch,

Tags: food, fda, irradiation