Results tagged “facebook”

Imagine if the most important sentence you ever wrote was a Facebook status update that goes something like this: "ON THE PHONE WITH THIS FAT CHICK......WHERER MY IHOP." Now you know how it feels to be 19-year-old Rodney Bradford, who used that all-caps message to keep himself out of prison.

The NYC Transit bus driver who struck and killed 22-year-old Seth Kahn last week is probably regretting some previous Facebook status updates. Following the accident last Wednesday, it came out that Jeremy Philhower had been suspended previously for texting and updating his Facebook while on the job.

Cherry Currin, a member of the The Dazzle Dancers who goes by the stage-name Cherry Dazzle, has had trouble with Facebook in the past over risque photos; she's previously received warnings about a photo of herself backflipping out of the vagina of a giant female statue, and then again for an image of her breasts covered in flame-shaped pasties. But it wasn't until Cherry got pregnant that Facebook went nuclear and canceled her account!

Will the oversharing ever stop? A Staten Island Criminal Court judge is being transferred from his Stapleton courthouse to Manhattan as punishment for broadcasting "specific details about his personal life" on Facebook — at times while sitting on the bench.

A St. John's student was arrested after threatening to "do some Virginia Tech shit" as his Facebook status. Radames Santiago, an 18-year-old from Washington Heights, posted the vague threat on Monday and then followed up the next day with a status that he “knows he will do it. You know I will, and to make sure that people watch CNN or something every day after” he kills everyone. Instead of tuning in, "friends" of Santiago dialed up St. John's officials, who informed police. Santiago justified "what he was doing" by giving the same reasons that many people leave a Facebook status that causes their friends to banish them to their hidden lists—he told cops that he was drunk and depressed "about everything" when he left them. Now that's a status that may have gotten some Likes. Instead Santiago could now face up to 7 years in prison. Queens DA Richard Brown said, “If a defendant posts a threat on a social networking site it will be treated seriously and investigated thoroughly." Two years ago, the campus was locked down when a student brought a rifle to campus; he was apparently schizophrenic.

The ASPCA says it used Facebook to find a man accused of breaking a Yorkshire terrier's leg. Yesterday, the Post reported that Donnell Walters, 22, "was busted yesterday for allegedly taking the tiny Yorkshire terrier he'd given his boyfriend as an engagement gift and smashing her down until he'd shattered her leg." Wlaters and Omar Koonce, 20, had been arguing outside their Queens home in July when, allegedly took four-year-old pup Lucy "by the neck and started slamming her against the stairwell three times and dropped her to the ground." The ASPCA couldn't find Walters at first, but then tracked him through Facebook (apparently Friday was his birthday)—and arrested him at his workplace on charges of felony animal cruelty and criminal mischief. As for Lucy, she has recovered—her leg needed "pins, plates and a splint to repair." Here's the ASPCA's Facebook page.

Is there anything Facebook can't do? A Park Slope family has now used the social networking site to track down an adolescent bicycle thief. Beth Harpaz, an AP reporter and author of The Girls in the Van: Covering Hillary, says a local teen used the oldest trick in the book to separate her 11-year-old son from his new BMX at the playground: He asked to "see your bike for a minute," then never rode back. (The trick even works on adults!) Harpaz tried filing a police report, but a beat cop discouraged her, saying, "If you file a police report, we'll have to arrest him. Just wait a few days. You'll get the bike back." And the policeman was right—though the BMX wasn't recovered thanks to NYPD detective work, but through Harpaz's dogged sleuthing. Long story short, some kids at the playground knew the suspect's first name and the Middle School from which he'd graduated, so Harpaz obtained a copy of the yearbook, identified him, and tracked him down on Facebook. After threatening to have him arrested, the unidentified thief revealed the bike's location, along with the combination for the lock. He also asked Harpaz, "Where do u live at?" but Harpaz knew better than to let him see her house for a minute.

A few more details on the resignation of Lee Landor from her position as deputy press secretary to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. The Post reports that the 24-year-old, whose Facebook postings about the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. included calling Gates a racist, President Obama "O-dumb-a," and more, "resigned under pressure... from the $45,758-a-year job Monday after being told 'jump or be pushed,' according to a source."

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's deputy press aide resigned, due to a series of Facebook posts and comments she made related to the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. Lee Landor, who had been working in Stringer's office since May, complained, "You know what, I am really getting SICK of hearing about how white people are evil racists. Black people, Hispanic people, Indian people, Asian people, whoever, are being over-the-top racists in recent weeks, as highlighted in the media since the Sotomayor-New Haven issue," and also called President Obama "O-Dumb-a" while saying that Gates was the racist.

Last month Staten Island EMT Frank Musarella, 46, a retired NYPD detective, was arrested for posting on his Facebook page a crime scene photo of a murder victim taken with his cell phone. If convicted of official misconduct, he could face up to a year in jail. But victim Caroline Wimmer's parents, who found their daughter's strangled and beaten body in March after not hearing from her for a few days, are filing a notice of claim in state Supreme Court to hold the city, the NYPD, the FDNY and Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta accountable.

Earlier this year, the current and former owners of a Bronx apartment building whose tenants illegally subdivided their apartments and essentially created a maze that killed two firefighters in 2005, were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment. Now defense lawyers are trying to throw out the conviction, because one of the jurors contacted one of the witnesses. Newsday reports, "The social networking site Facebook took center stage in a Bronx courtroom Friday with the unsealing of gushing e-mails from a juror" to firefighter Brendan Cawley, who had testified. Apparently Karen Krell unsuccessfully tried to contact Cawley via Facebook during the trial; she continued to message him—"I'm awed at what you and the others went through, and what you yourself still continue to go through"— until he responded. She wrote, post-trial, to her fellow jurors, "So I finally found Brendon on facebook and we wrote some letters to each other (just about the trial, nothing else!! =( ...LOL)." A defendant's lawyer said, "You're entitled to 12, not 11 unbiased witnesses."

The Staten Island EMT who was fired last month for posting on his Facebook a crime scene photo of murder victim taken on his cell phone has now been arrested and charged with official misconduct. Former NYPD Detective Mark Musarella, who had been involved in high-profile rescues while on the force, took a photograph of Caroline Wimmer after she had been strangled with a hair dryer cord in a West Brighton incident sparked by a rumor started on MySpace. Musarella's lawyer says his client, described as having a "raw sense of humor," will plead not guilty and that the photo was posted by accident. The Staten Island DA told reporters that Musarella "ignored his training and professional ethics and acted in a cruel and callous manner." He could face up to a year in prison if convicted.

The woman whose parents say she was murdered due to a rumor put on MySpace ended up with her photo on Facebook—taken by an EMT at the scene of the crime! Richmond University Medical Center officials fired Mark Musarella when they found out that he had posted a picture of the body of Caroline Wimmer, whose murder was just in the news last week after police arrested a suspect. Musarella, better known as "Moose," is a retired NYPD detective known for high-profile rescues and was described as "a little off-the wall...a raw sense of humor." The SI Advance says that while the picture of Wimmer was taken down, Musarella's Facebook may still have a picture of a car crash he responded to. The hospital also informed the NYPD after they were tipped off to the photo of the victim by one of his "friends" on Facebook.

This year's hot new look for Spring is undoubtedly the surgical mask, and we're probably just moments away from seeing ironic, sequined twists on the timeless medical classic. To test whether New Yorkers are ready to embrace the latest must-have accoutrement, the Daily News's Edgar Sandoval took to the streets yesterday with his mask on, being sure to cough a lot (which he blamed on allergies). Reactions ranged from fearful to supportive, and in Times Square, Brooklyn's Daniel Dickie sagely observed, "With the mask, you look like you were full of germs." And last night Gothamist's Billy Parker (pictured at right) put safety first during a Mets game, eliciting countless cries of "Swine Flu!" and even a couple old school cheers of, "SARS in the house!"

What's on Mayor Bloomberg's mind? Facebook and real estate! The Observer reports that the mayor said he "met with people from Facebook the other day. They’re opening an office here." Bloomberg pointed out, "This is the business capital of the world and Facebook is one of those advertiser-supported services. The last time I checked they had over two hundred million users. It’s a phenomenally successful service and I’m just thrilled that they want to have a New York office." However, the social networking site (coincidentally featured on the cover of New York this week) wouldn't confirm or deny the mayor's statement—and Facebook does have some office space in NYC (though perhaps it will be upgrading). By the way, Mayor Bloomberg doesn't have a Facebook profile, just a re-election campaign page.

An ex-con arrested for possession of a weapon was able to beat the rap by using the arresting officer's MySpace and Facebook statuses against him. During the trial, Officer Vaughan Etienne had to explain why his MySpace mood was set to "Devious" on the day of the arrest and why his Facebook status was “Vaughan is watching ‘Training Day’ to brush up on proper police procedure” as the trial approached. The nail in the coffin for the officer though was probably some online comments he had left on an arrest video that included, "If he wanted to tune him up some, he should have delayed cuffing him... If you were going to hit a cuffed suspect, at least get your money’s worth ’cause now he’s going to get disciplined for a faggot-ass love tap." Etienne, who had previously been suspended for steroid usage, told the Times, “What you say on the Internet is all bravado talk, like what you say in a locker room.” Recently it was revealed that the NYPD is drilling their trainees on what not to put online after catching cadets flashing gang signs in profile pics.

The Facebook page that Paul Zolezzi used to leave a suicide note via status update before hanging himself at Mount Prospect Park yesterday has been taken down. Zolezzi, who struggled with heroin addiction, had been leaving several cryptic statuses recently during his move back to New York, following an unhappy stay in Portland, OR. One read, "Paul is going to be the first person ever to hang himself on the way out of Portland! Everything here sucks!" After his final update the night before his death, a friend replied, "Are you dying? or just staying brooklyn? I hope it's the latter." Zolezzi's father committed suicide when he was 8-years-old by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. A friend told the Post, "He didn't have the best start, and he really wanted more than anything to overcome all of that and to not be buried by issues of his childhood. But no matter how hard he tried to escape that, he suffered."

This ain't your grandfather's rubber: The good old geriatric condom has gotten with the times and joined Facebook here in NYC, where it wants to be your friend (with benefits)! Yesterday the Daily News, in an article headlined "Health Department issues new NYC-branded condoms," mentioned the Facebook page, which went live today. But Celina De Leon, a spokesperson for the NYC Health Department, says the News article (now disappeared) was almost entirely wrong; there are no new condoms being released for Valentine's Day. Welcome to 2007 Daily News; as De Leon tells us, "We did that two years ago."

Today's NY Times has a cute feature on the Facebook meme where "friends" ask each other to share 25 random details of their lives and then pass it along to 25 more people, like a chain letter. The Times says the list "seems to be a creative way to indulge in social networking without coming off as needy or shamelessly self-absorbed." They then reveal items posted by people they spoke to for the article (in a way that makes them more engaging than the lists themselves) that are among the nearly five million notes on people’s profiles have been created in the last week. Meanwhile at Time Magazine today, columnist Claire Suddath rips the lists a new one, saying she's "finally found something more stupid than Twitter." She says the lists of mundane details about people's lives have taught her that, "Most people aren't funny, they aren't insightful, and they share way too much." We're guessing that at some point she's noted this sentiment in her Facebook status.

The Department of Health believes that the sudden death of a 17-year-old Stuyvesant High School senior on Thursday may have been from a bacterial infection known to cause meningitis. Ava Hecht of Bayside, Queens died Thursday afternoon after friends say she appeared fine in class earlier in the week and even had been working on homework the night before. Health officials began alerting students at Stuyvesant Friday, where a moment of silence was held for Ava and seniors were broken the news in an assembly. Ava sang in the chorus, was a cartoonist for the school paper, The Spectator, and drew a comic, "Soprano Man", that was based on a singing friend whom she transformed into a super hero. The school has set up a Facebook page as a memorial and in less than 48 hours it already has 1,300 members and 75 wall postings. A doctor for the DOH said that while there are a few dozen meningitis cases annually, “We see something like this once or twice a year.”

After Facebook removed photos of breast-feeding mothers from profile pages and albums, a protest group—on Facebook, naturally—has emerged. The "Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!" has almost 60,000 members who support nursing moms' right to post photos of breast-feeding their babies. The Daily News reports that Facebook only removes photos shown with full boob—Facebook wants the site to "[remain] a safe, secure and trusted environment for all users, including the many children [over the age of 13]"—but Mothers International Lactation Campaign has asked folks, on December 27, "change your profile picture for one day, to one which includes an image of a nursing mom." A Brooklyn lactation consultant tells the News, "The more people see breast-feeding, the more normal it becomes. It's a natural, beautiful state to be in." Previously, breast-feeding moms have taken on Toys R Us, Barbara Walters, and formula.

A 29-year-old school teacher is dead and her boyfriend remains in intensive care after they were struck from behind by an SUV while jogging in Huntington Thursday night. The driver of the Dodge Durango that killed Amanda Malloy and seriously injured Vincent Saunders was Shea Rosen, a 19-year-old was charged with a DWI after cops said he smelled of marijuana, had pills in his sock and refused to take a breathalyzer exam at the scene of the crash.

Facebook has been stealing the attention of MySpace for quite some time, and today The NY Times takes a look at just how the 30-somethings are white-knuckling on to the past through the social networking platform. Check out the group Thirty Something and Grew Up in Park Slope, it's like a time machine back to the salad days for some, and for spectators it's a faux-nostalgic look back on a neighborhood they didn't know at the time.

Hannah Upp has broken her silence and left a note on Facebook claiming that she suffers from dissociative fugue, a condition that has caused her to remember very little from the 19 days she went missing last month. After Upp's disappearance, she was found floating in water off Staten Island on September 16th, following what appeared to be a suicide attempt. The Daily News reports that the school teacher posted a Note on her Facebook page (set to private) saying, "As is typical of a case of dissociative fugue, I was not aware of my own identity and I emerged from the episode with essentially no memory of what happened during the time I was missing." Dissociative fugue is more common of survivors of war, accidents and natural disasters who enter into episodes where they remember little to nothing of their identity. A psychiatrist tells the News that Upp's behavior, which included being spotted twice in four days checking her email at the Apple Store, is not typical of dissociative fugue.

Be warned, youths with fancy-free Facebook profiles: Admissions officers at colleges you've applied to may be checking them. According to the Washington Square News, a Kaplan report says "One in 10 admissions officers viewed applicants’ social networking profiles to help in the decision-making process." And 38% of those profiles led to a "negative effect on their evaluation of the student, while only 25 percent reported a positive influence." However, NYU's admissions office says, "Our practice is that we do not check Facebook profiles. I do not see the value in looking up information on a social networking website. How would one judge the veracity of the statements found there? ...If we wanted to know more about a student’s social life, we would ask."

The Post reports that apparently a man was beaten up at a five-year high school reunion--arranged via Facebook--by an old classmate still "harboring a...gym-class grudge." Backstory: Years ago, at Half Hollows Hills High in Dix Hills, Long Island, Adam Lynn and Lucas Robak were suspended after a school hallway fight; Lynn's lawyer explained that Robak "picked a fight after a hotly contested gym-class handball game during their junior year." Fast-forward to November 2007, at the 5-year reunion, when Robak held Lynn while fellow classmate Jacob Namer beat him up. Lynn is suing Robak (who was never charged), Namer (charged but got off on a technicality) and the owners of the now-closed bar, Proof, where the reunion was held (for serving drinks to the supposedly visibly drunk Robak and Namer).

Today's NY Times Magazine has an in-depth exploration of the microblogging phenomenon brought on by sites such as Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. Its author Clive Thompson (whose Twitter feed updates in a widget to the right of the article) makes a case that the incessant posting of snippets of people's lives represents more just than a signal that we are in an era of oversharing. He says that over time one's tweets become "like thousands of dots making a pointillist painting" and that following someone's feed "for a day...and it begins to feel like a short story; follow it for a month, and it’s a novel." While some fear that too many of these "parasocial relationships" will crowd out real ones, Thompson ultimately makes the case that having so much of the minutia of our lives revealed online "brings back the dynamics of small-town life, where everybody knows your business."

Less than two weeks after the writers' strike has come to an end, and sixteen weeks after the show went dark, Saturday Night Live makes its return this weekend. Everyone is checking in with the troupe to see what they missed most, and it's no surprise that it's been the chance to chime in on the primaries (Lorne Michaels called his show's absent voice, "dispiriting"); the NY Times notes the missed opportunities (ahem, Mitt Romney).

Say, did you hear anything about this movie that opens today, Cloverfield? No? Yeah, it’s kind of a [Spoiler Alert!] obscure art-house thing, all shot with a camcorder from the perspective of a few friends fleeing a massive monster smashing Manhattan. We attended a screening earlier in the week and deemed it top-shelf disaster porn; though the main characters are rather annoying and the apocalypse takes a little too long to blast off, “by the time that massive beast slouches toward lower Manhattan, bowling the head of the Lady Liberty with a nonchalance befitting the Bush administration, you’ll be almost as bloodthirsty as the monster.” And blood you’ll get, along with spectacular special effects and almost relentless suspense.

It probably sounded like a great idea over MySpace, Facebook, or whatever conniving teens are using to hatch their plans these days, but in the end the group behind the Porsche Craigslist scams were arrested by the police. Seven teens, all city residents, between 16-19 years old, were arrested. Two of the teens were charged in connection with both robberies. The two phony ads were placed by Agniesika Banach, 17, from Maspeth. Also charged in both cases was Khaliek Owens of Brooklyn, who is 16. The other five suspects were only charged on one case each. The two robberies occurred in Long Island, where prospective buyers were lured to buy a 2002 Porsche for $44,000. Upon arriving, the buyers were attacked and robbed.