Happy Chinese New Year! It’s the year of the ox. I can’t believe I am missing all the festivities in Chinatown. 
Most importantly, I am missing the red envelopes!! Being at school has taught me to embrace my cultural identity. It’s fracking awesome being Chinese.
Middletown needs, absolutely needs diagonal crosswalks. In order for pedestrians to safely get from one side of the sidwalk to the other side, they need to press a button. The button then triggers all the traffic lights to turn red and stops cars in all directions, allowing pedestrians from the four corners of the intersection to cross. I have started to cross diagonally because it is the quickest way to get across to the other side. (Pythagorean Theorem) But this is so different from New York City, where pedestrians and cars simultaneously move and stop in the same directions.
The above picture is of experimental crosswalks in Los Angeles. They are placing ten “all way” crosswalks to make crossing streets safer for cars and people. If this proves to be successful, (I don’t see why not) then other major cities will follow suit. Hurry up and come to Middletown!
This video of Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo is amazing.
The busiest crosswalk in the world?
A van in reverse ran over a group of pre-school children on East Broadway between Catherine and Market Street. East Broadway is the equivalent of Queens Boulevard, a street prone to car-pedestrian accidents. I drive down East Broadway every weekend and people blindly jay walk. Anyway, this was not about crossing streets.
Courtesy N.Y. Times
The driver of the van thought that the van was in park but actually it was in reverse so the vehicle slowly backed up and jumped the curb, hitting a line of pre-school children walking back to their school from their field trip to the library. Two kids were killed: Hayley Ng and Diego Martinez.
The quartet that played for the Obama’s inauguration pre-recorded the song two days earlier. The organizing committee defended their choice by saying that because of the cold weather, pre-recording was necessary. The quartet featured Itzhack Perlman, Yo Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero, and Anthony McGill.
Via N.Y. Times.
This reminds me of the young girl who sang for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Ford Torinos are nice.
Gran Torino was a great movie! I think it’s crazy that Clint Eastwood directed, produced, and starred in this film. Rude but funny, funny but sad, Gran Torino was short (unlike Benjamin Button) and very entertaining. It made me want to drive his 1972 Gran Torino.
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