Sciento(xico)logy

Perhaps even more depressing than the idea that those September 11 honor roll walls are quickly going to be out of date is the notion that 9/11 responders are desperately resorting to Scientology to rid their bodies of cancerous toxins:

Hubbard’s detoxification program, which Scientologists refer to as the “purification rundown,” requires an individual to ingest a vitamin cocktail and cooking oil, run on a treadmill and sweat heavily in a sauna with temperatures ranging from 140 to 180 degrees Fahrenheit for about a month. If Downtown Medical is to be believed, that combination is a miracle cure for many ailments. “Patients have had black paste coming out of their pores in the sauna,” states Woodworth on the site. “Their sweat has stained towels purple, blue, orange, yellow and black. They have reported bowel movements that are blue, or green, or that have smelled like smoke — despite the fact that they had not been at a fire scene for months.” A picture of a program participant holding a purple stained towel in his hands appears in a slideshow on their website, and program administrators say they have other similar photos available. Shards of glass have leaked from the pores of detox participants, according to the website. And accounts of the program’s benefits, written by rescue workers who served at Ground Zero, cover the site.

The People Have Spoken . . . And They Want You To Shut Your Pie Hole

Every once in a while it can be really satisfying to witness an idealistic one-man campaign get unceremoniously snuffed out:

Faced with an overwhelmingly negative response to the proposed ban, a committee of the [Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s] board has recommended that the cocktail hour be allowed to continue on the trains and platforms of the Long Island and Metro-North railroads, according to a member of the committee and two people briefed on its findings. The full board is expected to take up the issue next month, and appears likely to follow the recommendation.

. . .

The authority first agreed to consider a halt to alcohol sales on commuter trains and in rail stations in December, at the urging of Mitchell H. Pally, a board member from Long Island. Mr. Pally said he was concerned that passengers would drink on the train and then drive home, creating a liability for the authority if they became involved in an accident. He also said he worried that rowdy drinkers might be disturbing other passengers.

A committee of five board members was created shortly afterward to study the idea.

. . .

Gene Colonese, the rail administrator for the Connecticut Transportation Department, said that an official from the department met with the committee in April and strongly urged it not to change the policy, saying alcohol sales were “a valuable service to our customers.”

The committee also met with the presidents of the two railroads, conductors and a representative of the authority’s police force, which patrols the commuter trains and stations. “There was no overwhelming evidence of drunkenness or anything like that, or accidents,” the board member said.

He said the only person who met with the committee to speak in favor of the ban was Mr. Pally.

Earlier: The Tallboy Rebellion, Follow The Money.

You Can’t Narrowly Escape Blowing The Food Money On The Lottery If You Don’t Play

An example to remember when you’re blowing the grocery money on scratch tickets:

You could call him irresponsible, but luck was on the side of a 43-year-old Bronx man who spent his fiancée’s grocery money on a winning $1 million lottery ticket this month.

Anthony Knowles and Regina Smith received a fat check at New York Lottery headquarters in lower Manhattan yesterday.

Two other winners claimed checks for $2 million apiece — not even close to the $105 million Mega Millions jackpot won by a Queens grocery worker last month, but still life-changing to the winners and their families.

“I was supposed to buy food, but I bought this ticket instead,” admitted Knowles, who spent the $15 Smith gave him on scratch cards. The winning “Million Dollar Player’s Club” ticket cost $5.

“It was the first time I bought this one,” he said. “I was praying so hard for God to let me win. I prayed the night before, and the morning before I bought the ticket. When I saw the word ‘jackpot,’ I couldn’t believe it.”

Smith never had the chance to be angry over her fiancé’s hasty long-shot bet, since Knowles transferred the prize to her.

“She’s the one who bought the ticket for me,” he said. “It’s only fair that she should collect the prize. Ever since she’s been in my life, I’ve had a lot of luck.”

The Toilet Paper-Toting Flaneur

You could lazily view the city from the comfort of your computer or you could actually get out there and do it yourself. Wish them good luck and god speed:

Remember Matt Green and Don Badaczewski, those two guys who last August broke the record for circumnavigating the city by subway?

Well, Green is back — with a new teammate, college buddy Rob Moncure — for another urban adventure: a five-day, 150-mile walk across the city. That’s 30 miles of pavement, or roughly 10 hours of trekking, a day, starting Monday on Staten Island.

“We’re most worried about how our feet and knees are going to hold up, rather than being concerned about our cardio-vascular health,” said Green, 27, a transportation engineer living in Bay Ridge. “We’re going to wear sneakers. We were considering hiking boots because they’re waterproof, but we just want to wear what’s most lightweight.”

They will have plenty of moleskin for blisters and extra pairs of socks. They’ll also stock up on underwear and an emergency roll of toilet paper, Green explained.

They won’t be carrying much in the way of food, because walking is not all the duo expects to do. They have a quirky checklist, too, that includes eating “as much ethnic cuisine as we can,” Green said.

Other items on the checklist: ride a camel (Bronx Zoo), “go to a hipster bar without looking or acting hip,” perform music on a subway platform, go fishing (Central Park rents rods, Green said) and go swimming on top of a sewage treatment plant (Riverbank State Park on 145th Street). On Staten Island, they plan to scale Todt Hill (elevation 410 feet), the highest natural point in the city.

She Got A TV Eye On Me

If you were perhaps concerned by all the Volkswagen Beetles you’ve noticed videotaping your apartment, rest assured that it’s just Google’s ambitious new bodega-mapping project:

Heralded by observers as a step that could change the way people travel, live, and work in the city, Microsoft and Google have launched features that allow computer users to fly over realistic 3-D renderings of the city’s skyscrapers or take street-level tours such as following Broadway between Battery Park and Yonkers.

The developments were announced yesterday at the Where 2.0 Conference in San Jose, Calif.

Google users may view 180-degree photographs of almost every street and intersection in Manhattan, as well as sections of the other boroughs. For the past 18 months a company, Immersive Media, has sent Volkswagen Beetles outfitted with about $250,000 worth of video equipment to drive almost every mile of Manhattan and other parts of the city, the company’s president and CEO, Miles McGovern, said.

On top of the car is a dodecahedron camera with 11 lenses, each taking in streaming video at 30 frames a second. Google licensed the images and integrated them with its maps.

Mr. McGovern estimated that the 40,000 miles of America his company has documented — 2,000 of them in New York City — are captured in about 120 million spherical images.

. . .

A product manager for Google Maps, Stephen Chow, said he used the technology to scope out neighborhoods where he was looking for apartments in San Francisco.

“I would go to that location and see whether the listing was right for nearby restaurants and public transportation,” he said. He said he could also zoom in on parking signs to find out when he had to move his car to avoid getting a ticket.

(Nice URL, by the way.)