John Edwards Has Balls The Size Of Australia

John Edwards’ 2008 campaign just gets better and better:

A call girl working for alleged “Millionaire Madam” Anna Gristina told investigators she was paid to have sex with former U.S. Sen. John Edwards when he was in New York raising money for his failed presidential bid, DNAinfo has learned.

Edwards is the first big name to surface in connection to Gristina’s alleged prostitution scheme run out of an Upper East Side apartment.

His lawyers were contacted by DNAinfo, but did not comment.

According to “On The Inside” sources, Edwards allegedly hooked up with one of Gristina’s high-end hookers in 2007 when the dashing pol from North Carolina brought his then high-flying presidential campaign to the Big Apple.

We’ll Always Have Singapore

The other day Clyde Haberman quipped that unlike some other recent mayors who traveled abroad and got wacky ideas, Bloomberg “should be able to resist some undesirable ideas that will fall his way in rigid Singapore, where it doesn’t take much to step out of line.” Actually, the mayor sounds like he’s right at home.

Which is to say, it’s not Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr that makes people think ideas are bad, it’s that bad ideas make people take to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. Which is also to say, happy constituents don’t have any reason to bitch on Tumblr:

The mayor noted that technology, despite its benefits, can add new pitfalls to an already grueling process. “Social media is going to make it even more difficult to make long-term investments” in cities, Mr. Bloomberg said.

“We are basically having a referendum on every single thing that we do every day,” he said. “And it’s very hard for people to stand up to that and say, ‘No, no, this is what we’re going to do,’ when there’s constant criticism, and an election process that you have to look forward to and face periodically.”

Later, Mr. Bloomberg noted that long-term urban planning “requires leadership, and standing up, and saying, ‘You know, you elected me, this is what we’re going to do,’ and not take a referendum on every single thing.”

At that, the mayor’s interlocutor, the Singaporean professor Kishore Mahbubani, took back the microphone.

“I think the Singapore government sympathizes with your point about social media,” Professor Mahbubani said, prompting loud laughter from the audience. “We are having the same daily referendums in Singapore.”

Sell Them All And Let ICANN Sort ‘Em Out

I guess cities can get Internet domains? Now we have a new timewaster:

New York City is gearing up to apply for a new Internet domain with a .nyc suffix, a move made possible by a recent decision by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees the Internet address system, to approve the creation of a large number of new so-called top-level domains.

Here are a few domain names I’m going to be camping on an air mattress the week before to get:

• iro.nyc
• nan.nyc/ity
• whi.nyc/ity
• Also many variations of domain names featuring subdirectories titled “unt”; use your imagination there

So does that mean that a porn site can do business with a .nyc domain? Or is “alqaeda.nyc” off limits? Who decides?

The Post adds that “businesses based in or serving the five boroughs would be able to apply for the domain,” which will be perfect for my new business helping businesses establish their .nyc domains in one of the five boroughs. Maybe I’m being silly, but I don’t see this turning out so well . . . don’t municipal governments have better things to do than help sex sites brand themselves?

“Brooklyn,” The Word Itself Resonates

As for the quintessentially Brooklyn experience at the Barclays Center, well of course:

Officials for the rapidly rising new home for the NBA’s Nets grudgingly confirmed today that they’ve signed a deal with Florida-based Brooklyn Water Enterprises to sell bottled water and bagels at games and other events.

The locally monikered H2O, called “Brooklyn Water,” will actually be produced in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and upstate New York, company officials confirmed.

. . .

And as part of the Barclays Center deal, the company’s subsidiary, Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Company, will open its first metro-area restaurant at the arena and bake on-site.

Was it Marty Markowitz who once said, “the good news is that the Brooklyn brand is strong; the bad news is that brands are post-geography”? No, I guess not . . .

Trust Is Easy To Build, Provided You Don’t Shoot Anyone

Maybe Ray Kelly is right about stop and frisk — these people sure seem like they’re OK with it:

[A] Fresh Direct driver [. . .] said he gets stopped by cops often when he visits relatives in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

“It’s standard . . . ‘Spread your legs, feet apart.’ I know the procedure. I just stand still” said [the man], 24, who lives in Williamsburg. “I don’t care if I’m stopped. I have nothing to hide. Just don’t shoot me.”