Jules Siegel

a writer and graphic designer whose work has appeared over the years in Playboy, Best American Short Stories, Library of America's "Writing Los Angeles," and many other publications. He administers newsroom-l.

$1.1M German museum piece falls victim to cleaning lady

Nov 032011
 

BERLIN (AFP) – A cleaning woman at a German museum who mistook a sculpture for an unsightly mess has destroyed the valuable artwork beyond recognition, a spokeswoman for the western city of Dortmund said Thursday.

The cleaner at the city’s Ostwall Museum went to work on the Martin Kippenberger installation titled When It Starts Dripping From the Ceiling, which was valued by insurers at 800,000 euros ($1.1 million), she said.

The late contemporary master had created a tower of wooden slats under which a rubber trough was placed with a thin beige layer of paint representing dried rain water.

Taking it for an actual stain, the cleaner scrubbed the surface until it gleamed.

“It is now impossible to return it to its original state,” the spokeswoman said, adding that the damage had been discovered late last month and that the work had been on loan to the museum from a private collector.

via $1.1M German museum piece falls victim to cleaning lady.

 November 3, 2011  Posted by at 3:45 pm Comments Off

Opinion: Ghost Writing is Fraudulent | The Scientist

Nov 022011
 

By Simon Stern and Trudo Lemmens (The Scientist) In August, we proposed, in an article in PLoS Medicine, that medical “guest writers” might be sued for fraud. For some time, commentators have called for sanctions against academic doctors who agree to sign their names to articles that are planned and developed by medical writing companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Some have even called these practices fraudulent, but have not confronted the legal difficulties with that approach—namely that the grounds for fraud are hard to establish: those who have been harmed by the drugs the patients are unlikely to have read the article, and therefore cannot claim to have believed that the “guest” was the true author, while the doctors who found the article persuasive are unlikely to have used the drug themselves.

We argue that the readers of medical journals are also victims. The value of their subscription is diminished when the editors unwittingly publish articles signed by guest writers who falsely claim to be the author. This violates the journal’s publication requirements, making the articles themselves fraudulent. We also argue that when the pharmaceutical sponsors use these articles to defend themselves in lawsuits for example, to prove a drug’s safety, that effort should be treated as a fraud on the court, resulting in a verdict in favor of the opposing party.

via Opinion: Ghost Writing is Fraudulent | The Scientist.

 November 2, 2011  Posted by at 8:07 am Comments Off

Foreclosure mill Hallowe’en party ridicules homeless people

Oct 292011
 

By Joe Nocera (NY Times) On Friday, the law firm of Steven J. Baum threw a Halloween party. The firm, which is located near Buffalo, is what is commonly referred to as a “foreclosure mill” firm, meaning it represents banks and mortgage servicers as they attempt to foreclose on homeowners and evict them from their homes.

A former employee of Steven J. Baum recently sent me snapshots of last year’s party. In one, two Baum employees are dressed like homeless people. One is holding a bottle of liquor. The other has a sign around her neck that reads: “3rd party squatter. I lost my home and I was never served.” My source said that “I was never served” is meant to mock “the typical excuse” of the homeowner trying to evade a foreclosure proceeding. Most of the other pictures show either mock homeless camps or mock foreclosure signs — or both.

via What the Costumes Reveal – NYTimes.com.

 October 29, 2011  Posted by at 4:10 pm Comments Off

Former detective says NYPD planted drugs on people to meet arrest quotas

Oct 262011
 

By Kristen Gwynne (AlterNet) The NYPD has been under fire in recent months for illegal searches resulting in thousands of low-level marijuana arrests, mostly of people of color. As corrupt as this practice is, testimony from Stephen Anderson, a former NYPD narcotics detective, shows it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

According to Anderson, who testified at trial Wednesday, New York City police regularly planted drugs on innocent people to meet quotas. Anderson should know. He was arrested in 2008 for planting cocaine on four men in a bar in Queens. His statements are the first glimpse into a culture of set-ups at the Brooklyn South and Queens Narc squads where eight corrupt cops were arrested.

Anderson says his own stunt was a tactic to help officer Henry Tavarez meet his buy-and-bust quota. But the incident was not limited to a handful of men. According to Anderson, “It was something I was seeing a lot of, whether it was from supervisors or undercovers and even investigators.”

Anderson’s case suggests the set-ups are a response to the pressure bosses force on police to make drug arrests.

via Former Detective: NYPD Planted Drugs on People to Meet Drug Arrest Quotas | Drugs | AlterNet.

 October 26, 2011  Posted by at 1:40 pm Comments Off
 Older Entries  Newer Entries