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Friday, April 3, 2009

Quiznos, a fast food restaurant chain that specializes in selling submarine sandwiches, has aired a controversial television commercial, with an extended version only appearing in the late-night lineups. The commercial is a promotion for the company’s new sandwich, the ‘Toasty Torpedo’. Bob Sassone, a writer for TVSquad.com, argues that it is homosexually themed and compares it to pornography.

The commercial begins with a toaster oven talking to Scott, a Quiznos sandwich maker, in a male voice. “Scott, I want you to do something,” says the toaster to Scott. As he takes a bite of a Torpedo and appears to look in the direction of his genitals, Scott says to the toaster, “[sic] not doing that again. That burned.” The toaster replies, “We both enjoyed that.”

Later in the commercial, the toaster asks Scott to make one of the sandwiches and says the price of it is “sexy” and then “sexier.” Scott grins and does so. The toaster then asks Scott to “stick it in me”. The sandwich just happens to be 12 inches long, giving the appearance of a special relationship between Scott and the toaster oven.

Quiznos published a press release on March 24 announcing the new line of sandwiches. They stated that their price of US$4 helps to ease the economic pinch. In a statement to Wikinews Quiznos stated that their commercials are within the company’s character and they were designed to get people talking.

“We developed our new ads to be consistent with the Quiznos brand and to get people excited about our new Toasty Torpedoes. Some of the ads are edgy and provocative, but they’re well within the confines of the Quiznos brand character,” said Rebecca Steinfort, chief marketing officer for Quiznos to Wikinews.

“Since Quiznos has a broad range of consumers that eat at its more than 4,500 restaurants nationwide, we tailor our commercials to be relevant and appeal to our diverse customers – all of whom are watching different kinds of programming. The new ads are fun and entertaining, and the edginess and innuendo of the ads are designed to get people talking about our new Toasty Torpedoes, and that’s exactly what we want: people to talk and taste our new sandwiches,” added Steinfort.

Bob Sassone a writer for TVSquad.com, one of the Internet’s top television weblogs, compared the commercial to a pornography film.

“The new Quizno’s commercial is probably the closest we’ll get to a gay porn flick in a mainstream sub shop ad,” Sassone wrote.

In 2007, the company made another controversial commercial. It featured people on the street eating samples of a Quiznos ‘Prime Rib Dinner’ sandwich. They promoted it as having a lot of “meat” and near the end it featured two women eating a sandwich saying, “It’s not lacking any meat. And that’s what real women need”.

“Nevertheless, Quiznos remains committed to providing its customers with high-quality ingredients at everyday lower prices, all with excellent service. As such, we encourage consumers to give feedback on the commercials to our corporate marketing department through the website,” said Steinfort.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Evan Wolfson, the founder of the modern gay marriage movement, tells the waiter he would like an iced decaf and “the usual.” Wolfson, one of Time Magazine’s Most Influential People in the World, is a man who unflinchingly knows what he wants and stays his course, whether it be in his choice of restaurant or in his choice of battle. And others always know when they see Evan coming what it is that he wants.

Since his time at Harvard Law School when he wrote a paper on the topic, what Wolfson wants is the right for gay people to marry. The issue gained national prominence in 1993 when the Hawaii Supreme Court held in Baehr v. Lewin that the government had to show a reason for the denial of the freedom to marry, not just deny marriage licenses to the plaintiff gay couples. Wolfson was co-counsel in the historic 1996 Hawaii trial in which he argued that the government does not have a sufficient reason for excluding same-sex couples from marriage. In 1999, Wolfson contributed to Baker v. Vermont, the case that led to the creation of civil unions; advised the lead attorneys in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, the case that led to same-sex marriage in Massachusetts; and since 2003, when he founded the primary umbrella organization coordinating the efforts to win marriage for gay people, Freedom to Marry, Wolfson has played a role in every marriage equality case in the United States. He is the movement’s founder and leader, and his focus remains square on winning that right. “For years,” said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, “many of us were saying to him, ‘We’re not ready. The country’s not ready. And, by the way, you’re crazy.'”

When I make a statement to him about his devoting his life to gay marriage, he corrects me: “I’ve played a part in cases that span the entire spectrum of eliminating gay people’s exclusions and limitations on who gay people are, and I’ve also written on immigration and economic justice, and I have worked on cases involving race discrimination in jury selection and women’s inequality. I don’t think one has to pick one of these things; they work together.”

Indeed, he has. Wolfson was lead counsel before the Supreme Court in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, the case arguing against the expulsion of gay scoutmasters. As an intrepid young assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, Wolfson worked on People v. Liberta to end the exemption that allowed women to be raped by their husbands legally, a right in New York State as early as 1984. And he helped end the practice of choosing jurors based upon their race.

Wolfson’s entire career has been at the center of the most explosive legal and cultural issues of the last 30 years in the United States, and his influence has been profound. David Shankbone sat down with him to discuss some of the recent decisions affecting gay marriage, gender in marriage and reactions in the gay community to his fight for their rights.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

A trio of freshmen at a New York design school say that residents aren’t taking advantage of a valuable and countless resource found all around the world: stoops.

In Sit Here, a campaign inspired by a recent class project, Sarah Feldman, Chelsea Briganti and Essence Rodriguez are using fliers placed around New York to encourage residents and visitors to get to know one another on their stoops.

Wikinews got a chance to talk to Sarah Feldman, web designer for the project. Feldman is also responsible for getting different news sources to contact the team, such as the Brooklyn Papers and New York Magazine.

Wikinews: When your group started this project, did you ever expect it would get this much publicity from the press and the public?

Feldman: We had no idea how popular this would become. We just thought it was another usual school project we had to do. The Brooklyn Record saw the topic about our website I posted on a Park Slope message board. They talked about it and put our URL on their site. Then The Brooklyn Papers found us on the Brooklyn Record. A lot of press found us because of the article in the Brooklyn Papers. We didn’t know if it was just the Internet that caused all the fuss, but then a blogger on OnlyTheBlogKnowsBrooklyn and some photographer on Flickr found our fliers!

Wikinews: You originally started this project in New York City. If you could run this project in any other city (or country) in the world, which one would it be, and why?

Feldman I’d run this project in my hometown, Houston. Now there you will find few people outside. For one thing, it is hot and we are known for one of the most obese cities in the USA. Houston has also coined the term “The Driving City”: no walking…just driving. If you ask my friends there, “Hey…you wanna go outside and sit?” They’d look at you funny and say “Can’t we just go see a movie or go on Facebook?”

Wikinews: Your fliers are bright green, which makes them very noticeable. Out of the thousands of people who see your fliers each day, how many people do you think actually sit down and talk?

Feldman: Not enough. Most of the time the people who I saw sitting were either outside of a bar or kids playing ball. But I rarely saw any kids except on Sundays in Park Slope outside. Probably they were watching TV or on the Internet. Chelsea noticed this first. She came up with the idea when she saw an elderly man sitting on his stoop by himself. She started talking to him about his life there and he brought up the topic of less socialization with neighbors.

Sit Here has been noticed in at least 15 different news sources, including Wikinews.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

The United States announced the declassification of a portion of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, a major part of the US’s efforts to thwart cyber warfare, on Tuesday.

The announcement came at the RSA Security Conference in San Francisco, and was given by Howard Schmidt, who is the current US cyber-security coordinator, having been assigned the position in December.

While only a portion of the document was revealed at the announcement, and much remains classified material, including all material related to plans by the government for offensive cyber-warfare, the program has twelve parts, and has three main strategies:

• To create a defensive mechanism against immediate threats, as well as those possible in the near future;
• To create a defensive mechanism against a wide variety of threats, both present and future;
• To initiate efforts to strengthen future cyber-security efforts.

The program includes funding for numerous security measures, including the government’s controversial Einstein program, which scans all incoming communications to government-operated websites. The plan also mentions increasing security for classified networks within the government, as well as developing a government-wide plan for counter-intelligence work, although the declassified portions gave little indication as to what that would involve.

The program was begun by President George Bush in 2008 as a National Security Presidential Directive, and has been entirely classified until now. At its inception, it was intended to serve as a program to unify cyber-security efforts within the government and to develop other security programs for use nationwide. No budget has been released for the program, although estimates place the cost at $40 billion until 2015.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Ferrari driver Felipe Massa won the FIA Formula One 2008 ING Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps Circuit, Spa, Belgium.

McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton lead the race from pole for a few laps before he spun backwards and allowed Kimi Räikkönen‘s Ferrari to pass him. Kimi maintain the lead throughout the race until the rain fell onto the track on the final laps. The series of errors was finalized by Räikkönen, who spun off the track. This led Hamilton to a chequered flag, but then, after the race, he was penalized by 25 seconds for the incident with Räikkönen. Hamilton moved to third in the final standings.

McLaren filed a formal complaint with the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) Court of Appeal on Tuesday.

“We hereby confirm we have lodged notice of appeal,” McLaren’s CEO Martin Whitmarsh, told the BBC.

Nick Heidfeld thus took second place for BMW Sauber ahead of Hamilton.

Fernando Alonso came in fourth for Renault while his teammate Nelson Piquet Jr. spun off into the wall on the fourteenth lap, ending his race.

Both Sebastians, Vettel and Bourdais, did well for Toro Rosso finishing fifth and seventh from the tenth and ninth places on the starting grid respectfully. They were split by Robert Kubica (BMW), who finished sixth.

Mark Webber closed out the top eight for Red Bull-Renault.

Ferrari now leads the Championship with 12 points ahead of McLaren. Still, Lewis Hamilton retains the lead for McLaren in the drivers standings with 76 points, 2 points ahead of Felipe Massa.

Monday, August 29, 2005

The designer of the current 50-star United States flag, Robert G. Heft, has put his original creation up for sale on the popular auction website eBay.

Heft originally made the flag for a school project in 1958, in which he received a “B minus” as his grade. When he submitted the design for national consideration in 1959, he beat out over 100,000 other applicants. His design was adopted as the new flag in 1960 and his grade was promptly changed to an “A”.

The flag has been flown over all state capitol buildings and over 80 United States embassies. Sixty-three year-old Heft explained that medical bills, as well as tuition costs for his relatives, are becoming an economic burden.

The opening bid on the flag starts at $250,000 USD, and the auction lasts until September 28th.

Heft has also designed a 51-star US flag, which is currently in possession of Representative Clarence Miller, a Republican from Ohio.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the United States Border Patrol and local officials from both sides are looking into tightening security at a Quebec library. The library has been deliberately on the border of Canada and the U.S. since it was built in 1904 by American sawmill owner Carlos Haskell and Canadian wife Martha Stewart Haskell for availability to both countries.

At Haskell Free Library and Opera House, in Rock Island, Quebec, a black line diagonally runs across the center of the library to mark the international border. Ironically the line puts the seats in the U.S. and the opera stage in Canada.

Both towns share the same water supply, sewer systems and emergency crews thus they cross the border without going against the law. In total, there are three streets that cross the border and there are cameras on both sides to monitor illegal activity, but that doesn’t tighten border security enough officials say.

“There’s been an increase in illegal activity, both north and south, in the last little while,” said operations officer for the Border Patrol’s Swanton sector, Mark Henry.”There have been some significant cases. This all fits in to the larger picture of the Border Patrol strategy to gain operational control of our borders.”

“I don’t think they’re aiming at people who go pick up groceries and come back. It’s people that want to use this in a bad way,” says Cpl. Luc Bessette, a spokesman for the RCMP.

To enter the U.S. at Haskell Free Library and Opera House, in Rock Island, Quebec, all one needs is directions to go to Stanstead, Quebec, directions to the local library and walk through the doors; they have illegally entered Derby Line, Vermont, U.S. If one walks across from Stanstead St. to Derby Line they will be at the checkout in the U.S., go to the library from Derby Line to Stanstead St. and they have officially entered back into Canada. The international border also is on Canusa St., a residential street in Stanstead, Quebec and Beebe Plain, Vermont.

If someone wants to see their neighbour across the street, they would be re-entering the U.S. Anyone who comes from Stanstead St. to Derby Line, to visit their neighbour, must report to Customs or they could be sent to jail for illegally entering. However, residents do not need to notify Customs if they cross the border inside buildings.

Currently, the front door is in Vermont and if Quebecers couldn’t enter the front they would have to go through the back way. If Americans wanted to park in the parking lot they couldn’t because it is legally in Canada.

A meeting will take place this 19 June at 7 p.m. local time asking whether residents want to prevent people from crossing the border regularly or, in some cases, illegal crossings. During a meeting last Thursday in Stanstead, Quebec, local officials from both countries (towns) said border walls and fences will not be put up due to local residents’ concerns. They say there are other alternatives.

There is also a movement to separate Vermont from the U.S. or to make it the 11^th province of Canada, with three territories. The website “Vermont Canada” says the state should join Canada due to its remaining liberal policies as opposed to the U.S.