IT'S 'PEDI'-MONIUM OUT THERE

">LAWLESS BIKE-CABS SPARKING STRIFE IN THE STREETS
But the city expects to bring some order to the industry by the new year.

As things stand now:

* Anyone can buy a pedicab for $5,000 or rent one for $200 a week and go into business.

* The operator does not need a driver's license. There isn't even an age limit.

* They can charge anything the traffic will bear.

* Pedal pushers do not need any insurance - and a luckless passenger involved in a crash could be left out in the cold.

Two bills to rein in the drivers have been submitted - one by Mayor Bloomberg and one by the council. The last of three hearings will be held in December, and officials hope a new law will be on the books by early next year.

Meanwhile, independent operators and owners of pedicab fleets continue to trash each other - while licensed cabs complain pedicabs are stealing their business.

Independent pedicab drivers accuse fleet owners of importing foreign pedalers - who flout traffic rules and give pedicabs a bad name. "It's like the Wild West out there. It's completely out of control," said Jordan Kinzler, who's been pedaling for two years.

Gregg Zukowsi, of the New York City Pedicab Owners Association, agreed that there is "sort of a summer surge of drivers from all over the world."

He agreed that some regulation is needed.ont-weight:bold;

9/11 COPS AWARDED $1M FOR EXTRA DUTY

October 10, 2006 -- The NYPD has shelled out more than $1 million in back pay to about three dozen officers who were forced to work six- and seven-day weeks for nearly two years after the Sept. 11 attacks, The Post has learned.

The city's entire police force was taken off its regular schedule, or "duty chart," following the terror attacks, then quickly restored to normal duty in October 2001.

But about 35 officers assigned to the security detail at police headquarters in lower Manhattan were kept on the backbreaking "emergency" schedule until May 2003.

The city paid those officers overtime for the extra time they worked, but the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association went to arbitration seeking more. They wanted payment for off-days they received on the emergency schedule that they normally would have worked on the pre-existing duty chart.

The PBA general counsel's office scored a victory in January when arbitrator John Sands ruled in the officers' favor, rejecting the argument that the new situation represented a "de facto" chart.

"The New York City Police Department does not work on 'de facto' orders or compliance," Sands wrote in the decision.

"It is a paramilitary organization with detailed procedures and rules for imposing, changing and suspending duty charts and schedules. In this case the Department followed none of those procedures."

PBA President Pat Lynch said the scheduling disaster was a symptom of a general manpower crisis afflicting the department.

"This arbitration award makes clear that the department violated our contract to address its staffing shortages," said Lynch. "The NYPD staffing problems are a direct result of the city's refusal to pay its police officers competitive salaries."

Because the decision was issued in January and the officers did not receive their checks - about $30,000 to $50,000 each - until late summer, the union also plans to demand interest.

The NYPD declined to comment on the ruling.

HE GOT GOOGLED

WEB-VID WHIZ'S JOURNEOctober 10, 2006 -- YouGenius.

Chad Hurley, 29, the brains behind the wildly successful video-sharing Web site YouTube, became a multimillionaire yesterday when he sold his company to Google for a cool $1.65 billion.

Incredibly, his success story began after a casual dinner party with friends in San Francisco in January 2005.

Hurley had been a guest along with former co-worker Steve Chen, a 27-year-old math whiz. They had known each other since working together for the online-payment service PayPal.

The two had been taping videos at the party and wanted to send them on to other friends.

But "when we tried to share the videos and then we tried to e-mail them back to one another, they kept bouncing back," Hurley recalled in an ABC-TV interview on Aug 9.

"And so we thought, a lot of people were gonna have the same problem. And so we started working on a solution for this problem right away."

And in classic Silicon Valley tradition, the duo found a garage - under Hurley's apartment - to set up shop.

The pair got YouTube up and running within four weeks - and it was only a matter of months before it exploded on the pop-culture scene.

For Hurley - a handsome, laid-back, blond-haired surfer dude - embarking on a new business adventure wouldn't have been out of the norm.

He'd been a promising entrepreneur since age 5, when he first peddled paintings on his parents' lawn in rural Berks County, Pa.

Hurley eventually graduated with a degree in fine arts from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, an education that would later guide him in creating YouTube's now-famous logo.

Like many new college grads, Hurley found himself gravitating to the 'Net.

He wound up working for PayPal along with Chen.

In 2002, when that company was sold to eBay, Hurley began doing design-consulting work for clients, including the producers of the indie hit "Thank You for Smoking," a satire on the tobacco industry.

Meanwhile, he and Chen - himself a renegade known for sporting two gold ear hoops - had remained good friends. When they talked after the party that fateful night in 2005, it seemed only natural that they would go into business together.Y FROM GARAGE GEEK TO $1.65 BIL MAN

Mel Gibson gives 1st media interview since anti-Semitic rant

Director Mel Gibson, who made headlines around the world when he gave an anti-Semitic rant while being pulled over for drunk driving in July, has given his first media interview since the arrest.

ABC's Good Morning America announced the Australian actor sat down for an interview with Diane Sawyer in southern California. The two-part interview will appear Oct. 12 and 13th.

Actor-director Mel Gibson, seen in a police booking photo taken on July 28, 2006, will appear on Good Morning America next week for his first interview since his arrest.
Actor-director Mel Gibson, seen in a police booking photo taken on July 28, 2006, will appear on Good Morning America next week for his first interview since his arrest.
(Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department/AP)

The interview is a segment of the morning show. "It’s not going to be the entire Good Morning America," said ABC publicist Bridgette Maney.

Alan Nierob, Gibson's spokesman, would not divulge what the director said, only saying that the 50-year-old director has met with members of the Jewish community who have been "welcoming and supporting."

Gibson was stopped for speeding in the early hours of July 28. Police reports said he launched into a tirade against Jews, asking the arresting officer whether he was Jewish and making offensive comments.

The director, who starred in the Lethal Weapon movie series and won a directing Oscar for Braveheart in 1995, later apologized twice for his anti-Semitic statements.

He pleaded no contest on Aug. 17 to charges of impaired driving and agreed to serve three years' probation, pay a fine and attend alcohol rehabilitation classes.

Nierob said Gibson was on an "ongoing program of recovery."

Microsoft releases Windows Vista RC2

It expects this version to be the last before a release to manufacturingMicrosoft Corp. today released what it expects to be the final release of Windows Vista before the operating system is sent to manufacturing for distribution.
Microsoft Corp. today released what it expects to be the final release of Windows Vista before the operating system is sent to manufacturing for distribution.

Windows Vista Release Candidate 2 (RC2), which is build number 5744, is being made available to 100,000 Customer Preview Program (CPP) participants, as well as to subscribers and members of TechBeta, TechNet, TAP and MSDN.

The company said that this newest build includes bug fixes, performance improvements, better application compatibility and "fit and finish" work -- tweaks to the look and feel of the operating system.

Microsoft also said that it is on target for making Windows Vista available to volume licensing customers in November and to consumers in January 2007. However, it added that "the final delivery will be based on quality" -- in other words, if it finds serious issues with the operating system, it would delay its planned launch. The company does not expect that to happen, however.

The company will continue to support RC1 through the official Windows Vista launch, and adds that RC1 can be used as the basis for logo certification.

Piniella looms over Joe

The same night Lou Piniella was hoisting the trophy that he and his Cincinnati Reds won in the 1990 World Series, George Steinbrenner was on "Saturday Night Live" pulling his pants down for a skit.

In his office that night, Piniella was asked if he wanted to say anything to Steinbrenner, the man who had given him his first managerial job and taken it away, too.

Yes, Piniella said. "George," he said, "I can manage."

Now, with the Yankees reeling after being eliminated yesterday by the upstart Tigers in the division series, it's conceivable that Piniella will get the chance to show Steinbrenner how he'd manage The Boss' beloved, $200 million team. A second straight first-round failure has jeopardized Joe Torre's job and Piniella is a likely replacement.

Steinbrenner has privately said for years that the biggest mistake he ever made was letting Piniella go. He's waited nearly 20 years, during which time Piniella managed the Reds, Mariners and Devil Rays, for the chance to bring him back.

Piniella, a Yankee outfielder from 1974-84, said in an interview with The Associated Press in April that he and Steinbrenner are "good friends." Both live in Tampa, the Yanks' spring home. Piniella was born in Tampa, Steinbrenner's adopted hometown.

Piniella, who at 63 is three years younger than Torre, was hired as Yanks' manager for the 1986 season in place of Billy Martin. Steinbrenner said Piniella was "my kind of player. I think he'll be my kind of manager."

Piniella led the Yanks to a 90-72 record and a second-place finish the first season and was 89-73 and in fourth place in 1987. He was fired after the '87 season and made the GM, but he was back on the bench in mid-1988, replacing Martin for the final 93 games. He wasn't invited back the next year.

No more excuses for Torre

This is just as bad for the Yankees, losing these last three to the Tigers this way, not even competing in the last two, as losing four in a row to the Red Sox two years ago. These Yankees have now become the biggest postseason flops in the history of the team, maybe any team. This year George Steinbrenner went for a payroll of $213 million and gave Brian Cashman and Joe Torre the run of the place. Here is what that kind of money and that kind of restraint bought Steinbrenner: the most expensive glass jaw of all time, a team that gets knocked out cold in the first round again.

It is why the owner, 76 years old now, desperate to win at least one more World Series, has a perfect right to try it with some new people next season, starting with a new manager. They can't only be Torre's Yankees when they win.

This is now three times in five years, with a payroll three times the size of most playoff teams, that Joe Torre can't make it to the second round. Tell me another manager, no matter how well-respected, no matter how classy, who survives that? Steinbrenner can go hire Lou Piniella tomorrow if he wants to.

And George Steinbrenner ought to do everything he can to try and move Alex Rodriguez, who came here three seasons ago for easy World Series rings and hasn't even played a World Series. He was 2-for-15 against the Angels last season. He was 1-for-14 against the Tigers this time. If somebody will take him and give the Yankees young arms like the Tigers have in return, he goes. You know why Torre batted him eighth yesterday? Because he wasn't allowed to bat him 10th.

When Brian Cashman, the Yankee general manager, was asked yesterday if Torre and A-Rod will be back, outside a Yankee clubhouse as quiet as Yankee Stadium will be today and all through the baseball winter, quiet as an empty locker, he said, "Why wouldn't they?"

Cashman has a lot of power now. He won't make the call on who will manage the Yankees next season. The owner will. If the owner has seen enough since the Yankees beat the Mets to win the 2000 Series, no one can fault him. It has been a long time, more than a decade, since he fired a manager. If he isn't allowed to do it now, then when?

Oh, you bet he has the right to make a change. He has paid through the nose for that right. Torre has been the best and classiest manager the Yankees have ever had. He has four World Series rings and is going to the Hall of Fame. He has also had more money spent on him, been given more Hall of Fame players and All-Stars, than any manager ever. When he does make it out of the first round now, his team loses four straight to the Red Sox after leading 3-0. Three years ago, his Yankees couldn't beat the Marlins, a team with a payroll of $50 million - tipping money at Yankee Stadium - in the World Series.

For a long time, Torre has been given everything and produced nothing in October, where Yankee managers are measured the same as players like A-Rod are.

"I think I'm part of the solution here," Rodriguez said in the visitors' clubhouse as Randy Johnson walked past him, pulling his carry-on bag. Two years now for Johnson with the Yankees. No postseason victories. They paid $57 million to get Johnson. They picked up A-Rod's contract even if they didn't have to pick up all of it. How has that worked out for everybody so far?

A-Rod thinks he's part of the solution? He's the only one in town right now. A Met town.

It was not just A-Rod. It was all of the Steinbrenner's All-Stars, the Greatest (Regular Season) Show on Earth. Mike Mussina, who thinks he merits another huge contract, could not hold the 3-1 lead in Game 2 the way he could not hold a big lead against the Angels four years ago, in another first-round collapse. From there, the Yankees were outscored 17-1 by the Detroit Tigers before Jorge Posada, who is a truly great Yankee still, hit a meaningless 2-run homer with two out in the 9th yesterday.

Joe, Yanks over & out

Loss in Motown leaves playoffJoe Torre chewed his gum. It was all he could do, really, as he sat in the Yankee dugout here last night. Chew his gum while watching the season - and perhaps his tenure as Yankee manager - come crashing down around him.

Suddenly, the future of the Bombers is gloomy, and a virtual demolition of the franchise may not be far off. Torre's 11-year run as Yankee manager could end within days. Alex Rodriguez figures to be shopped on the trade market. An overhaul of the pitching staff is needed, and if the last few days are any indication, so is an infusion of energy.

The end came at 7:24 p.m., 187 days after it began with so much promise in Oakland. Robinson Cano grounded out to complete an 8-3 loss to the Tigers, knocking the Bombers out in the first round of the playoffs for the second straight year and sending them into a winter during which the wrath of George Steinbrenner almost certainly will be felt.

As Detroit reliever Jamie Walker was enveloped on the mound by his teammates, A-Rod stood in the on-deck circle, bat held limply at his side while the histrionics unfolded around him.

"Plain and simple they dominated us," he said. "They absolutely kicked our ass."

That point couldn't be argued. The Yankees won the first game of this division series and were seen by many to be rolling toward a World Series. However, it all unraveled in the next three days, as if their dominance had been washed away by Wednesday's rainout. They did not score from the fourth inning Thursday until the seventh last night, a span of 20 innings that led to three straight losses and torpedoed the season.

Afterward, Torre choked up on the interview room podium before composing himself. Like others, he seemed stunned. Critics wondered why he did not play Melky Cabrera earlier in the series or how he could use a neophyte first baseman such as Gary Sheffield in the playoffs, but the overriding fact was that the $200 million Yankees were overflowing with talent and it still wasn't even close to enough.

"I'm stunned," GM Brian Cashman said. "This team fooled me, to some degree."

That could be taken as a sign that changes are imminent, but Cashman gave no sign that Torre's situation was tenuous and the Yankee skipper did not offer any indication that he was concerned about his fate.

"What can the manager do? It is not his job to play the game for us," Mariano Rivera said. "It is the players who play."

In the Yankees' case, however, they played horribly at the worst time. Most of the hitters were abysmal (Cano was 2-for-15, Johnny Damon was 4-for-17, among others) but Rodriguez took the brunt of the criticism.

It has been that way all season, of course, and calls for Rodriguez to be traded are already swirling with ferocity. But A-Rod, who has a no-trade clause in his monstrous $252 million contract, reiterated yesterday that he has no plans to waive it.

"No, never," he said. "I don't want out. If they would want to get rid of me, I hope that's not the case . . . because I don't want to go anywhere."

However, whether A-Rod stays with the Bombers remains to be seen, considering the fact that there are many within the Yankee organization who believe Rodriguez's erratic play showed that he'd be better off somewhere else.

Torre dropped him to eighth in the lineup yesterday - the first time he hit that low since 1996 - and he was 0-for-3 to finish the four games batting .071 (1-for-14). For the second straight postseason he did not have a single RBI.

He also concluded a difficult season defensively with a critical error, muffing Magglio Ordoñez's grounder and then throwing wildly in the third inning. That led to an unearned run and put the Yanks in a 4-0 hole, the rest of which they owed to Jaret Wright's woeful outing. Wright, who lasted just 22/3 innings, surrendered homers to Ordoñez and Craig Monroe.

Then again, it would have taken virtual perfection for him to match Tigers righthander Jeremy Bonderman, who retired 15 in a row to start the game and allowed just two runs in 81/3 magical innings.

"They outplayed us in every facet of the game," Derek Jeter said.

Torre watched the final outs from the bench, still working the gum over in his mouth. It may have been his last game with the Yankees, just like it may have been Mike Mussina's or Bernie Williams' or Sheffield's.

A-Rod watched, too. Then, once the Tigers' celebration had begun in full, he turned away and trudged down the dugout steps. He was heading toward the clubhouse, headed toward a winter that is clouded by the unknown. skid marks

In 'Departed,' Scorsese's best is back

By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY
In The Departed, director Martin Scorsese returns with breathtaking assurance to the arena in which he is at his best: the gritty and complex crime drama.
Loosely based on the 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, Scorsese's latest is his best since 1990's Goodfellas. Two and a half hours race by as this twisting, turning tale blazes its exciting, funny, brutal path.


The film's score and editing brilliantly heighten the film's energy, keeping the audience somewhat off-kilter and unsure where things are headed.

Set in the mean streets of South Boston, the film hinges on the duplicitous actions of two young cops, played winningly by Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio. DiCaprio — in his best performance in a Scorsese movie — plays rookie Billy Costigan, who has a foot in tough South Boston, where he lived with his father, and another in the wealthier existence of his mother and stepfather. Smart and educated, he disappoints the moneyed relatives by becoming a cop.

Once on the force, he is goaded into going undercover by a good cop/bad cop pair played by Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg (in a wildly compelling performance).

The police department is hellbent on taking down crime boss Frank Costello, played with just the right blend of menace, sleaze and dissipation by Jack Nicholson. Costigan's infiltration of Costello's ring grows more terrifying the deeper it gets.

Meanwhile, rising police department star Colin Sullivan, superbly played by Damon, leads an increasingly fraught double life. Named as head of a team that investigates Costello, he also secretly works for the crime lord, helping him elude the police. When the department realizes it has a mole in its ranks and Costello begins to grow suspicious of his men, Damon and DiCaprio's characters face a host of dangers. It's a riveting dance in which they must keep a step ahead of their cohorts and each other, to avoid exposure.

To further complicate matters, both men fall for the same woman, a department psychologist played by an oddly lackluster Vera Farmiga.

Unlike many by-the-book crime dramas, the characters are nuanced, dialogue is crackling and the action crescendoes to a startling ending. This group from Boston is far more fascinating than Scorsese's Gangs of New York or reclusive Aviator Howard Hughes. Kudos to him for coming back from those flawed, but ambitious, efforts with one of the best f

DON'T DISCOUNT IT

ATTENTION, comedy shoppers: The marked-down movie "Employee of the Month" has more laughs than most of the name-brand products.
Channeling some of the wrinkled charisma of Bill Murray in "Stripes," comedian Dane Cook shows leading-man potential in his first star turn, as a superstore boxboy named Zack who has to suffer the taunts of Vince (Dax Shepard), the obnoxious head cashier and 17-time employee of the month.
Cook exudes so much cool, though, that it's a little hard to believe he could be such a failure. "I'm having dinner with the old lady tonight," he tells his pals, then goes home, where he lives with his grandma. His only ride is a clown-size motorcycle.
Shepard, who is like the conniving little brother of Owen and Luke Wilson, is even funnier as the head cashier with bleachy Eminem hair and the "fastest hands in the Southwest." The girls swoon as he whisks their items past the scanner: "Oooh, Lean Pockets!" he exclaims. "Somebody takes care of themselves!" He basks in the stardom that only comes to those who have been issued a pass to the cashiers' lounge.
The two guys are fighting over the new cashier, played by Jessica Simpson. If only every movie character's motivation was so easy to believe. Simpson doesn't do much except look good, but she does that mighty well.
Zack proves that he can show her a romantic evening without leaving the store: "Another box of Merlot?" he says over dinner, before arranging a private screening of "The Princess Bride."
For short stretches, the movie has a touch of surreal "Office Space" brilliance, but it's broadly acted, its characters are thin, and the production values are ragged. Still, it's hard to resist its goofy hostility: "You're like the drummer from REO Speedwagon. Nobody knows who you are."

Do big breasts lead to paradise? Colombia asks

(Reuters Life!) - Every weeknight millions of Colombians tune in to watch a smash television series about the indignities suffered by a teen-age girl willing to do anything to get her breasts enlarged.


Tired of being poor and going to school with no good jobs in sight after graduation, Catalina decides to do what her friends have done and get breast implants in order to snag a gangster boyfriend who can take care of her.

She tries to prostitute herself to get money for the operation but, in a kind of Colombian Catch 22, has trouble winning clients due to her small cup size.

The show, based on a true story, is both loved and hated for displaying the culture of easy money here in the world's biggest cocaine-exporting country.

Convinced that an overflowing bosom will be her "passport to heaven," Catalina continues her quest, which instead leads to episode after episode of treachery and violence.

Some call the series an insult to Colombia, which is trying to end four decades of guerrilla war driven by the drug trade. Others, who enjoy the show's black humor, say it is helping the country confront its demons.

Gangsters, called "traquetos" after the "traqua traqua traqua"-like sound made by their automatic weapons, are known to send their girlfriends for all kinds of aesthetic surgery.

Younger and younger women are getting operated on in the hope of landing a traqueto of their own.

"Vanity is pushing the girls of Colombia to do crazy things. We are addressing this in the show, not celebrating it," said actress Margarita Rosa Arias, who plays Vanessa, one of the big-breasted characters Catalina tries to emulate.

'TELE-TRASH'

In real life, Arias points to herself as an example of responsible augmentation, having had her breasts done by a well-qualified doctor when she was 28, at the behest of her husband.

The show's main character is based on last year's novel by Gustavo Bolivar about a 14-year-old girl played by Maria Adelaida Puerta, a long-necked, flat-chested beauty from Medellin.

When the book was released, people in the city of Pereira where the story is set were offended. The television show it inspired is like salt in the wounds to local business leaders who were already struggling to improve Pereira's image.

"We will not be defined by this tele-trash!" city spokesman Luis Garcia told Reuters. "All the guys in the story are assassins and the girls sell themselves in order to augment their breasts. It is the stereotype we object to."

For years Pereira, in the heart of Colombia's coffee-growing region, was known as one of the country's top party towns, where drug smugglers, coffee workers and truck drivers could blow money on famously beautiful prostitutes.

Defenders of the show say it reflects the conflicts that girls face in places like Pereira, a short drive from the home base of the still-powerful Norte del Valle cocaine cartel.

While Colombia has become safer thanks to a U.S.-backed crackdown on the drug trade, Pereira's murder rate remains above the national average and many young people still turn to the drug-trafficking world as a way of escaping poverty.

"People are angry about "Sin Tetas" ("Without Tits") but I think it's OK because it shows the reality of a lot of girls," said a woman in Pereira's town square, declining to give her name.

HEALTH'S THE MAINE ISSUE

INJURED EL DUQUE COMPLICATES PITCHING PLANS
The Mets then said early last night that an MRI exam on El Duque revealed a right calf injury and said the pitcher would be evaluated again last night and that today the team will determine if he's going to take the mound.

"We hope that he's OK, that test or whatever they're going to do comes back OK and he's in good health," Carlos Delgado said before the MRI returned. "But if it doesn't happen, somebody's going to have to take the ball and give us a good effort. We're going to be all right."t-weight:bold;">

I HEARD................

THAT News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch and Fox News head Roger Ailes are hosting a huge bash to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Fox News Channel tonight. Tiki Barber, Mike Wallace, Donald Trump, Mel Karmazin and Gov. George Pataki are all expected at the celebration, to be held under a tent on West 48th Street and Sixth Avenue . . . THAT Uma Thurman will help Donna Karan celebrate the launch of Gold, her new fragrance, next Thursday at the Madison Avenue flagship Donna Karan store.

IN NEW JERSEY............

BRUCE Willis at the B Bar at the Borgata in Atlantic City watching the Jets game with his bouncer standing behind him and guarding him from everyone . . . A THOUSAND fans screaming and crying during Barbra Streisand's dress rehearsal at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia.

Forget airbags, silicone breasts will do

A woman in the northern Bulgarian town of Ruse has survived a car crash thanks to her silicone breasts which acted as an airbag, a newspaper has reported.

The 24-year-old ran through a red light and crashed her car into another vehicle at a busy crossroad in the middle of town Saturday, the daily Standart said Monday.

"The two cars were crumpled past recognition in the crash but the woman's silicone breasts acted as airbags and saved her life," Standart wrote, citing eyewitness reports.

But survival as well as beauty comes at a price as the woman burst her silicon implants in the crash.

Police hunt breast enlargement cheats

A German plastic surgeon who was cheated out of payment by several women has given pictures of their enlarged breasts to police, in the hope the photos will help trace them.


"The women registered under fake names," Michael Koenig, a surgeon in Cologne, told Bild newspaper. "After the operations, which lasted about an hour, they just ran away."

"Tanja" went out for "fresh air" after 8,000-euro ($10,000) surgery to enlarge her breasts. "She never came back and never paid," Koenig said. He now plans to demand payment in advance.

Bild published a five-column picture of Tanja's naked breasts. "It's probably the most unusual wanted poster police ever had," the newspaper wrote

Ark. woman shows up drunk at DWI hearing

A Little Rock woman facing her fifth drunken-driving charge in the span of a year — and third in less than a month — showed up to a court appearance drunk Tuesday morning, a court official said.
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Susan Marshall, 55, was arrested for contempt of court after a brief appearance in Little Rock District Court, said chief probation officer Sheila Farley. Marshall later had a blood-alcohol level of 0.147 percent, Farley said. The legal limit for adult drivers in Arkansas is 0.08 percent.

Marshall said she did not drive to her court appearance and had no keys when arrested, Farley said.

Marshall, who had three drunken-driving arrests in September, was taken to Pulaski County Jail. She was scheduled for another court appearance Wednesday, Farley said.

Robin Williams Says A Bunch of Funnyish Rehab Stuff

Robin Williams has been away from the limelight for a few weeks now - we know this since we've watched at least three recent awards show not punctuated by weird, semi-comprehensible Robin Williams gibbering.At least Robin Williams disappeared for a good enough reason, though; he'd decided to hole himself up in rehab again for fear that he was about to turn into a full-scale alcoholic again. For most people, rehab is a deathly serious place to be; a place to go and be surrounded by those who have ruined their lives with alcohol and substance abuse. Not Robin Williams, though - Robin Williams seems to have spent all his time in rehab thinking up a bunch of rehab jokes, which he told one after another at a recent press junket to promote his new film, to the delight of both people in the world who aren't getting a bit tired of Mel Gibson jokes already.


You've got to hand it to Robin Williams; when it comes to turning up at the Oscars and performing confusing internal conversations about how Minnie Mouse would react to the possibility of Pixar setting itself up as an independent movie studio if she inexplicably became French, there's nobody quite as tiringly prolific as Robin Williams. However, Robin Williams is just as prone to human frailties as those people who don't compulsively need to crack jokes all the time like they're trying to overcompensate for something, and in August Robin Williams admitted himself to rehab.

There was no big public breakdown to kickstart Robin Williams' admission to rehab - no lambasting all the fucking Jews and no pissing himself in an airport - Robin Williams merely took the sensible step of going to rehab after he broke his self-imposed 20-year alcohol ban. And, now he's back out of rehab and dry again, Robin Williams decided to speak about his experiences. Did we say 'speak'? We meant 'garble some fairly poor jokes', as People reports:

Anna Nicole Smith has not married her lawyer Howard Stern

Anna Nicole Smith has not married her lawyer Howard K. Stern.

The former Playboy playmate did declare her love for Stern in a special private ceremony onboard a catamaran off Nassau in the Bahamas, but there was no official marriage certificate, it has been claimed.

Smith's close friend, TrimSpa CEO Alex Goen, told US magazine In Touch Weekly: "They had a quiet ceremony and declared how much they love each other in front of God. They vowed they would be there for each other.

"They do plan to have a proper ceremony in the future."

The morning ceremony came just 36 hours after Howard revealed that he is the father of Anna Nicole's three-week-old daughter, Danni Lynn Hope, and 18 days after the sudden death of her 20-year-old son, Daniel.

Howard recently told US talk show host Larry King: "She is the one thing that is really keeping her going. And through it all, even with all the pain, Anna Nicole has been a great mom, a very attentive mom."

However, Anna's ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead has demanded a DNA test to determine whether he is the biological father of her daughter.

Larry Birkhead's protests come a day after Howard claimed he was Dannie Lynn's dad.

Delonas for Tuesday, October 3, 2006

IT'S ALL'BOUT

ALEX DROPS TO SIXTH IN OPENING NIGHT ORDER
October 3, 2006 -- If Joe Torre dropping Alex Rodriguez into the sixth spot of the supposed "Greatest Lineup Ever" didn't get the Yankees' attention, the manager grabbed it with a direct message to his players.
Standing in the middle of the Yankees' clubhouse yesterday, Torre reminded his players not to look past the reeling wild-card Tigers, who stagger into tonight's Game 1 of the ALDS on a five-game bender, having dropped three straight to the morbid Royals to flush the AL Central title. They lost 31 of the final 50 games.
Torre knows his club is better than the Tigers. His players know they are superior. Las Vegas installed the AL East champs as a prohibitive favorite. Many are convinced the three wins in the best-of-five ALDS will leave the Yankees eight victories shy of their 27th World Series title.
Still, Torre is concerned enough by the Tigers to offer a reminder.
"Don't look past this series," Torre implored his troops before an afternoon workout at Yankee Stadium.
Until Torre announced A-Rod would hit sixth for the first time since June 22, 1995, when with Seattle, the hot topic was could the Yankees take the Tigers seriously.
Then the buzz turned to A-Rod, who batted .290 with 37 homers and a team-leading 121 RBIs.

Zune Update: Price, Date, and Distribution News

Zune to be sold at GameStop and EB. Also, accessory pics and prices.
IGN Gear has received word from our rather well-placed sources at GameStop and EB that Microsoft has successfully brokered for quality in-store placement for the Zune, Microsoft's new iPod-killer mp3 player. The move signals an obvious desire on Microsoft's part to reach directly to gamers, an audience not yet directly tapped by Apple. It will be the first time these videogame store chains have carried an mp3 product.



The Zune project is Microsoft Corporate Vice President J. Allard's newest endeavor following his oversight of the Xbox 360's development and launch. As Microsoft's public face on the company's hopes for the new device, he has indicated that the MS intends the Zune platform to become an integrated part of Microsoft's hardware endeavors, interconnecting between Media Center PCs and the Xbox 360. While the first generation of Zune players are only taking the first step by incorporating WiFi for Zune-to-Zune communications, Microsoft is speaking very strongly of their plans to expand the platform with new hardware (rumors currently abound that a Zune-phone will be the follow up hardware release in Q1-Q2 2007) that will likely also launch with the E3-discussed Xbox Live Anywhere initiative.

Last week, Amazon.com inadvertently broke Zune pricing and launch date information. Launch day is set for November 14, and the 3-inch screened 30-GB mp3 player will cost $249.99. This price competes directly with the 30-GB iPod Video, but Microsoft aims to sweeten the Zune deal with a fair amount of pre-loaded content. Songs from Sub Pop, Quango, V2, and Astralwerks and music-videos from BT, 30 Seconds to Mars, and Paul Oakenfold will ship pre-loaded on every Zune. A number of other included video clips will allow users to sample the Zune's movie-playback capabilities.

Anna Nicole denies marriage report

Anna Nicole Smith has claimed she hadn't married her attorney lover — they had simply taken part in an officiated "commitment ceremony" aboard a luxury yacht in the Bahamas.

The former model, clutching her newborn baby daughter, wore a pink bikini for the bizarre event, aboard a 50-foot catamaran as they sailed around the islands' capital Nassau.

It took place while the body of Smith's 20-year-old son, Daniel, lies in a funeral home, awaiting burial nearly three weeks after he died.

Compulsive Spending: Both Sexes Do It

Forget the gender stereotypes about compulsive buying. Men do it, too.

That's what researchers including Lorrin Koran, MD, report in The American Journal of Psychiatry. Koran works in the psychiatry department at Stanford University's medical school in California.

Compulsive buying has mainly been studied in women, Koran's team notes. But if their findings are correct, compulsive buying is just as common among men.

Compulsive buying isn't in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), the handbook of psychiatric disorders. But Koran and others have suggested that it should be.

"Compulsive buying leads to serious psychological, financial, and family problems including depression, overwhelming debt, and the breakup of relationships," Koran says in a Stanford news release. "People don't realize the extent of the damage it does to the sufferer."

54 MEMORIES

designer Geoffrey Bradfield's black-tie birthday bash was held at the famous Bob Guccione townhouse on East 67th in an attempt to help increase buyer interest in the $5 million, 25-room manse. The surrealistic setting last week for the Australian designer, featured a cast of guests ranging from octogenarian dowagers dripping with jewels to naked muscle studs painted jet black and sprinkled with silver glitter. Writer Gregory Speck, a press agent for the original Studio 54, told the birthday boy that the towering nude turbaned models, who carried huge spears and stood at attention, reminded him of those decadent days, when the greatest nightclub of them all ruled Gotham.

CAFFEINE TERROR in PALM Beach!!!!! OMG

THE snobbish millionaires of Palm Beach are up in arms over plans to put a Starbucks on Worth Avenue. The town council recently voted to let the coffee chain open at 150 Worth, next to Saks Fifth Avenue. But it later revoked the approval, saying it wanted to reconsider after being flooded with complaints. Maybe locals fear a caffeine jolt might wake up the often-lifeless shopping district. "A common airport franchise on our beautiful, expensive, exclusive Worth Avenue?" wrote resident Lotsie Hermann Holton.

A BIT MORE MIAMI VICE

DETHRONED Miami club king Chris Paciello has been quietly released from jail and is living in a witness protection program as he prepares to take the stand to rat out several Mafia cohorts, sources told Page Six. The slimy ex-business partner of Ingrid Casares made headlines a few weeks ago when he refused to squeal on Alphonse "Allie Boy" Persico at the mob big's trial. Meanwhile, two unauthorized movies are being made about Paciello's unsavory past. One of them, "Mobs Over Miami," is set to shoot in Miami, Brooklyn and Staten Island. And it's not sitting well with Casares, who wants no association with him. Through her law firm, Grubman Indusky & Shire, Casares told us, " 'Mobs' is based on pure speculation and gross exaggeration. My involvement with Chris Paciello pertained exclusively to a very positive business relationship - nothing further. As proven by the authorities, I have no knowledge, or ever have, of Chris's criminal past. His decision to testify has absolutely nothing to do with me."

ODD COUPLE?

IVANKA Trump is gorgeous, successful, and . . . dating Lance Armstrong? Though hard to believe, that's the rumor on the West Coast. And Trump, who will be the new spokeswoman for Tiffany as well as working at her father The Donald's firm, has been spending a lot of time in L.A. recently shooting "The Apprentice." Armstrong is also known for having an eye for hot women and was most recently linked with Paris Hilton. A rep for Trump didn't return calls.

JEANINE AND AL'S 'PAY-&-STAY PACT'

SHOCKER CLAIM OF 15G-A-MO. DEAL
October 2, 2006 -- ALBANY - It's the money, honey.

Jeanine Pirro stays with her philandering husband, Al Pirro, because he has agreed to give her a $15,000-a-month lifestyle, a source close to the couple has told The Post.

Jeanine Pirro, the Republican candidate for state attorney general, has made it clear to many that she stayed in the marriage after Al's tax-evasion conviction - and his admission that he had fathered an out-of-wedlock child - with the understanding that he would underwrite her luxurious lifestyle, the source said.

"One time, she's on the phone with Al and she's saying, 'Uh huh, uh huh, well, Al, it's 15 grand a month, that is the number,' " recalled the source, who said he often visited the Pirros' luxurious Harrison home. "Jeanine then continues, 'I don't want to hear that you're short this month. Fifteen grand is the number.'

"And I heard Mike [Santangelo] say the same thing, that Jeanine told him that Al has got to come up with $15,000 a month for household expenses whether from his lobbying or real-estate deals or whatever, that that was the deal after Al got out of prison."

Michael Santangelo, a Westchester lawyer, unsuccessfully defended Al Pirro at his federal tax-evasion trial in 2000.

Santangelo's wife, Lisa, is the woman whom Jeanine Pirro suspected of having an affair with Al.

Michael Santangelo has denied that his wife was involved with Al Pirro. His wife has been unavailable for comment.

I SPY........

ALBANY - In a devastating blow to her campaign, Republican attorney-general candidate Jeanine Pirro admitted yesterday she is under federal investigation for discussing with former city Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik how to secretly record her bad-boy husband to see if he was cheating.

Bombshell transcripts of conversations between Pirro and Kerik reveal that an angry Pirro even offered to plant the bug herself on her husband's boat, where she believed he was having sex with another woman.

"What am I supposed to do, Bernie? Watch him f- - - her every night?" Pirro is quoted as saying on the transcripts, obtained by WNBC-TV. "What am I supposed to do? . . . I can go on the boat, I'll put the f- - -ing thing on myself."

U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia confirmed his office is "investigating allegations recently brought to our attention by other law-enforcement agencies" and is working with the FBI and Pirro's old District Attorney's Office in Westchester County.

Garcia is looking into whether Pirro engaged in illegal wiretapping, which carries a five-year maximum prison sentence.

The conversations between Pirro and Kerik came to light as federal investigators tapped the former NYPD commissioner's phone during an unrelated investigation, according to sources.

Pirro, who has hired a lawyer, was Westchester County DA in the summer of 2005 and gearing up for a run against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton when she became convinced that husband Al was being unfaithful and she wanted to catch him in the act.

In one conversation, Pirro complained to Kerik, who heads a private security firm, that one of his workers was reluctant to board Al Pirro's boat.

Kerik said: "But Jeanine, I'm having the same f- - -ing problem with everybody. Everybody is panic-stricken because it's you. I've gone out on a limb. I've had two other people looking at this. It's a problem."

Soon after, according to the transcript, Kerik asked a contact at Rudy Giuliani's consulting firm to find him a recording device, WNBC/Channel 4 reported. A Giuliani spokeswoman had no comment.
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OTHER FEST BETS

September 28, 2006 -- WONDERING where the prestige films have been hiding all year? The industry's been storing them for this moment: the New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center. Last year, it was New York's first chance to see "Good Night, and Good Luck," "Capote" and "The Squid and the Whale," which hauled in a combined 12 Oscar nominations and one win.

After Helen Mirren and director Stephen Frears present tomorrow's opener, "The Queen," actors and filmmakers including Sofia Coppola, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Warren Beatty, Pedro Almodóvar and David Lynch will appear to introduce their films and take questions from the audience.

Tickets to most of the 28 films shown at this year's 17-day festival are sold out, but a few last-minute rush tickets will be available at the box offices of the Walter Reade Theater and Alice Tully Hall before each show. (Check filmlinc.com for all showtimes.)

Two major Hollywood productions make their U.S. debuts at the otherwise indie-centered fest. "Little Children," with Winslet and Patrick Wilson as suburban parents who tumble into an adulterous affair, is a solemn, chiaroscuro take on Tom Perrotta's best-selling 2004 comic novel. Look for Winslet to score her fifth Oscar nomination.

Coppola brings in her third film, "Marie Antoinette." The irreverent MTV-styled follow-up to "Lost in Translation" was booed at the Cannes Film Festival for using '80s pop-punk songs like "I Want Candy" to illustrate an otherwise fairly accurate retelling of the story of the doomed queen of France.

The Oct. 7-8 Centerpiece film features one of Mirren's likely rivals for Best Actress, Penelope Cruz in "Volver," who will be on hand to discuss Almodóvar's supernatural murder tale about three generations of women.

EX-WISEGUY'S WISDOM: I LIVE FOR MY KIDS

THE Teflon had abandoned the tough old guy, and he died a painful death in a prison hospital.

But the man known as the Teflon Don died as he lived, a consummate wiseguy - and right or wrong, he was proud of it even to the last breath. "He was somebody. Me? I'm a nobody," John "Junior" Gotti was saying yesterday after the third straight mistrial in the feds' efforts to lock him up for most of his adult life.

Consider that a circular saw has been going through Junior's nerve endings since he finished a six-year stretch in Ray Brook federal prison and was immediately thrown into the hole in a federal lock-up in New York and indicted again in July 2004.

From that day, the sword of Damocles has been quivering over his head in the form of a 30-year sentence, which would have made him 72 if and when he breathed fresh air again.

What got him through three trials and the prospect of never seeing his daughters or sons get married? "For instance, my father handled these things . . . well with him, manhood got him through it," Junior said on the 15th floor of the federal court building in Manhattan. "With me, it was my children."

"Now when it came to 'the life,' if someone said to him, 'You have chosen the wrong way,' he'd say, 'What's the right way?'

"Me? Yeah, you can convert - my father, never. He was one of the old-timers, but very faithful to his code.

"Now it's over, my father is in tomb 451 at St. John's Cemetery, my brother Frankie is there - it's over. I'm looking forward to living a middle-class life as opposed to the extravagant life I led in the '90s.

"The jury saved my life."

CELEBRITY SEATINGS

September 26, 2006 -- PARIS Hilton's haunches or Jessica Biel's butt? City women are flocking to plastic surgeons in search of a booty befitting their favorite starlet.

At one new Upper East Side clinic, posterior patients can request a specific celebrity's backside. Popular requests include Eva Longoria, Lindsay Lohan, Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton and Jessica Biel. Noticeably absent from the list is a certain Bronx-born booty bombshell, Jennifer Lopez.

The new rear to bear is smaller, tighter and "more refined," according to Dr. Brad Jacobs, who's unveiling his "Star Butts" clinic today in his office.

AROUND NYC...AROD

A ROD spotted his with his wfe talking a nice walk up Madison Ave after coming out of Barneys department store. He gave me a bad hand shake ( very weak)...lol

THIS BEAUTIFUL FACE HAS A LOTTA OPTIONS

September 28, 2006 -- THE Daughter of The Donald may be come the Face of the Fifth Avenue jewel - Tiffany. Talk is Ivanka Trump might do more than Breakfast at Tiffany. Might do lunches, teas, cocktail parties and walkabouts. Might travel around for them. Decorate their ads. Being discussed now is that Tiffany could give this brainy, beautiful young lady the title "Spokesperson."

SIGHTINGS..in NYC

SKELETAL Kate Bosworth declining to eat and only sipping iced coffee while her friends ate lunch at Les Halles . . . "SOPRANOS" star Michael Imperioli buying a "Godfather" Xbox game and the movie "Someone to Watch Over Me" in the DVD department at J&R Music and Computer World . . . HEIDI Klum eating Strip House's 24-layer chocolate cake, which she had delivered to the set while she taped the final episode of "Project Runway."

MODEL MAYHEM

IMG is raiding the ranks at Elite Models. Social beauty Amanda Hearst just ankled Elite, her longtime agency, for the glamorous halls of IMG Models. Monique Pillard, who founded Elite's celebrity division, also left last week. We hear IMG head Ivan Bart is also making a strong play for another Elite client, Lauren Bush, who insiders say will soon be joining her pal Hearst at IMG. Hearst - and presumably Bush - are joining a roster of supermodels including Kate Moss, Gisele Bundchen and Daria Werbowy.

ELLEN'S NEW GUY

ELLEN Barkin was shattered when her ex, Ron Perelman, filed for divorce early this year, but she has already moved on. The sultry star, 52, who's selling all the "bad karma" jewels Perelman gave her at Christie's later this year, has for several months been dating former model Johnny Zander, 35, since she started filming "Ocean's Thirteen" in L.A. and Las Vegas. Zander is mostly known in L.A. as the onetime door Nazi at Teddy's. An insider said, "Ellen was never dating George [Clooney] - those rumors were ridiculous and leaked for p.r. purposes." Barkin's rep said, "She couldn't possibly have time for that. She hasn't finished dating the cast of 'Ocean's Thirteen' yet."

Mets: Pedro still the 1

ATLANTA - Mets officials expressed full confidence that Pedro Martinez would have a successful outing tonight, then start Game 1 of the division series next Tuesday or Wednesday at Shea. But they've started to make contingencies just in case.

Orlando Hernandez is on target to start the division series opener over Tom Glavine if Martinez can't make the Mets' first postseason pitch since 2000.

Martinez offered few words yesterday. But the ace, scheduled for his final regular-season start today, got right to the point.

Asked if he felt well enough to take the mound at Turner Field, Martinez replied: "Good enough."

Asked if his calf was at all an issue, he replied: "A little bit."

Asked his goal for the matchup with the Braves, he said: "Health," then getting philosophical added: "Health - it's a beautiful thing."

And with that, Martinez left his locker.

Despite suggestions on Monday that Martinez could be pushed back from Game 1 of the division series, all signs point to the ace opening the Mets' postseason on the Shea mound. That is, barring a health setback tonight.

"If he's healthy, I would say that he's going to get the ball," Willie Randolph said.

Tonight is expected to be Martinez's third and final regular-season start since returning from a right-calf injury that sidelined him for a month.

He was driven to tears in Pittsburgh in his first game back off the DL, when he lasted only three innings and allowed four runs and six hits while tossing 68 pitches against the Pirates.

Then, six days ago at Shea, Martinez breezed through four no-hit innings, but the Marlins scored four runs against him in the fifth. He tossed 87 pitches, but his fastball mostly settled in the 83-84 mph range because he was hesitant to go full throttle on the calf before the postseason, especially since it stiffened in his final inning.

"I'm not going to be looking for him to throw 90 mph (tonight) or looking for him to strike a certain amount of guys out - just that he gets through his work healthy and we'll see how he feels the next day or two after that into the week," Randolph said.

Both manager and pitcher said that Martinez could be pushed back if he was unhealthy, but Randolph insisted that was a hypothetical, since he expects his ace to be fine. "Anything's a possibility," Randolph said. "Does it really make sense to speculate on stuff like that? Then it gets out that I said that. Then it puts it in other people's minds that it's a possibility. Right now Pedro is going to pitch (tonight). I'm confident he's going to pitch in the playoffs for us. Let's wait and see."

Queens man faces year in jail for YouTube prank

He's not a cop, he just plays one on YouTube.

Now a 21-year-old Queens man busted for "Web thugging" - impersonating a police officer, scaring a teen and then posting the "stop" on YouTube - faces up to a year in jail.

Gazi Abura was one of three men who allegedly stopped a 16-year-old high school student as he was running on a darkened Queens street in July.

The frightened teen was hauled up against a car, questioned about a robbery and then had his identification flashed for all the world to see, prosecutors said.

"Why'd you try to run on us?" the wide-eyed student is asked as he is ordered to keep his hands on a car hood by three "cops" in the video posted on the popular Web site's "Crack Cops DVD" feature.

"You thought we were going to jump you?" mocks one of the alleged officers during the profanity-laced video as another laughs in the background.

Investigators heard about the video and found the victim, who said he believed the men who stopped him were real cops, sources said.

Detectives used the video to nab Abura, a part-time auto mechanic who insisted the video "was all set up and everybody was in on it," according to a statement he gave at his Astoria home, prosecutors said.

Cops still put Abura in a lineup, and he was identified by the victim, prosecutors said.

"His alleged actions not only damage the reputation of our police officers ... but potentially could have resulted in injury to the victim or even himself," Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.

Defense lawyer Damien Brown suggested the victim may be embarrassed and is lying about his involvement.

Abura, who's out on $15,000 bail on an alleged 2005 robbery, was charged with criminal impersonation, coercion and unlawful imprisonment.

He was ordered held last night on $3,500 bail.

Gotti jury stuck

John A. (Junior) Gotti was close yesterday to hitting a mobster's legal version of a trifecta as he appeared to be on the verge of his third mistrial.

The Manhattan jury deliberating his fate said it was hung on the racketeering indictment against the mob scion - giving Gotti some hope that the feds would fail again to put him back behind bars.

"We have been unable to reach a unanimous decision on all counts," the weary deliberators wrote in a note shortly after noon. "Thus, we feel we are deadlocked."

The only charge the panel said it could agree on was Gotti's role in the 1992 kidnapping of Curtis Sliwa, although jurors didn't say whether they found him guilty or not.

It was the panel's sixth day behind closed doors in Manhattan Federal Court, and Gotti's lawyers immediately pressed Judge Shira Scheindlin to declare a mistrial.

Defense attorney Charles Carnesi said it was clear jurors had made up their minds and it was futile to send them back for more deliberations.

"They came in and indicated they're deadlocked," Carnesi told Scheindlin. "They're not coming out here asking for readbacks [of testimony]."

But Scheindlin, who presided over two previous Gotti trials that ended with hung juries, ordered the haggard panel back to deliberate. She told them, "I know it's been long, but there's still no hurry."

The judge also reminded the seven women and five men that if they didn't come up with a verdict, prosecutors were likely to bring the case a fourth time and their job would be left to another panel.

New Look at ‘Mona Lisa’ Yields Some New Secrets

Photographs taken with invisible infrared light and a special infrared camera suggest that at least one of the details was hiding in plain sight, the scientists and conservators said.

The sitter in the Louvre Museum’s 16th-century masterpiece, believed to be Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine silk merchant, was originally painted wearing a large transparent overdress made from gauze, they said. Under normal light, part of the garment is visible on the right-hand side of the painting, but appears simply to be part of the background.

“You can see it when you know what you’re looking for,” said Bruno Mottin, a curator in the research department of the Center of Research and Restoration of the Museums of France, known as C2RMF. He spoke at a news conference with researchers from the National Research Council of Canada.

Mr. Mottin said such transparent robes were worn by expecting or nursing mothers in 16th-century Italy. The robe’s reappearance in the “Mona Lisa” would dovetail with scholarly research indicating that the painting might have been commissioned to commemorate the birth of Lisa Gherardini’s third child.

The imaging also shows, although less clearly, that some of the sitter’s hair was rolled into a small bun and tucked under a tiny bonnet with an attached veil. (The images are too cloudy to be reproduced on newsprint.)

“That is not surprising,” Mr. Mottin said. “The bonnet was usually worn by women in the 16th century.”

More generally, the researchers said they realized that centuries of grime had obscured some elements of the painting.

MS releases emergency IE fix

Microsoft has broken its normal release schedule to publish a security patch to address a critical vulnerability in Internet Explorer that has become the target of widespread hacking attacks.

A security bug in the Vector Markup Language (VML) component of IE has been used to infect users visiting specific pornographic, or other maliciously constructed, websites. Security firms report the increased prevalence of mass mailing lures that attempts to direct surfers to web sites hosting VML exploit code, using tricks including claims that users have received a Yahoo! Greeting Card.

Nokia Open Studio New York 2006

I posted some initial impressions of the Nokia N95 and wanted to post my report on the complete Open Studio event. I paid for my own ticket to get to the event held in an historic armory in downtown New York. I checked in as press and then had some breakfast snacks and chatted wit people like Howard Chui. Nokia had a huge stage setup and we then moved over into this area for the press briefings. We learned about the N95, N75, and much more that I'll chat about a bit below in each section. We were given a nice Nokia Bluetooth headset, the 800 model, and were loaned a Nokia N80 Internet Edition to try out during the event with the opportunity to purchase it at a reduced price. I used the device for a couple hours, but like my N91 better so I returned it before I left.

There is something about the American cell phone user that has most of us desiring to use a clamshell form factor device. This isn't the case in many other parts of the world where candy bar form factor devices are more popular. Nokia is now launching a competitor to devices like the Motorola RAZR with the Nokia N75. The Nokia N75 has a 2 megapixel camera, flip open clamshell form factor, flat keypad, and high resolution 2.4 inch display. It runs S60 3rd Edition so it has all the powerful Nseries functions we see in all the other devices. My wife would absolutely love this phone and I understand that it is supposed to be available initially in the US during the fourth quarter of 2006, which means I may have just found her Christmas gift.

"i'M A PC" ....IS REALLY A MAC USER !!!

I’m a PC’ guy John Hodgman really an Apple Mac user

Monday, September 25, 2006 - 07:48 AM EDT



"John Hodgman is a very intelligent man," Mike Miliard reports for The Phoenix.

Miliard reports, "He is also a very strange man. His book, The Areas of My Expertise (which has just been released in paperback by Riverhead), is an omnibus compendium of probable falsehoods. According to the dust jacket, the arenas of his know-how are centered primarily on 'matters historical; matters literary; matters cryptozoological; hobo matters; food, drink, and cheese (a kind of food); squirrels and lobsters and eels; haircuts; utopia; what will happen in the future; and most other subjects.' Tom Perotta gets it just about right when he calls Hodgman 'witty, urbane, and completely out to lunch.'"

Miliard reports, "In addition to being the author of this mock almanack, chock-a-block with “strange facts and odd-ities of the bizarre,” and curator of his own semi-regular academic sermons, the Little Gray Book Lectures, Hodgman is also a contributor to the New York Times Magazine, McSweeney’s, This American Life, Paris Review, and The Daily Show. He is also a “former professional literary agent.” And, of course, he is a PC. (Not really, but he plays one on TV, opposite a Mac.) In advance of his reading at Brookline Booksmith on September 27, we managed to wangle 20 minutes of his time to talk about hoboes, mole men, eels, chupacabras, his hometown of Brookline, and his sudden widespread fame."

Symantec Report Sees More Safari Bugs

Symantec's latest Internet Security Threat Report, which has been coming out twice a year since 2002, shows a dozen bugs found for Apple's Safari Web browser during the first six months of 2006, up from six bugs uncovered in the second half of 2005. In contrast, Mozilla open source browser bugs jumped from 17 to 47, and Internet Explorer bugs increased from 25 to 38.

"There is no safe browser," Vincent Weafer, senior director with Symantec Security Response, told Macworld UK. He noted that 3Com and Verisign are among the companies paying for information about browser exploits, which is part of the reason for an increase in bugs overall. In addition, there is a "growing black market for exploits."

Marc Maiffret, chief technology officer with eEye Digital Security, added: "Everyone has realised that targeting the applications on the desktop is a better way to break into businesses and consumers and steal things than server flaws."

Symantec's report also found that Apple is taking longer to patch Safari bugs: five days, on average, in the first half of 2006, compared to zero days in the last six months of 2005. In the same comparison, Microsoft decreased its patch development time from 25 days to 10. Mozilla bugs were patched within a day of being disclosed from January through June of this year, while Opera took two days to patch its browser flaws.

SOROS BUYS FARM; EBBERS

Bernie Ebbers spent his last night of freedom doing what he loved best - making deals, in this case with titan George Soros, who bought one the biggest working farms in the U.S. from the disgraced corporate titan.

Ebbers, 65 and ailing from heart disease and other complications, reports to prison today, where he's slated to serve a 25-year sentence for engineering the largest fraud to hit corporate America, the $11 billion collapse of WorldCom.

Colleagues said Ebbers disappeared from the public eye in recent days, choosing to remain in solitude yesterday with his wife Christie behind the draped windows at their relatively modest, three-bedroom home in suburban Jackson, Miss.

"It's an evening of reflection for them," said Bill Brandt, a restructuring expert helping Ebbers sell off his assets ahead of prison.

At one point shortly before dusk, Ebbers, chomping a cigar and dressed in jeans and a blue golf shirt, opened his front door to chase an Associated Press reporter from his porch.

It's likely that Ebbers could serve his time at a federal prison nearby in Yazoo, Miss. - a minimum security facility with little or no fencing, where low-risk inmates sleep in bunk beds in cubicle rooms.

YAHOO! TO CLOSE FOR

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - Yahoo! plans to close its U.S. offices during the final week of the year, a cost-cutting measure that will require most of the Internet icon's 10,500 workers to use their vacation time if they want to be paid for the time off.

It will mark the first time in Yahoo!'s 11-year history that its U.S. employees have been required to burn up vacation time during the week between Christmas and New Year's - a traditionally slow period for most businesses outside the retailing and hospitality industries.

"Taking a little time off during a work week when so many of our partners and advertisers are also closed is the prudent thing for Yahoo! to do," Libby Sartain, the company's senior vice president for human resources, wrote in a Sept. 21 e-mail posted on Valleywag.com, an online site devoted to Silicon Valley gossip.

Contacted yesterday, Yahoo! spokeswoman Joanna Stevens confirmed the e-mail's authenticity as well as the company's closure plans. "This will make sure everyone has time to recharge their batteries," Stevens said.

HOME-WRECKED

As home prices across the nation dropped more than they have in a decade, the often-sizzling New York real estate market is bracing for a chill.

The median price for a home in the United States fell to $225,000 - down 1.7 percent from August of last year, according to figures released yesterday by the National Association of Realtors - the first time in 111/2 years the market has had a year-over-year decline.

In New York City, where the median price for a home at the end of June was $474,000, a steeper drop in home values is expected.

"Higher-priced markets are seeing larger declines," Lawrence Yun, an economist with the National Association of Realtors told The Post. "People just cannot afford them because they've risen so much in places like New York."

Already, local real estate brokers say, the glittering new condo developments springing up around the city are seeing a sales slowdown, and are considering shifting gears to become rental towers.

The nation's slumping housing prices reflect the pace of existing home sales that fell for the fifth-straight month in August, slipping 0.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.3 million units.

"Price drops are very unusual," said Yun. "Nevertheless we have been anticipating the softness in prices and for prices to actually turn negative given the significant run-up in inventory."

New York prices could go down about 5 percent from a year ago, Yun said, adding the slump will continue until the spring or summer.

TEMPTING FATE....GET HONEST MEL

MEL Gibson is doing his best to stay sober - but he's playing with fire by hanging out in bars. The star who last month was caught driving drunk in Malibu and making anti-Semitic slurs to the arresting officer was at an Austin, Texas, watering hole called the Side Bar Friday night. Gibson played pool until 2:30 a.m., but, our spy says, "was only drinking water" and not hitting on the local women as he did before his Malibu bust. Gibson's rep said, "Sounds like Mel."

WE HEAR,...in NY

THAT Elizabeth Hurley and Moet CEO Frederic Cumenal will celebrate the 120th anniversaries of the Statue of Liberty and Moet White Star Champagne on Liberty Island Thursday night. Moet has hired helicopters, private ferries and yachts to bring guests to and from the event . . . THAT dashing Post reporter Clemente Lisi and Daily News scribe Kathleen Lucadamo got married at City Hall last Friday, then walked over the Brooklyn Bridge with their families and friends to celebrate at Noodle Pudding in Brooklyn Heights.

DAD BUTTS IN

- JESSICA Simpson's new movie could have a bad ending. The beleaguered singer was psyched to start work on "Blonde Ambition," produced by "Malcolm in the Middle" star Justin Berfield. But Berfield was heard over the weekend complaining about the excessive demands her father, Joe, is making - and that they might endanger Simpson's role in the flick. A rep for Simpson said, "Well, Joe is a producer in the movie, too, so that would be weird." A rep for Berfield said, "Yes, his company is producing the movie."

iTV” should overcome gap between PC and TV

London - Apple CEO Steve Jobs tends to only announce new products once they hit the market. Even high-level employees at Apple are often clued in only a few days - or hours - ahead of Jobs’ famous keynote addresses.

Jobs made a rare exception for the recently high-publicity “It’s Showtime” event in San Francisco: he introduced a device that will only appear in the first quarter of 2007, but which may fundamentally change the interaction between the computer and the television.

The talk is about a box developed under the code name “iTV.” It’s not much larger than three CD cases stacked on top of one other, but can transmit content wirelessly from the Mac or Windows PC to the television: videos, music, photos or podcasts.

Steve Jobs oozed confidence that “iTV” will be a success: “It completes the overall picture.”

For Gene Muster, analyst for the financial service provider Piper Jaffray, Jobs did more than just announce a new product: “The big message ... is that Apple wants to take over the living room.”

The “iTV” box offers an HDMI port that can be used to control modern HD televisions. The box can also pass on video and audio signals to older televisions in analog form. “Apple is forging a path to a digital living room,” is how Tom Krazit, correspondent for US- based technology service CNET, reads between the lines of the Apple CEO’s announcement.

In other areas, Steve Jobs is sticking to the proven tactic of announcing products that are either immediately available in stores or that will be there in a few days.

In that tradition, Jobs presented a completely reworked palette of the successful iPod players: for starters, Apple is picking up on the style of the old iPod minis and bringing it to the iPod nano, including a coloured aluminium casing that is less susceptible to scratches then the black and white casings of the first generation of Nanos. For 249 dollars, Apple customers can buy a playback device with eight-gigabyte flash storage, twice as much as the prior model for a comparable price.

The high-end iPod offer 80 gigabytes and cost 379 dollars. The new iPod shuffle and its one gigabyte of memory is no bigger than a matchbook and weights only 14 grams. It costs 79 dollars. All new iPods have improved battery lives. They also allow pieces of music that belong together to be played without a gap between individual tracks, which makes listening to live concerts easier.

Intel puts four on the floor

Intel's planning its own version of "Quadrophenia" for this week's Intel Developer Forum, except without The Who or any tough, young mods facing off against angry rockers.

Instead of a rock opera, Intel will shed more light on its plans for quad-core processors, company representatives and analysts said. It has already revealed the code names for the server and desktop versions of those chips: Clovertown and Kentsfield. Those models will be constructed by combining Intel's two newest dual-core processors in those categories in a multichip package.

Attendees are also expected to hear more details about Santa Rosa, an updated version of Intel's Centrino package of chips for notebook PCs, scheduled to arrive around March of next year. And the chipmaker's server division will also likely have a few things to talk about, including the Common System Interface architecture that Intel expects to debut in 2008, and possible plans to let future server processors link directly to third-party co-processors.

Intel holds its developer forums twice a year to educate the hardware developer community on its latest technologies and plans for the future. The chipmaker's CEO, Paul Otellini, is set to deliver the opening keynote address on Tuesday. Other executives, such as labs chief Justin Rattner and server guru Pat Gelsinger, are scheduled to address the crowd of developers, partners and media.

There's a bit of a cloud hanging over the San Francisco event this year, however. Despite all the accolades for Intel's newest generation of Core processors, the Santa Clara, Calif., company has had a tough year. Layoffs, budget cuts and executive shuffling have all taken a toll inside Intel as it adjusts to life with smaller market share. That's why some show veterans are expecting this year's affair to be a bit more subdued than in the past.

After all, Intel already trotted out most of its good stuff this summer, in an attempt to catch up to the performance lead enjoyed by Advanced Micro Devices in the server and desktop markets. It moved up the launch of all three new Core architecture products, such as the Xeon 5100 series server processors, and the Core 2 Duo chips for both desktops and notebooks. It has also revealed an accelerated schedule for presenting new chip architectures, in a bid to avoid getting caught going the wrong way by having more frequent updates to its blueprints.

Unofficial IE patch saves humanity

Security researchers have released a patch designed to protect users against an outstanding Internet Explorer vulnerability in the absence of available security updates from Microsoft.

A new ad-hoc group of security pros, called the Zeroday Emergency Response Team (ZERT), has released an unofficial fix designed to address the Vector Markup Language (VML) component vulnerability in IE, the most serious of two unpatched IE vulnerabilities. It plans to release other security bug fixes in future.

Hackers are taking advantage of this VML security flaw in IE to infect users visiting pornographic websites. Opening maliciously constructed emails in Outlook is also a potential risk, especially as attacks targeting the vulnerability are growing in prevalence since their first appearance last week.

The security bug is unrelated to a (still unpatched) flaw in Microsoft's Direct Animation Path (daxctle.ocx) ActiveX control discovered earlier this month.

ZERT said users should replace its fix with Microsoft's patch once this becomes available. "It is always a good idea to wait for a vendor-supplied patch and apply it as soon as possible, but there will be times when an ad-hoc group such as ours can release a working patch before a vendor can release their solution," it said.

Separately, security management firm PatchLink released a more limited workaround designed to help its customers (and only its customers) protect their networks from the VML exploit.

PatchLink estimates the number of vulnerabilities in various applications released this year will reach 6,700, some of which will become the subject of exploit before vendors get around to releasing patches.

Because of the growing issue of unpatched (so called zero-day) exploits, IT administrators can expect to see more third party patches such as the VML patch released by the ZERT group. PatchLink advises to check the provenance of patches and carry out testing before applying fixes in case they cause more problems than they solve in a user's environment. ®

Subway crime dips to lowest rate in 37 yrs.

Your subway ride is the safest it has been since 1969.

There have been an average of seven subway felonies a day so far this year - putting the city on pace for its most crime-free year underground since man touched down on the moon.

The current figures are light-years from 1990, when average felonies hit a record 49 daily - and are close to the 6.7 a day logged in 1969.

Subway crime is down 18.6% at this point compared with last year, thanks to a combination of surveillance cameras, undercover cops and sting operations at a time when ridership is at about 5 million a day, officials say.

"Our transit officers are doing an outstanding job," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. "They've brought the fight to the criminals on several fronts."

Subway police are increasingly going to the videotape - using the growing number of anti-terror surveillance cameras.

So far, the Transit Authority alone has rigged up at least 40 stations and expects 40 more to be working by the end of the year.

Before the anti-terror surveillance program, dozens of stations already had cameras recording images, TA spokesman Paul Fleuranges said.

Last year, a brutal stabbing in an unstaffed passageway on the Franklin Ave. shuttle line was captured on tape. Detectives noticed that the two attackers, who stabbed a man after a brief exchange of words, were both wearing khaki pants and identical short-sleeved shirts.

It was the uniform of an area business, detectives learned as they worked the case, which ended in arrests.

SMOOCH-A-THON

DON'T believe rumors that they were on the rocks - Nicollette Sheridan and Michael Bolton can't keep their hands off each other. The engaged lovebirds, who have yet to set a wedding date, caught a N.Y.-L.A. American Airlines flight last week and, according to spies, put on quite a show. "Even before going through metal detectors, they were rubbing noses," said a fellow first-class passenger. "Nicollette - who was wearing a full-length shearling coat despite the 70-degree heat - then made out with Michael the entire flight."

PROMO PROS

-- DONALD Trump and his kids were so pumped at the launch of their new Trump Magazine at Trump Tower the other night that they didn't mind answering any and all questions. Asked what his porn name would be, Donald boasted: "Big!" Runner-up name: "The Trump Tower." As to whether she'd rather invite Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan to her next birthday party, Ivanka Trump shot back: "Neither!" And Eric Trump said he wouldn't mind being a cover boy for the mag,

Fergie from The Black Eye Peas performs the song "London Bridge" in New York's Radio City Music Hall during the Fashion Rocks concert. (AP Photo/Jeff Christensen)

The 3rd Annual Live Concert - FASHION ROCKS! at Radio City Music Hall: Pussycat Dolls -PHOTO by: Dave Allocca/startraksphoto.com

BRAWL AT PARIS HILTON'S PAD

BLOATED Brandon Davis was punched in the face Thursday night by Kevin Connolly, who stars on "Entourage." After an US Weekly party at L.A. hot spot Area, Paris Hilton held an after-hours bash at her Beverly Hills home. Pamela Anderson, Courtney Love, Dave Navarro - and past Hilton conquests Paris Latsis and Stavros Niarchos - arrived with Davis, Nicky Hilton and Nicky's boyfriend, Connolly. One partier told us: "Brandon and Nicky decided to run around and call everyone a 'loser' or 'whore' - like the way other people call each other 'sweety' or 'honey'. " Connolly didn't like either word and when the oil heir wouldn't stop, Connolly "smacked him." Davis, grandson of the late oil billionaire Marvin Davis, shrieked and cursed insults, prompting Connolly to "punch him in the face two times." After the beat-down, Connolly told blogger Perez Hilton: "He just can't talk to me the way he talks to other people." Another shock came later when Hilton nemesis Lindsay Lohan and several friends crashed the party. One observer, who was shocked Lohan had invaded her enemy's lair, said, "Paris has done so many mean things to Lindsay."

NBC AXES 14 AS THEY

RATINGS-challenged NBC put the ax to "Access Hollywood" this week and abruptly fired 14 veteran staffers by heartlessly locking them out of the building as they returned from lunch.
"It was really awful. Their ID cards wouldn't open the gate, and then a security guard came over and told them they were no longer employed there," one insider told Page Six. "Of course, the bosses waited until they'd finished producing the day's show before canning them."

Among the casualties were: senior field producer John Davis and field producers Jennifer Lavin, David Garner and Jason Miller, our source said. Segment producer Lizza Morales, who was also booted, did manage to get inside and confronted executive producer Rob Silverstein. But he refused to talk and referred her to the show's lawyer, Claudia Eden.

The Thursday afternoon bloodbath in Los Angeles was the two-pronged result of NBC's ratings woes and the show being more than $1 million over budget, our spy went on. "And a few months ago, NBC found out there'd been excessive spending by some executives on partying, champagne and strip clubs. There were worries some people might be let go, but NBC said, 'No, no, don't worry!' And then this happened."

"Access Hollywood" spokesman Joe Schlosser laughed when we asked him about the bloodbath, then got serious and said: "It has never been easy to make adjustments to the staff." He added the firings were part of a "restructuring of the show," then asked us not to report he had chuckled. He said he was unaware that those fired had been locked out.

Some staffers who got tossed did get one consolation - they got calls and e-mails from host Nancy O'Dell, who said how sorry she was. Weekend co-anchor Shaun Robinson was seen crying after she learned what was going on.

The bloodbath is a further black eye for NBC chairman Bob Wright, whom Page Six reported is soon to be replaced. Other sources say the troubled Peacock Network will soon begin across-the-board layoffs.

Apple to open iPod Bars, Studio

Apple Computer Inc. is unveiling a new store design to add more show room for iPod music players and Macintosh computers and stations where shoppers can get technical help for their products.

The new stores will have an "iPod Bar" and Studio where artists and musicians will offer advice on creative projects, said Ron Johnson, who runs Apple's retail operations.

Apple stores already have "Genius Bars" for repairs and questions on Macintosh computers.

The new design puts twice as many Macs and iPods on display and should speed customer service, Johnson said. More than 10,000 people visit each store a week. Apple, which opened its first store in May 2001 to fuel sales of Macs, said in July that retail revenue rose by 29 percent in its fiscal third quarter to $715 million.

"We launched stores with the Genius Bar in 2001 with no real understanding" by people outside of Apple where the value was in offering that kind of service and support, Johnson said in an interview yesterday. "The service has become a hallmark of what the stores offer."

The new design is modeled after Apple's New York store on Fifth Avenue, which opened in May and has become the company's most visited outlet. It includes stainless steel walls, Italian stone floors, illuminated displays and larger tables for showcasing Mac and iPod models. The design also lets Apple display 50 percent more products from other companies that sell Mac software and iPod accessories.

Apple, which has a store in University Village, is starting with two new stores in Providence, R.I., and Columbia, Md., set to open this weekend, Johnson said. That brings the total to 164 outlets. Stores average about 4,000 square feet. Apple worked on the new design for about a year and built a prototype at a warehouse near its headquarters to test it, he said.

Apple has added iPod Bars and Studios in a few existing stores. They will now be a standard feature in every new store built.