All Stories | The New York Observer

A Common App for Incubators: TechStars Takes the Harvard Approach

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 10:25:01 -0500

The recently announced "TechStars network" now includes 21 incubators across the world: the four original TechStars in New York, Boston, Seattle and Boulder as well as 17 independent incubators chosen by review.

But those 17 new incubators all have different application processes. Blueprint Health, in New York, limits its application to less than 1,000 words; BoomStartup in Salt Lake City wants to know how many lines of code you've written, what books about startups inspired...

Fred Wilson Discovers New Pedagogical Tool in Twitter

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 10:04:24 -0500

Following an appearance before the aspiring capitalist titans at Harvard Business School alongside fellow venture capitalist Jeff Bussgang, Fred Wilson highlights some of the insights he acquired from the experience, including:

Finally, I'd like to say that Tom encouraged his class to tweet during class. I think that is fantastic. The tweet stream is like publicly available course notes for the class we did yesterday. Every time I talk to a class full of students...

Apple Transforms From Savior To Sinner With 30% Subscription Tax

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 09:35:25 -0500

It was a little over a year ago that David Carr first wrote about the, "so-called Jesus tablet that can do anything, including saving some embattled print providers from doom".

The notion that the walled garden that Apple was creating would encourage users to purchase content they were accustomed to getting on the open web for free seemed to play out at first, with eye-popping sales for certain glossy magazines.

But those numbers didn't last, and...

Morning Read: Ideological Baggage

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 09:32:05 -0500

Andrew Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team, tasked with cutting $2.85 billion, has some suggestions.

An Iraqi defector who was a key informant in the run up to the Iraq war said he made things up.

Barack Obama admitted his budget isn't adequate, and called on Republicans to work with him.

Andrew Cuomo's budget would give him broad investigative powers, which could set up a clash with Eric Schneiderman.

Teachers unions and education reformers are...

Bubbly Heirs Buy Francophilic Duplex from Fashionable Furrier Gilles Mendel

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 09:25:48 -0500

Just in time for Fashion Week, Gilles Mendel Breitman has sold his penthouse duplex at 10 East 68th Street. Better known simply by his first and middle names, Mr. Breitman is the fifth-generation owner of J. Mendel furriers. Founded in 1870 Paris, J. Mendel became mink-makers to the Russian court of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov, though the brand waned in recent years until Mr. Breitman revived it as a full-on fashion house.

In an effervescent deal, he...

Morning Links: You Can't Stay Mad When You're Dead

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 09:20:58 -0500

Comeback! Lindsay Lohan will read the Top Ten for David Letterman tomorrow night. Letterman will only break from making fun of her long enough to flirt with her. [NYT]

Scandal! Karl Lagerfeld flew his muses out to Paris to photograph them wearing the line he designed for the Italian label Hogan. Blake Lively was not invited. [Page Six]

Turf Wars! Sally Singer advised The New York Times Magazine to fire its entire photo and art staff....

On the Market: Dakota Plays Dirty; Jersey Wants Hunts Point Produce; Transforming Hudson Square

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 08:25:15 -0500

Donald Trump wants a piece of the Mets [Real Deal]

Nixing the renaming of the Queensboro Bridge for Mayor Koch [Post]

More rought stuff ahead, homebuilders predict [MSNBC]

Tobacco warehouse theater conversion gets OK--again [BK Paper]

Dakota gets down and dirty, releases Flether's financials [Times]

New York firm wants to buy Pittsburgh's tallest tower [Journal]

Jersey serious about swiping the Hunts Point Produce Market across the Hudson [Post]

A gnarly installation for the columns of the Brooklyn Museum [Archpaper]

Trinity explores rezoning...

The Dog Days of Donor-dom

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 07:57:01 -0500

Last Monday evening, at her apartment on Fifth Avenue, Georgette Mosbacher hosted a dinner honoring the eldest son of Rafik Hariri, the Lebanese prime minister who was slain six years ago last week.

But Ms. Mosbacher--who has served as the resident doyenne of New York's Republican donors for the past two decades--couldn't resist a moment of fretting about domestic politics with one of her guests, the corporate raider and a fellow donor, Carl Icahn.

...

Good Looks, Glamour and Galas -- Fall 2011 Fashion Week Parties

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:39:31 -0500

Last Wednesday, Cipriani Wall Street welcomed into its enormous marbled confines tuxedo-clad celebrities, AIDS activists and fashion cognoscenti for the amfAR Gala, the organization’s Fashion Week kickoff. President Bill Clinton and Diane von Furstenberg were on hand to receive awards as Alan Cumming, Blake Lively, Woody Allen, Anna Wintour, Chelsea Clinton, Liev Schreiber and countless other luminaries watched from their seats.

“I like amfAR—a lot,” President Clinton told The Observer. “It’s a very...

Movie Review: "Vanishing on 7th Street" Fails to Thrill

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:35:17 -0500

Vanishing on 7th Street is the latest cryptic pseudo-sci-fi hologram by shockmeister Brad Anderson (The Machinist), a director more interested in effects than the reasons for them. It begins in a movie multiplex where a lonely projectionist (John Leguizamo) is rolling spools of film through a lens darkly when the cinema goes totally black. Roaming through the seats, he discovers that the audience has vanished, leaving their coats and popcorn in the empty seats....