Via NYTimes:

A few hours before dawn, when most New Yorkers are fast asleep, a middle-aged man rolls out of bed in Brooklyn, dons a billowy red outfit and matching turban, climbs into his Lincoln Town Car, drives 15 minutes, pulls out a big drum and — there on the sidewalk of a residential neighborhood — starts to play. He now restricts himself to a short stretch of Coney Island Avenue where many Pakistanis live.

Fleeing the city, the survivor of a gangland massacre (De Niro) pauses before an advertisement of a Coney Island of long ago and Leone thwarts our expectations of a flashback by flashing forwards to the same character returning as an old man to the city we have just seen him leave.

Documentary of a vegetable garden in Brooklyn, NY through the eyes of an “Urban Farmer” who has been planting for over 40 years.

Further north and a burrough away, the NYT has a good story about the Bronx. The Grand Concourse, the four-and-a-half-mile boulevard that for much of its life was described as the Champs-Élysées of the Bronx, has often sat for its portrait, as have many of the handsome buildings along its flanks. But there is one image that captures in poignant fashion exactly what the street represented in the mid-20th century.

The Jail Inferno. A descent into the nation’s most tumultuous penal institutions, where modern order-maintenance techniques are bringing discipline:

But the order that the lobbyists, academic critics, and neo-Foucauldians see as oppressive is inmates’ only hope for safety and even, perhaps, rehabilitation. The recent insights of urban policing—that order matters, that small violations lead to greater crimes, and that information must be gathered and analyzed—are all equally pertinent to jails, where chaos and corruption always threaten.

Landmark status awaits — at long last, some say — at least two historic buildings in Coney Island, including the derelict Shore Theater, but possibly not the most famous site in the amusement area, Nathan’s Famous hot dog restaurant.

Bruce Schneier writes on Surveillance in China:

China is the world’s most successful Internet censor. While the Great Firewall of China isn’t perfect, it effectively limits information flowing in and out of the country. But now the Chinese government is taking things one step further.

Under a requirement taking effect soon, every computer sold in China will have to contain the Green Dam Youth Escort software package. Ostensibly a pornography filter, it is government spyware that will watch every citizen on the Internet.