WNYC Newsroom

by Nate Chura
The 2009 U.S. Open kicked-off yesterday in New York style. Before night matches began, a record 36,085 fans poured into the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens to attend the last grand slam tennis tournament of the season.

While some came to see men’s world #1, Roger Federer, and others filed in to see Serena Williams, one thing all fans had in common was a desire to witness the best tennis in the world, which was in fine form.

All the major seeds progressed to the second round. ATP Tour veteran, Tommy Haas struggled a bit in his four-set victory over journeyman, Alejandro Falla. And underdogs like Devin Britton, the 2009 NCAA Champion and wild card in the tournament got a lesson about what it takes to win in New York City.

The volunteers were out in full force. Ushers were ushering. There was no shortage of people pointing and passing along directions. To the casual tourist, these were the signals of a carnival, fitting of a world’s fair. But to the concessionaires and retailers, all the deliberate choreography lead to a singular objective: a job.

Inside the National Tennis Center there were no signs of recession. Indeed. Outside Louie Armstrong Stadium in the food court, where at the Fulton Fish Market a lobster roll costs $17 and a pint of Heineken beer will set you back seven big ones, the economy was booming as large as Andy Roddick’s serve. As summer draws to a close, hopefully the two-week tournament billed as the “largest annual sporting event in the world” will serve as a harbinger of prosperity to come in the days ahead.

In New Jersey, the mayor of Englewood, Michael Wildes, is going to court to stop renovation work at a mansion where Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi wants to stay when he's in town next month for the UN General Assembly. Wildes ...

For the past year, the Utah government have been experimenting with a four-day work week for state workers. The state experiment's original goal was to increase energy savings among state buildings, but many other benefits have been proven as a result of the policy change. 'If you shut offices down one day a week, you don't have to cool them, heat them, and workers don't have to drive to work. Everyone saves money,' says Bryan Walsh of Time Magazine. In addition to the millions of dollars Utah has saved on energy costs, many workers are saving money used for transportation costs while playing a part in environmental conservation. 'We found that there was less traffic and less air pollution because there were less people on the roads' says Walsh.

NYS Assemblyman Mike Gianaris (D-36, Queens) is another person who has subscribed to the idea and expressed his interest in having a four-day workweek instituted in New York State. This program is 'estimated to save New York $3 million a year,' says Gianaris. In addition to the issue of government and energy sayings, Walsh saysthat the majority of workers surveyed commented on the difference in their quality of life. 'A lot of people found that they had more time to do errands. Other people found themselves volunteering and exercising.'

The two Democratic mayoral candidates vying to prevent Mayor Bloomberg from winning a third term squared off in their first debate last night.

City Councilman Tony Avella took City Comptroller Bill Thompson to task for taking campaign cash from developers and money managers who also do business with the city's ...

Historical moments:

Eulogy for Robert F. Kennedy, 6/8/68

Chappaquiddick statement, 7/25/69

Flea markets, casinos, bars, and the internet search engine all tap into what Emily Yoffe of Slate Magazine calls the 'human motivation to seek'. Studies done on lab rats and humans revealed an area of the brain called the 'seeking center' and that we are driven to search as a reward in itself.

Yoffe spoke with guest host Andrea Bernstein on The Brian Lehrer Show. An excerpt of the interview:

Andrea Bernstein: So there is this incredible human motivation just to search or to seek or to hunt?

Emily Yoffee: The brain is over-wired for this, seeking, curiosity, exploration...If you think of it in evolutionary terms, it all makes sense. If you have a creature that is very easy satisfied and is just sitting there being happy, it’s probably going to be eaten pretty quickly. We are strongly, strongly motivated to get out of our beds, our dens, our holes and go out and seek and search.

Bernstein: Is that is what is happening when you are reading a mystery or a thriller? You love the hunt and maybe why you feel a little let down when you get to the end?

Yoffe: Yes, this is why flea markets are so great, gambling, going to pick up bars. It is not that we don’t feel the reward, but the reward only lasts a little bit of time and then the seeking urge is renewed again. It’s not just that we are compelled to seek to in order to get the reward to feel good. Seeking, wanting, feels good itself...It feels great to be in that aroused, excited state. Drugs, like amphetamines, and cocaine stimulate that system. It’s the dopamine system. It feels good to be excited. It feels good to feel “I can do anything.”

Bernstein: Is Googling really changing anything or is it just helping us do what we would do anyway?

Yoffe: Googling, and all our electronic devices that help us search or find or get constant tweet updates from people, it hasn’t created a new sensation in the brain.

'If humans are seeking creatures, we have now created the perfect seeking machines.'

The dopamine system is the neurotransmitter for the seeking system, it is also believed that it controls our sense of time. That is why you can sit down to find one thing and you find it is an hour later. Where did that hour go?

Chris Christie starts to lose the news cycle over an undisclosed loan and Bill Thompson comes under the klieg lights. Andrea Bernstein and Bob Hennelly mull it all over in this week’s “Digesting Politics.”

'Digesting Politics.' We're back!

Forestry experts are evaluating the extent of damage done to hundreds of trees in Central Park during last night's fast-moving thunderstorm. About 100 trees were knocked down, and hundreds more have broken limbs, and may need to be taken down.

"Many of them are just snapped off ...

'A tourist looks an awful lot like a spy', says Robert Young Pelton, adventurer and author of Licensed to Kill. 'You have a camera, a video camera, they can Google you very quickly and find out you've work in other countries.' In the age of the blogger, Pelton argues, many young adventure-seeking tourists are blurring the boundary between amateur and professional. 'Quasi-journalists', says Pelton, are often compelled to 'report' on their experiences. Writers, photographers, and plain thrill seekers may take unwise risks, turning normal situations into 'dangerous vacations.'

Earlier this month, three American tourists were arrested and detained near the Iraq-Iran border by Iranian officials while hiking. This occurred shortly after the pardoning of American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee from illegally entering North Korea. Tourist or journalist; the risk factor remains the same when exploring a politically-unstable country. The author and filmmaker discusses the tendency of traveling youth to place too much trust in the visiting country's ability to keep them safe.

On the other hand, Pelton supports adventure seekers, as well as the 'quasi-journalist', as long as they take precautions. 'Before you choose a destination, go on the internet and deal with people from the area', as opposed to gathering your information from the media, says Pelton.

On The Media wants to hear your thoughts on the slow death of newspapers – are you sad to see them go or glad to see the back of them? Either way, send your emails to onthemedia@wnyc.org and write ...

The Labor Department released unemployment numbers this morning, indicating that only 247,000 jobs were lost in July, as compared to 443,000 in June. The unemployment rate fell from 9.5 to 9.4, the first drop since April 2008, leading some to cautiously suggest that the worst of the recession is over. ...

A block along Brooklyn's Lincoln Road has won an award for being the "greenest" residential block in the borough. Judges in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden contest gave the stretch of Lincoln between Bedford and Rogers Avenues the prize because of its full trees, lush sidewalk gardens and ...

Janette Sadik-Khan and the mysterious ZoZo discuss Summer Streets.

Park Avenue is filled with traffic today, but the scene will be much different on Saturday morning. The city's Summer Streets ...