Machines

Lewis Eugene Bailey served a hitch in the Navy, studied with the Martha Graham Dance Studio and worked briefly as a drug rehabilitation counselor. But it was when he became fascinated with knitting machines - the bulky apparatuses that let him turn out scarves, mufflers and then women's wear of his own design - that he found his niche. For about 20 years, Gene Bailey, as he was universally known, sold his creations through "trunk shows" to a devoted clientele in many cities.

The music booms off the mirrored walls of the body mill, but the club members strapped into the white plastic Powercise machines are oblivious to the beat. They are hearing voices. With their ears pressed back between speakers and their eyes transfixed on a rising and falling light bar on a video screen overhead, members of the Living Well Fitness Center in North Dallas work out under the undivided attention of a new age of "humanoid" fitness machines - machines that tease, cajole and scold them into shape.

A move to ban most cigarette machines in the township has been given tentative approval by the Uwchlan Township Board of Supervisors. "Kids have enough temptation today," said Board Chairman C. Ward Braceland at a meeting Monday. "We don't want minors smoking. We don't want adults smoking, really. " He said that machines accessible to minors, such as those in stores, would be outlawed, although the ordinance would permit machines to stay in bars. The proposed ordinance, suggested by the American Lung Association, would need to be reviewed by the township's solicitor and advertised before going into effect.

By Reese Palley Unemployment is like the weather: Everyone complains about it, but no one seems able to do anything about it. Our present level of joblessness is being blamed on the recent recession, and, in attempting to climb out of that ditch, we concentrate on spending cuts, which simply means putting even more folk out of work. What we are discovering is that there is no deus ex machina that will miraculously re-create jobs that, due to the efficient workings of our capitalist system, are no longer there.

Xerox copiers flash the message "please wait" as they warm up. It's not uncommon to see this today, but it's a major departure from the past. Consider such familiar messages as: Right Turn Only, Close cover before striking, No Parking and Keep off the Grass. Never a please anywhere. Nor a thank you. Just orders: Call our toll-free number, Clip and save, Drive carefully, Mail early for Christmas and Do not touch. Helpful, yes. Pleasant? Not. However, there is now a new etiquette in direction-giving.

ATM machines are starting to attract the attention of burglars. Thieves struck three Drug Emporiums in four hours late Sunday and early yesterday, absconding with two ATM's and abandoning a third after a burglar alarm went off. Police said this was a "new and unusual" crime and turned it over to the Major Crimes Division. 'It's too early to tell if they're connected but if I were a betting man, I'd bet they were connected," said one detective, who asked not to be identified.

This weekend's antiquing activity features a grab bag of goods, ranging from objects from British royalty to teddy bears. At the Antique/Collectible Show & Sale at the Pennsylvania National Guard Armory in Northeast Philadelphia, the royal objects are among myriad offerings that include furniture, vintage clothing, classic arcade and gumball machines, jukebox literature, nostalgia items, china and jewelry. The $2.50 admission is good for both days. Children under 12 are admitted at no charge.

A South Philadelphia candy maker has agreed to alert the entire U.S. candy- making industry that unguarded taffy-pulling machines can kill workers. Falcon Candy Co. hopes an advertisement it will run in a confectioner's trade publication will help other candy makers avert the rare kind of accident that took the life of one of Falcon's workers last year. The worker, Ernest Drummond, 33, a father of three, died of head injuries after being struck by a rotating arm of a taffy-pulling machine at Falcon's plant, on Carpenter Street near 23rd, on Feb. 25, 1993.

Beginning late next year, some Philadelphians will be able to cash their paychecks at selected MAC machines - even if they have no funds at all in their accounts. It's all part of a new wrinkle for automatic teller machines that CoreStates Financial has been testing at its Newtown branch in Bucks County. The new MAC Icon Services machines work like this: Customers register their payroll checks at the bank for a certain amount. Then, when they receive their checks, they can take them to the MAC machine and withdraw either a portion or the entire amount to the exact penny.

David Brooks is justly prominent as a thinker and writer who has contributed new thought and new language - "red state/blue state" - to our public discourse. In a recent column, reprinted here, Brooks performs a breathtaking feat: He warms up with Rousseau, sprints madly down the aisles of history, vaults through the burning hoop of genetics, and does a cannonball into the (for him, inevitably tragic and dark) pool of human nature. It's a great column. I'm glad he wrote it. I wish more columnists walked in such precincts.

THIS COLUMN was originally intended to be a mild defense of the dad who stuck his baby boy in a washing machine in Camden, but then I found out he wasn't the kid's dad and I kept picturing my daughter stuck in a spin cycle, soapy tears stinging her pretty blue eyes. It sort of evolved into something more complicated after that. I do "dumb" things with my boys all the time — 100 feet in the air on a zip line in Mexico, where safety was lost in translation, or in my basement where we hunt crickets with the Red Ryder BB gun (yes, with goggles)

A video has gone viral of a man putting a young boy in a washing machine at a Camden laundromat, then scrambling to find help after the machine automatically locks and turns on. A maintenance worker was able to shut the machine down before the boy was injured, but YouTube videos of footage from a surveillance camera at the Federal Laundromat, near 24th and Federal Streets, have attracted hundreds of thousands of views. In the video, titled "Epic Parenting Fail at a Laundromat" and posted last week, a man is seen horsing around with the toddler.

A video has gone viral of a man who put a young boy into a washing machine at a Camden laundromat. The machine automatically locked and turned on, setting off a frantic scramble to rescue the boy. Authorities today said they don't believe the act was criminal and are now speaking with the boy's mother. Her name has not been released. 6ABC reported the boy's grandmother, whose name was not given, said the child was with a babysitter and her boyfriend when the incident occurred.

Dan Roitman's company is called Stroll , a most ill-fitting name. From a growth perspective at least, Stroll's evolution has been anything but a leisurely pace. Born 12 years ago in a Maryland dorm room, the Center City company is an impressive display of the potential of any small business, though perhaps in the extreme. In just the last year, its revenue has exploded from $17 million to $40 million, with another doubling expected by the end of 2012. Profit growth was 400 percent last year, Roitman said.

Here is an excerpt from Craig LaBan's online chat:   C.L.: I visited two of the new Ramen noodlers this week — Ramen Boy in Chinatown and Nom Nom, on 18th just south of Market. Nom Nom was hands down my favorite. Ramen Boy has a cool decor of sleek wood chairs, etc., but I found the tonkotsu broth (almost milky from all the steeped meat solids) to be surprisingly, stunningly bland — kept adding to the broth just to give it a little flavor. The roast pork was nice and tender, but the "authentic" noodles were just a little squishy.

Turing's Cathedral The Origins of the Digital Universe By George Dyson Pantheon. 432 pp. $29.95 Reviewed by Richard DiDio   Deciding which came first, the ChickenPad or the EggApp, is guaranteed to freeze up any operating system. The more interesting question is: How did our world of hardware and software magically appear out of the ether? In Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe , George Dyson describes how a remarkable group of innovators rode the dangerous swells of post-World War II politics and real weapons of mass destruction, creating a new science of computing and the machines to carry out its program.

Students at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania can get the "morning-after" pill by sliding $25 into a vending machine, an idea that has drawn the attention of federal regulators and raised questions about how accessible emergency contraception should be. The student health center at Shippensburg, a public institution of 8,300 students tucked between mountain ridges in the Cumberland Valley, provides the Plan B One Step emergency contraceptive in...

ATLANTIC CITY - More than 320 slot machines were wheeled into the Revel Atlantic City casino on Wednesday, the $2.4 billion mega-resort that officials say could open well before Memorial Day. Construction at Revel, which takes its design inspiration from the ocean's waves, is about two weeks ahead of schedule, according to Lisa Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Revel Entertainment Group. The facility may welcome guests before its previously announced May 15 opening date, she said.

Sean Bonniwell, 71, lead singer and songwriter of the Music Machine, a 1960s Los Angeles band regarded as one of the most original of the garage-punk era, died Dec. 20 of lung cancer at a medical center in Visalia, Calif. A former folksinger, Mr. Bonniwell was recognized as the chief force behind the band that honed its sound during a regular gig at the Hollywood Legion Lanes bowling alley. The group's one big hit was "Talk Talk," a proto-punk single that broke into the Top 20 in 1966.

THE HORRORS of mechanized war, and a heart-warming story about the transformative power of a benevolent creature and boy's best friend. Who would even attempt to blend these two clashing pieces together in one movie? Steven Spielberg, who certainly knows the ground, having made "Saving Private Ryan" and "E.T.," two obvious starting points for his visually dazzling "War Horse. " What he ends up with, though, is something distinctly different - a meditation on the 20th century transformation from pastoral to industrial, in the horrific context of World War One. The old order is established in the film's early moments - a teen (Jeremy Irvine)