Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer’s: How complex mental maps and spatial reasoning protect your brain
Taxi and ambulance drivers are less likely than workers in almost any other job to die of Alzheimer’s disease. That was the surprising result of a 2024 study examining the death certificates of nearly 9 million people in the U.S. These findings stopped me in my tracks because those two jobs rely on the same thing as my own work: maps. Photo: National Institute on Aging, NIH via AP
Happy Thursday to all New Yorkers today, except the ones with a green sticker on their cars.
It’s a ritual as humiliating as a dunce cap and twice as indelible. For 25 years, from the late 1980s to 2012, officials with the Department of Sanitation would slap bright green stickers on the windows of cars that failed to make way for street sweepers. The practice was banned by the City Council in 2012 due to public resentment and complaints about the adhesive residue sticking to windows. Now, 14 years later, it’s back, and just as shameful as ever.
“This vehicle violated N.Y.C. street cleaning rules. As a result, this street could not be properly cleaned,” the neon-green sticker admonishes. Below it, in small print, reads, “Remove this sticker with warm water and a scraper.” The sticker also comes with a $65 ticket.
Some residents have embraced the stickers’ return. “It is frustrating when you come out to move your car and others haven’t,” Mary O’Reilly, a West 90 St. resident, told The New York Times. “Then you’re navigating around them, as well as trying to get out of the way of the sanitation truck.”
Others, like David G. Greenfield, a former councilman who voted to abolish the stickers in 2012, disagree. “A ticket is a penalty. Gluing trash to someone’s windshield is vandalism,” Greenfield wrote on X.
The “shame stickers,” as they’re widely known, may be controversial, but they’re also effective. In 2011, officials reported that they’d contributed to a 21% improvement in street cleaning ratings. “Warning stickers were one of the City’s most effective tools for improving compliance before they were banned in 2012,” Council Member Gale Brewer, who sponsored the bill to renew the stickers, said in a statement. “Bringing them back with Local Law 119/2026, is a practical, common-sense step that will help keep our streets cleaner for everyone.”
NYC activated its heat and flash flood emergency plans in preparation for dangerously-high temps and isolated severe thunderstorms expected Thursday and Friday.
Hundreds of cyclists who departed from Troy, NY on Monday will reach the end of their 230-mile journey to Brooklyn on Saturday in Red Hook.
Free fruits and vegetables for eligible seniors at NYC farmers markets.
Gov. Hochul signed legislation expanding the ability of licensed cannabis retailers to engage directly with consumers at approved pop-ups, farmers’ markets and public market events called Cannabis Showcase Events.
A Brooklyn man was charged with arson that severely damaged a historic church in Bushwick.
A man wanted for nearly 22 months for vandalizing property, including a church, in October 2024 was arrested Thursday.
Bed-Stuy teacher fired for exposing himself and allegedly masturbating at work.
A 6-month-old baby died after being found unconscious inside a Canarsie home around midnight Wednesday.
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Our World In Photos
Photo: Meg Kinnard/AP
SOUTH CAROLINA — And now, a word from my associate: Former Gov. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., holds a Kunekune pig as he argues against pork barrel spending in his campaign for the South Carolina Republican nomination for Senate, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Columbia, S.C.
For more pictures like this, see Our World in Photos.
Brooklyn bodega cats to be featured
in new book
Klara. Photo: Gulce Kilkis
A popular Instagram account dedicated to documenting bodega cats will feature felines from Bay Ridge and Sunset Park in a new book.
Bodega Cats of New York was created by Dan Rimada. His first book will be released Nov. 3.
Six cats from South Brooklyn made it to the book.
The project began during the COVID-19 pandemic when the creator noticed Luna, a black and white bodega cat in Fort Greene. Rimada decided to start a small Instagram account to post pictures of the cats. Luna ended up being the inspiration for the logo. Within a year, the account had hundreds of followers who sent him photos of their local bodega cat.
At first, he resisted, but he soon switched gears and started reposting everyone’s photos. After that, the account took off in popularity. It currently has over 18,000 followers.
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Cartoon Sketchbook
By Dave Whamond
For the Road
Happy Birthday “The Sixth Sense” director M. Night Shyamalan!
On this day in 1919, the Eagle reported, “The split in the Socialist party between the Right and Left wings has resulted in the filing of complete separate tickets for the Socialist primaries in Kings County. This developed today, when the petitions filed at the Board of Elections up to midnight yesterday, the last date for filing them, were checked up. The Socialist party has been developing a serious schism in its ranks ever since 1917, when at the height of its power in New York State it sent ten Socialists to the Assembly and a sizeable delegation in the Board of Aldermen …”
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