At least he's not threatening to throw himself in front of a train if somebody doesn't give him $7.75

By adamg on Wed, 04/13/2011 - 3:04pm

The South End News reports some buy is trying to sell old copies of the paper for $1 each, claiming the money will help homeless kids in Roxbury:

THIS IS A SCAM. The suspect, who was black, 5'10" and heavyset, was seen last Thursday on School St (A1 District - 617-343-4240). We've reported the incident to the police. If you see anyone selling the paper on the street, please report it to the police.

Neighborhoods:

Downtown

Free tagging:

Panhandling

Ad:

Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

I saw something similar at DTX

By spenser on Wed, 04/13/2011 - 3:10pm.

Some scammer was selling copies of the Boston Globe to poor saps who don't realize you can read all the stories online for free.

Wait it's a scam to sell

By anon on Wed, 04/13/2011 - 4:17pm.

Wait it's a scam to sell people copies of the paper? And somehow I doubt that these "poor saps" are unaware that the stories are online. As proponents of free internet access to newspapers have argued constantly, when you're buying a physical newspaper you're buying the paper, not the story content. There's LOTS of ways I could get the information in a newspaper. When I buy the physical paper it's because I want a portable version of that content that I can read wherever I want.

Portable?

By anon on Wed, 04/13/2011 - 5:07pm.

There's these new inventions called smartphones, tablets, etc... They are also portable.

Save a tree and a few bucks.

electronic devices do not save trees

By Jeff F on Wed, 04/13/2011 - 7:27pm.

Given the typical user content consumption rate and device lifetime, the amount of resources used and waste produced to create and run today's readers/smartphones/tablets far exceeds the amount necessary to deliver the content in traditional printed form. The overall personal cost to the consumer also usually favors the user of traditional media.

Of course, smartphones et al can do much more than just deliver content. But their widespread adoption is only increasing the world's rate of resource extraction and hazardous waste production, not decreasing it.

I wish that weren't the case, for reasons of both altruism and self-interest - designing sw for handheld/ubiquitous computing devices happens to be a major part of my professional life. But no one I know in the industry who has spent more than an hour or two researching the question thinks otherwise.

Since its pretty obvious that the human race isn't going give up this sort of intensely personal and powerful info/comm access, we are faced with the challenge of creating sustainable sytems for their continued production and support. I think it's quite possible that we can accomplish this, given enough tech savvy and political will.

But don't kid yourself - at this point in history, you're not saving any trees by reading the Glob on your spanky new iPhone.

Some people like to read the

By anon on Wed, 04/13/2011 - 4:37pm.

Some people like to read the news in a paper format. Plus the Globe's website sucks.

This guy is a creep

By anon on Thu, 04/14/2011 - 12:40am.

and I was hoping that he had left town. He used to hang around on Boylston near the BPL selling free community papers he'd picked up in the the library's lobby. More often than not he wore an I.D. around his neck that he got from a convention attendee making him appear official. He would approach women in a very annoying flirty way and go as far as asking for a kiss. He once followed me into the library. Well, at least he's outta the Back Bay.