As a part of greening up the earth, Google Transit will tell you the quickest way to get from Point A to B using mass transit in the city. We tried it out, starting out at 4 Times Square and ending at 770 Broadway; one might think taking the N/Q/R/W would be the quickest route -- but that person would be wrong. Apparently the best way to do this is by using your own......

Photograph of arrested mobsters being led by the FBI on Thursday by ~Raymond on Flickr It turns out that Thursday's take down of 62 mob figures, many of them high-ranking members of the Gambino crime family and called the biggest mob bust in decades, was spurred by a Staten Island trucking company owner. Joseph Vollaro, who made a lot of money for the Gambinos, ended up becoming a government informant after being caught in......

2007 photograph of Yahoo billboard in front of a ticker mentioning Microsoft news by Mark Lennihan/AP Giving business analysts something to talk about besides the economy, Microsoft has made an unsolicited $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo!. The offer is at $31/share, which is 62% more than Yahoo's closing price. Microsoft hopes to create efficiencies by teaming up to compete with Google. However, Pioneer Investments fund manager Thomas Radinger told Bloomberg News, "Microsoft is under......

Today Lego celebrates the big 5-0, even getting some Google-love for hitting the half century mark. New York has long been recreated in Lego-form, our favorite was at an exhibit housed in the Storefront for Art and Architecture late last year. Do you have a favorite Brick Apple? We love Sean Kenney's Greenwich Village (pictured) and Nathan Sawaya's Brooklyn Bridge. In a related story, this past Saturday was the city's first Lego League Citywide Championship,......

The violent mugging that turned fatal last week prompted the NY Times to compare people's attitude towards crime safety today versus those of two decades ago, when people would carry mugger money around. (When you Google "mugger money," the first thing that comes up is a 1989 NY Times article, "Even the Nun Have to Carry Mugger Money.") While many people mentioned how safe the city is these days, last week we did hear about......

New York University's Child Study Center is pulling the plug on a controversial ad campaign publicizing childhood mental health problems that was considered stigmatizing. The campaign was meant to raise awareness of conditions like Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Asperger's Syndrome, autism, depression, and bulimia. Critics strongly objected to the style of the campaign, however, which took the form of realistic looking ransom notes addressed to parents that stressed kids with these conditions would be doomed......

Intertube-savvy metropolitan diners now have yet another way to make sure their every culinary craving is sated: the new website FoodieBytes, now beta testing, lets users search restaurant menus based on the food they desire. For instance, typing in “pesto” and “whole wheat pasta” yields over a hundred New York eateries. You can narrow your search by neighborhood and, once you find a restaurant that seems appealing, peruse the entire menu, get the hours,......

The city's last privately owned island was sold to the federal government for $2 million. South Brother Island, a 7-acre island (just west of Rikers Island), will be turned over to the city's Parks and Recreation Department and will remain, as amNew York reports, "significant nesting colony for several types of shore birds, including Egrets, Cormorant, and Night Herons." According to the NY Times, the deal, which was "brokered by the Trust for Public......

FR.OG and P*Ong, two perfectly good Manhattan restaurants that opened earlier this year, have names that independently invoke two classic arcade video games, Frogger and Pong. Now, as the fall openings season draws to a close and the votes for worst new restaurant name have been cast, we’d like to draw your attention to the most incredibly iconic new restaurant name in New York: It's that of Roclantic Eatery, a soul food and oil drum......

Probably the best way we can describe Snooth, a unique wine database that recently launched online, would be if the illegitimate web-child of Google and Facebook went to wine school. Or, more simply, it’s a ridiculously large database of wine that allows you to do really cool things and share it with your friends. Technically, Snooth is a self-described, “web based social shopping experience that is simplifying how people select, interact with and purchase their......

Recently Williamsburg doc Jay Parkinson unleashed his revolutionary idea onto Brooklyn -- a doctor for the uninsured, medical advice through emails, and the return of the housecall. The word spread fast and now much of the world is looking his way to see if he can change the way healthcare is provided. How did your non-conventional idea come about and become a reality? I don’t really fit in very well to the traditional doctor mold......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an armed robbery on East 91st St. in Brooklyn, a confined space rescue at JFK Airport in Queens, and a pedestrian was struck at East 23rd St. and Lexington Ave. in Manhattan. A dump truck jack-knifed and rolled over, crushing the car next to it and killing the car's two occupants in Brooklyn. Jay Leno is auctioning off the set of The Tonight Show and donating the proceeds to......

After two years in service and almost as long as media gossip fodder, Times Select, NYTimes.com's service that offered access to the rich archives of the New York Times through a paid subscription modeled, is officially dead. The service put certain current online content behind the Times Select wall, such as columns by Op-Ed writers, and there was much criticism, even from within the Times, about restricting access the paper. There had been rumors about......

A report being released tomorrow by the Industrial Assistance Corporation (IAC) titled "Buried Treasure: New York's Hidden Tech Sector" asserts that New York City rivals cities like Seattle and areas like Silicon Valley as the largest technology center in the country. The study counted the number of tech workers in the city, at branches of corporations like IBM, Microsoft, Google, and the research and development departments of medical centers in the city. The IAC report......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: An unstable building on Jewlett Avenue in Staten Island, a jumper down in Brooklyn and a double bank robbery (Commerce and Bank of NY) at 80 Broadway in Manhattan. Four winning MegaMillions tickets were sold, but in NJ, Maryland, Texas and Virginia. The numbers were 8-18-22-40-44 (with MegaBall 11), and a lump sum payment would be about $48 million. The fugitive businessman who donated thousands to politicians, including Senator......

The Observer reports that Google is outgrowing its 360,000+ square foot office space at 76 Ninth Avenue and has closed on 130,000 square feet at 75 Ninth Avenue, the Chelsea Market. Located directly across the street from each other, Google is keeping private about any plans for the new space, but The Observer gets more info on how much it might have cost the company:The source also explained that a special deal had been worked......

While even Google can't help out with the subway perv problem, Subway Blogger reports that they are "getting geared up to start mapping New York City Transit systems. Ultimately, you’ll be able to map a transit or subway route just like Google Maps." Sure, there are resources like Hop Stop and OnNYTurf that may end up suffering (and Silicon Alley Insider points out their flaws), but this development was inevitable ever since Google launched their......

With all the news of identity theft, of course it would have to hit couples who are getting married. The Post has an alarming story about a number of couples who, when applying for a marriage license, have found themselves already "married." It's believed that thieves use other people's identities to get marriage licenses and green cards. Denise Daskalkis "filed two appeals, multiple petitions, and attended a hearing at the Office of Administrative Trials and......

Freegans have been around for a while now, most recently The Times caught them dumpster diving in the NYU area just as school let out. A freegan goldmine! Now a blogger for Newsweek is getting knee deep in rubbish for a month in order to fully understand these "waste reclaimers". Raina Kelley is keeping a blog of her fairweather freeganism, and on her first day (Wednesday) she pondered, "Why would a eBay-loving, omnivorous, cigarette-smoking shopaholic......

What do tourists like more than walking slowly in bunches, visiting Ground Zero, buying fake handbags in Chinatown, and wearing socks with sandals? Eating at restaurants they can find at home! The Post is reporting that IHOP (aka the International House of Pancakes) is in talks with Vornado to open a location at 1540 Broadway (btwn 45th and 46th). It would be the 2nd Manhattan location for the chain - the first location opened......

In their quest to take over New York, Bowery Presents is opening yet another venue! Ask just about anyone (and we have) and they'll say that the Bowery Ballroom is their favorite place to see and/or play music - so who better to open even more spaces than the creators of that one? The latest establishment will be in Midtown and is called Terminal 5 (the old Club Exit). Currently there are no photos, but......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Hell's Kitchen (Monday, 9:00 p.m., WNYW 5) Gordon Ramsay makes his choice in the season finale. The World According to Google (Monday, 10:00 p.m., WNET 13) A Dutch documentary about the Google empire and the social and ethical practices of the company. Weeds (Monday, 10:00 p.m., Showtime) The third season starts with the looming problem of a new mega church in the neighborhood. Californication (Monday, 10:30 p.m.,......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

Recently Rolling Stone took a 60-second tour of The Beatles' New York, with a little help from Google’s Street Maps feature. First up on their tour: John and Yoko’s first NYC apartment at 105 Bank Street (where they lived during the release of this album). Here's a closer look at the property, which is also shown at right. In 1971, after a long stay at the St. Regis Hotel, John Lennon and Yoko Ono moved......

As an Apple fanatic for over the past decade, the lure of the iPhone has been tempting me for the last 6 months. When I finally walked out of the Fifth Avenue store, I wondered if this would be the answer to my phone desires. And I think it has. My Treo650 - while faithful to the last (it survived a laundry wash) had started to experience multiple crashes daily, three of them while......

Researchers at Purdue University released a simulation of a plane crashing into World Trade Center, which shows that fireproofing material was stripped from the building as the planes crashed into them. Professor Christoph Hoffman told the AP, "One thing it does point out... is the absolute essential nature of fireproofing steel structures. This is something that wasn't done originally in the World Trade Center when it was built. It wasn't code at that time."......

We think we smell another presidential candidate. Or at least one who will deny it until the last possible moment! Time cover (co-)subject Mayor Bloomberg was in California yesterday to give speeches with a national-bent - all while claiming he's not running for President. His first speech was at Google headquarters in Mountain View (his engineering degree from Johns Hopkins is his "geek cred"), where he said, "The country is in trouble. I don't......

Forbes has put out their list of the Top 100 Most Powerful Celebrities, something to bicker about at the water cooler, no doubt. Here are some of the top-ranked New Yorker's and their earnings: Jay-Z at #9 with $83M David Letterman at #17 with $40M Donald Trump at #19 with $32M Sean Combs at #43 with $23M Derek Jeter at #50 with $28M Bill Clinton at #55 with $7M Regis Philbin at #64 with $21M......

No one likes getting a parking ticket, but it's those instances when tickets are handed down unfairly that really make people crazy and determined to beat them. Sanford Young, a lawyer, spent two years and an estimated $10,000 to beat a $65 ticket in Manhattan Supreme Court. From The Post:Young got the ticket on Nov. 29, 2005, after he parked on First Avenue near East 70th Street to have dinner with a friend. He returned......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Madison St. in Manhattan, a homicide on Wyckoff Ave and Himrod St. in Brooklyn, and an overturned auto on Hone and Mace Aves. in the Bronx. A trio of yeshiva students and their teacher were rescued from a 200-foot-high ledge by rapelling park police yesterday, after straying from a trail at Bear Mtn. State Park. The news of a crash that persists in Chinatown, as the......