What does a Stuyvesant High grad who won the Siemens Competition prize for outstanding high school science project do these days? Study worms of course. Yin Li won the $100,000 scholarship in 2003 for his study of how certain proteins in the brain "might control the capacity of nerve cells to undergo local protein synthesis". Such a mechanism might be related to memory and learning. more ›

Ayun Halliday, an East Village fixture and food blogger has been making the rounds on the Internets in a virtual book tour in support of her fourth memoir,Dirty Sugar Cookies, Culinary Observations, Questionable Taste. Previously, she has written about travel in No Touch Monkey!, work in Jobhopper and motherhood in The Big Rumpus. A longtime contributor to BUST, where she writes the Mother Superior column, she has an irreverant (and almost ADHD influenced) take on almost everything, including food (one cake has a disctinctly "scatological" theme, as she says.) And she comes to food writing not from the rarefied place of three or four star kitchens but by getting excited about sharing her love of mochi with two kids or how pancakes really were better post-coitus. more ›

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Jen made an appearance on NBC's Dateline last night to talk about the tragic murder of graduate student Imette St. Guillen (screencaps at Random Observations.) For Dateline viewers who want to read Gothamist's posts on the case, here they are: more ›

A reader writes:

Within 24 hours, I've been effected by two manhole fires, with the first killing my power on Flatbush in Park Slope yesterday, and the second blocking my lunch route on Rector St today. Has anyone else reported any, is there something going on?

The local news channels had been working themselves into a frenzy since last Thursday (well, we were, too) and it paid off yesterday when there was a hell of a lot of snow on the ground. Even Meet the Press was pre-empted for local snow coverage! Gothamist thinks we heard Al Roker's heart breaking as he broadcast from Torino this morning, because he was missing this awesome weather event - it was the lead story on the morning news shows, after all. Gothamist didn't watch all the news stations - we toggled between NY1, The Weather Channel, and WNBC 4 - but when you're a TV critic, you tend to watch more channels: David Hinckley at the Daily News felt the coverage ultimately portrayed the snowstorm as being like a "courteous and well-behaved blast of extreme, record-breaking weather," with some reporters even helping people move cars. Did you like - or hate - any of yesterday's news coverage? Gothamist scoffed at the "2nd greatest snowfall" graphics because big deal - until they turned into "record breaking snowfall" graphics. more ›

Toby at Random Observations captured this great moment in local TV news: Sue Simmons doing her best groundhog impression during the Live at Five broadcast, writing, "It is something that I always look forward to every year." When Gothamist caught the 11PM broadcast, Chuck Scarborough created quite a fanfare for Simmons to repeat the impression. And suddenly we realized that while WNBC mentioned Punxsutawny Phil, they neglected to mention another Chuck - Staten Island Chuck who predicts an early spring. At any rate, this is why we love local news. more ›

Now that the snow is a slushy, disgusting mess, Gothamist has distance from this morning's troublesome commute (note to self: Wear wading boots and carry snow boots). But Toby at Random Observations has amazing analysis of the local news' weather coverage. Crazy graphics? Check. Maps of snowfall? Check. School closing alerts? Check. Not only did CBS take honors for being in "Weather Orgasm mode," "Dave Price made an appearance making a fool out of himself and a CBS producer in Central Park" (which is a little redundant anyway!). more ›

God, we love Fox 5! After 20 years, they are still the place to turn for hilariously low-budget local news. Example: yesterday, while Matt Lauer was galavanting around on Easter Island (today, he was in Panama), they sent weatherman Mike Woods to the glamorous and mysterious destination of Fort Totten, Queens (via Random Observations). Where should they send Mike next?
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The city will be starting the Integrated Pest Management Academy, aka The School Where People Will Learn How To Get Rid of Rats, with a federal grant from the CDC. The college will teach "exterminators, rodent inspectors and other city workers better ways to get rid of rats." In the press conference, Assistant Commissioner for veterinary and pest control services, Edgar Butts, said that the biggest misconception of catching rats is that you leave bait by a rat hole and then seal it up: "Rats are intelligent animals. You have to put the bait deeply in the hole as far as you can put it - [otherwise] the rat will throw the bait back out." more ›

Gothamist on Rats in the City and we love the book, Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants. more ›

Sullivan's book, Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants, does seem like it'll be an interesting read. On an empty stomach, of course. more ›