Last fall, teen girls at LeRoy High School in upstate NY suddenly started exhibiting Tourette's-like symptoms. For months, NY State health officials could find no direct cause for why the teens developed the spasms and tics, with some doctors insisting it was "mass hysteria." But now, doctors say that several of the teens are showing signs of recovery: "The media focus, the questions on whether it is environmental or toxins, all that adds confusion, anxiety and difficulty," said Dr. Laszlo Mechtler, medical director at DENT Neurologic Institute in western NY, who has treated some of the teens with psychotherapy and behavioral therapy, as well as prescribed medication for anti-anxiety, depression and headaches. more ›

The charges have been dropped against four people arrested at last Saturday's massive "Costumed-Roving-Street-Party-Apocalyptic-Dance-Rock-Battle" flash mob in Williamsburg, the Brooklyn Paper reports. The event was intended to lure party people into a direct action 'take back the streets' protest, but Capt. Dennis Fulton, commanding officer of Greenpoint’s 94th Precinct, wasn't impressed: "They said they were protesting high rent — and I guess ‘the man’ — but really, they were just individuals in their twenties that were there to have a good time. But what they actually did was waste my time and waste my resources by shutting down traffic and making it so emergency vehicles couldn’t get through." Get used to it, Fulton; a source quoted as "A. Panda" tells BP that since "everyone got their [sic] charges dropped, we should do it again!” more ›

Vlad at the Glass Bead Collective let us know about another video taken during Saturday night's Pandamonium in Williamsburg, where a roving street party (with a panda theme) was deemed too much by police, who tried to clamp down on festivities. more ›

Last night, Pandamonium--the self-described "Costumed- Roving- Street- Party- Apocalyptic- Dance- Rock- Battle" event took place. And it did cause quite a pandemonium! more ›

Here's some Saturday afternoon cuteness. We're hoping for a day when pandas can come to NYC, but we suppose panda paperwork takes a while.
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MUSIC: Ever wonder what former Weezer bassist Matt Sharp has been up to? Well, he's back fronting his other old band, The Rentals. With a long list of former members, amongst them Maya Rudolph and Petra Haden, the group is now six-strong, and playing Nokia Theater tonight in support of their new EP, The Last Little Life. more ›

E:First of all, it sounds pretty impressive. Eating a panda? Well, that's something isn't it? more ›

We're guessing most of you are hungover from St. Patrick's Day. We are too. But still, we're going to muddle on through our green haze and give you (drum roll please...) this Week In -ists. more ›

This morning, we were excited to see a picture of a panda on the NY Times' Business Day section. It was related to a story about traveling in China - one of the Times' Frequent Flier articles where road warriors share their travel tales. Naturally, Gothamist turned to page C6 to read the article and find out why pandas are hanging out on conveyor belts and how we could get a piece of that action. more ›

In some Chinese families, some relatives are referred to by their birth order instead of a name, like "Number 1 Sister" or "Number 4 Brother." And this goes for baby pandas, too, as the Wolong Nature Reserve's Research and Conservation Center for Giant Panda scientists refer to the baby pandas born between July and September of 2006 as numbers 1 to 18. Eager to change this, the research center is asking the public to give these adorable cubs English names. Next thing you know, the Wolong Nature Reserve will be issuing panda plushes based on each one. more ›

Today, the AP reported that 30 pandas were born in China in 2006, making it a record year for the number of pandas born in captivity. And we do love the CNN headline for the story, "Baby pandas! Baby pandas! Baby pandas!" because it says it all and so much more. more ›

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Today, a drunken man visiting the Beijing Zoo climbed into the panda habitat - and there was also "hugging" and biting. Reports say that 35 year old Zhang Xinyan had drunk "four draught beers" before heading to the zoo, where he was suddenly overcome with a desire to touch Gu Gu, a 6 year old male panda. Gu Gu freaked out and bit Zhang's, so then Zhang bit back. Zookeepers managed to get Gu Gu off Zhang by using a hose, and Zhang was taken to a hospital for stitches on his leg. The AP reports:

The Beijing Youth Daily quoted Zhang as saying that he had seen pandas on television and "they seemed to get along well with people." more ›

+ City air unsafe for mosquitoes, asthmatics as the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene continues its shock and awe bombardment of the West Nile carrying buggers. Helicopters will be spraying parts of the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island with pesticide through Friday morning. Only one person has been infected with the disease this year compared with 14 last year. more ›

If there is one thing we here at Gothamist love it is Pandas. We may not all agree on the merits of procedural dramas like L&O but who doesn't love a good panda? more ›

that we want to kill anyone and everyone that makes a "something on a something" joke. But then we realized that there was no way we could ever win this fight, and, hell, if you can't beat them, we might as well join them. And with that, you have the theme of this weeks' Gothamist network post. more ›

Perhaps in anticipation of the dog days of summer, New York magazine is investigating happiness - why some people are very happy while others aren't so much, as in New Yorkers. It's a long piece, and we need some more time to read it, but essentially it looks at whether our nature as New Yorkers prohibits us from happiness, crossed with a lot of other research. There are also some suggestions for New Yorkers to be happier, like "Fire your therapist if he so much as mentions your childhood" and "Don't go to law school" or "Don't watch the Knicks." All excellent advice, but what makes us happy is a subway that arrives right when we get to the platform, a sunny-but-not-humid-day and a hilarious photograph of Mayor Bloomberg. And when Gothamist needs a pick-me-up, we search for pictures of pandas, cats, and other animals on Flickr or anything on Cute Overload. Happiness is in the heart of the beholder, you see.
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How awesome would it be if along with stray cats and dogs - and rodents and occasional ferrets, etc. - Gotham had a population of street pandas meandering through town, getting high on bamboo and sleeping on scaffolding? more ›

It's been a long time since we've visited with our black-and-white (and a little dirty brown) friends, the panda. National Geographic's cover story this month is Panda, Inc., the million dollar industry behind having pandas on U.S. soil. It focuses mostly on Tai Shan, the adorable, nearly year old scamp in DC, and has many cute pictures and video. Of course, Gothamist hopes that panda leasing prices come down (China charges $2 million now), as we dream that a pair can come and breed in NYC. more ›

After reading our umpteenth post dreaming about pandas in our own backyard, a reader who was at the National Zoo sent us some exciting news:

Just thought you'd like to know, that when I was there, one of the pandakeepers said the Bronx Zoo had already filled out its paperwork for "borrowing" some pandas from China. So pandas might be closer to NY than you think. Of course the NY Times article on how pandas don't actually make any money for zoos won't help the cause much.

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We have read the enlightening NY Times article about how pandas in U.S. zoos are like money pits, though adorable ones. The reason is because China leases the each panda to zoos for $2 million (in "panda cost and research"). And then there are the habitats the zoos must build, plus the expensive diets they have - oh, and if there's a baby, that's another $600,000 per year. The director of the Giant Panda Conservation Foundation in the U.S., David Towne, even says, "I've told my mayor [of Seattle] and everyone else that the last thing we want is pandas," and more blasphemous words were not said. The article is fascinating for the economic perspective of what pandas giveth and taketh away, but we'd also like the Freakonomics guys to get on the panda bandwagon and break it down. more ›

So far we've found nothing funny about the month of January, hopefully things will change starting this week. Check out our comedy picks: more ›

On Gothamist Contribute, someone pointed out Johnny Cupcakes, a website devoted to selling t-shirts (and a few other things) with cupcakes on it. Excellent, we thought. But better than just a cupcake shirt is the panda eating a cupcake shirt! The shirt is $31.99, which is a bit steep but unlike the 15-18 cupcakes you could get for the same price, it's a little more permanent and less damaging on the waistline. more ›

We're always promoting the native photographers and painters of New York City-- but we've been remiss in not giving enough attention to another indigenous art form: cake decoration. Check out this set of cakes decorated by Ameliaaah on Flickr-- our favorites include the Spycake, the TaurusCake, and the FishCake. Her cakes make Fudgie the Whale look like a pile of poo! more ›

It's so obvious that the NY Times wishes New York City had pandas of its own, because they resorted to putting a HUGE photograph of DC's own Tai Shan on the front section of the Science Times today. And to justify this act, Natalie Angier wrote an article about "The Cute Factor," explaining what Gothamist has secretly suspected: People love round, fat things. Babies? Check. Pandas? Check. Baby pandas? Check. Extra zeros on a paycheck? Check. There's the obligatory mention of the Japanese "kawaii" phenomenon and scientists explaining why people like cute things.:

Observing that many Floridians have an enormous affection for the manatee, which looks like an overfertilized potato with a sock puppet's face, Roger L. Reep of the University of Florida said it shone by grace of contrast. "People live hectic lives, and they may be feeling overwhelmed, but then they watch this soft and slow-moving animal, this gentle giant, and they see it turn on its back to get its belly scratched," said Dr. Reep, author with Robert K. Bonde of "The Florida Manatee: Biology and Conservation." more ›

Finally! It's as if our Christmas wish was answered early, for we must hail pandafix, the only website (that we know of) that aggregate all the insanely cute pictures of pandas DC, SF, China, and more in . Pictures of sixteen panda cubs from the breeding center in Wolong? Check! Somewhat embarassing photos of Bass's 25th birthday? Check! Side by side comparisons of Tai Shan and Su Lin climbing outside? Check! Thank you, Kris Kringle, Hanukkah Harry, Kwanzaa Kanye, et al for making it happen.
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Unbelievably, it's the last week of the year! How time flies! We'll be assembling our own Best of 2005 lists (Most Interesting News Stories, Best Shots of Pandas, Most Poorly Thought Out Gothamist Posts, etc. etc.) But until we can get the Gothamist supercomputer to spit those out, here are some lists from our friends (and one enemy!) in and around the city: more ›

The current NY Times above-the-fold/ breaking news photograph is of Tai Shan, the National Zoo's four month old panda, who made his media debut today. Obviously, this is a call for New York City to stop shuffling our feet and to finally get our own set of pandas who can breed (naturally, artificially, who cares?!) and make adorable little pandas for us to coo about. Otherwise, we'll be heading out of town to DC every possible weekend (the first 13,000 tickets to see him are already gone!) to see this little fella until he turns two and is shipped back to China to mate with some lady pandas in the Wolong. more ›