• 76ers 124, Knicks 84: For the second time this season, the Knicks got blown out by the second-worst team in the division. How is that possible? Start with nine turnovers in the first quarter alone -- and 23 for the game. Sprinkle in some porous defense and everything should come out just fine. The Knicks lost by 40 despite shooting 46 percent from the floor. Too bad Philadelphia made 57 percent of its shots.
• Nets 110, Bulls 102 (OT): Even without Devin Harris, the best player the Nets got in exchange for Jason Kidd, the Nets were able to take down the Bulls at home. Marcus Williams played 39 minutes and had 25 points. If he can play remotely like that down the stretch, the Nets may find themselves a first-round victim rather than draft-lottery hopeful.
• Islanders 3, Capitals 2: Suddenly, the Islanders can't be stopped. One game after he helped his team stun the Sharks, Mike Comrie scored the only goal in the shootout and helped New York to its fifth straight win. This was the second consecutive time they rallied from a two-goal deficit. Miroslav Satan and Josef Vasicek lit the lamp in regulation.

The Rangers are going to have to have a lot more weekends like this one if they are going to make the playoffs. Fresh off of Saturday’s shellacking of Buffalo, New York outlasted San Jose in a physical contest 3-1. more ›

• Rangers 5, Sabres 1: Five days off, but only 10 seconds to score. Sean Avery got the Blueshirts off to a great start and they finally got the taste of Sunday's overtime loss to Washington out of their mouths. "I don't think we expected that great of a start," said Brendan Shanahan. He has to be telling the truth. Who sits at his locker lacing up his skates and says, "I think we'll score within nine seconds"? No one, that's who.
• Islanders 4, Thrashers 1: The Rangers took 10 seconds to score, but the Islanders denied the Thrashers a goal until 77 seconds remained in this one. Miroslav Satan, Ruslan Fedotenko, Marc-Andre Bergeron and Sean Bergenheim all scored for the Islanders. Don't look now -- actually, it's safe to look -- they've won three straight. Up next: San Jose on Monday. It's at home, so the team won't get lost.
• Devils 3, Senators 2: Jason Kidd was in the NBA's skills challenge, but, even if his trade has fallen through, he still doesn't feel like a true local player. With him as the only such representative in Saturday's NBA festivities -- if not playing defense were a skill, Eddy Curry would have been there -- the Devils had to show off their talent. Arron Asham had as many goals as he has R's in his first name, and Martin Brodeur had 37 times as many saves as he has B's in his last. The Devils won despite finishing a 10-round shootout the night before.

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 actually considered all of the "New York Metropolitan Statistical Area," which includes southern New York State and northern New Jersey. The Associated Press story says that IAC found 620,000 tech workers in that area, more than twice the number found in Silicon Valley. more ›

Wow, some very wild data from the U.S. Census about the make-up of New York. Accordin to the NY Times, the number of Manhattan children under the age of 5 has increased by more than 32%, and half of that growth is attributed to wealthy white families. And get this:

The analysis shows that Manhattan’s 35,000 or so white non-Hispanic toddlers are being raised by parents whose median income was $284,208 a year in 2005, which means they are growing up in wealthier households than similar youngsters in any other large county in the country. more ›

Lots of Times Weddings Announcements today! more ›

Good news for all those that love mapping features as Microsoft added Virtual Earth 3-D to their Live Search today. The bad news? You have to be using Windows Internet Explorer 6 or 7 and install software (that takes a long time to install). We assume that Virtual Earth doesn't work on Macs. Maps are currently viewable in 2-D through any browser. The bad news is that the program is such a memory hog that we almost don't want to use it. At least the 2-D stuff looks nice. more ›

- Rangers 3 San Jose 1: New York completed a successful west coast swing with their second win in as many nights. Kevin Weekes looked stellar between the pipes, stopping 29 of 30 shots and Matt Cullen, Martin Straka and Brendan Shanahan scored. With Weekes playing well in consecutive games, the question is, who will start in goal on Sunday? more ›

- And we have the third highest number of college graduates (SF was the most educated, followed by San Jose) more ›

Just what you've been waiting for: Our fair city has its newest sports franchise. The National Lacrosse League is brining a franchise to the Big Apple, and four of the games will be at Madison Square Garden. Mayor Bloomberg played intramural lacrosse at Johns Hopkins, and the NY Times writes that he "showed off his command of the sports esoterica":

I know you all agree with me that there’s nothing quite like a middie clamping down on a rock on a face-off, scooping it up and cradling it with his wand and then dishing it off to a crease attackman who stuffs it into the back of the cage.

LAist has so much fun this week! They go to E3, where they overhear the timeless remark "Man, this is where nerdy girls get laid." Is that a promise? They also give us this week's best CDs and make us realize that LA is the best place to use Zillow. more ›

• NYC is the fourth largest safe city, according to some report, but we count it as the top safe city, because can you really put NYC in the same league as San Jose, El Paso, and Honolulu?
• New York magazine looks at Tiffany as the brass ring of cheating spouses' girlfriends during Christmas.
• A CPA was found stabbed to death on a Queens sidewalk near his home; he owned a few Forest Hills co-ops and a neighbor described him as being "loud" during community meetings...hmm.

Alexi Lalas, President and General Manager - MetroStars more ›

Reader's Digest says that New York City is the second dirtiest big city in the country, which Chicago winning honors for dirtiest. Besides the fact that few people who actually read Reader's Digest actually live in NYC and care what the writers of Reader's Digest think, but the Daily News made sure to get the Department of Sanitation's reaction. Which was "It's a silly report," and a Department of Sanitation spokeswoman said that 91.1% NYC streets are "acceptably" clean these days. But clearly, "acceptably clean," which few scraps can be on the ground is not clean enough. NYC probably ranked lower because of the dog poop on the ground - even cartoons of garbage cans can't stop that. The Daily News helpfully points out "Hippie-dippy Portland, with a population of 529,000, won the title of most pristine, followed by San Jose, Calif., Buffalo and Columbus. San Francisco - where politicians wrangle over the right of the homeless to defecate in public - placed fifth." Gothamist, for one, isn't perturbed by this study, but we are affronted when we see Hollywood backlots substituting as New York streets, because backlots never have that necessary layer of grime. Sure, litter is annoying, but you kind of expect some urban detritus in your day. more ›

Another undefeated team loses this week in Wisconsin, and tumbles way down the rankings from last week. Utah moves up to #5, but Boise State is nowhere to be seen after a shootout against San Jose State. Will another undefeated fall this week, or will championship week be a deciding factor for Auburn and Oklahoma? USC plays Notre Dame, OU plays Baylor, Utah faces BYU, Boise State plays Louisiana Tech and Auburn faces Alabama in the Iron Bowl. more ›

The U.S. Census Bureau doesn't take an average Friday night at a New York bar as evidence enough: The government agency released a report showing that the NY metro area is fifth on the list of the 20 largest metropolitan areas that young college-educated singles (ages 25-39) move to. The report, "Migration of the Young, Single and College-Educated," (PDF) shows San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose area is the top city singles with BA's move to, followed by L.A., Atlanta, and D.C. Hmm. Maybe the Census Bureau isn't counting Williamsburg as a part of the NY metro area. more ›