More terrifying news today comes courtesy of Science, which is apparently closing in on perfecting lab-grown, in-vitro meat. Don't call it "imitation" meat—this stuff is legitimately animal flesh, but it was never part of a living animal. Have we learned nothing from the Japanese poop burger? more ›

Well, it turns out people are still smuggling bushmeat—you know, tropical wild game like MONKEYS and BATS—into the country through JFK, and guess what? It's still dangerous to eat! Because it can spread diseases! And even if they're not deadly right now, they might be soon! Because it's happened before, with bushmeat and AIDS! Everybody freak out! more ›

Nevermind those pesky strip searches—people still like to bring guns on planes, goshdarnit. The TSA has found 1,238 firearms, or roughly four a day, at airport checkpoints last year. It's unclear whether that figure includes the many, many stun guns that seem to keep popping up around New York, but either way—that's a lot! more ›

[Update below] Things are just falling all over New York this morning. First a building collapses onto a city bus and then an elevator in Times Square goes and unexpectedly drops three floors! About ten minutes after the Harlem building toppled, at about 9:37 a.m., an elevator in the Paramount Building in Times Square tumbled down three stories out of the blue. more ›

After a spate of disheartening falling-related fatalities, a bright spot: a 19-year-old Pratt student who fell five stories off her friend's Bed-Stuy apartment building is alive. "She hit facedown," a witness tells the Daily News, "She was still alive. I saw her moving." Katherine Del Rosario plunged from the building around 6:30 yesterday evening, after drinking and hanging out on the roof with a few friends. "They weren't drinking a lot," a friend said, "She wasn't drunk enough to fall." Del Rosario is in stable condition at Kings County Hospital. more ›

Drivers clocked going over 30 mph as they zoom past the city's new digital "Slow Down" signs will soon get an added bonus: a skeleton image, intended to remind them of the potential consequences of speeding. It's a good start, but couldn't the DOT at least give the skeleton a top hat, or throw some dancing bears on there? We guess we'll take what we can get. The signs are intended to reduce speeding, and NY1 asserts that "one way to slow down traffic is simply to give more tickets, but Mayor Bloomberg said today that because of the city's tight budget, that's not going to happen." Besides, the NYPD is already maxed out ticketing all these speeding cyclists. more ›

Is LaGuardia Airport scarier to land in than JFK? Well, according to pilots it is! Congested airspace and runways extending into the water are on top of the list of what makes it so terrifying, according to SmarterTravel.com. The travel site ranked the Queens airport #8 in the most frightening commercial landing strip in all of the world! more ›

After Gothamist reported yesterday on a vicious fight on an uptown 6 train that left a woman bleeding severely from the face, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is trying to track down the train crew on duty when the melee took place. "We still haven't isolated the crew yet. We are trying to isolate the crew and take it from there," said MTA Transit spokesman James Anyansi. more ›

A straphanger recorded a brutal fistfight on the 6 train that left a woman bleeding profusely from the face. It's unclear exactly when or why the fight broke out, but the nasty spat — which goes on for about 3 minutes and spills out of the train car and into a station — was apparently uploaded and removed from YouTube on Dec 25 before being posted on the Daily Motion website on Dec. 26. (Update: It's now been removed from Daily Motion, but someone uploaded it to YouTube again, where it will probably stay for another few hours.) more ›

Yesterday afternoon, a 10-year-old fell through a sidewalk grate while walking with his family in Harlem. According to the Daily News, Aboubaca Meite had been running on Morningside Avenue near 125th Street: "The boy fell about 8 feet, hitting his head and landing awkwardly on his leg when he crashed onto the concrete under the former M&G's Soul Food restaurant." Yikes. A witness told WCBS 2, "I heard the father holler and jump down in there. They tried to get him out and everything. I went over, and we were going to get him out [but] he said leave him down there because he might be injured. So we left him down there till the paramedics come." Luckily, Aboubaca only suffered a sprained leg; the fourth grader told the News, "It just suddenly fell. It was dark in the hole [and] I was scared." The Department of Buildings hasn't determine whether the building owner will face violations. In May, 34 children were injured when grating outside a school collapsed (the children were posing for a photograph); the school was issued a violation for not maintaining the grate. more ›

Is Brooklyn's McCarren Park scary? A discussion has been started up on the topic over at Street Easy, and while the area isn't like it used to be, some in the thread are wondering if it's "dangerous, or only like Central Park is scary to non-city-dwellers." One commenter sections the park off into three parts, and further separates it into areas reserved for the Polish, the Mexicans and the Hipsters. The area closest to the condos is deemed the safest and calmest, boasting an "excellent running track, handball and bocce courts." The biggest concern amongst the potential condo-buyers in the thread seems to be The Hipsters (the baseball field is "overrun by hipsters playing kickball"), but as one points out, the renovated pool will host "classical and opera concerts, [which is] a good sign that hipster influence is waning here." Though we hear the hipsters are getting way into Le Sacre du printemps' complex rhythmic structures as of late. [via Curbed] more ›

Perhaps more nightmare-worthy than clowns taking over, this past Monday the city was infiltrated by Chucky dolls! The terrifying Child's Play character multiplied and terrorized tourists and locals alike, all in celebration of the movie's 20th anniversary DVD release. His antics seemed to be centered around Times Square (hopefully far away from the Toys Я Us). Did you see any of these tiny terrors around? Looks like he even made it to Fashion Week, albeit wearing that same, tired old pair of overalls. So 1988. [via /Film] more ›

On Friday, dozens of birds fell out of the sky and died on a street in the Great Kills section of Staten Island. Residents grew concerned as, the Staten Island Advance reported, birds "flopped and twitched...as they breathed their last" (video here). One resident said the birds were flying "as if they were drunk" before falling to the ground. more ›