Daredevil Jeb Corliss, the 35-year-old who attempted to jump off the Empire State Building in 2006 (only to be stopped and arrested), was in intensive care after a failed leap off of a 3,500-foot mountain in South Africa. more ›

Scientists in South Africa have discovered a "leaproach," which is essentially a cockroach that can JUMP "on par with grasshoppers." As in, jump out of your dreams and into your kitchen. Or sheets. Or [insert special place where you go in your apartment where you don't feel vulnerable from the alienating chasms of granite and filth]. more ›

Now that there's an app for that, City Councilman Charles Barron (running for Governor because all the other candidates are white) told the Daily News he thinks any attempt to ban the vuvuzela is racist. Even if he has no idea what they are. more ›

This morning, South African Tourism and Consul General Fikile Magubane of South Africa visited Nasdaq in Times Square and rang the opening bell, to celebrate the opening day of the 2010 FIFA World Cup which just began in South Africa. Right now, South Africa and Mexico are tied 0-0 at halftime in the first game of the tournament. Apparently referees are brushing up—in advance of tomorrow's USA-England match (2:30 p.m. EST; schedule)—on English slang "so that players won't be able to verbally abuse each other behind the officials' backs." The Daily Show's Jon Oliver took aim at the Yankee-Brit "rivalry" last night: more ›

Everyone's talking twittering the big news about the 2014 Super Bowl...but what about that other football? Ya know, the (relatively) ancient one? The one during which you actually kick the ball, with your foot, for the majority of the game? more ›

A South African mining company, a diamond dealer/scam artist named Dennis Van Kerrebroeck and a giant 68-carat rock all play a role in a recent gem theft, officials supect. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Todd Hyman the stone made its way into city last September, transported by Van Kerrebroeck. He’d agreed to sell it to a Fifth Avenue jeweler, but the final price was just one third of what it was worth. The undersale made Feds suspect the stone was stolen, so they seized it from Taly Diamond on Thursday. Now they’re searching for the shady dealer. more ›

London-based solo musician Yoav is a singer/songwriter who works hard to go beyond the usual “man with a guitar” conventions. By looping beats created with his voice and acoustic guitar, his songs are often inflected with an unusual drum 'n' bass flavor. His debut album Charmed & Strange crystallizes this aesthetic with an effect he describes as “DJ-ing with my guitar.” Yoav plays Mercury Lounge Saturday night at 7:30; tickets cost $10. more ›

In exchange for guilty pleas on a number of charges including assault of a fan, assault of his chauffer, driving with a suspended license and DUI, rap star Busta Rhymes avoided jail time and was sentenced yesterday to 10 days of community service. Sadly, we’ll be denied the publicity circus that swirled around Boy George and Naomi Campbell during their very public community services; Rhymes will have the privilege of choosing his own method of service at a “private, court-approved location.” (Will there be an after-party?) He’ll also pay fines and court costs amounting to – yes this figure you're about to read is correct – $1,510. more ›

For the second year running, the Food Bank for New York City and the Lunchbox Fund of South Africa have enlisted over 100 celebrities in their holiday fundraiser. Boldface names like Kanye West, Elton John, Cameron Diaz, Mike Meyers, William Wegman and, um, Urban Outfitters, have created personalized, autographed lunchboxes that are now onsale via online auction. At Thursday night's kick-off event at Saatchi & Saatchi, a lunchbox by Michael Stipe was snatched up... more ›

Photograph the 2006 New York City Marathon finish line by CraigsPage on flickr Marathon fans, your time is here because this weekend, there are two 26.2 mile races in the city. In addition to the New York City Marathon on Sunday, Saturday is the USA Olympic Trials for the 2008 Olympic Men's Marathon. Saturday's Olympic Trials will feature the country's best long distance runners as they contend for the first spots on the 2008... more ›

A look at some of this week's noteworthy television: more ›

The Daily News and NY Times both look at the life of Carol Anne Gotbaum, the New Yorker who died while in police custody at Phoenix's Sky Harbor airport over a week ago. She is portrayed as a vibrant woman and loving mother to three children who had become depressed in recent years. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting at Quincy St. and Classon Ave. in Brooklyn, a homicide on 76th St. in Queens, and a missing child on East 174th St. in the Bronx.
• Martin Scorsese sold his four-story, five-bedroom townhouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side for $6.15 million, after cutting $500K off the price.
• Someone at Fox News is allegedly fooling around with Wikipedia entries to make itself look better and competitors worse.
• The murdered daughter of two NYU professors, Boitumelo "Tumi" McCallum, was buried in her native South Africa today, 11 days after she was murdered by a possessive boyfriend.
• Brooklyn-Born Jose Padilla was found guilty of conspiring to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas. He was held for three years without trial as an enemy combatant.
• The Liberty Heights Tap Room in Red Hook (bus stop on Van Dyke St.) is now officially Rocky Sullivan's Tap Room.
• Cops are searching for a man who allegedly struck and killed a woman with his car on purpose as she was standing at a bus stop with her children early this morning.
• Con Ed leaves behind an ugly wake on one Brooklyn sidewalk
• New York City canceled its 125-year-old Labor Day parade due to a lack of interest and a corruption scandal. A rally at Ground Zero is being planned instead.
• And Max Roach, considered the a founder of modern jazz, died today at age 83.

The police have charged Michael Cordero in the murder of his girlfriend, Boitumelo McCallum. Police sources tell the Daily News and Post that Cordero admitted to confronting McCallum on Friday. From the Post:

Cordero told cops he visited McCallum, 20, a day after she threw a party there without inviting him, authorities said. After his arrival, the two lay on her bed and watched a movie he had brought - but Cordero was in a foul mood, sources said. more ›

Last night, the police found the boyfriend of the 20-year-old woman whose dead body was discovered wrapped in bedding in a Greenwich Village apartment. Police say Michael Cordero, 23, tried to slit his wrists on the roof of a building at West 62nd and Amsterdam; the Daily News reports that a family member tried to stop him, but Cordero "fled down the block, trailing blood, to a Western Beef supermarket on West End Ave." where he went to wash up. Police took him to Roosevelt Hospital and allegedly told the hospital staff, "I killed my girlfriend. I couldn't take it, so I tried to kill myself." more ›

MOVIE: The new Hairspray has set up special Sing-A-Long screenings! They begin nationwide today, and there will be three right here in New York. If you don't like rowdy theaters, skip this one! more ›

In 1979, Curtis Sliwa founded The Guardian Angels with the goal of making the streets and subways of New York safe. Now, 28 years later The Guardian Angels have 86 chapters worldwide in 9 different countries, are providing schools with anti-bully, anti-violence, anti-gang, and anti-drug programs, and educating people about the Internet. Gothamist sat down with Curtis to learn more about what the Guardian Angels have been up to... more ›

Now that Tiki Barber is working for the Today show, it looks like the producers are all up in his business. Well, at least when Tiki's bags get lost. On his way to South Africa for the show's "Where in the World" gimmick, Barber missed a connecting flight and his bags got lost in the shuffle. And since the former NY Giant was traveling with just "essential toiletries," Sean Reis, producer for Today, purchased almost everything else for the former Giants running back. more ›

A public school is facing a mini-crisis because students and a teacher went to Cuba for spring break. The Beacon School on West 61st Street has had a tradition of "extravagant overseas trips with complementary semester-long classes," involving places like France, South Africa, and Venezula, but a trip headed by history teacher Nathan Turner may have violated travel restrictions - the group of kids was detained by customs officials on the return! more ›

EVENT: As the Sopranos prepares to reach its end, creator David Chase will discussing "the fine art of whacking". Joining him will be many of the characters who have been whacked on the show, including: Steve Buscemi, “Tony Blundetto”, Drea de Matteo, “Adriana La Cerva”, Vincent Pastore, “Salvatore ‘Big Pussy’ Bonpensiero” and many more. more ›

Leaving our local Key Food this morning, for the first time we heard the spare change guy's rendition of "Bad to the Bone" and then we turned to one of our weekend rituals: Reading the The Brooklyn Paper. more ›

Take a Cab, Waifs, Ъзп. more ›

People, I think, are actually seeking unification in one form or another. You can look to the success of sites like Friendster and MySpace as evidence. Of course we differ from those virtual clubs, because we’re very real and very tactile—like corduroy, actually. We’re trying to emulate and reference old, secretive social clubs, like The Masons or The Knights of Columbus. I love those old clubs. Corduroy is able to unify because everyone knows what it is, it’s not rare or difficult, everyone can get it and everyone has some kind of association or reaction to corduroy. Our slogan is “All Wales Welcome,” so anyone, provided they exhibit appreciation of corduroy can be in the club. more ›

With Halloween coming next week and the fall chill in the air, this is the perfect weekend to curl up with a good scary movie. , starring Tim Robbins and Derek Luke. Set in South Africa during apartheid, Luke plays a family man politicized by the injustice in his country and Robbins is a police officer on the other side. more ›

Andrew Friedman is co-director of Make the Road by Walking, a Brooklyn-based community-based organization founded in 1997 on the belief that the center of leadership must be within the community. Since then, the organization has grown dramatically and now includes over 600 members, a member-elected board composed of low-income community residents, and a staff of twelve. Over the past 5 years, MRBW has achieved many improvements to the lives of Bushwick residents. They pushed New York City to conform to federal law and provide translation services to non-English speakers in food stamp, welfare, and Medicaid offices, and got dozens of neighborhood employers to pay more than $100,000 in illegally withheld wages to garment workers. more ›

There are few birthdays we look towards with dread (ok, maybe our 30th). But as AIDS hits its 25th year since being discovered in the 1980s, detection, treatment, and understanding of the disease has come a long way yet has miles to go. There were 25 million new infections in the past 5 years with 15 million deaths over the same period. Currently 38.6 million people worldwide are infected (which is up from 37.3 million in 2005). Some drops in prevalence of the disease in Africa suggests that the rate of infection is slowing. more ›

Two huge, gigantic developments in the Naomi Campbell maid-assault case. First, the Daily News has a much more detailed account of the incident, and reveals that the weapon was not in fact a cellphone: more ›

When Japan advanced to play Cuba in the finals of the World Baseball Classic, the matchup was not what Major League Baseball commissioner had envisioned or set up the tournament to produce. On Monday, Japan won the game 10-6 and the first championship of the World Baseball Classic. As they celebrated, Gothamist was left to wonder whether the tournament can become a fixture in the United States. more ›

It’s a good thing they put the mercy rule into the WBC because if they hadn’t, the U.S. would probably still be hitting. Fired up from their defeat at the hands of Canada, the U.S. squad demolished South Africa 17-0 in a game that was shortened to five innings. Ken Griffey exploded for two homers and seven RBI’s while Roger Clemens gave up 1 hit while striking out six over 4 1/3 innings. more ›