Before Chinese Democracy, before the finger-licking photos, before the giant yellow coat, Axl Rose was the brilliantly overweening frontman of a band that made decent music. Today is Axl's 50th birthday: wish him well with some heroin or casual racism. more ›

This year, Time's Person of the Year is sort of you: It's The Protester. Time's managing editor Rick Stengel said, "No one could have known that when a Tunisian fruit vendor in a town barely on a map set himself on fire in a public square, it would spark protests that would bring down dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and rattle regimes in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain. Or that that spirit of dissent would spur Mexicans to rise up against the terror of drug cartels, Greeks to march against unaccountable leaders, Americans to occupy public spaces to protest income inequality, and Russians to marshal themselves against a corrupt autocracy." more ›

You've probably been wondering when it would be appropriate to turn back time ever since the days have started getting darker earlier—but now the day of clock reckoning has come! Daylight saving time for most of the U.S. ends at 2 a.m., which means 2 a.m. becomes 1 a.m. This is also a great time to change the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors (here's the FDNY's pitch). more ›

It's finally here: the 2011 Tiger Beat Time 100 list of most influential movers and shakers around the world will be published on Friday. But knowing that there was no way anyone will wait to read it in the actual magazine, they were kind enough to put the list online for us to gawk at today. And it includes several notable NYers, including Patti Smith, Jonathan Franzen, Jennifer Egan, Ground Zero Mosque Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and Harlem Children's Zone founder Geoffrey Canada. There are also two prominent NJ politicians—Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Gov. Chris Christie—but no NY ones. Should we be demanding a recount? more ›

While he's not Time's Person of the Year, former JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater did own this year's spare 15 minutes of fame. TIME explains: "Fifteen-minute fame is not like the regular kind. The celebrities it creates are sticks in a stream, suddenly aswirl in a dizzying current. When JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater was hit on the head by a passenger's bag in August and had what he describes as the 'hissy fit heard around the world,' ending in a dramatic exit via an emergency chute, he was not expecting to become a folk hero to overworked, stressed-out employees everywhere." more ›

If you read any of the headlines about Time's choice of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg as Person Of The Year, you would think there were only two contenders. Which is a half-truth. People seem to be confused about the magazine's choice of Zuckerberg over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who won the popular vote and really is more of a 2010 phenomenon. Is Time ignoring the voice of the people in favor of a less controversial character, or are they just convinced it's still 2007? more ›

Media baron Rupert Murdoch has made it clear that he intends to destroy the New York Times. And now, the Times is starting to fight back. Just days after the Gray Lady abandoned its hiring freeze to poach a Wall Street Journal arts reporter who could potentially reveal all of the secrets of the Journal's planned "Times-killing" metro section, the paper of record gives some ink to the pending newspaper war, making it clear there's no love lost on either side. more ›

Every year, New York City drivers lose about 44 hours of their time and $1,900 of their money to poorly maintained roads, according to a new study. The average motorist pays $638 to repair automotive damage caused by shoddy streets, while the rest of the money goes towards "wasted gas, medical fees and lost productivity," the reports indicates. more ›

The crazy steam-spewing Union Square "Metronome" clock is off by 52 minutes! Does anyone even know how to read this thing? One blogger explains just how to decipher it:

The 15 numbers of the digital clock display time going and coming relative to midnight. Read time going left to right and time coming in the opposite direction. So, if the clock reads 180746***135205 it means that it is 6:07 P.M. (18 hours/07 minutes/46 seconds since midnight) and that there are 5 hours/52 minutes/13 seconds remaining until midnight. The three numbers in between are a blur of moving numbers. It is like a digital hourglass.

Hey hipsters, you're too disaffected to probably care, but: you've finally made it into the pages of TIME magazine! Or at least onto their internet home. They begin their brief history of the hipster by narrowing the group down to people who hate Coldplay, love silk-screened tees, and drink PBR. We cross-referenced this in our Urban Outfitters Hipster's Guide to the Galaxy handbook that doesn't exist because hipsters would never buy it, and it all seemed to check out. more ›

again, Time magazine opted to choose that popular cover boy, President-elect Barack Obama, as its Person of the Year for 2008. There's an article, an interview, an analysis of his basketball game (from his brother-in-law), but best is the gallery of 1980 photographs from Occidental College classmate Lisa Jack. Time also mentions runners-up—Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, French President Nicolas Sarkozy (article written by Tony Blair), Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and Chinese director—and Olympics creative force—Zhang Yimou (article by Steven Spielberg)— as well as "People Who Mattered" (Ingrid Betancourt, Tina Fey, Michael Phelps, George Bush, Hillary Clinton...). Debate at your leisure. more ›

As Andrew Sullivan simply stated, "Say goodbye to the rest of your day." Google is now hosting an exhausting millions of images from LIFE's archives, "stretching from the 1750s to today." Here are a few NYC gems, and if you're looking for more of old New York, we'd suggest having some search keywords in mind to make it a bit less overwhelming! more ›

Therefore all qualifying rounds will last just 10 minutes this year, and the ultimate July 4th battle will likely be shortened to that time as well. The change has outraged reigning champ Joey Chestnut, who didn't edge out six-time champ Takeru Kobayashi until the last few minutes of last year’s contest. Chesnut calls the change “ridiculous.” more ›

This morning, New York Water Taxi introduced their new commuter ferry route for residents of the Rockaways in Queens. While it's not a straight shot--it stops once at the Brooklyn Army Terminal--it will move up to 400 commuters from Riis Landing to Wall St.'s Pier 11. more ›

If you think a 66-year-old billionaire gets nervous about posing in trees for Time magazine's 100 influential people issue, think again! more ›

When Hog Pit co-owner Felisa Dell sent an email to Eater on April 7th confirming the closure of her Meatpacking District BBQ joint, she insinuated that “the mayor and the State Liquor Authority are now only issuing Liquor Licenses until 2 a.m. It's very sneaky, but in 5 years the 4 a.m. liquor license will be a thing of the past, without any community input.” Today the NY Sun backs Dell up, reporting that many Manhattan bar owners are finding it “nearly impossible to open new nightlife establishments that are permitted to serve alcohol until 4 a.m.” more ›

Tonight is the night we all set our clocks ahead an hour in observance of the strange springtime ritual known as Daylight Saving Time. Until last year Daylight time began on the first Sunday in April. Thanks to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, DST now begins on the second Sunday in March and lasts until the first weekend in November. more ›