Ten of the world's most competitive eaters faced off in Times Square yesterday for the Famous Famiglia pizza-eating contest, and Joey Chestnut, the reigning hot dog-eating champion, emerged victorious by consuming a record-shattering 45 slices in 10 minutes. Chicago's Patrick Bertoletti, who held the previous record at 22 slices in 10 minutes, placed second yesterday with 43 slices. To win the $5,000 prize, Chestnut ate nothing but protein supplements for two days and drank......

At the Nokia Theater in Time Square last night, Microsoft officially launched Vista and Office 2007 to the US masses. It was here in New York City, twenty-four years ago, that the software behemoth first announced their commitment to a GUI interface. Last night, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer rattled off stats and spiel in a setting where even the escalator bolts were Vista branded! The much often-delayed and joked-about OS comes with 1.5......

Publicity stunts are way cooler when Jack Bauer is somehow involved. If you're a 24 fan you may want to head over to Times Square today around 3pm, where you will see a number of CTU agents walking around and passing out souvenirs from the show (we just want to see the tourists react to Time Square flooded with CTU agents). There will also be a big screen (43rd Street and Seventh Avenue) where you......

Just two weeks ago we were telling our friend to have his birthday party at Dave & Buster's. "There is no Dave & Buster's in the city," he said. Since we had never thought to go to the place, we didn't know...we just assumed this city would have one. For those who don't know, Dave & Buster's is an adult playground. Video games, virtual reality systems, skee ball and beer. Like recess served with spiked......

Phil at Make Zine tracked down this great 1939 article on the workings of a Time Square sign. Apparently this sign was the first programmable one-- the designs were punched on to a giant roll of paper, and the sign would display the pictures as they rolled passed a detector. God-- sign designers today have it sooooo easy!......

The Daily News looks at eight "human error" incidents on since last January. All told, the accidents caused over $600,0000 in damages, but, possibly more expensive, if one could put a number on it, were the "harrowing passenger evacuations and service disruptions." There were no serious injuries in any of the incidents included, and some were caused by a lack of experience from some employees while one incident with a Time Square shuttle was caused......

The MTA's newfound riches of $833 million (from unexpected tax revenues) met a chorus of different ideas, from no fare hike in 2007, more security, improving reliability. The Daily News say Mayor Bloomberg would like the MTA not to hike fares in 2007, however Newsday says that City Council Speaker Gifford Miller explicitly said 2007 fare hikes should be avoided and Mayor Bloomberg "stopped short" of saying the MTA shouldn't raise 2007 fares. Okay, we......

The NYPD laid down the law and offered United Peace and Justice, the largest of the groups planning anti-war protests, a place for them to hold their anti-war rally: Up Seventh Avenue, past Madison Square Garden, and then thirty blocks just off the West Side Highway, from Tribeca around West and Chambers Streets up to 34th Street and 12th Avenue. Police Commissioner Kelly said, "This is our final offer. It is, we believe, a reasonable......

To kick off their new enhanced Yahoo! Autos, Yahoo! has created an interactive video game in Times Square. At the Reuters billboard (Broadway & West 43rd), you can play a driving game with your cellphone if you call 1-800-660-4402. NY1 checks out the game and says, "The game is kind of like those old Hot Wheels games where you set up the track and just control the speed of the car, with no steering." You......

The panda commercial for the NY State Lottery aired during The Apprentice (is it too much to hope that they are all fired, 'cause they are seeming particularly hateful lately), and now the world (or at least NY State) gets to see what started the Pandas-Invade-NY hubbub. Pandas were spotted a few weeks ago, when when stereogum and rion discovered them in Times Square being dispatched to places like Grand Central, Rockefeller Center, and the......

The mystery is over! After seeing stereogum's post about the panda costumed person walking Times Square, and then seeing rion's stunning photographs of the panda people roaming the streets and interacting with passersby, all Gothamist could do was wonder if pandas would turn up on our street corner or if we'd see them running to the bodega for a 40, too. But then JW told us that the pandas were amongst us for a......

Is Crayola's Bittersweet a deeper shade of Orange? Gothamist wonders this because the Post says New York's increased security measure in a time of orange means NYC is at Orange+. But not even Super Orange can deter NYers from getting their Christmas shopping done: One shopper tells the Daily News, "I just healed from an aneurysm, so nothing is going to stop me. I'm not going to live in fear. Our time is our......

- P. Diddit - Rapper-designer-producer-runner - Our favorite Baldwin's strange new show - ODB/Dirt McGirt and his singular performance style - Inside the NYC apartment of a man, his aligator, and his tiger - When the director of the Matrix starts looking womanly and when Time Square gets Matrixicized - Maybe the only song in the world in tribute to a Brooklyn author who wrote about spelling bees - Welcome to the world, baby o'......

So, I've arried in Hong Kong, where the Christmas festivities are in full swing. Think Las Vegas/Time Square type decorations and that's what you have in Hong Kong, all over the place. Chinese New Year is much crazier.......