Christopher Chung

A 21-year-old Utah man who was trapped under a BMW after his motorcycle collided with it and caught fire is alive thanks to a dozen strangers who lifted the burning car off his body. Here's the amazing rescue. Brandon Wright was riding Monday morning in Logan, Utah, when the black BMW 530xi pulled in front of him. According to reports, Wright laid his bike down to avoid a collision; instead, the bike and Wright slid underneath the BMW's nose; the impact severed the motorcycle's gas line, setting it and the BMW on fire. The accident happened near a construction site on the Utah State University campus, where workers rushed to the scene. But as the video shows, it's not just burly men pushing; at least one woman grabs on to lift the 3,700-lb sedan. - Christopher Chung

That was why Federer was stunned. Having spent his entire adult life consciously molding himself into one of the best high-stakes tennis players in history, he'd just been beaten by an almost random sequence of events. Djokovic's snapped return happened to land in bounds; the crowd happened to set something off in Djokovic's head; this happened to inspire him to play better tennis. "I had it," Federer said about the match. "There's no more I could do. He snaps one shot, and then the whole thing changes. … To lose against someone like that, it's very disappointing, because you feel like he was mentally out of it already. Just gets the lucky shot at the end and off you go." - Christopher Chung

Such a good summary of what happened. I was totally bummed and just pushed tennis out of my mind after that match (though I did catch Djokovic thumping Nadal in the first set of the men's finals). In particular it's wishing that luck at the infinitesimal level would go Federer's way a couple times more: "Think about it: Djokovic goes from being a very good player whose season was tarnished by his inability to beat Federer (in the French Open semis and here) to holding three Grand Slam titles at once while being well on his way to completing maybe the best season in tennis history. Federer goes from being a player who can still beat the best to a definitively past-his-prime ex-champion who's dropped two straight semifinals late-round matches in majors after winning the first two sets. Nadal goes from having yet another crack at his rivalry with Federer to losing to Djokovic for a legacy-unsettling sixth straight time in a final. All because of that one shot." - Dan Hsiao

"At around nearly the same time every year, rumors start to crop up that Chinatown Fair, the last beloved vestige of New York City’s video arcade golden age, will soon be facing its final days. ... As expected, the mood was heavy when we payed a visit to the legendary spot over the holiday weekend. ... But the Fair, which has stood in one form or another on Mott Street just off Canal since the 1950’s, isn’t going down without a fight. ... “Wednesday is the last day” one regular said solemnly while observing a round of Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition. He was convinced it’d be one of the last matchups he’d witness at the historic arcade, whose enigmatic owner routinely clashes with the building’s landlord to keep the business alive. “We’re just trying to enjoy it while it’s still here.”" - Christopher Chung

Wow. "Less than two weeks ago, Slim Amamou, a Tunisian blogger and activist, was using his @slim404 Twitter feed to let friends know that the police had been to his house. Later the same day, after he was arrested, the 33-year-old computer programmer managed to turn his phone on and log on to Google Latitude to broadcast his location: inside the country’s feared ministry of the interior. On Tuesday, five days after he announced his release from custody on Twitter, and one day after he used the same tool to say that he had accepted an offer to join Tunisia’s new transitional government, Mr. Amamou’s status update on the social network said simply: “in a ministerial meeting.”" - Christopher Chung

dirigibles. awesome. - Christopher Chung

neat. i liked the comment, "107 who dislike are AMD fans" - Christopher Chung

"... since Janette Sadik-Khan was named commissioner of New York City's DOT back in 2007 ... Sadik-Khan has undertaken a number of kickass initiatives to reconfigure the streets of New York -- giving primacy to people over automobiles for the first time since Robert Moses started running freeways through the city. She's created hundreds of miles of new bike lanes, inaugurated a hugely popular "Summer Streets" event, experimented with innovations in Bus Rapid Transit, and, most dramatically, pedestrianized two of New York's legendary crossroads -- Herald Square and Times Square. All this has caused Sadik-Khan, who came to the job from the engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, to inspire rock-star levels of adoration among fans in the biking and urban-planning community." - Christopher Chung

"Over the years, people at Carnegie Mellon University have done just about everything imaginable with their robots. Everything, that is, but count them. Enter Heather Knight, a first-year doctoral student in robotics from Boston who arrived this fall from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ... she resolved to count every last one, embarking on the university's first-ever Robot Census. She's at 547 robots after several weeks of counting." - Christopher Chung

"[New York] has undergone a two-wheeled makeover. In the last four years, the New York City Department of Transportation has added more than 200 miles of bikes lanes. The number of cyclists has increased 80% in the past decade. The city's goal is 1,800 miles of total bike lanes by 2030. Earlier this year, National Geographic Traveler magazine did something that might once have been unthinkable: It ranked New York the second most bike-friendly city in the country, after Portland, Ore." - Christopher Chung

"The English language, which arose from humble Anglo-Saxon roots to become the lingua franca of 600 million people worldwide and the dominant lexicon of international discourse, is dead. It succumbed last month at the age of 1,617 after a long illness. It is survived by an ignominiously diminished form of itself. The end came quietly on Aug. 21 on the letters page of The Washington Post. A reader castigated the newspaper for having written that Sasha Obama was the "youngest" daughter of the president and first lady, rather than their "younger" daughter. In so doing, however, the letter writer called the first couple the "Obama's." This, too, was published, constituting an illiterate proofreading of an illiterate criticism of an illiteracy. Moments later, already severely weakened, English died of shame." - Christopher Chung

"Every adopted child wonders who his biological mother is. Movie star? Rock star? Maybe a big-shot CEO? For Richard Lorenc, she turned out to be the last thing he ever imagined: a sideshow bearded lady. The 33-year-old Kansas man had always been curious about his birth parents, but with a wife and two young daughters, he was busy making a life of his own. After a recent back injury led to multiple medical exams and many questions about his family medical history, he decided it was time to start digging." - Christopher Chung

"According to Wheeler, doctors examining her for Guinness said she has a male bone structure, with half her hormones being male. Doctors thought it would be impossible for her to give birth, but she became pregnant, and baby Richard was delivered by cesarean section in 1977. For Wheeler, a Seventh-Day Adventist, it was a miracle. But she says the father, a carnival ride operator she had met in Nebraska, took the baby away from her soon after the birth. Lorenc didn't learn all this until later. After learning his birth mother's name, he set out to find her. He started by looking her up on the Internet. "I knew it was her as soon as I saw the picture online," he said. "We have a resemblance."" - Christopher Chung

"SAN JOSÉ MINE, Chile — Huddled around a television set in a dining tent, relatives laughed, smiled and clapped on Friday as they watched the first video images of the 33 miners trapped in a chamber about 2,000 feet below." - Christopher Chung

'The inexplicable collapse of a tennis phenom' "Over the past two years, Ivanovic, age 22, has slowly come undone on the tennis court. Her problems began after she won the 2008 French Open and became the world’s No. 1 female player. That summer, in Majorca, Spain, she injured her thumb while practicing with male players whose severe topspin strokes threw off her timing. She has since sustained several other minor injuries—but mostly she has lost her confidence. A professional tennis player might flub a toss once or twice a match. Against Dulko, Ivanovic flubbed at least 20 tosses. She hit 11 double faults and lost in three sets. (It was the fifth time she had committed nine or more double faults in a match since winning her French Open title.) Not long after, her ranking dipped to No. 58; this summer at Wimbledon, she was unseeded, and lost in the first round." - Christopher Chung

"“It’s obviously a problem from tension, and it shows itself in the ball toss,” said Heinz Günthardt, Steffi Graf’s former coach, who began working with Ivanovic earlier this year. Her forehand, far and away her strongest shot, has also deteriorated—to the point that she no longer seems to take pleasure in hitting it. Günthardt described a downward spiral that began with doubt and proceeded to muscle tightness, then to compensation (swing harder, or in a different way), and finally to new, flawed habits. A stroke that used to begin with the fluid rotation of her upper body turned into a slap at the ball, without Ivanovic’s knowing she had changed anything at all." - Christopher Chung

Geez. Should i even bother reading the article? It sounds pretty depressing. - Dan Hsiao

this is most of the interesting stuff, but maybe it's worth reading. it's real short. - Christopher Chung

"The fans called Isner by one of his nicknames, Marathon Man, which seemed fitting even while his first-round match at the United States Open lasted fewer than two hours. Isner advanced to the second round by dispatching Frederico Gil of Portugal, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4. Afterward, Isner answered the predictable gamut of questions about the match he won at Wimbledon, which at five crazy sets and more than 11 ridiculous hours was the longest in professional tennis history. Isner acknowledged Wednesday that that match had worn on him physically, mentally and emotionally — more than he expected." - Christopher Chung

"A second M.R.I. cleared Isner for New York. “It wasn’t torn,” he said. “It was everything but torn.” Medical clearance came with a downside, with another round of questions about Wimbledon, another uptick in curiosity, perhaps the most thorough examination of the lengthy match Isner called “stupid” at a recent tournament. Isner flew to New York, arriving Monday. The first person he bumped into in the locker room? Nicolas Mahut, his marathon opponent. They exchanged handshakes and high-fives and talked for five minutes about how their lives had changed since that match in late June had changed everything." - Christopher Chung

"DEVELOPING: Police in Maryland are responding to a hostage situation after reports that a man with a handgun entered the Discovery Channel headquarters building in Silver Spring and fired at least one shot. An official with the Montgomery County Police Department confirmed to Fox News that a man with an explosive device is holding at least one person hostage in the lobby of the building." - Christopher Chung

lol. that is a weird one. - Christopher Chung

http://www.youtube.com/watch... - Christopher Chung

"Did Roger Federer do it, or was it a fake? That has been the question posed to virtually every prominent player who attended a news conference Saturday regarding his now famous William Tell video in which he twice hits a metal bottle off someone’s head with a serve. While most players claimed they hadn’t seen the video, Andy Murray was unequivocal about it’s authenticity. “You think that was real?” he retorted with a smile. “Is that right? No, I like the advert, it was good fun. There’s not a chance it’s real, though.”" - Christopher Chung

His lack of belief is probably why he's yet to win a grand slam title. ;) - Dan Hsiao

har har har - Christopher Chung

"Forget the score, which was predictably lopsided. What will endure from Roger Federer’s routine victory over Brian Dabul on opening night at the United States Open was the shot. ... “I turned around and couldn’t believe the shot landed in the corner,” Roger Federer said. By the time Federer nodded off to sleep in his Manhattan hotel room, his latest piece of performance art was high-quality grist for sports shows and news programs. It was prompting people to say, “Check this out,” in various languages as they gathered around their computer screens..... But in technical and aesthetic terms, there is clearly a debate worth having. ESPN asked its viewers to state their preference before Monday’s match had ended, with a solid majority preferring the 2010 version." - Christopher Chung

Dabul's face at 0:46 says it all. - Christopher Chung

Hrm... - Dan Hsiao

I'm not laughing - Scoble, Alex Scoble

ARGH. "A cabdriver was attacked Tuesday by a knife-wielding passenger who made anti-Muslim remarks, the police said. The passenger, Michael Enright, 21, of Brewster, N.Y., hailed the cab at Second Avenue and East 24th Street around 6 p.m. Tuesday, the police said. Twenty blocks north, they said, he slashed and stabbed the 43-year-old driver in his throat, face and arm. The driver, identified by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a drivers’ group, as Ahmed H. Sharif, 43, stopped the cab and approached a police officer on Third Avenue near 42nd Street. Mr. Enright was arrested at the scene." - Christopher Chung

"“I feel very sad,” Mr. Sharif said in a statement released by the taxi workers’ alliance. “I have been here more than 25 years. I have been driving a taxi more than 15 years. All my four kids were born here. I never feel this hopeless and insecure before.”" - Christopher Chung

Old news, but always interesting. "Women have certainly never hit harder and not just on account of improved equipment. They’re stronger, bigger, faster, better trained and pushed above all by the example of the Williams sisters. Serena, glorious and musclebound, and Venus, long-limbed and tall, have redefined the sport around power. Years ago, tennis writers used to call Martina Navratilova, listed at 5-foot-8 and lean, a giantess with popping veins because other women seemed weaklings by comparison. Now most tour players would dwarf her." - Christopher Chung

Although I don't think "most" tour players would dwarf Navratilova. She's still pumped and has bigger muscles than lots of these women. - Christopher Chung

They took some pretty crazy/cool pics. - Dan Hsiao

"NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Governor David Paterson plans to discuss relocating a proposed Muslim cultural center and mosque to a less emotional location farther from New York City's "Ground Zero" site of the September 11 attacks. "We are working with the developers," Paterson's spokeswoman Maggie McKeon said. "There have not been any formal discussions between the governor, the Imam or the developer. However, we expect to have a meeting scheduled in the near future."" - Christopher Chung

*heavy sigh* And if "success" came of the discussions, what kind of precedent would that set??? - Prosey BUTTONS!

"These images, by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, are some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations." - Christopher Chung

"A JetBlue flight attendant apparently upset with an uncooperative passenger on a just-landed flight unleashed a profanity-laden tirade on the public-address system, pulled the emergency-exit chute, slid off the plane and fled Kennedy International Airport, a law enforcement official said." - Christopher Chung

Sounds like the dramatized hollywood version of a mundane life event. - Dan Hsiao

"Over the past year in New York, mobile food outlets like the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, Street Sweets and Schnitzel and Things have pushed street cuisine to new heights" - Christopher Chung

"According to Nielsen, the average number of mobile phone calls we make is dropping every year, after hitting a peak in 2007. And our calls are getting shorter: In 2005 they averaged three minutes in length; now they’re almost half that. We’re moving, in other words, toward a fascinating cultural transition: the death of the telephone call. This shift is particularly stark among the young. Some college students I know go days without talking into their smartphones at all. ... This generation doesn’t make phone calls, because everyone is in constant, lightweight contact in so many other ways: texting, chatting, and social-network messaging. And we don’t just have more options than we used to. We have better ones: These new forms of communication have exposed the fact that the voice call is badly designed. It deserves to die." - Christopher Chung

Hank Aaron is the man. "Alex Rodriguez was hailed as the golden one, the natural, the five-tool template almost certain to wind up with baseball’s most cherished cherry on top. He may yet end up with the career home run record, but the evidence is mounting that it will not come as once envisioned, with Rodriguez as ethically preferable to Barry Bonds or even as physically superior to Hank Aaron." - Christopher Chung

"Remember how Aaron’s career achievements were portrayed as Bonds obliterated baseball’s geriatric slugging standards and ultimately a nation’s believability? Compared with a 37-year-old who clubbed 73 home runs in 2001, Aaron was mildly derided as an earnest toiler who never hit 50 in any one of his 23 major league seasons. Re-examined in the light of subsequent steroid revelations and admissions, Aaron’s assault on Ruth becomes more impressive than anything ever seen during the recent era of lying eyes." - Christopher Chung

Sad - even Supercuts is too much for consumers to splurge on. This is the new underwear metric. "Regis Corp. (RGS) said it is exploring options to improve shareholder value as the haircut chain struggles with sluggish consumer spending. The parent of haircut chains such as Supercuts said last month its beauty salon segment is still seeing lengthening time between customer visits, hurting its same-store sales. Regis shares have lost about half their value in the past two years." - Christopher Chung

"Federal prosecutors have intensified their criminal investigation of the cyclist Lance Armstrong since the end of the Tour de France last month. They questioned many of his former associates, including cyclists who have supported and detailed claims that Armstrong and his former United States Postal Service team participated in systematic doping, according to a cyclist who has been interviewed and two others privy to the inquiry." - Christopher Chung

"The National Association of Evangelicals has condemned plans by a Florida church to burn copies of the Quran on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “The proposed burning of Qurans would be profoundly offensive to Muslims worldwide, just as Christians would be insulted by the burning of Bibles,” the NAE said in a Thursday (July 29) statement. “Such an act would escalate tensions between members of the two faiths in the United States and around the world.” The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., announced its plans on a Facebook page “in remembrance of the fallen victims of 9/11 and to stand against the evil of Islam,” reads the announcement. “`Islam is of the devil!”" - Christopher Chung