Christopher Chung

"It seems overnight the cherry blossoms have popped open all over Brooklyn. These here are at a serene oasis on Brooklyn College's beautiful campus." - Christopher Chung

"A skip from Portland's Chinatown, in a nondescript brick building down the block from a 100-year-old former burlesque theater, is Voodoo Doughnut, and it's the kind of place that reaffirms everything good about mom-&-pop businesses. Tatted staffers serve up homemade doughnuts that look like kindergarten art projects: Messy, overloaded with jimmies or Fruit Loops and squishing creme out the side (example: the Old Dirty Bastard doughnut involves chocolate, peanut butter and crushed Oreos.) It's all guilty-pleasure delicious. And then there's the Bacon Maple Bar. It's an oblong doughnut, glazed with maple icing, topped with extra-crispy bacon. (No, there's no filling, you greedy freak.)" - Christopher Chung

No filling? Lame. :) - Dan Hsiao

"In a move that qualifies as a shocker, Conan O’Brien has made a deal to return to television in a new late-night show on cable — not network — television. The former “Tonight Show” host has agreed to start a new show on TBS, the comedy-oriented cable channel in the Turner network lineup." - Christopher Chung

"“In three months I’ve gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I’m headed to basic cable. My plan is working perfectly.”" - Christopher Chung

This is crazy. We'll sub on our Tivos, of course, but it's a huge surprise. - Louis Gray

Now I just need to find out which channel is TBS here. =p - rønin

"At least 14 people were injured in a blaze in Chinatown that reached seven-alarm status shortly after midnight Monday morning. More than 250 firefighters responded to the fire at 285 Grand Street. The New York Times Enlarge This Image Cary Conover for The New York Times The fire broke out at a six-story building in Chinatown. More than 250 firefighters and more than 60 Fire Department vehicles responded to the borough-wide call, descending on the six-story building at 285 Grand Street, a residential building anchored by a storefront." - Christopher Chung

oh my goodness! - Jeannie Choi

mm. "HUGH Jackman will be taking on his most challenging role yet, playing a man with genitalia attached to his face in a very risque comedy opposite Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet. Jackman and Winslet film just one segment of the film, which has been created by Peter Farrelly of There's Something About Mary fame. There are 17 shorts making up the project. Jackman plays a man whose testicles are located under his chin and Winslet plays a woman who goes out on a date with his character." - Christopher Chung

"“We are the most advanced in many fields, and we are willing to share with the United States,” Zheng Jian, the chief planner and director of high-speed rail at China’s railway ministry, said." - Christopher Chung

It's all part of their plan to build a high speed rail connecting China and the U.S. — then they'll have the longest rail card and get 2 victory pts. - Dan Hsiao

"With a deadpan, Beck insists that he is not political: "I could give a flying crap about the political process." Making money, on the other hand, is to be taken very seriously, and controversy is its own coinage. "We're an entertainment company," Beck says. He has managed to monetize virtually everything that comes out of his mouth. He gets $13 million a year from print (books plus the ten-issue-a-year magazine Fusion). Radio brings in $10 million. Digital (including a newsletter, the ad-supported Glennbeck.com and merchandise) pulls in $4 million." - Christopher Chung

Religion News Producer - wnet - Christopher Chung

"Tennis great Martina Navratilova says she has been diagnosed with breast cancer and her prognosis is excellent. Navratilova said in a phone interview Wednesday that a routine mammogram in January found a lump, and a biopsy the following month determined it was a noninvasive cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS." - Christopher Chung

rad. watch obama sink consecutive threes at the end. - Christopher Chung

and the trash talk. "Yeah, I saw your foot was on the line..." - Christopher Chung

A guy from Vancouver. This story reads like a cinematic thriller. "“Cunning, clever, conniving, and creative,” as one prosecutor would call him, Blanchard eluded the police for years. But eventually he made a mistake. And that mistake would take two officers from the modest police force of Winnipeg, Canada, on a wild ride of high tech capers across Africa, Canada, and Europe. Says Mitch McCormick, one of those Winnipeg investigators, “We had never seen anything like it.”" - Christopher Chung

I was just thinking about the Stainless Steel Rat this weekend, and then I read about this guy. Nice. - Andrew C (see frenf.it)

"Gerald Blanchard could hack any bank, swipe any jewel. There was no security system he couldn't steal." - Christopher Chung

This seems wrong. I mean, really? Tell me there's another side to this story. "Once on the ground, FEC filings suggest, Steele travels in style. A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,620.71 spent [update: the amount is actually $1,946.25] at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex." - Christopher Chung

It's OK if you're a Republican. - Andy Ackerman

I think one of the news outlets that reported this (might have been CNN, edit: oh, Huffington Post has it at the bottom too) said that the reimbursement for the strip club was submitted by a vendor who did work for the RNC and got rubber-stamped through the reimbursement process and that he's refunding the money. The fact that it got approved at all, though, definitely seems wrong. The other travel expenses are pretty crazy too, but does anyone really think that ANY career politicians in this country roll any other way? - Brian Chang

Lincoln's box is on the right. - Christopher Chung

heheh. "The Grimaldi's waiter who served the family, Rafal Harajda, told City Room that after they finished their meal of four pies—a plain, a pepperoni, a sausage and one with mushrooms, peppers and onions—the First Lady of the United States of America declared, "It was better than Chicago pizza." Which must cut like a pizza slicer for Chicago, seeing as Obama is from their hometown. Harajda later clarified the First Lady's statement, but did not contradict it. When asked by the Chicago Tribune about his quote to City Room, Harajda clarified: "No, what she said was, 'It's the best pizza, and I'm from Chicago.'" Which is essentially the same thing, and it's just the kind of Biden-esque remark that could cost the President the support of Illinois Democrats and derail the completion of health care reform. The only way this could be worse for Obama is if she had called Chicago pizza retarded." - Christopher Chung

oh man. - Andrew C (see frenf.it)

I <3 Grimaldi's - Dan Hsiao

"FLOTUS also ate at Grimaldi's pizzeria in Brooklyn and Dinosaur Bar-B-Q in Harlem." Mmmm. Remember the pepperoni at Grimaldi's? mmmmm - Christopher Chung

"To call someone a "baby-killer," especially a serious Catholic like Rep. Stupak with his deep commitment to life, is nothing short of evil, akin to calling a Jew a Nazi. It is incongruous, and it is a lie. No truly Christian person, whether they identify with either pro-life or pro-choice politics, believes that babies should be killed. This is obvious in the case of pro-life Christians like Rep. Stupak who have spent a lifetime arguing against abortion. But it is equally true for pro-choice Christians, who do not believe in killing babies but do believe that women are trustworthy moral agents who, when they have access to excellent health care, will make choices that lower the abortion rates as do European and Canadian women." - Christopher Chung

"... Tony Kornheiser set off a firestorm last week and drew new attention to some of the more vituperative statements about bikers during drive-time radio broadcasts. On his March 11 program, Mr. Kornheiser, a sports reporter for The Times in the late 1970s, bantered with his co-hosts about the number of bicyclists who ride in street, which they legally have a right to do. “They are the same disgusting posers that in the middle of a snowstorm come out with cross-country skiing on your block — run them down!” he said. “Why do these people think these roads were built for bicycles?”" - Christopher Chung

"After a 20-minute police chase, the coyote that had the run of TriBeCa was caught on Thursday." - Christopher Chung

darn. was rooting for coyote - Felicia Yue

(from 2008) - Christopher Chung

gorgeous! - Jeannie Choi

A previously unknown kind of human group vanished from the world so completely that it has left behind the merest wisp of evidence that it ever existed — a single bone from the little finger of a child, buried in a cave in the Altai mountains of southern Siberia. - Christopher Chung

"The iPhone is made, of course, by Microsoft's longtime rival, Apple Inc. The device's success is a nagging reminder for Microsoft executives of how the company's own efforts to compete in the mobile business have fallen short in recent years. What is especially painful is that many of Microsoft's own employees are nuts for the device.... Mr. Ballmer snatched the iPhone out of the employee's hands, placed it on the ground and pretended to stomp on it in front of thousands of Microsoft workers, according to people present." - Christopher Chung

"Despite Mr. Ballmer's theatrics, iPhone users are in plain sight at Microsoft. At the sprawling campus here in a Seattle suburb, workers peck away on their iPhone touch-screens in conference rooms, cafeterias and lobbies. Among the top Microsoft executives who use the iPhone is J Allard, who helped create the Xbox game console and is chief experience officer for the entertainment and devices division." - Christopher Chung

#10 is really funny. - Christopher Chung

I like how even this correction is wrong. =) I wonder if they posted a second correction to correct it. ;-p - rønin

yup, that's pretty funny too. lol - Christopher Chung

"One thing that I have been noticing over the last few days is how readily foreign policy hawks have been adopting arguments that are normally made by opponents of Iran sanctions but have been applying them to the U.S.-Israel relationship instead. All of a sudden, the hawks have realized that public condemnation and political pressure might backfire and cause the population of another country to rally around the government Washington is trying to pressure. At last they have discovered that hectoring rhetoric and attempts to push a government into doing something it believes it has every right to do are counterproductive! Of course, this insight disappears the minute it might actually be useful in improving our Iran policy." - Christopher Chung

"A coalition of the nation's most fervent bigots convened in Washington Monday to address growing concerns that the production of hateful new racial slurs has failed to keep pace with the rise in mixed-race births." - Christopher Chung

Award for failure in punditry. ""Word has it that Microsoft will feature an immensely powerful search engine in the next generation of Windows, due out by 2006. Not only will it incorporate a Web-search algorithm similar to Google's, it will also be able to search a user's desktop, local area network, and e-mail. ... As a result, Google stands a good chance of becoming not the next Microsoft, but the next Netscape. ... As it did with Internet Explorer, Microsoft is likely to embed its browser directly into its Windows software. Combine that ease of access with the fact that the Microsoft browser will be more functional, and it's tough to see why many Windows users would even bother with Google," - Clay Risen, 2004." - Christopher Chung

Stop the madness. "Police are investigating a possible hate crime that allegedly took place in Carroll Gardens shortly after 8 p.m on Tuesday, March 2nd. Investigators say the victim, an unnamed 22-year-old man, was severely beaten by five men shouting anti-gay slurs, near Luquer Street and Hamilton Avenue. He suffered "cuts to the back of his head and bad facial bruises," an NYPD source tells Fox." - Christopher Chung

This chart shows federal subsidies for various types of foods. Look at federal subsidies for veggies/fruits (left), how much the government recommends we have (right). - Christopher Chung

fascinating. i'll have to write about this for sojo sometime in the future-- maybe couch it in context of my conversation with walmart food exec. vs. my conversation with joel salatin. - Jeannie Choi

For you cat freaks =) - Christopher Chung

you say cat freaks as if the party doesn't include you. but it, in fact, does ... include ... you. - Jeannie Choi

Well I like cats but not really all these cat pictures so much. This one was funny though. - Christopher Chung

Fully functional map - Christopher Chung

"Measuring 2mx1, 40mx2, 30m in dimensions, this may sound a bit compact but believe me there is enough space inside to fit an Elephant! The cool “Sleep Cell” ( as I would like to call it) comes custom fitted with a Bed, Linen, Proper Ventilation System, Alarm, LCD T.V, Wi-Fi, space for your laptop and rechargeable phones and finally a cupboard under the bed to store your luggage in!" - Christopher Chung