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

these are BEAUTIFUL. check out the Hudson in the first photo! glowing electric blue. AMAZING. - Jeannie Choi

<3ly - Dan Hsiao

"Haz mat crews have been called to an IRS building in Ogden, Utah, according to a report by The Standard-Examiner. The newspaper reports that the building's entrance is blocked and that the FBI is investigating." - Christopher Chung

"Rising threats against IRS. Threats against IRS employees rose 21.5% last year, according to the Treasury Department's Inspector General for Tax Administration. In the 2008 fiscal year, there were 834 threats against IRS employees. During that same period in 2009, threats jumped to 1,014." - Christopher Chung

"The Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's three Grand Tours, is on schedule to begin in the District in 2012, marking the first time one of the sport's most prominent races would conduct a stage outside Europe. Officials with the race held a gala on Thursday night at the Italian Embassy in Northwest Washington to introduce the race, and although they stopped short of making an official announcement, a deal seemed all but imminent." - Christopher Chung

"Turns out the recent anti-reform push by lobbyists from a handful of Wall Street’s biggest firms isn’t just out of step with Washington’s newly populist tone. In key respects, it also doesn’t jibe with the views of hundreds of the financial industry’s own most-experienced professionals." - Christopher Chung

"That’s the message of recent poll results from the CFA Institute, which offers the chartered financial analyst designation, one of the most valued credentials for individuals to hold on Wall Street, including people in every role and sub-specialty within the industry. The institute asked more than 1,400 of its members a few simple questions about reform. In response to the poll’s most specific question, 68% of respondents expressed support for separating proprietary trading from commercial-banking activity." - Christopher Chung

"It has been a little over a year since Travis, the 14-year-old, 200-pound pet of Sandra Herold, 71, mauled a family friend in Ms. Herold’s driveway. Officer Chiafari and another officer were the first to respond to Ms. Herold’s 911 call, and after the chimpanzee attacked his vehicle and opened the driver-side door in the driveway, Officer Chiafari fatally shot Travis. The story and its sensational underpinnings — Travis lived like a human, eating steak and drinking wine and, when he became hostile the day of the attack, ingesting Xanax — swept the globe. Travis had appeared in Old Navy and Coca-Cola commercials and television shows; the actress Morgan Fairchild, who had appeared beside him, called his death a “sin.” The victim, Charla Nash, 56, survived. Her recovery from the attack — the chimp bit and clawed off her face and hands — was presented to the world via an “Oprah Winfrey Show” in November. She was blind, her features lost in a bulbous and livid pulp. But no one has heard Officer Chiafari’s story until now." - Christopher Chung

"But Ms. Nash reached out with the stumps of her arms and tried to grab the officer’s leg, a memory that was perhaps the worst for him that day. Ms. Nash was rushed to a hospital. Officer Chiafari was, too, for shock, and then sent home, where he told his wife and children — a 10-year-old girl and a teenage boy and girl — what had happened. “The next morning, I crashed,” he said. “I’d always heard of post-traumatic stress. Tell you the truth, I don’t think I believed in it.”" - Christopher Chung

"He Believes In Global Warming “You’d be an idiot not to notice the temperature change,” he says. He also says there’s a legit case that global warming has, at least in part, been caused by mankind. He has tried to do his part by buying a home with a “green” design and using energy-saving products. “I’m willing to do anything but use the CFLs,” he says of compact fluorescent light bulbs. - Christopher Chung

"From the bloody civil wars in Africa to the rag-tag insurgiences in Southeast Asia, 33 conflicts are raging around the world today, and it’s often innocent civilians who suffer the most." - Christopher Chung

Any way you slice it, it's a cone like no other. Owners of the new K! Pizzacone shop in midtown are out to prove that cones can hold more than just scoops of ice cream - and that regular old pizza falls flat. "I've been traveling around the world, and we saw this in Portugal, in Brazil and Italy," Ingo Pinto, the shop's co-owner and manager, said of their specialty, the pizzacone. "Why not in New York?" - Christopher Chung

"And like millions of Americans, Vonn can't help poking fun at Woods' staged event. When a member of her Vonn-tourage tells her that Woods gave a few friends hugs after ending his statement, she cracks, "They're like, 'Yeah, you're awesome, you go have that sex.' " The [interview] room breaks into a laugh. Then she describes a skit she would want to perform if asked to host Saturday Night Live: picture Vonn at Woods' podium, blue backdrop and all. "There's something you don't know about me," Vonn says in a faux solemn, apologetic voice. "Tiger, you're like my idol, and I too have a sex problem." More laughter. "That would be freaking funny."" - Christopher Chung

"You’ve got to love the local news. Only there can a  man with a penis tree-sculpture in his yard get a three-minute lead story at 5:30, reported on by entirely straight-faced reporters. There is so much to love: after they slip in a shot of the pine-dick near the beginning, they blur out the wooden member (as if it was actual nudity) for the rest of the clip ... they get through the entire segment without ever saying the word ‘penis.’  Instead, the reporter says that it resembles a certain male body part, “that rhymes with Salinas.”" - Christopher Chung

I wonder if they also blurred out all the dognutz in their coverage of the Westminster Dog Show. - Andy Ackerman

"Officials have confirmed that the plane that hit the building at the 9400 block of Research Boulevard belonged to Joseph Andrew Stack, the private plane pilot whose nearby home, left, was on fire at roughly the same time." - Christopher Chung

"A man crashed a small plane Thursday morning into a seven-story office building in Austin, Tex., that houses offices of the Internal Revenue Service, the authorities said. The pilot was killed. Two people were hospitalized, and one person was still unaccounted for Thursday afternoon." - Christopher Chung

"The authorities identified the pilot as Joseph A. Stack III. There were indications that Mr. Stack, 53, was a software engineer who had had conflicts with the I.R.S." - Christopher Chung

"Walgreen Co. agreed to buy Duane Reade from private-equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners for $618 million, plus $457 million in debt, making the largest U.S. drugstore chain also the market leader in New York City. Walgreen, which expects to close the purchase by the end of August, said it would retain the Duane Reade name." - Christopher Chung

Wow. Thankfully they're retaining the DR name. A NY without Duane Reade would be a sad place. - Dan Hsiao

There is some serious drug store consolidation going on these days. CVS just took over Longs Drugs not too long ago. - Brian Chang

Whoa! - Andrew C (✔)

"They make an unlikely trio, but Baloo the bear, Leo the lion and Shere Khan the tiger have forged an unusually strong bond. Considering that they would be mortal enemies if they ever were to meet in the wild, it is stunning to see their unique and genuine friendship in these intimate pictures." - Christopher Chung

I near laughed out loud at this tote bag. - Christopher Chung

"Gay military rights advocate Lt. Dan Choi has been called back into drill duty, he told The Advocate in a phone interview Tuesday. Photographer Jeff Sheng, who recently turned his lens on active gay and lesbian service members for a book about "don't ask, don't tell," originally reported the news on Bilerico.com. Choi was scheduled to appear at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Creating Change conference over the weekend but instead rejoined his unit. Choi said his commander called him personally, asking him to return." - Christopher Chung

Good news related to the US govt is so rare these days. - Andy Ackerman

""If the primaries were this year, I suspect she'd be nominated," a senior adviser to one of Sarah Palin's potential rivals confides.  It's easy to see why: no one who's thinking of running beats the enthusiasm she generates among Republican activists. But there is more to the case for Palin than just the confluence of her personality and a vacuum within the Republican Party: there is a method to her management of her public image. It strongly hints that she has pretty much decided to run for president in 2012, unless something knocks her out of the race; it is more organized and structured that it appears; and it is something that Republican insiders, in particular, will ignore at their peril." - Christopher Chung

"Palin, writes Jonathan Raban in an excellent essay in the New York Review of Books, has an "exceptionally canny political instinct for connecting with her own kind." It has been noted that her conservatism is resentment-based, and is fueled and nourished by the specter of elite mistreatment." - Christopher Chung

"George W. Bush never spoke this language. He was an evangelical convert, more influenced by his advisers Catholicism than by, say, Palin's Assembly of God charismatics. She is pure in ways the rich son of Connecticut could never dream of. " - Christopher Chung

Who's a prominent conservative whose conservatism ISN'T resentment-based? - Andrew C (✔)

"In a matter of months, both leaders of the Qaeda-allied Taliban in Pakistan have been targeted and killed (http://www.nytimes.com/2010...) by US drone attacks. The latest was in retaliation for the murder of CIA officials in a suicide attack by a double agent who turned on the US. If you add this record - and there are many examples of similar surgical strikes decapitating Qaeda figures in the last year - to the ramp-up of forces in Afghanistan and overhaul of strategy there, I think you can make a very solid case that in the war on Jihadist terrorism, Obama is proving far more effective - in both soft and hard power - than the Bush administration ever was." - Christopher Chung

I don't like Bush either, but of course Obama should be harder on AQ than on Bush! =) - Andrew C (✔)

Coates, via Daily Dish. Worth reading the whole thing: "I think it's worth noting that Chris Matthews wasn't trying to take a shot at anybody. I also think it's worth noting that he was attempting to compliment Obama and say something positive about what he's done for race relations. (See Matthews' clarification here.) But I think it's most worth noting that "I forgot Obama was black"--in all its iterations--is something that white people should stop saying, if only because it's really dishonest." - Christopher Chung

"In fact, Chris Matthews didn't forget Barack Obama was black. Chris Matthews forgot that Chris Matthews was white." - Christopher Chung

"In late October, Newsday, the Long Island daily that the Dolans bought for $650 million, put its web site, newsday.com, behind a pay wall. The paper was one of the first non-business newspapers to take the plunge by putting up a pay wall, so in media circles it has been followed with interest.... So, three months later, how many people have signed up to pay $5 a week, or $260 a year, to get unfettered access to newsday.com? The answer: 35 people. As in fewer than three dozen. As in a decent-sized elementary-school class." - Christopher Chung

Yes, was gonna say something to that effect about the Knicks. - Christopher Chung

This is amazing and gross at the same time. - Christopher Chung

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010... - Christopher Chung

:( - Dan Hsiao

I guess it has been predicted for a while. How long could his body hold up with that kind of game? He's getting on in years now, turning 24 this summer. But I'm hoping it's just a blip. - Christopher Chung

"He's getting on in years now, turning 24 this summer." sigh... - Jim Norris

Most unlikely and awkward invocation of the No. 1 men's tennis player I've seen: "Last year, as Obama’s standing in the polls weakened and support for health care plummeted, the administration’s stay-the-course posture sometimes came across as less an example of Roger Federerian cool than Alfred E. Neumanish what-me-worryism." - Christopher Chung

Federerian? Hm? - Christopher Chung

I think Federerist would be more appropriate. - Dan Hsiao

Not to be confused with Federalist. - Brian Chang

Har har. "Hey, who's excited about President Obama's spending freeze!?! Anyone? No? You, over there? Guy in the turtleneck? Oh, sorry, thought I saw a hand up back there." - Christopher Chung

You may want to listen to this Podcast entitled “January 25, 2010: "Bush's Budget-Busting Binge" featuring Chris Edwards” (http://goo.gl/LCyZ) to hear which President in the past 45 years has been our country's biggest spender. - Tom Awtry

"An Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on Monday morning shortly after it took off in stormy weather from the airport in Beirut, Lebanon." - Christopher Chung

"Did we actually abandon our old recipe and completely revamp our pizza? Oh yes, we did." - Christopher Chung

Hm, it was OK. The crust was garlicky and good. But I probably won't be going out of my way to eat Domino's. Unless... they change the recipe again? - Christopher Chung

"So, yeah. [We conservatives are] supposed to be happy. I know we’re all talking about the glory days of 1994, or 1984. I’m sure there is some mid-level staffer at National Review, trying to conjure the tears of Barry Goldwater on behalf of Scott Brown. But in case you’ve forgotten, even by your own standards, you’re kind of in terrible shape." - Christopher Chung

"In over 70 years, despite massive public spasms of disgust with the federal government, conservatives have only made it larger and stupider. Let's list how! Eisenhower’s Cold War mobilization, Nixon’s wage and price controls and the EPA, Reagan’s massive expansion of military spending, financed by tax cuts that were sold to the public as “revenue generating.” The process culminated in the hilariously fascist sounding, grant-writing chop shop known as the Department of Homeland Security. So: failure." - Christopher Chung

"Considering his history you might not be surprised to learn that John has a hard time getting invested in new prospects. "Do you think it's going to take meeting someone who I admire more than I admire myself? But isn't it also about a beautiful vagina? Don't they also have to have vagina that you could pitch a tent on and just camp out on for, like, a weekend? The Joshua Tree of vaginas? I'll be happy when I close out this life-partner thing. Think of how much mental capacity I'm using to meet the right person so I can stop giving a f*** about it."" - Christopher Chung

what is he even talking about??? and boy needs to put his shirt back on - Felicia Yue

Felix Salmon: "The last time there was a disaster on this scale was the Asian tsunami, five years ago. And for all its best efforts, the Red Cross has still only spent 83% of its $3.21 billion tsunami budget — which means that it has over half a billion dollars left to spend. Not to put too fine a point on it, but that’s money which could be spent in Haiti, if it weren’t for the fact that it was earmarked." - Christopher Chung

"Obama has failed to fulfill his [Guantanamo] promise. Some prisoners are being charged with crimes, others released, but the date for closing the camp seems to recede steadily into the future. Furthermore, new evidence now emerging may entangle Obama’s young administration with crimes that occurred during the Bush presidency, evidence that suggests the current administration failed to investigate seriously—and may even have continued—a cover-up of the possible homicides of three prisoners at Guantánamo in 2006." - Christopher Chung