John Oliver Aims to “Make Donald Drumpf Again”
John Oliver who said he’s been avoiding coverage of Donald Trump during primary season took on the Republican frontrunner head on Sunday evening hoping to disconnect the candidate from his powerful name. At some point in Trump’s lineage a biographer found that the family had changed its name from Drumpf to Trump. In an effort to unhinge the candidate from his powerful name, Oliver launched the campaign “Make Donald Drumpf Again” just ahead of Super Tuesday.
Behind Fairway Market’s Struggle to Stay Afloat
Fairway Market’s once thriving operation is on the verge of collapse. The company has $267 million in debt and teeters on the edge of bankruptcy after a badly-planned expansion in the city and suburbs. A former employee and writer talks about what it was like to work amidst that rapid growth. [Grub Street]
Five Microcities Within New York City
From honey whiskey and carbon fiber bras at the Brooklyn Navy Yard to a drone lab and a practice facility for the Brooklyn Nets at Industry City, take a look at what’s cooking at five of the city’s urban industrial parks. The co-working spaces, which have grown out of former manufacturing hubs in Brooklyn and Queens, double as entertainment complexes for workers and visitors alike, with on-site yoga classes, happy hours and dance parties. [New York magazine]
Bittersweet: Inside Big Chocolate’s Child Labor Problem
Chew on this before you bite into that Hershey’s bar: major chocolate companies have pledged for years to try to end child labor in the cocoa trade, but 2.1 million children in West Africa still are involved in the difficult and dangerous work of harvesting cocoa. [Fortune]
Justice Clarence Thomas Asks His First Questions in 10 Years at Supreme Court
After 10 years without asking a single question from the bench, the Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas surprised everyone when he spoke during an oral argument in a case on domestic violence and gun ownership Monday morning. Some pointed out that Thomas spoke two weeks after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, who for decades dominated Supreme Court arguments and usually asked the most questions. [NYT]
How Italy Has Fared With a Trump-like President
Italy has its own Trump and has elected him three times. Silvio Berlusconi has quite a few things in common with The Donald, including his large ego, his numerous marriages and his sexist and racist comments, according to The Daily Beast. According to an Italian columnist, “Both have a troubled relation with their egos and their hair. Both think God is their publicist, and twist religion to suit their own ends.” [The Daily Beast]
Whoops! Google’s Self-Driving Car Got in Its First Crash
After logging 1 million miles without any crashes, a Google self-driving car got into a minor scrape with a bus in California last month. Vox’s blow-by-blow of the accident isn’t very exciting — the Google car was going 2 m.p.h. at the time — but with all attention paid to the experimental vehicle and its implications for the future of transportation, the fender-bender may make the driving public wince a bit. [Vox]
Stephen Curry is Very Good at Playing Basketball
On Saturday, Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry scored 12 3-pointers in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, tying the NBA single-game record. He also helped the Warriors clinch a playoff spot and broke his own NBA record for 3-pointers in one season. And the NBA playoffs aren’t set to begin until mid-April. In other words, he is a very good basketball player, and Guardian writer Aaron Timms has taken a closer look at how good he is, describing his success as a “basketball revolution” and comparing him to sports legends like Wayne Gretzky and Lionel Messi while also arguing that his season is totally unprecedented. [The Guardian]
The LA Times Almost Couldn’t Cover the Oscars
LA’s main broadsheet almost missed out on covering the Oscars thanks to upper-echelon brass in its parent company, Tribune Publishing, who initially reserved all the paper’s tickets for themselves and only gave up a pair of tickets after the film desk sent a strongly-worded email in complaint. [Politico Media]
The City’s First Subway Car Had a Fish Tank and Grand Piano
The Daily News looks back on the city’s first underground train, built in 1870 by inventor Alfred Ely Beach. It was only a block long, traveling the length of Broadway between Warren and Murray streets downtown, but boasted high-end features like a grand piano and goldfish tank. [Daily News]
After Year in Space, Astronaut Is Ready to Come Home
Consider it another leap for mankind, as astronaut Scott Kelly returns home Tuesday after making history as the only American to continuously live in space, traveling over 143 million miles — or “roughly the distance for a one-way trip to Mars.” Kelly documented his trip on Instagram and Twitter, posting some captivating shots of the world under the hashtags #YearInSpace, #EarthArt and #SpaceWalkSelfie. He even posted the first flower ever grown in space. [NYT]
Instagram Helps Researchers Analyze Food Deserts
Researchers analyzed 3 million Instagram food posts and separated them based on whether the user was posting from a food desert or a non-food desert location. “Food deserts” are areas of the country that lack healthy food options and are dominated by fast and processed food. The differences in the two categories was stark. In non-food deserts in the Midwest for example, kale, turkey and spinach were popular on Instagram, whereas in Midwestern food deserts, hamburgers and hot dogs were the most popular foods to post. [The Atlantic]
This column was compiled by DNAinfo reporters Alexandra Leon, Gwynne Hogan, Carolina Pichardo, Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska, Nikhita Venugopal, Shaye Weaver, Eddie Small, Emily Frost, Jeanmarie Evelly, Irene Plagianos, Noah Hurowitz and Rachel Holliday Smith.
