Cantu hit the road to talk about the miracle berry and its potential to fight hunger and diabetes. Watch his TED talk and CNN segments to learn more.
Moto Chef Homaro Cantu Talks Miracle Berries, Molecular Gastronomy at TED
LeBillboard James
As if we haven't heard enough about the impending LeBron James sweepstakes (yes, we're guilty, too) two more stories are popping up. While we think it'd be nice to have LeBron playing home games at the United Center, we didn't shell out cash for a new billboard downtown calling for LeBron to come to Chicago. But one group of fans did, purchasing a billboard at Grand and LaSalle trying to woo LeBron into signing with Chicago. And according to the website, the group is looking into buying a second billboard, this one on LeBron's home turf of Akron, Ohio. Ouch. Whether this can successfully counter Cleveland's own wooing remains to be seen. But we cordially offer this suggestion: perhaps donating to LeBron's favorite charity might be a better way of wooing him? Or at least showing him some sort of spirit among fans he's looking for.
Boehner: No To Thomson Even "If You Put A Gun To My Head"
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) appeared on CNN's State of the Union this weekend and made some strong statements in regards to shutting down Guantanamo Bay and moving federal prisoners to a refurbished Thomson Correctional Center in Northwest Illinois. How strong? "I wouldn't vote for this [Thomson] if you put a gun to my head." Yeah, that strong. Boehner also echoed worries expressed previously by U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk that moving prisoners here would increase the terrorist threat level to the U.S. and making Thomson sound like a keg party, saying, "There's no reason to bring these terrorists into the United States, no reason to increase the threat level here because they're here and their friends may want to come." Check out an excerpt below.
CNN Shows The Field Museum Some Love
Today, CNN featured The Field Museum as one of the "Five Museums You and Your Kids Will Enjoy." What did the House of Anderson have to say about the Field?
Chicago Families Rescued From Mumbai Hotel
A Chicago woman and her family were rescued by the Indian Army from a Mumbai hotel where they had been trapped for almost two days since the siege began earlier this week. Carol Mackoff and her husband, sister, and friend were staying at the Taj Mahal Hotel as part of a three-week trip when the attacks began. With the satellite TV cut, Mackoff's only communication with the outside world was through text messages with the U.S. Consulate. In an interview with CNN, Mackoff said, "In the beginning, we heard shots and we didn't know what was happening. We saw men running down our hallway and we could see through the peephole in the door -- we could see guns in their hands."
Illinois Woman Uses Coin Flip to Determine Vote
Dear Cindy Miller of Washington, Illinois:
CNN To Use....Holograms?
The future is now, at least over at CNN. During tomorrow night's election, the network is planning on using three-dimensional holograms to supplement those weird touch screens they've been using. They'll project holographic images of their field correspondents stationed around the country, including Chicago, onto their set using 44 cameras and 20 computers in each location to get the image rendered correctly. Holy shit. I will pay $50 to the first CNN tech who manages to slip in a glimpse of the Death Star blueprints instead of, say, Anderson Cooper.
CNN Catches On, Exposes "Anger" Across the Interwebs
Oh, CNN. Is there anything you can't uncover? With nothing going on in the news these days, the network took a cruise around the internet and found that there's lot of anger out there. That's something Eric Zorn apparently knows all too well. You'd never know it if you read our site.
Fox News Slams CNN In Trib Ad
Fox News took out a full-page ad in today's Tribune—oh, so who still advertising in the Trib—ragging on CNN and its restructuring plan that includes reducing its Chicago staff to 9 from 12. [TVNewser]
Kazmierczak Attempted to Impede Investigators
More disturbing details are emerging today about Steve Kazmierczak: Police are saying that he tried to cover his tracks before the shooting spree. He removed the hard drive from his computer and took the SIM card out of his phone. And apparently the account his girlfriend gave CNN yesterday doesn't match with what she told the police.
NIU Victims, Shooter Remembered
The Chicago Blackhawks honored the NIU victims last night with above decal, which they'll wear on their helmets again tomorrow night in St. Louis and Wednesday night here against Minnesota. And Ozzie Guillen and co. were wearing NIU hats at spring training. [Blackhawks, Uniwatch]
Stephen Kazmierczak, NIU Shooter
This is the first photo emerging of Stephen (we're also seeing it spelled Steven, but NIU announced it as a ph) Kazmierczak, the gunman in yesterday's shootings at NIU.
Shooter, Some Victims Identified
CNN is identifying the shooter as 27-year-old Steven Kazmierczak.
Update on NIU Shootings
More reports out of NIU tonight:
Are Breasts Running Dry for Playboy?
Porn is like a money tree. If you need some cash, just go out and shake the silicone until a few hundred thousand dollars drop out. So how exactly can the nation’s foremost “gentlemen’s magazine” be losing money? Playboy announced a 4th-quarter loss today, losing $1.1 million compared with a $3.7 million profit at this time last year.
Sweeps Week for Obama
Barack Obama swept the Potomac Primary last night, bringing his winning streak to eight, and eclipsing Hillary Clinton in the delegate count, 1,059 to 956 among pledged delegates.
Identity Thief Coincidentally Nabbed in Tinley Park
An unrelated mystery has been solved as police investigate the Tinley Park murders. A con woman, evading police for years, was apprehended this weekend because police tracked down the owners of the cars parked near the Lane Bryant, where the fugitive Esther Reed had left her car, which was registered under an assumed identity.
Five Shot Dead at Suburban Lane Bryant
An unknown gunman went on a rampage inside a Lane Bryant store at Brookside Marketplace shopping center in south suburban Tinley Park earlier today, opening fire and killing five women. A police source is speculating that robbery was the motive, but the source had the same question we did -- why pick a clothing store to make your big score?
McCain Takes Florida
John McCain changed careers last night, from the candidate who was almost out of money (and the race) last summer to quite possibly the Republican presidential nominee. He's now the man to beat. The close but critical win in Florida gave him 57 delegates and a solid lead going into Super Duper Tuesday, (there are no superdelegates at the Republican National Convention). Hillary Clinton won the non-binding Florida race, a largely symbolic victory that featured virtually no campaigning and earned her no delegates to the convention.
More on the Montrose Megahole
T Fish captured some more freaky shots of the Great Pit of Carkoon the street collapse on Montrose . And CNN has video.
Clinton, Romney Big Winners in Nevada
With lots of delegates and potential momentum going into Super-Duper Tuesday, Nevada's primary has been both contentious and significant this year. Earlier this week a federal judge settled a lawsuit brought by the Nevada Teachers Union that should have helped Obama. Instead, with more than half of the precincts reporting, CBS, CNN and other major news outlets are projecting Clinton the winner today. Mitt Romney was the big winner in the GOP caucuses, taking his third primary win, and some serious momentum heading into Florida.
A Quick Win in Michigan
Michigan defied the conventional wisdom yesterday, giving Mitt Romney 30 delegates to the national convention and his second primary win.
Today's Aggro Awesomeness
All the American Gladiators used take steroids, do drugs and make out with each other. Oh, Nitro, how could you? The revamped American Gladiators airs another new episode tonight, but we're going to be too busy playing the old-school Nintendo version to watch. God, we still can't beat The Wall.
Iowa '08
Last night marked the official beginning of the 2008 presidential season. The close of the Iowa Democratic caucuses saw Barack Obama with 37 percent, John Edwards with 30 percent, and Hillary Clinton in third place with 29 percent of the votes, with 99 percent of Iowa precincts reporting. On the Republican side Mike Huckabee was the big winner.
Benazir Bhutto Assassinated
Today's big story--and no doubt one of the biggest stories in a long, long time--is that Benazir Bhutto, opposition leader and former prime minister of Pakistan, was assassinated this morning in a bombing that killed at least 20 other people. International leaders, including President Bush, are condemning the attack.
Henry Hyde, 1924-2007
Long-time Republican Congressman Henry Hyde died early this morning at Rush University Medical Center. He was 83. Hyde served 32 years in the House before retiring at the end of last session, and he was recently awarded a Medal of Freedom. He's best known for his role as the chairman of the judiciary committee during the Clinton impeachment proceedings and for the Hyde Amendment, which bans Medicaid from funding abortions except in cases of rape,...
Week Around the -Ists
In Los Angeles, LAist most definitely celebrated Thanksgiving like no other. After all, one has to keep up all the energy to keep on walking the line at the Writers Strike and fighting the unfortunate return of the wildfires in Malibu, which single handedly destroyed over fifty homes within the first 24 hours. National outlets may be covering the fires, but CNN also found it is easier to buy a gun than fruit and...
We're Number One (In Some Stuff)
Travel + Leisure, CNN.com and Headline News tag-teammed a really arbitrary survey of 60,000 people about the "best" cities. And we did pretty OK, so...awesome poll guys! According to the story, we have the best skyline and the worst weather. Worse than Minneapolis. Ouch, dudes. Ouch. We ranked first out of 25 cities in: best food and dining overall, best pizza, best home design shopping, best business trip (that's secretly fun), and sports' fan...

