Our mothership Gothamist reports that on Sunday, "hundreds of people gathered by the Chinese Consulate on the West Side Highway to protest the arrest and detainment of artist Ai Weiwei as part of a worldwide protest against China. The protesters reenacted Ai's Fairytale: 1,001 Qing Dynasty Wooden Chairs, an installation of 1,001 late Ming and Qing Dynasty wooden chairs at Documenta 12 in 2007 in Kassel, Germany." See all the wonderful pictures here. more ›

Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei points us to this video now circulating widely on the Chinese interwebs. In the clip, a CCTV News anchor speaks with Tong Ye, the channel's New York correspondent who has just stepped out of a press conference on the recent Times Square car bomb. Here's the dialogue as translated by Danwei:

Anchor: The press conference has just ended, we're going live to our correspondent in New York, Tong Ye. more ›

Just so you know, we - well, our parent company at least - now has an app out for the iPhone called The Istaverse. The great thing is, you can now easily read all the latest posts from all the Ist sites. It'll also remember your previous city choice on relaunch, and (while this isn't that much of a problem here) it'll store articles to your memory so you can read us even when you're not online. more ›

Since around March this year, a sad-looking panda has been spotted roaming the streets of New York City — on the subway, in Times Square, at various parks and around Wall Street's bull statue. Over the next few months, the Sad Panda has intrigued and fascinated New Yorkers — his short disappearance on Wall Street led a few concerned individuals to put up a missing notice, and his great makeover as Spongebob Squarepants did not go unnoticed. Turns out this Sad Panda is a 62 year old man from Guangzhou, Chen Jialing, who has now lived in the United States for many years. more ›

• Gothamist found that an explosive set off outside the Times Square army recruiting center may be similar to five past bombings in New York City.
• Seattlest worried when severed right feet and bottles of rat poison started washing up on local beaches.
• Shanghaiist was surprised by Bjork's rooting for Tibetan independence at her concert (see video), and the political fallout has only just begun.
• SFist debated the merits of new bronze plaques that will be placed in locations where San Francisco's homeless have died.
• DCist was obliged to respond to the worst Washington Post Outlook column ever published, in which conservative writer Charlotte Allen tried to make the case that women are dumb.
• LAist found Satan's ice cream truck trolling the streets, and they recorded the music.
• Some crafty Torontoist readers didn't like the dearth of ski hills in downtown Toronto, so they just built one of their own on their deck and (of course) recorded a video of them all taking turns on it.
• Bostonist knows the city's subway and bus system, the MBTA, has problems. So does this 17-year-old who submitted a report and told the MBTA brass how to fix it.
• Phillyist explored the possibility of an Ivy League prostitute, while their commenters debated the most ethical approach to proving or debunking the story.
• Londonist spent a little too much time looking at airbrushed operatic private parts, and enjoyed an enlightening comment from someone who was there. more ›

http://seattlest.com/2008/02/28/foo_fighters_da.php">announced his presidential bid.

href="http://londonist.com/2008/02/air_bound.php"> remove one man from Gatwick.

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href="http://torontoist.com/2008/02/phototo_snowbal.php">photographing a big, organized snowball fight.

Image credit: Nature abhors a vacuum more ›

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• Gothamist went to the scene of the Trump Soho construction collapse, which left one construction worker dead and others injured (an indirect culprit - Manhattan's hot real estate market, causing rushed construction jobs).
• Shanghaiist is confused by media reports as to whether Playboy will be available in China during the year of the Olympics.
• LAist got fugged in an interview with the Go Fug Yourself girls.

• Londonist pondered who might be the next sponsors of the London Eye and whether or not readers would be willing to donate £1,000 each for a Londonist Eye.
• Shanghaiist was shocked to find a cameltoe in the city's only English-language paper.
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Photo Credit: Malingering more ›

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Here, Shanghai, were your favourite stories for the year 2007: more ›

• SFist saw Christmas Day turn tragic after a Siberian tiger escaped from her pen at the San Francisco Zoo, killing a visitor and mauling two others.
• Phillyist counted down the top ten items on Philadelphia's New Year's wish list.
• Gothamist looked at the wooden bikes being offered for NYC's first bike share program on Governors Island.

Hello again, people! We told you it was going to happen, and as of NOW, commenting on Shanghaiist (and the rest of the Gothamist network) is limited to registered users. Registration is easy — either click the Create an Account link at the top of this or any other page on Shanghaiist or, easier yet, create an account right at the bottom of the entry page that you want to comment on. So easy! All you have to do after that is confirm your e-mail address and you're good to start commenting. more ›

By now, you've probably noticed our new profile system, rolled out in June. In the system, people who comment on Shanghaiist are segregated into two groups: those who have registered for a free account to post (who have their name or alias attached to each comment) and those who haven't (who are universally called "guest"). As of this morning, Gothamist has rolled out another change, whereby guest comments are automatically not displayed for all users — to display them, you have to click "Show Guest Comments" below any post to display them, and a cookie will be set on your computer to always display them. more ›

Hello Shanghaiists! You may have noticed that we've made a few small changes to our commenting and feedback systems: more ›

Dear Readers, more ›

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. more ›

It seems like, all across the network, folks were up to no good. Maybe it was all the green beer from last weekend... more ›

We're guessing most of you are hungover from St. Patrick's Day. We are too. But still, we're going to muddle on through our green haze and give you (drum roll please...) this Week In -ists. more ›

With the sun out, the temperatures high, one can only think of one thing-- what's going on in the World of the -ist's? more ›

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to... more ›

star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur, the new graffiti king in town, Bill Cosby's adorable dog, and the disturbing tale of a yoga instructor who was found guilty of killing his girlfriend, a dancer from Ohio who stripped to make ends meet. more ›

Valentine's Day is only a few days away, and we here across the Gothamist network wanted to express would like to tell you, in the spirit of the holiday, just how much we love you, our readers. Don't let it get to your heads, though. There are plenty of things we love, you included. Just be glad you're not amongst the things we hate. more ›

As the world holds it's breath, teetering precariously on the cusp of the Super Bowl (well, at least in America), the wheels of the -ists keep on turning. more ›

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. more ›