City Room: City Unveils Winner of Tiny-Apartment Competition

With space always at a premium and the number of small households growing, New York finds itself with an increasing need for small, livable apartments. On Tuesday, the city announced the winner of a tiny-apartment design competition — a building of micro-units that, if the rendering is any indication, manage to feel roomy and inviting at less than 400 square feet.The winning design, “My Micro NY,”...

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Is Facebook envy making you miserable?

LONDON (Reuters) - Witnessing friends' vacations, love lives and work successes on Facebook can cause envy and trigger feelings of misery and loneliness, according to German researchers. A study conducted jointly by two German universities found rampant envy on Facebook, the world's largest social network that now has over one billion users and has produced an unprecedented platform for...

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Mariel Hemingway runs from crazy at Sundance

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Mariel Hemingway says she has left the bad kind of crazy behind, and all that's left is good crazy.Hemingway came to the Sundance Film Festival for the documentary "Running from Crazy," which chronicles the family history of mental illness that led to the suicides of seven relatives, including sister Margaux and grandfather Ernest Hemingway.Directed by Barbara Kopple, with Oprah...

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Well Pets: Holly the Cat's Incredible Journey

Nobody knows how it happened: an indoor house cat who got lost on a family excursion managing, after two months and about 200 miles, to return to her hometown.Even scientists are baffled by how Holly, a 4-year-old tortoiseshell who in early November became separated from Jacob and Bonnie Richter at an R.V. rally in Daytona Beach, Fla., appeared on New Year’s Eve — staggering, weak and emaciated —...

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DealBook: In China, the Appearance of Consensus Is Breaking Down

GUANGZHOU, China — For two decades after the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, China seemed on the surface like a country where free-market and even laissez-faire principles prevailed. It looked as if a consensus had been reached on putting economic policy and the headlong pursuit of affluence ahead of ideology and politics.That appearance of consensus, which in fact had always masked some internal...

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For Obama, an Inauguration With a Bit Less Tension in the Air

WASHINGTON — President Obama renewed his oath of office at midday Monday, ceremonially marking the beginning of another four years in the White House and calling for “fidelity to our founding principles” while also embracing “new responses to new challenges.” Crowds that were expected to reach about 600,000 people assembled on the National Mall in front of the Capitol, eager to witness the...

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Mobile revolution in Myanmar is on the cards, but too slow for many

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar is on the cusp of a mobile revolution. Only it's happening way too slowly for many locals. Last week the government invited expressions of interest for two mobile phone licenses - a first step towards increasing mobile penetration from its current 5-10 percent to 80 percent in three years. That would lift it off the bottom of the world's ladder of mobile use...

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First lady starts 2nd term style in Thom Browne

WASHINGTON (AP) — The first family headed out to Monday's inaugural festivities with Michelle Obama leading a very coordinated fashion parade in a navy-silk, checkered-patterned coat and dress by Thom Browne that were inspired by a menswear necktie.The rest of her Inauguration Day outfit included a belt from J. Crew, necklace by Cathy Waterman and a cardigan by Reed Krakoff, whose ensemble she also...

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Recipes for Health: Lentil, Celery and Tomato Minestrone

Andrew Scrivani for The New York TimesIf you did a lot of cooking over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays you may have some celery hearts lingering in your refrigerator. You needed a few branches for a stew, a stock, or a soup, so you bought a whole bunch, and here it is weeks later and the rest of the celery is wilting in the produce drawer. This doesn’t have to happen if you think of...

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DealBook: In Euro Zone, Signs of Progress and Fears of Complacency

PARIS – This may be the year that Europe stops being the ticking time bomb of the global economy.Ireland is on track to leave international bailout limbo by summer. Talk of Greece leaving the euro is off the table. And financial speculators have generally stopped betting the euro zone will blow up.But even as the sense of emergency fades, Europe is potentially facing a starker problem.For three years,...

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