Photograph of Fidel Castro from 2006, proving he was alive after intestinal surgery and wearing an Adidas tracksuit Cuban president Fidel Castro resigned his position after nearly 50 years of rule. The 81-year-old Castro has been battling illness since 2006, notably turning over power to his brother Raul and other ministers temporarily. Though he was still ruling after his 2006 surgery, Castro was little seen. Now it is expected that Castro's resignation positions Raul......

The Top Chef Miami finale is upon us and we're going to weigh in with some thoughts. There will be spoilers, but they'll be after the jump. Top Chef has entered The Survivor zone - Padma Lakshmi is in Chicago, locale of the next Top Chef season, for the live finale. Does that mean Dale has a hometown advantage? We'll see! The three finalists, Dale (of the last mohawk standing), Hung (hyper and arrogant)......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: The 59th Primetime Emmy Awards (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WNYW 5) All you have to know is that Ryan Seacrest hosts this years awards. Your decision to view is based on your personal Seacrest tolerance and your need to watch the Yankees vs. Red Sox over on ESPN. Plus you can find out the results on line, so you don’t really have to watch. Mystery! - The Inspector......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: The Simpsons (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WNYW 5) America’s favorite cartoon family celebrates its 400th episode tonight. Not bad for something that started as an animated short on The Tracey Ullman Show twenty years ago. Deal or No Deal (Monday, 8:00 p.m., WNBC 4) Subway hero Wesley Autrey tries his hand at winning a suitcase full of money. We do hope we wins and we guess being trapped......

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big -- really freaking big -- so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city's San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA......

A look at some noteworthy programs this week: New York City Ballet: Bringing Balanchine Back (Sunday, 7:00 p.m. WNET 13) Kevin Kline narrates this documentary following the journey of the New York City Balet to St. Petersburg, the birthplace of its founder George Balanchine, where they perform at the storied Mariinsky Theatre. Great Performances Garrison Keillor's New Year's Eve Special (Sunday, 10:00 p.m. WNET 13 and NJN) we all know about the other hackneyed New......

Some readers have been asking about events related to the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Aside from the official city plans, which include moments of silence, reading of victims' names and time for the families to lay flowers at Ground Zero, as well as the lighting of Tribute in Light, a number of organizations and groups have events all weekend and on Monday. For instance, the September......

This morning, the City Council's Black, Latino and Asian Caucus protested the upcoming season of CBS reality stalwart, Survivor, which has split its four tribes up by race - Asian, black, Hispanic, and white. City Councilman Robert Jackson, the caucus' chairman, said, "We are going to call on CBS to pull the plug on this... I'm hoping that the experiment fails so they know that the people of this great country are above this......

The Roosevelt Island tram continues to sit still as the NY State Department of Labor investigates what Tuesday night when it just stopped working...and the two backups systems didn't work. And the culprit for the problems that caused people to be stuck midair for hours? The air brakes didn't work properly, according to DoL sources, though Roosevelt Island officials disagree. The AP reports DoL will check out the first backup system - a diesel......

Rog, the Armchair Athlete, reminded us that there's an open casting call for Survivor tomorrow! It's at the Javits Center - here are his tips for that "Body by Starvation:1. Filled out application (get the application here.)2. Full body shot photo (fit or fat?)3. Facial shot photo (Please do not be completely repulsive)4. Valid passport, driver's license, or photo ID (No terrorists, please)You can also bring a 3 minute video of yourself to help the......

Could it be? One year after some talk that the MTA was considering bringing smart card technology to roost here, the MTA is actually going to pilot test smart cards. So that $44 million put towards testing isn't going to waste! The goal is to have a "seamless fare card" that would be able to work against the MTA's systems (the subways, buses, Metro North), the PATH, and NJ Transit (buses and trains). Gothamist would......

Recently Time Magazine picked the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present. Now as these lists seem to come out about once a month and mean about as much as the prize in a box of cracker jacks we've learned to generally completely ignore them. In fact, we probably wouldn't have even registered this latest list if it weren't for this genius post on The Morning News. Matthew Baldwin went through the......

Last night's winner of Survivor is a hometown firefighter: Tom Westman, 41 year-old Queens born and bred, and a firefighter in Williamsburg's Ladder Co. 108, managed to outwit, outplay and outlast nineteen other people - many of them horribly, horribly annoying (and yes, we're talking about Katie, the runner-up whose $100,000 payday Gothamist likes to think is payment to make sure she didn't win). Westman, or, Tom, as most of America knows him, was possibly......

Gothamist attempted to real-time blog last night's 56th Annual Emmys. We survived, but we would like to say this: It was pretty boring. Sure, Garry Shandling can be funny, but we weren't that into it. Gothamist is certainly happy that Arrested Development made sure a great showing, as well as Angels in America, but it was also pretty boring - like the nominations themselves. But since we're a sucker for awards shows, we bring you......

The Republican National Convention opened yesterday with two of its more liberal politicians, Rudy Giuliani and Senator John McCain, taking the stage. Senator McCain, whose dalliances with the other side have confused the more right-leaning conservatives, won the affection of delegates by "mauling" Michael Moore, who was at the convention under the auspices of writing for USA Today. On the Today Show Tim Russert called Moore the GOP's favorite pinata; Moore, for his part, seemed......

A cartoon making fun of the Holocaust that appeared in a Rutgers student newspaper is causing unrest at the school. The Times describes the cartoon as such: The publication, The Medium - a journal of news and opinion that features humor, cultural items and sexual and scatological references - ran a cartoon depicting a bearded man wearing a hat and sitting on the edge of an open kitchen stove in a carnival setting. Under the......

Gothamist cannot wait to go to "Restaurant," the new restaurant/reality series from Rocco DiSpirito (Union Pacific), Mark Burnett (Survivor), and NBC (Channel 4 here in NY). There's nothing we like more than food and a little insanity. The Times Styles section looks what seems to be a hilarious casting/hiring process, as employees need to be competent but cute. But in a city of actors who work as watiers, Gothamist has to hand it to the......

New that Survivor producer Mark Burnett is planning a reality show where people work for Donald Trump is something Gothamist would watch, but maybe it's because Jen is reminded of her first job: "The Apprentice," executive-produced by "Survivor" mastermind Mark Burnett, will gather 20 candidates from all walks of life and place them inside Trump's company, The Trump Organization, "in New York City's corporate jungle." The candidates, some MBAs, others with no college education, will......

So 'Joe Millionaire' Is Fox's Biggest Hit. It always seems so shocking that the Fox Network is able to pull out wins, even almost 20 years of existence. The Married with Children reunion made me realize that I've grown up seeing Fox evolve. It was wild and crazy in the early days, with A Current Affair and Tracey Ullman Show and Married with Children. And it was shocking when Fox decided to pit The Simpsons......

Reality television has been around in the U.S. long enough for one of the new Survivor:Amazon castmates to have written a senior thesis on "The Impact of Reality Television."......