It wasn't enough for Emerson College to be labeled as unsafe due to crime on the Common. Now Emersonians are being blamed for all the ruckus in the North End, too. In a Globe article on the North End's partying epidemic, a BPD captain confirms that "students, mostly from Suffolk and Emerson College, cause most of the problems reported, not patrons at bars." Setting aside the issue of how students afford the North End (oh, excuse us—they're Emerson students. Now it all makes sense), it seems odd that students don't make up a significant portion of the bar patrons in question. Nevertheless, we do like Bricco owner Frank De Pasquale's advice: "If residents wanted silent nights... they should have moved to Dover or Marblehead."

Somebody in Boston is offering "All of the yellow skittles from a big target size bag" for free on Craigslist.

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The Boston Public Health Commission announced that it will be offering free flu vaccines to residents of the city starting today in Dorchester. "Nearly three dozen public flu clinics are scheduled between now and October 21, and many more are planned," says the press release. More flu information is available on the city's website or by calling the Mayor’s Health Line at 617-534-5050. Full schedule of vaccination clinics after the jump.

Lowell Cats combines an internet meme with atrocity for an experience that is hilariously depressing. Superimposing cute cat heads—and LOLCat captions—over photos of 19th century Lowell mill girls: it's an inspired idea that we maybe didn't need to see. [Lowell Cats]

The Globe reports on the work of MIT students Carter Jernigan and Behram Mistree, who invented online Gaydar. It's actually old news—the students won an award in 2008 because of their project—but who knows how deadlines work in the world of dead tree journalism? In short, the project invented an algorithm that can tell whether or not you're gay based on your Facebook profile—without even counting how many of your friends are topless men.

Bostonist has been chided in the past for forgetting about the Jews, but there's no way that we would let the 5760s come to an end without saying anything about it. So, l'shana tova, everybody, and have a totally sweet 5770.

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MassBike, the group that fought to pass the new bike law, has a survey on its Web site for bicyclists and motorists alike. Answering the questions won't win you anything, but it might help the group to shape its future advocacy. (Here's a hint: If you want to do well on the survey, brush up on your knowledge of Mass bike law. [Via Mass. Transportation Blog]

We like to make fun of the Globe a lot, but every once in a while they come up with an interesting story about an overlooked topic. Today the paper tells the story of Chris Rogers, a former Boston Police officer who was harassed by his fellow officers for first failing to protect and then mourning Officer Roy Sergei in a fatal 1987 shooting. Rogers' wife left him six years ago, and in 2006 he was dismissed from the force after being diagnosed as bipolar. Currently, Rogers lives in the Pine Street Inn and is trying to get back on his feet. It's a sad story that offers a poignant reminder of how we never know when we'll need the help of others to get by.

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Notwithstanding its students' inability to pee appropriately, Harvard offers cows the opportunity to graze (and, possibly, relieve themselves?) on campus. Harvard has long given its Hollis Professor of Divinity grazing rights, which were exercised with vigor by early professors but have fallen by the wayside of late. Religion scholar Harvey Cox will celebrate his retirement from this chair on Thursday by renewing the grazing tradition with a cow renamed Faith (her real name, Pride, was deemed religiously unacceptable). At 4:30 pm at Memorial Church (across from Widener Library), Cox will speak and Faith will eat. This will be followed by a celebratory procession (complete with Cox playing saxophone) to the Divinity School, where Faith will be milked. Cox is now the Hollis Research Professor of Divinity at Harvard and has a new book out, The Future of Faith. If you miss the grazing celebration this week, you can see Cox read from the new tome next Wednesday at First Parish Church. Sadly, the bovine Faith is not part of Cox's personal cow collection; she normally lives at the Farm School in Athol, and her future will be to return there.

Many people are rightly concerned about the level of socialization attained by incoming Ph.D. students, but Harvard might have gone overboard spelling things out for their newest academic cavepeople. And the word the university is spelling? "P-E-E." The crack reporters at IvyGate have uncovered the special pamphlet that Harvard gives its new graduate students called "Bathroom Etiquette." As IvyGate writes, "The information covered is simple enough, but some of it is shocking when you realize people had to do this stuff a lot to earn it a spot in the pamphlet. Organized into what is inappropriate and appropriate to do in the shower, toilets, and sinks, the concerned student learns how to govern himself in the mystical chamber of secrets found down the hall." [IvyGate]

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