Photo credit: Mat Honan Shanghaiist covered anti-China Olympic torch relay protests in London, Paris and San Francisco.Gothamist marveled as the NY State Assembly killed NYC's controversial congestion pricing plan without even holding a vote.SFist reported live on the only U.S. leg of the Olympic torch relay, which was a disaster for Mayor Gavin Newsom. DCist was tickled to see that Heroes star Hayden Panettiere filmed a short PSA to support voting rights and statehood......

--A contrarian perspective on the Red Sox rings--they're tacky. "Don't they look like something out of Flavor Flav's jewelry box? Isn't this awfully Yankee-esque?" [HubArts] --Bostonist loves the ice cream man and will defend the ice cream man from City Councilor Sal LaMattina in any situation. But we must agree that ice-cream-man music doesn't need "the hello a drag queen might give before following it up with 'bitch!'" [Third Decade] --The recent coke bust in......

Image credit: Presidentialmemorial.org SFist broke news about the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco's plan to rename the city's wastewater treatment facility to the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.After the previous week's chaos and confusion at Heathrow, Londonist was soothed somewhat by news of a novel way to ease congestion on the runway. The piggyback flights are apparently April fuel efficient.Gothamist was impressed the NY City Council approved congestion pricing, the controversial plan to......

--Is it possible that a $28 bottle of beer could be indeed "worth every penny"? Find out. [Boston Geek] --Speaking of beverages, after reading about the dubious beverage "Peanut Lolita," find out how to make "Beard Clippings." [Pax Arcana] --That guy who ate a Big Mac in one bite is back, and he just ate six Spike's Junkyard Dogs in one sitting. Oof. [Andy Eats] --How did Mission Hill become its own neighborhood, even though......

Photo credit: sushiesque/Flickr Bostonist attended the Anime Boston convention and took some glorious pictures of anime fans showing off their costumes at the mall, much to the delight of civilians.Seattlest took a trip on Virgin America Airlines and lived to tell the tale of its awesomeness.Londonist experienced a total lack of surprise at the chaos, crisis, and near-collapse of famous English reserve at the opening of the hotly opposed new airport terminal T5 at......

--Not something you want to hear from your cab dispatcher: "I'm gonna go take my break. Just going to jump off the Tobin Bridge. Be right back." [Everyone Loves a Boston Girl] --A fun review and even more fun photos (check out the one of the drummer for Frightened Rabbit) at the Sons & Daughters, Bodies of Water, and Frightened Rabbit show at the Middle East. [Shy Turnip] --One of our favorite local bloggers got......

LAist initially met the coolest police officer at the Anonymous protest, and then later caught thousands of UCLA students celebrating spring break in their undies....

--John Kerry has a funny bone. Who knew? [Blue Mass Group] --A cool history lesson about the old seals of Massachusetts towns. [Third Decade] --There's been an outbreak of Inexplicable Dread Toward Restaurant Lemon Slices, but a former bartender reassures us that it is most likely okay and that "Purell is not a condiment." [Pax Arcana] --Miss Von Schtoop articulates why online comment brawls make for such good reading. (Uh, please don't start a comment......

Photo: SkyscraperSunset.com Phillyist was one of the first outlets in Philadelphia to report on the proposed American Commerce Building, a skyscraper that would tower 525 feet over their current tallest and could join the ranks of the world's tallest skyscrapers. The plans would include publicly-accessible gardens, a 26-story hotel, and several floors of retail space—Including, we hope, metaphysical coffee.SFist watched one of its contributors interviewed on the local news about his LiveJournal site's notorious......

--What? "Oh Cruel World" is gone from the Weekly Dig? Bring it back! [Loaded Gun Boston] --Anyone else remember Orange Julius? [O'Malley on the Web] --The Dish loves MIT's new foldable, stackable car almost as much as we do. [The Dish] --Dumb new gym trend: Working out while drinking coffee at the same time. Why so dumb? A) Spillage. B) Dehydration. [On Common Ground] --Speaking of coffee shenanigans, ride the blue line and drink coffee......

Has that stack of takeout menus grown unmanageable? Did you forget which pizza place has the best pepperoni? GrubHub can solve that problem for you. All you need to do is type in your address, and you'll get a list of all the dining establishments that will deliver to your home, along with their menus. When you open an account with GrubHub, you can even keep a virtual menu drawer with Past Orders, Favorite Menus,......

--Is it really Al Gore Rumor Time? [Media Nation] --We hear there's some good pirate radio to be found on 88.5. [b0st0n] --An expression that sums up just how fed up with winter we all are. [Shamrag] --Barstool Sports thinks a lot of MILFs are at Whole Foods, or at least the one in Hingham. That must be the case, because the top fashion at our local Whole Foods is a look of sneering entitlement......

--Find out where to meet up on March 6 to ask Rep. Ed Markey (aka "Biz Markey") to support Cape Wind. [Blue Mass Group, more on Cape Wind from Bostonist] --Holy crap. This guy eats a Big Mac in one bite. Honest. Where is Morgan Spurlock when you need him? [Andy Eats via Menu Pages] --Following a more highbrow food track, Le Cordon Bleu is opening in Cambirdge on April 7. [Beantown Bloggery] --Apparently Barstool......

--Heating oil, which is already insanely expensive, costs less if you pay cash. Not that it will make you feel any better. [The Big Guy] --A Google map of foreclosures in Boston. [Boston Real Estate Blog] --Remembering what happened five years ago during the horrible fire at the Station nightclub in Rhode Island. [Platinum Elite] --Where to eat if you are living or working in Longwood. [Menu Pages] --Mega Man sighting! [Sushiesque] --Did you say......

--Adam Gaffin of Universal Hub was on NPR this week to discuss Boston Crime, which tracks violent crime on a Google map and allows people to comment on cases. A must-listen. They describe him as a "computer guy by day, crime chronicler by night." [NPR] --What's with the rats all over a recent edition of the Boston Globe? [Massachusetts Liberal] --Where to find pictures of Boston back in the day. [Beantown Bloggery] --Food sniglets! [Cave......

Gary Vaynerchuk has a message for Bay Staters: Rise up against your oppressors. He says it’s a “sad state of affairs” that the place that hosted the Boston Tea Party allows itself to fall victim to “archaic wine shipping laws.” Vaynerchuk, the 30-something host of the wildly popular Wine Library TV podcast – “the Internet’s most passionate wine program” – says that “a few special interest groups have shut things down” and not allowed wine......

--Matt O'Malley offers a ward-by-ward breakdown of how the city of Boston voted in the Democratic primary. [Matt O'Malley] --Barstool Sports is calling for a boycott of the Boston Herald "except the Inside Track" because of sportswriter John Tomase's story about the Patriots videotaping the Rams. [Barstool Sports] --Massachusetts will be representing on reality TV when Big Brother airs--but will they be representing well? [Third Decade] --Valentine's is coming up, and one local website offers......

With over 20 million accounts, Second Life has become a pop culture phenomenon. An Internet-based virtual world, the metaverse in which we can be the person we've always wanted to be (without putting in the hard-work of exercise or educational training) have very few competitors. Currently, there is an exhibition going on in Boston called Mixed Realities - an exploration of real and synthetic places made possible by computers and networks. There's an exhibition......

--A possible idea for Banditos Misteriosos? It might beat No Pants 2K8, if only for the reason that your bare thighs wouldn't have to touch any part of an MBTA car. [b0st0n LiveJournal] --Barstool Sports has no love for Arlen Specter now that Specter is mucking around with VideoTapeGate. A sample line: "Next up on the agenda, investigating the role of WWF referees in world title victory by Andre the Giant over Hulk Hogan in......

--Facts of Life plus puns doesn't seem like it would be that funny. Oh, but it is! [Derspatchel] --A look at why people are going to remember Heath Ledger for reasons beyond the initial shock of a sudden celebrity death. [VickieVictoria] --Phew. The MBTA can spell after all. That anorexic font is still unappealing, though. [b0st0n LiveJournal] --Did Tom Brady get his flowers for Gisele Bundchen at Stop & Shop? [Anali's First Amendment] Think your......

--Two men have been arrested in the murder of the woman whose body was found in a Dumpster in Dracut on Sunday. Middlesex DA Gerry Leone believes the murder stems from domestic violence. [Boston Globe] --Adam offers a helpful tip to the Globe if they want to start investigating the sudden increase of alleged gang violence in Roslindale. [Universal Hub] --A West Boylston high-school teacher was arraigned today for Internet-based crimes, including "distributing material harmful......

Apologies for the lateness of this one. --New skinny font at T stops. And someone who works for the MBTA didn't look up the street names before sending the sign text to the printer. Gah! [b0st0n LiveJournal--with pictures] --The South End Is Over chimes in on the Globe's recent piece on gentrification and sends a crystal-clear message to anyone who bitches about the homeless in the South End: "As I have mentioned on this blog......

At this time of year, all the local colleges are settling in to contemplate who is in and who is out. Kids with stars in their eyes are hoping to go to the school of their choice so they can go on to lucrative careers as doctors, lawyers, and Internet entrepreneurs. An entrance to Harvard might lead to Facebook-esque fame. So no wonder the kids are going all out. Really all out. Recently, Linda Wertheimer......

After a major overhaul of its website, the Boston Herald has tweaked its home page again. Gone is the square that rotated the headlines from the various sections and beneath is a series of subheadlines with images cropped in an edgy fashion: Overall, it's an improvement. The rotating headlines were distracting, and the layout seems more balanced. However, THE ALL CAPS MAKES THE PAGE SEEM SHOUTY. What are your thoughts? Screengrab of the Herald's makeover.......

Thanks to an influx of new readers, Bostonist grew this year, and we'd like to launch a few new regular columns. Here's the specifics: 1. Food Writer: One column every Tuesday. Bostonist's New Year's Resolution is to write more about food. As you can see, we are partial to recipes and restaurant reviews. 2. Drink Writer: This city loves its booze. Bartender interviews, reviews of new drinks, reviews of your favorite bars--we'd love to......

You may have noticed that Bostonist underwent a few tweaks recently, including the ability to customize how you see the front page and to use tags to zip around the site. These new tags also allow you to customize your RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed if you prefer to keep up with blogs on your homepage or with a reader. If there's a Bostonist subject that interests you, then you can choose exactly what you......

Boston came in at number 10 in a recent list of America's most literate cities. What's surprising is that it didn't come in higher given the quality of the authors who come in to read, the top-notch bookstores, and the fact that good books help get us through the cold weather. Central Connecticut State University just released these figures and draws its findings based on "newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources,......

--Now that Spatch has been rooming with a CW celebrity, perhaps he thought that another CW reality show, the mother-daughter beauty pageant extravaganza Crowned, might be as good. He was wrong. [Derspatchel] --VickieVictoria encounters "Wookie porn," as in the Star Wars holiday special. [VickieVictoria] --While the return of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert is like a holiday gift, not everyone is happy about it. The writers' strike is still going on, and "it's not funny......

4. Feel It Calling in the Air Tonight. A Phil Collins fan in the South End was really feeling the music. He could feel it, "calling in the air," so to speak, and he played it loud. Even worse, his neighbors told the BPD that it was "like this every night." He was arrested because he wasn't going to turn down that Phil Collins without a fight. Even though weirder crimes exist in this countdown,......

Some City Councilors have complained about the mayor's blame game regarding the snowstorm, but one city councilor might be contributing to the problem. WBZ sent cameras to Chuck Turner's house in Roxbury, where his sidewalk wasn't shoveled. It gets better. Turner said that he's not going to shovel it and "claims people in his neighborhood don't use sidewalks." Well, where do they walk, then? Do they float? If a sidewalk is on the street, it's......