A recent article in the New York Times pondered that constant buzzing question, are Americans willfully stupid? Though it may seem asking this question is a favorite pastime of the popular rag, a recent profile on a bevy of books on the subject argues Americans are less willfully stupid than they are openly hostile towards the smarty-pantses of the nation. Author Susan Jacoby, whose book The Age of Unreason came out last week, says she......

Veggiest Quick Hits -- Happy Valentine's Day! For us being vegan is all about the love. We love our bodies and want to keep them healthy and strong and free of animal products. We love the environment and want to protect it from the extremely destructive practices of factory farming. We love animals and don't want to see them mistreated. You'll most certainly be doing your heart a favor. Heart disease is still one......

LAist listed a top ten list of sorts: things they hope not to see in Los Angeles in 2008. (one example, pictured above). Shanghaiist was surprised to learn that "godless," "atheist," and "commie" China is soon going to be the world's largest supplier of Bibles! Torontoist picked some of their favorite photos of 2007. Londonist was relieved to hear the fire at the Royal Marsden hospital didn't harm any of the patients even though......

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. LAist received a Christmas present in the form of a drunk Santa Claus in a g-string. Bostonist launched......

BARONESS Friday, November 30th Middle East Downstairs Cambridge, MA w/ Witchcraft, Radio Moscow 18+ / $10 ADV / $12 DOS MySpace: Baroness The debut EP First by Savannah's Baroness was a bit of al ife-changer. More of a life-reinvigorator. Produced by Phillip Cope of Kylesa, the three tracks harnessed much that had been missing from the blend of technical metal with a heavy dose of stoner meticulousity. To call the Southeast band "metal" is......

Movember madness continues with Bostonist taking great leaps to link the Top Ten Mustaches of all time with our own fine city. Bet you never knew we had so many mustache connections, even beyond Wade Boggs. 1. Burt Reynolds Mr. Reynolds has apparently played a Boston policeman in not just one but two ridiculous movies you've never heard of. Score two for the force! 2. Tom Selleck Tom Selleck went out on a limb to......

Outside.in has been tracking local blog action for 3,500 neighborhoods in 60 cities across the country. They came out with the top ten blogging neighborhoods back in April. Newton and Watertown made that list (4 and 7, respectively.) Today Chris Reidy at the Globe posts up an item that Outside.in has named Boston the Bloggiest City in the nation. During March and April the Boston area chalked up 89 posts per 100,000 people (we're trying......

Happy Father's Day! For those of you who have dads, are dads, or know dads, this one's for you, from all of us at the Gothamist network. It was a week of bizarre, embarassing headlines at DCist. The trial of the local administrative law judge who sued his cleaners for $54 million over a pair of missing pants left everyone shaking their heads. Then the capital city was nearly brought to its knees, twice, by......

a Herald review shows passengers at busy MBTA stations such as Forest Hills in Jamaica Plain, Ruggles in Roxbury and Dorchester’s Ashmont stop are most likely to be victims of assaults, robberies and other mayhem. Watch out, "other mayhem" may afflict you next time you're looking to hop a train. The Herald has a write-up today (with interactive -but incorrectly labled (thanks for the tip reader GreenLine) - maps if you head to the website)......

We must have blinked and missed the two months of voting that went into selecting the 2007 AOL cityguide Best Of list winners. Starting in mid-November and wrapping up in mid-January, voting took place on line on the set of contenders who had been nominated by AOL cityguide for their best of rating – opportunity for there to have been a little pandering to sponsors, but we'll never know. The categories seem endless: 24 categories......

Tonight the State of the Union speech will be delivered in our nation's capital. While we're hitting the booze and playing the State of the Union drinking game, the media will talk about possible ramifications of the President's statements. But the focus has already started to shift from the current commander-in-chief to who's going to take over his job. The Democratic field of contenders is growing fast. Below you'll find Bostonist's guide to the field......

Last night the Golden Globes were awarded in California. We would have watched but 24 was on with hours 3 and 4 of season 6. If Scarlett was going to get groped again surely it'd be up on the internets in a matter of minutes (she didn't and it isn't). This morning we checked out the coverage of some of our favorite nominees. The Departed brought Southie to the big screen this year, and......

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend......

The Patriots totally trounced the Packers in their Lambeau meeting yesterday. The Pack, however, still has us beat in one ongoing challenge. Campbell's soup is again running their "Tackling Hunger" promotion and will award a can of soup for every pound the winning team weighs to a food bank of the team's choosing. Both the team with the most overall clicks and the team that's most improved by December 15 will win the award for......

A trip through the tunnels might share some of the 48 seconds daily time savings. Back in February we took a look at the numbers. We came up with something in the neighborhood of $168,000, a commenter added in some other factors and found $182,000, in annual productivity savings. This based on the Turnpike Authorities time calculations which had a trip through the tunnel system clocked at 2:48, down from the 19:30 it took......

There is only so long that we’re going to be able to hold out before the entire list of the week’s picks will be outdoor venues. Well, that’ll probably never happen until they dome the roof at Paradise and we can rock under the stars. We are, however, ecstatic about the warmer temperatures and the daylight which stretches until late – it helps us gear up for the night’s show. After a weekend of......

The Boston Marathon was run yesterday. We know you know, well, maybe you missed it. Bostonist has been hearing about it from every media outlet, so we though it only appropriate to bring our own little wrap-up from our spot at mile 24. Like many who view the marathon from a position late in the course we watched until they hit Cleveland Circle, knowing then it was time to hop up from the couch and......

First off, we know the headline is misleading. This post is all news about citizen media - we're not going to be bold and try to claim that it actually is citizen journalism. Some say Dan Gillmor is the father of citizen media. Regardless of whether you believe that, he did, in fact, write the book on it. This year he’s a non-resident fellow at the Berkman Center and lectured there earlier this week.......

It’s been almost a year since Clocky hit our radar. Then the floor. Under the bed. Across the room. And scared the cat. Yesterday seemed to be one of those days it was hard for the blogosphere to awake. Perhaps it was all the after-parties at SXSWi that left them with a little sleep in their eyes. First, we stumbled across the Top 10 Coolest Alarm Clocks on the Hip Tech Blog. Mere hours......

Bostonist can't really speak to the legitimacy or good repute of Morgan Quitno Press (although their name sounds a little too much like Quiznos for our taste). What we can say is that MQP is in the business of ranking cities and states (they're the folks who told us a while back that Newton was the safest city in the nation), and they have been kind to New England. Their latest state livability study just......

Bostonist had our eyes on the altar this morning as we awaited the late breaking news from Italy. It wasn’t Torino but that sovereignty tucked away in Rome we like to call the Vatican. While the paper reported today that there was an impending list, and our very own Archbishop might be in the top ten, we heard it on the radio and found the release online. The Vatican announced today that Archbishop Sean, as......

Anything billed as a “Flirt Fest” must be commented on here at Bostonist. It’s not every day that alliteration can make one giggle but the event held tonight at trendy Saint on Exeter Street sounds like an interesting event to say the least. Bostonist has noticed a definite increase in the amount of singles’ events and scorned lovers’ themed dinners and drinks this year. Despite all the articles in recent weeks about specialty dating sites,......

The problem with doing 2005's Top Ten Best Webcasts is that you need a full year of webcasts to really get a good selection. Bostonist was lazy this year and started less then 6 months ago. Instead of holding back and waiting to make a list next year Bostonist is going to cut loose and make 2005's Top Four Best Webcasts. One podcast for every month Bostonist has been giving out ratings. 1. The BC......

We live in an iTunes nation. It's easy to pull a track down to your pod for under a buck. Bostonist still longs for cover art, liner notes, and that masterwork that is a multi-track collection of songs we call an album. Listed here is our much discussed, unbiased by payola, top 25 albums of 2005. After the jump you'll find where some of us stand individually on the subject of the years best. (Apparently......

Mama Bear Jen Chung made the top five. In fact, she’s number three. Bostonist recently stumbled upon our very own Katie listed on David Krug’s site as a “2006 Sleeper” for the top ten most powerful women in the blogosphere. In the spirit of High Fidelity, we really can’t get enough of these lists. The liberalcowboy (David Krug) put together one of the many lists on his site and titled it “10 Most Powerful Women......

Bostonist recently came across two articles about those Bostonians we love to hate here in the Hub. From politicians to athletes to the handful of Hollywood stars, both lists give a good idea of who residents have heard enough about. Sure, we celebrate like no other city, but we bond best when joining in a group hatred for a Boston personality, don't we? After seeing the New York Press' "50 Most Loathsome New Yorkers" list,......

It looks like Bostonians have been celebrating the Sox win with too many Fenway Franks this past year...According to Men's Fitness Magazine's annual "25 Fittest Cities" survey, Boston dropped from #7 to #11. Okay, so it wasn't a huge drop but the mag points out that we spend lots of time in traffic and complaining about finding a gym to use. On the bright side, Bostonians have clean air and few fast food joints......