For starters, before anyone freaks out, the U.S. Homeland Security threat level is actually just "Elevated" (yellow), though it's "High" for airplane flights. The threat level in NYC is "High" because we're just vigilant like that. However, freaking out over things like threat levels is apparently bad for your health, according to a new study in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Over 2700 adults were studied to " examine the degree to which acute stress......

Torontoist discovered their city's most ridiculous holiday lights setup, with 80,000 lights and two––two!––synchronized music routines. Naturally, they snagged a video. Chicago tragically loses one of its most recognizable neighborhood icons, the pigeon man of Lincoln Square. LAPD leaves body in car at crash scene, then tows it. Massachusetts plus mullet equals PR mayhem. Londonist sleeps in a Haunted plague pit. UC Berkeley students strip naked and race through campus, NSFW floppiness ensues. Phillyist......

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2007 Recap from Super!Alright! on Vimeo Austinist attended a town hall meeting about proposed noise ordinances that could undermine the city's future as the Live Music Capital of the World, and lamented the possible loss of Texas's only feminist bookstore. Throughout the week, they interviewed a bunch of indie fashion designers and D-I-Y websites—Etsy, Ornamental Things, 31 Corn Lane, and Aorta Designs—for the upcoming Stitch Fashion Show. They also did......

The wedding season is in full swing: Second week in a row where there are over 30 weddings in the NY Times Weddings & Celebrations section. Here we go: Total Number of Weddings: 32 (including Vows column) Total Number of Same-Sex Weddings: 2 Youngest Bride: 24 Oldest Bride: 47 Youngest Groom: 24 Oldest Groom: 62 Biggest Age Difference: 17 years Number of Couples Where Bride and Groom Are the Same Age: 2 (24, 38) Number......

Lots of Times Weddings Announcements today! Total Number of Weddings: 22 (including Vows column) Total Number of Same-Sex Weddings: 1 Youngest Bride: 25 Oldest Bride: 64 Youngest Groom: 26 Oldest Groom: 70 Biggest Age Difference: 13 years Number of Couples Where Bride and Groom Are the Same Age: 3 (ages 26, 29, and 34) Number of Cornell Graduates Married: 4 Number of University of Michigan Graduates Married: 3 Number of Brown Graduates Married: 2......

Twenty-nine-year-old playwright and actress Courtney McLean has done her share of day jobs: as a former wedding and party DJ, she DJed an afterparty for N'Sync at the San Diego Sports Arena, and her brushes with celebrity include discussing bikini waxes with Jessica Biel. After studying theater at UC San Diego, the California native headed to New York five years ago, and currently waitresses at Penelope, among other gigs. But her true love is theater,......

Gothamist is worried about global warming. Especially since we saw An Inconvenient Truth. Manhattan may start shrinking, then disappear altogether? No snow on Kilimanjaro? These thoughts were enough to make us run out to the hardware store for some energy efficient lightbulbs. Now the L.A. Times has an article on the effect global warming is having on wine production. Regions far north such as Sweden and Denmark--traditionally considered too cold for the development of wine--have......

Michelle Goldberg, Brooklyn resident and senior political reporter for Salon.com, recently published her first book, Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, a detailed examination of the rise of Christian Nationalism. Her research took her outside the largely secular NYC, and even further afield from the liberal ideology of which New Yorkers have grown so accustomed. In her book, Goldberg details the actions and intentions of the Christian right and presents a clear picture of......

The City announced a new $36 million program that will team over 5000 new teachers with 300 mentors (veteran teachers) to help the new teachers better acclimate to the NYC public school system and, more importantly, retain them. The mentors have gone through training from The New Teacher Center at UC Santa Cruz, city is funding the program. Mayor Bloomberg said, "We’ve worked hard to recruit the best and Brightest teachers for our schools, and......

Mayor Bloomberg, you did it. With the crazy taxes on packs of cigarettes, free nicotine patches, and smoking bans in bars, the number of adult smokers in New York City dropped by 11%. Now, people will just live and rue your name longer. Additionally, there's a reported 13% drop in consumption from smokers, the assumption being that smokers are smoking less. Some people, from tobacco companies to some local politicians, doubt that the figures from......

Young Jean Lee, Playwright/Director...