Photo credit: sniderscion Torontoist spent its week uncovering who was behind mysterious ads for a drug called "Obay" that popped up across the country (Scientology? Frank Shepard Fairey?), first tracing them to an advocacy group called Colleges Ontario and then confirming their suspicions a few days later.Phillyist learned how to put on a puppet show – it's not as easy as you might think!Shanghaiist discovers that the average starting monthly pay for fresh graduates......

A new 668-page report by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission has declared that Texas has too many state reports. The 18-month-long project surveyed over 170 agencies, public colleges, and universities, all of whom are required by the State Legislature to generate a periodic report of some sort. The task force anticipated dealing with about 400 of these reports; the final tally exceeded 1,600 before investigators evidently decided they'd had enough. "At first, we......

With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked......

Citing "severe exhaustion," Amy Winehouse cancels entire North American tour... to the surprise of exactly no one Texas State scores highly in U.S. News' latest "America's Best Colleges" ranking Love 'em or hate 'em, those Gibson guitars scattered around town are going up for auction in October Armed man in Williamson County barricades himself in truck, prompting highway closure for nearly two hours Might the Marriott deal be on the chopping block? A horribly......

In the latest issue of Newsweek, "admission officials, educational consultants, students, parents and college and university leaders" were questioned to find the best American colleges in specific fields. The Top 25 Listing included topics such as Hottest Sports Fans (Florida), Hottest in the War on Terror (New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology) and Hottest for Loving the Outdoors (St. Mary's College of Maryland). Individual achievements by various UT professors and the efforts of Teach......

UT Austin dropped from its much-heralded top spot in this year's rankings of the country's Best Party Schools, published in The Princeton Review's annual "Best Colleges" survey. Based on input from over 120,000 students across the nation, the rankings are a decent barometer of general public opinion among the notoriously fickle college set. Students were asked to rate universities based on "use of alcohol and drugs, hours of study each day, and the popularity......

We all know that Austin is a great city for kids looking to date around or have a drink, but according to a new study, it's also among the top ten job markets for college grads. Bizjournals, the national publisher of metropolitan business newspapers with branches in over forty cities, reports that current economic conditions couldn't be better for the million-plus college seniors entering the workforce this year. "The outlook this year is very good,"......

Power lines versus trees: it's an epic Austin battle. The current solution (hacking 'em back) is less than superb; urban trees are one of the things that makes Austin great, plus they probably help combat the heat island effect (admittedly, we are not scientists). In hopes of finding a more elegant solution, Austin Energy has opened a competition to colleges and universities to find a better way to integrate power lines in urban areas......

The kids returning to UT Austin have something extra special to brag about this year: the university was just named the country's number one party school in a survey of 115,000 college students conducted by the Princeton Review, beating the likes of Penn State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and (snicker) Brigham Young University. In addition to dominating the overall list, Longhorn students were ranked: 2nd in the "use of hard liquor" 3rd in beer......

Back during SXSW, the City of Austin announced a new partnership with the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) and network powerhouse Cisco Systems to deliver what they call the Outdoor Wireless Mesh Project, which aims to set up an enormous blanket of free wireless internet access across Central and East Austin. The three stage deployment began in April with hotspots installed in the lower downtown area, connecting up to existing hubs at City......