They speak in "lolcats" terminology. They use terms like "lulz" and "epic win." They claim that members who have been found out have had their pets killed. They wear "V for Vendetta" Guy Fawkes masks. They are Anonymous, and they're gathering in Millennium Park this weekend for a gathering that's one part protest, one part flash mob, two parts performance art. Who are they really? Who knows. That's the point. Anonymous will be out tomorrow......

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......

Photo by Phillyist's Matt Johnson, SkyscraperSunset.com, December 19, 2007. Phillyist explored an impending implosion and lived to tell the tale.Gothamist marveled at the city's new NYC-branded condom campaign - especially the use of a Toronto landmark in the advertising. (Also, fun fact: Gothamist turned five years old yesterday.)Tired of the worldwide Scientology protests? Torontoist totally isn't: they covered the big downtown protest the day it happened, and followed up with an examination of all......

Yesterday's worldwide Scientology protests had a local presence outside the church's center on Lincoln.......

SFist witnessed a new apartment building tszuj the skyline with spectacular, gaudy turquoise aplomb, the (informal) renaming of the Mission/SOMA neighborhood border, the return of the Maltese Falcon, the Mayor Gavin Newsom mea culpa-ing over his Hawaiian getaway during the oil spill, and double-decker buses hitting the streets of San Francisco. Oh, and some baseball player named Barry Bonds is a liar whose pants, it seems, are totally on fire. LAist continues to cover the......

For those interested in learning more about Scientology off the job, the church is expanding its Chicago presence. The Church of Scientology is setting up shop at the former Artcraft Building in the South Loop, at 650 S. Clark. When the flagship center opens next summer there will be activities, social services and, presumably, auditing. The building’s previous tenants, ACORN and the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, moved out because the space and crumbling façade needed attention......

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a lawsuit against Dr. James Orrington, DDS, alleging religious and sexual harassment. The suit, filed on behalf of ten employees — 9 women and 1 man? 10 women? — claims the South Side dentist required employees to recite passages from Scientology literature before he'd give them their checks. Three employees were fired after they lodged a complaint with the EEOC in 2005, and another two were fired after......

Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration rights should just take......

Ah, the storied halls of America's finest institutions, the bastions of educational excellence, and the homes of our country's future leaders. Columbia, Boston, Penn, Duke, Vanderbilt, and yes, the University of Chicago — these are just a few of the schools that have long ranked as the best of the best. Not in the eyes of the RIAA and MPAA. These schools are epicenters of the widespread evil known as piracy and the most recent......

Londonist prepares a Happy Birthday bath for Buddah this week and then things get all cliched. A madman goes on a rampage while axe-weidling and London's mayor warns an American diplomat to avoid the kitchen if the heat bothers him so much. LAist has finally come around to purchasing tickets for Clipper Train. Hyper local dating sites are spamming L.A. neighborhoods and the fascinating Dame Darcy talks with LAist about art, the city and earthquakes.......

Children can be such a pain what with the constant attention and responsibility they demand. We know, it’s a lot to handle. But the fact is, they just can’t function on their own. They need someone to be a figure of authority, be it a parent, grandparent, nanny or Scientology minder. This is a simple concept, but one some local guardians seem to have forgotten. Earlier this week, a 3-year-old girl, wearing only a diaper......

As discussed previously, former Chicago restaurateur and presumably current maker-of-sweet-love-down-by-the-fire Isaac Hayes left the cast of South Park in a blaze of self-righteous glory. [SIDEBAR: there are those who think that, in light of his recent stroke, someone else is making his comments for him. Could it be ………….. XENU?!] At any rate, last night the South Park boys threw together a brand-new episode to give Chef a proper sendoff, a sendoff that had nothing......

It started with some cartoons. And some people rioted. And some people died. So some people wrote about it. And now some people are fired. And it started all started with some cartoons. We’ve covered the fall-out of the Daily Illini covering the Danish cartoon controversy here, here, and here, but it was only yesterday that the editor responsible for the decision to publish the cartoons was officially fired. He even sent a note to......