Giant Jellyfish May Take Over The Ocean

With fish numbers all over the world falling thanks to overfishing and habitat destruction, a surprising predator has sprung up to take their place – the jellyfish. Due to their low energy requirements, the floating blobs of stingers don’t need to be as active or accurate to spread and fill the ecological niche afforded them by changes in the ecosystem, researchers say. And jellyfish appear to be adapting to be better hunters too. An active predator fish has to spot prey and chase after it, but jellyfish just passively wait for their prey to come into contact with their poison stingers. So jellyfish are evolving into larger and even slower moving organisms, able to cover more area with their tendrils while still needing only small amounts of energy to survive. Unless overfishing is curbed and habitat restored, researchers at Spain’s Oviedo University say we face “a future ‘gelatinous’ ocean reminiscent of the early Ediacaran Period some 600 million years ago.”

Unmarried And Single Americans Week

“National Singles Week” was started by the Buckeye Singles Council in Ohio in the 1980s to celebrate single life and recognize singles and their contributions to society. The week is now widely observed during the third full week of September (September 18-24 in 2011) as “Unmarried and Single Americans Week,” an acknowledgment that many unmarried Americans do not identify with the word “single” because they are parents, have partners or are widowed. Here are some facts about singles from the U.S. Census Bureau:

99.6 million: Number of unmarried people in America 18 and older in 2010. This group comprised 43.6% of all U.S. residents 18 and older.

44.9%: Percentage of unmarried U.S. residents America 18 and older who were women.

61%: Percentage of unmarried U.S. residents 18 and older who had never been married. Another 23.8% were divorced, and 14.4% were widowed.

16.4 million: Number of unmarried U.S. residents 65 and older. The elderly comprised 16.5% of all unmarried and single people 18 and older.

88: Number of unmarried men 18 and older for every 100 unmarried women in the United States.

59.1 million: Number of households maintained by unmarried men or women. These households comprised 45% of households nationwide.

31.4 million: Number of people who lived alone. They comprised 27% of all households, up from 17% in 1970.

35%: Percentage of women age 15 to 50 with a birth in the last 12 months, as of 2009, who were widowed, divorced or never married.

11.7 million: Number of single parents living with their children in 2010. Of these, 9.9 million were single mothers and 1.8 million were single fathers.

792,000: Number of unmarried grandparents who were caregivers for their grandchildren in 2009. They comprised about three in 10 grandparents who were responsible for their grandchildren.

393:  The number of dating service establishments nationwide as of 2007. These establishments, which include Internet dating services, employed nearly 3,125 people and generated $928 million in revenues.

Working From Home

Is working from home an efficient alternative to the traditional office job or a productivity killer? The results of a new CareerBuilder survey may bolster the arguments for both sides. While 17% of Americans who telecommute at least part of the time spend one hour or less per day on work, 35% work eight or more hours – a major increase from a 2007 study in which only 18% of telecommuters said they worked eight or more hours; 40% of telecommuters work between four and seven hours per day. The national survey reveals that Americans are able to work from home on a more regular basis post-recession: 10% telecommute at least once a week – up from 8% in 2007 – while 37% of telecommuters say they are more productive at the office, 29% report they are more productive at home; 34% do not see a difference. Telecommuters say the biggest distractions at home are:

Household chores	31%	Errands	19%
TV	26%	Internet	18%
Pets	23%	Children	15%

The best part about working from home? The survey found that 30% of telecommuters tend to work in pajamas – 41% of females and 22% of males.

Best Dressed

Three Jennifers, a Ginnifer and two Kates – one of them a duchess – all make People magazine’s annual Best Dressed List. People’s Best & Worst Dressed of 2011 issue comes out today, and they released a sneak peek at the Top 10 Best Dressed Women. Kate Middleton made it, and so did Jessica Alba (whom they’ve dubbed the “Maternity Clotheshorse”), Jennifer Lopez (“The Rule Breaker”), Ginnifer Goodwin (“The Hipster), and Blake Lively (“The Risk Taker). As for the worst dressed – a feature called “Where Have They Gone Wrong?” includes names like Snookie, Ke$ha, and Johnny Weir. The Top 10 Best Dressed Women:

Blake Lively	Jessica Alba
Jennifer Lopez	Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge
Mila Kunis	Kate Bosworth
Jennifer Aniston	Ginnifer Goodwin
Jennifer Hudson	Reese Witherspoon

Most Dangerous Celebrities In Cyberspace

Heidi Klum has been named the most dangerous celebrity in cyberspace, inviting malware and viruses to flourish on computers. Internet security firm McAfee said searching for downloads and screensavers for the “Project Runaway” judge and former Victoria’s Secret model runs a nearly one in 10 chance of landing on a malicious website with spyware, spam, phishing and other viruses. CNN talk show host and “America’s Got Talent” judge Piers Morgan was named the most dangerous male celebrity. Cyber criminals often used the name of popular celebrities to lure people to websites that are laden with malicious software. McAfee said singers and sports stars tended to be safer searches than movie stars and models. Cameron Diaz topped the cyberspace danger list in 2010, and was No. 2 this year. The most dangerous celebrities in cyberspace for 2011:

1. Heidi Klum	6. Mila Kunis
2. Cameron Diaz	7. Anna Paquin
3. Piers Morgan	8. Adriana Lima
4. Jessica Biel	9. Scarlett Johansson
5. Katherine Heigl	10. (Tie) Emma Stone, Brad Pitt and Rachel McAdams

Gisele Bundchen, Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts have all dropped out of this year’s top ten list.

Fatherhood Depletes Testosterone

Men who become fathers have lower testosterone levels, researchers find. But that appears to be beneficial in helping to raise children. Having more testosterone may help men find mates, but fathering children makes their testosterone levels decrease rapidly – by as much as 25%. Researchers at Northwestern University and the Philippines studied 624 single men in the Philippines beginning in 2005. Over time, 162 of them entered into stable relationships and had children. Tests showed that the fathers’ testosterone levels decreased by an average of 26% during the day and 34% at night compared to single men. Experts say the study suggests that men’s bodies evolved hormonal systems that helped them commit to their families once children were born. It also suggests that men’s behavior can affect hormonal signals their bodies send, not just that hormones influence behavior. And it underscores that mothers were meant to have child care help.

Money Woes

As economic uncertainty continues to churn, many consumers report they are facing tough financial challenges. According to a survey by Harris Interactive for CouponCabin, 45% of U.S. adults said they feel less financially secure than they did one year ago, while 16% said they always worry about money. Adults with higher incomes are also feeling the economic pinch, as 39% with household incomes of more than $75,000 per year said they feel less financially secure than they did one year ago. A variety of different hurdles are contributing to financial insecurity. When asked why they don’t feel financially secure, respondents said:
 

Live paycheck to paycheck	59%	Debt like student loans and car payments	32%
Underpaid at my current job	41%	Credit card debt	26%
Unexpected expenses always pop up	40%	The recent stock market ups and downs	21%
Can’t keep up with my bills	35%	Amount owed on mortgage	16%

Despite many money issues, 83% of adults said they feel they live within their means. However they believe many things are overpriced, including:

Fuel for my vehicle	80%	Utilities	58%
Medical care	70%	Communication (telephone, cell phone, etc.)	58%
Entertainment (cable, movies, etc.)	63%	Education	41%
Food	59%	Housing	37%

The Post-Vacation Blues

TripAdvisor has announced the results of its post-vacation blues survey of Americans who took leisure trips this summer. The survey found that 34% often struggle with the blues following their return from vacation, while 20% say they always do. As temperatures begin to drop, stress levels rise for many recently-returned travelers; 84% say their stress-o-meter readings return to pre-vacation highs soon after returning home; 43% feel the strain within the first week back, and 19% within the very first day. In addition, 41% said they find it depressing that Labor Day represents the end of summer. Other findings:

Travelers’ Top Five Post-Vacation Blues-Busting Measures:

• Begin planning the next trip - 73%
• Regularly view pictures or videos of the trip - 52%
• Create a photo album of the trip - 41%
• Take weekend breaks to bridge the gap until the next vacation - 18%
• Cook the local cuisine enjoyed on the trip - 16%

Mid-Vacation Vexations:

• On a typical one-week vacation, 64% start to feel anxious about the end of their trip before it’s over.
• Day five of a one-week trip is the most anxiety-inducing, with 17% feeling apprehensive about returning home following just four days of rest and relaxation.
• 4% confess that the worry of returning home looms large from day one of the trip.

Work Woes:

• Travelers cite the return to work as the most challenging aspect of returning from a vacation (34%).
• Within the first month of being back to the grind, 12% confess they have falsely phoned in sick.
• 8% consider finding a new job, while 4% are regularly late for work, in the first month back from vacation.

Celebs In Guinness Book Of World Records 2012

Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Rihanna have all earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records 2012. The annual listing of all things giant and tiny will be in stores today. A few of the records:

• Lady Gaga receives an award for the “Most Twitter Followers” with 11,259,372 fans behind her on the social media site. She also scored an award for “Most Weeks on U.S. Digital Hot Songs” with “Poker Face.” Her hit stayed there for a whopping 83 weeks.
  
• Justin Bieber earned “Most Popular Video of Any Kind Online” for “Baby.” It logged 463,820,304 views as of February 16th.
  
• Author J.K. Rowling made the list as the “First Billionaire Author” thanks to sales of more than 400 million copies of the “Harry Potter” books worldwide.
  
• Willow Smith earned “The Youngest Transatlantic Top 20 Artist,” thanks to “Whip My Hair” hitting the top 20 when she was only 10 years old.
  
• Rapper Lil Wayne is in the book for “Most U.S. Hot 100 Hits by a Rap Artist” – 64 between 1999 and 2010.
  
• U2 scored “Highest Grossing Music Tour” for the “360” outing, which by April 2011 had raked in more than $539 million for 110 shows between July 2009 and July 2011.
  
• Hugh Laurie has the “Highest Paid Actor in a TV Drama” record with $400,000 per episode of “House."
  
• 17-year-old Angus T. Jones, of “Two and a Half Men,” is listed as “Highest Paid Child Star.” He earned $250,000 per episode.
  
• “iCarly” star Miranda Cosgrove was the “Highest Paid Child Actress,” earning $180,000 per episode.
  
• The wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton was crowned “Most Live Streams for a Single Event,” with 72 million streams.
  
• “Hawaii Five-O” nabbed “Highest Rated New Show,” as the CBS cop drama had 19.34 million viewers on January 23rd.
  
• Johnny Depp, Hugh Laurie, Sandra Bullock, Miranda Cosgrove and Angus T. Nelson are world record-holders for money – though some of the records already are tumbling.  Depp’s listed as “Highest Paid Actor” for taking in $75 million between June 2009 and June 2010. Sandra Bullock led the actresses with $56 million.
  

Cheater, Cheater

Romantic jealousy seems to have a gender divide when it comes to cheating. Men typically ask more questions about the sexual aspects of an affair while women inquire more about emotional infidelity, a new study at the University of Scranton finds. The study used the reality TV show “Cheaters” to explore jealousy-fueled interrogations of infidelity. Researchers viewed 102 cases of “love triangle” confrontations between the cheater, the victim, and the person they were fooling around with. They analyzed whether a victim’s comments to the two-timer represented sexual jealousy or emotional jealousy. The research found that when men were the victims of infidelity, 57% of the questions to the cheating partner focused on the sexual aspects of the affair. Women only asked about the intimate details 29% of the time. And when the ladies were the victims, 71% of their questions centered on the emotional side of their mate’s fling, versus 43% of men’s inquiries.

App Gender Wars

What’s your favorite Android app? According to Nielsen, women would most likely say Facebook while men would gravitate towards Maps. In breaking down the most-used Android apps, Nielsen found a similar amount of love for things like Pandora and Angry Birds, but when split by gender, the most popular app for men was Google Maps at 77.1%, while 81% of woman gravitated toward Facebook. Facebook and YouTube were also tops with me, while Google Search and YouTube were also winners for women. Other popular apps that made both lists include Barcode Scanner, Angry Birds Rio, Talk-Text to Voice, Adv. Task Killer Free, and Adobe Reader. The top 10 most used Android applications (overall):

1. Android Market	90.5%	6. YouTube	51.4%
2. Google Maps	74.6%	7. Adv. Task Killer Free	26.1%
3. Gmail	74.5%	8. Angry Birds	25.9%
4. Facebook	73.5%	9. QuickofficePro	25.3%
5. Google Search	71.9%	10. Pandora Radio	23.9%

Funniest Films Of All Times

The classic 1984 mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap” has been voted the greatest comedy of all time by a panel of comedy stars including Dan Aykroyd, Jackie Mason, Stephen Merchant and Jack Whitehall for Time Out. The film, which follows the fortunes of the fictional rock group Spinal Tap as they look to revive previous fortunes, finished ahead of “Airplane!” and “Monty Python’s Life Of Brian.” The full list of 100 comedies can be viewed over on the Time Out website. The Top 10:

1. ”This Is Spinal Tap”	6. “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy”
2. “Airplane!”	7. “Withnail And I”
3. “Monty Python’s Life Of Brian”	8. “Groundhog Day”
4. “Annie Hall”	9. “Some Like It Hot”
5. “Monty Python And The Holy Grail”	10. “The Jerk”

Best Places To Live In America

Plano, Texas, has been named the best place to live in America by AreaVibes, in its list of the 100 best places to live. The scores were calculated using 10 factors: cost of living, crime, education, employment, health & safety, housing, transportation, local businesses, weather and city reviews. AreaVibes rated all major cities with a minimum population of 200,000 and Plano was the clear winner with a total score of 84.66 out of 100. See the full report at www.areavibes.com. Rounding out the rest of the top 10 cities were:

1. Plano, TX	6. Seattle, WA
2. Madison, WI	7. Honolulu, HI
3. Scottsdale, AZ	8. Dallas, TX
4. Austin, TX	9. Colorado Springs, CO
5. Lincoln, NE	10. Virginia Beach, VA

Best Colleges

Princeton University tied Harvard University as the top-ranked National University in U.S. News & World Report’s 2012 rankings of Best Colleges. The annual report provides rankings of colleges and universities that award undergraduate degrees. See the full report at www.usnews.com/education. The top 10 on the list:

1. (Tie) Princeton	5. (Tie) Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1. (Tie) Harvard University	5. (Tie) Stanford University
3. Yale University	5. (Tie) University of Chicago
4. Columbia University	5. (Tie) University of Pennsylvania
5. (Tie) California Institute of Technology	10. Duke University

National Toy Hall Of Fame Finalists

Twister and the Rubik’s Cube are among six Hasbro toy and game lines that have been named finalists for induction into the National Toy Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame announced the 12 finalists, which also include Hasbro’s Transformers and Star Wars action figures, Jenga and the Simon electronic flash game. Also in the running are the dollhouse, Mattel’s Hot Wheels, Dungeons & Dragons, the pogo stick, puppets and radio-controlled vehicles. Two will be selected for induction in November. Forty-six toys have earned a place in the Rochester, New York-based Hall of Fame. Among them are Crayola crayons, Silly Putty and Hasbro’s Mr. Potato Head and the Easy-Bake Oven. Toys are chosen for induction based on several criteria, including “icon status,” longevity and innovation.