Every year since 1971 the World Economic Forum, a meeting of billionaires and their pet statemen and economists, has convened in the Swiss Alps at Davos. This year they have been joined by the 99%. “OccupyWEF” protesters can’t afford the town’s luxury hotels, so they’re using the famed ski resort’s snow as lodging, building a community of igloos.
By now, no doubt, you’ve finished your haggis and neeps and drained a wee dram to toast the 253th Birthday of poet Robert Burns. The Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division has an online celebration of Scottish links for your post-Burns Supper perusal:
“Robert Burns Day: Haggis, Anyone?” Kristi Finefield, Picture This
The McDonald’s Corporation started 2012 with TV ads personalizing the multinational fast food giant through first-person “McDonald Stories” narrated by its rural, agricultural suppliers. A few days back McDonald’s took the human element a step further, inviting consumers to add their own 140-character #McDStories on Twitter, a recipe for disaster. McDonald’s found the results not to their taste, and 86ed the Twitter campaign.
More:
“#McDStories: When A Hashtag Becomes A Bashtag,” Kashmir Hill,Forbes
Happy New Year (新年快乐). This Lunar New Year is the Year of the Dragon in much of Asia. In China, where the dragon is considered a national symbol, this year is considered especially auspicious, and many couples will attempt to have lucky children in the next twelve months. To Chinese moms, that’s not an unmixed blessing.
“Casually mentioning a female instead of a male name was sufficient to impair men’s cognitive performance,” according to a research team from Radboud University in the Netherlands. “Moreover, these effects occur even if men do not get information about the woman’s attractiveness.”
When heterosexual males interact with attractive women, they put so much effort into trying to make a good impression that they don’t have the resources left to think clearly. Caveat: by “males” the scientists mean their usual research animals, university students.
More:
“Sex on the Brain Proves Costly for Men,” Tom Jacobs, Miller-McCune
The rotund Republican romeo is chatting up GOP values voters with the line “My last ex-wife doesn’t understand me.” Will Palmetto State voters be seduced? Probably. Their other choices are an elderly pro-pot gynecologist, a K Street lobbyist, and a Mormon.
Related:
“Ex-Mrs. Gingrich Reacts to Newt: ‘My Story Is the Truth,’” Brian Ross, ABC News
Ron Paul has yet to deploy the mighty airships of the Paulista Air Force, but a Ron Paul hot air balloon flew a sortie over I-85 in South Carolina on Thursday. It hovered outside Greenville during morning rush hour, and may have been tethered in the frontage road, since the Highway Patrol issued a citation. As Dr. Paul might say, there’s entirely too much law.
“Etta James, one of the great voices of the 20th century who fused R&B with gospel and blues, and scored landmark hits with “At Last,” “Tell Mama” and “All I Could Do Was Cry,” died today from complications related to leukemia. She was 73. James had been battling health problems for many years.”
– “Etta James Dead at 73,” Andy Greene, Rolling Stone
– “Etta James dies at 73; acclaimed blues and R&B singer,” Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times
