Boston Globe:
A 27-year-old single woman with a perfect driving record could see her insurance premium increase an average of 5.2 percent this year, while an older married couple who each had major at-fault accidents every three years could have their premiums decrease by nearly 14 percent under the state's new competitive auto insurance system, which takes effect April 1, according to two consumer groups that analyzed rates.
The potential unintended consequence of the new system is the result of a rate-setting process in which a motorist's driving record is not given as much weight as credit rating, marital status, or other factors unrelated to driving, according to a study to be released today by the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group and the Center for Insurance Research.

The dying moose herd in northwestern Minnesota

A researcher says the moose population in northwestern Minnesota may not survive. The results of a five-year study of Minnesota moose mortality, show conclusions that are not encouraging for wildlife managers.

In the mid 1980s, wildlife managers started to notice moose in northwest Minnesota were dying in larger than usual numbers. They appeared to be diseased and starving despite abundant food supplies.
Fewer moose being born, and rampant disease among the population doesn't bode well for the future.

U.S. Mint rejects D.C. quarter

The U.S. Mint rejected designs for a commemorative D.C. quarter Wednesday afternoon because they included the phrase "Taxation Without Representation."

NY Times: Languishing at the Bottom of Yemen’s Ladder

NY Times:
By day, they sweep the streets of the Old City, ragged, dark-skinned men in orange jump suits. By night, they retreat to fetid slums on the edge of town.

They are known as “Al Akhdam” — the servants. Set apart by their African features, they form a kind of hereditary caste at the very bottom of Yemen’s social ladder.

Degrading myths pursue them: they eat their own dead, and their women are all prostitutes. Worst of all, they are reviled as outsiders in their own country, descendants of an Ethiopian army that is said to have crossed the Red Sea to oppress Yemen before the arrival of Islam.

“We are ready to work, but people say we are good for nothing but servants; they will not accept us,” said Ali Izzil Muhammad Obaid, a 20-year-old man who lives in a filthy Akhdam shantytown on the edge of this capital. “So we have no hope.”

Exxon Valdez devastation lingers

When the Exxon Valdez spilled its oil in March 1989, the world saw images of blackened seabirds and otters and seals, of bloated whale carcasses and once-pristine beaches covered with crude. Hardly anything was said about the herring.
No one at the time understood the fish's central place in the ecosystem, nor did anyone know the herring's demise would lead to years of hardship for the people here.

"It's scary what we didn't know," says Mike Maxwell, 47, a scruffy, balding, big-boned man with a small voice.

Exxon claimed the region recovered quickly. Government scientists, however, said oil remained and was still working its way through the ecosystem in a process that would last decades. At the back of a local tavern, hand-scrawled graffiti expresses a common sentiment here: "Oil spills are forever."

Wharton's house of worth

Wealth and social position were major themes of Edith Wharton's famous novel "The House of Mirth." So it's a cruel irony that the Mount, the gracious home in Lenox where Wharton wrote the book, faces foreclosure.

Now a museum, the Mount is facing a dire deadline. Unless the Edith Wharton Restoration, the nonprofit that owns the Mount, can raise $3 million by March 24, the bank will step in.

Ok. If you saw a snake in your dog's bed.....

Wouldn't you call animal control?
Or do....something?
Something besides wait for the snake to come back and swallow your dog, that is?

Bruins shut out Ottawa

Too late for me

Brown University is eliminating tuition for students whose parents earn less than $60,000, after decisions by fellow Ivy League universities to bolster financial aid as their endowments grow. Brown’s action follows similar moves by Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and Stanford.

I wish all the colleges started doing this about 10 years ago, so that I -- and my parents who are divorced and still wouldn't even make $60k combined -- would not be saddled with $30,000 in student loans or a twice re-mortgaged house. When I think of all the hot pockets I ate for dinner because I had no money, or the schools I didn't apply to because I knew aid wasn't coming to someone like me.....

NY Times: The audacity of hopelessness

Frank Rich:

When people one day look back at the remarkable implosion of the Hillary Clinton campaign, they may notice that it both began and ended in the long dark shadow of Iraq.

The Obama campaign is a lean and mean political machine that gets the job done. The Clinton camp has been the slacker in this race, more words than action, and its candidate’s message, for all its purported high-mindedness, was and is self-immolating.

What next, coffee world?

First, Starbucks announced that it would be eliminating sandwiches from its shops by this fall. Truly tragic -- I loved those Florentine sandwiches, with the swiss and the spinach on a tasty little melty sandwich.
Now, they are going to be closing all their stores for three hours today for "in store training."
Meanwhile, Dunkin' Donuts jumped in to offer 99 cent lattes (size small only) -- surprise! -- during the same time period Starbucks will be closed.
This is more politics than we'd like in our coffee drinking decisions!

I'm lovin' a free McSkillet

McDonald's is celebrating the Leap Year by giving away a free McSkillet Burrito with the purchase of a medium or large beverage during breakfast hours only, on Thursday, February 28 and Friday, February 29.

Bergeron takes a 10-minute skate

Boston Globe:

Yesterday, for the first time in 120 days, Patrice Bergeron hit the ice.

While his teammates, who capped a five-game, nine-point road trip Saturday with a 5-3 win over Tampa Bay, had yesterday off, Bergeron twirled around the Ristuccia Arena sheet for approximately 10 minutes. It was the first time Bergeron had laced up his skates since suffering a career-threatening injury Oct. 27 at TD Banknorth Garden.

Bergeron, who was diagnosed with a Grade 3 concussion and a broken nose when he was decked into the end boards by Philadelphia defenseman Randy Jones, is hoping to return to the team this season.

GW offers global communications degree - News

GW offers global communications degree - News

God I hate Harvard

Martin Annis wants to be a good neighbor, but for the past two years, doing so has been a difficult charge.

In 2005, Harvard University began building a six-story, 90,000-square-foot dormitory right behind Annis’ Banks Street home.

Annis’ two-story house at 65-67 Banks St. is one of only four properties on his side of the street not owned by Harvard. His list of damage his house has incurred since the university first broke ground on the dorm in 2005 is extensive. Since construction ended, his house has settled a half-inch below its original depth, causing cracks in several parts of the house.

In the basement, a window and heating pipe were broken while construction crews were excavating a four-story hole for an underground parking garage. His driveway was flooded with several tons of slurry — a mix of water and bentonite used to temporarily hold back dirt during excavation — last year. In 2006, construction crews accidentally knocked over a tree from an adjoining property. It landed on his car.

“I have no hope that I’m going to get anything out of Harvard,” Annis said. “I just want people to know what they did.”

Deplorable

LA TIMES: These days, the coveted "Made in Italy" label on those Prada bags and Gucci shoes, which can quadruple a price, may not mean what it used to.

Thousands of Tuscan factories that produce the region's fabled leather goods are now operated and staffed by Chinese. Though located in one of Italy's most picturesque and tourist-frequented regions, many of the factories are nothing more than sweatshops with deplorable conditions and virtually indentured workers.

Chinese laborers have become such an integral cog in the high-fashion wheel that large Chinatowns have sprung up here and in Florence.
At the main public hospital in Prato, the maternity ward on a recent morning was a cacophony of 40 squalling babies, 15 of them Chinese. "Mi chiamo Zhong Ti," one of the crib tags said -- "My name is Zhong Ti."

Sweet P's goodbye

Sweet Pea got voted off PR this week. Her work in this challenge wasn't the best, but we'll miss her nonetheless.

UGG sandal

Want it.....$150 is a bit steep for my budget, but a girl can dream.

Saving Australia's wild horses

Australia is home to an estimated 300,000 wild horses, the largest such population in the world. This abundance is believed to have put so much strain on the habitat that the Australian government has resorted to controversial mass culling campaigns to protect the country's national parks.

Images of hunters chasing herds of galloping horses from helicopters and shooting them with semiautomatic rifles have sent shock waves across Australia, where horses are proud symbols of the country's pioneer spirit.

"Horses are exotic animals that don't belong in Australia," says Keith Muir, director of Colong Foundation for Wilderness, a Sydney-based nonprofit environmental group that supports the culling of wild horses. "If kangaroos got loose in America, they would be like the horses here. You'll be shooting them like mad to try and control them."

Pretty

Silk kimono sleeve dress at Banana.

Well these look comfy

Find at Ugg.com. Only $110.

Like Corgis?

Watch this video.

Can you tell we're excited?

A preview of the dog show at Boston.com.

And

A dog's eye view of what you need to know about how the show goes down.

Guess what starts tonight...

Westminster!!


The show runs from today through tomorrow and is broadcast live tonight from 8-9 p.m. on USA Network and continuing from 9-11 p.m. on CNBC. For times and full broadcast information, click here.

LA Times: Science of the orgasm

As they seek to document and demystify one of life's great thrills, scientists have run across some real head-scratchers.

How, for example, can they explain the fact that some men and women who are paralyzed and numb below the waist are able to have orgasms?
How to explain the "orgasmic auras" that can descend at the onset of epileptic seizures -- sensations so pleasurable they prompt some patients to refuse antiseizure medication?

And how on Earth to explain the case of the amputee who felt his orgasms centered in that missing foot?
No one -- no sexologist, no neuroscientist -- really knows. But today, a few scientists are making real progress -- in part because they're changing their focus.

Lottery winner gives giant lobster freedom

As Goliath the lobster was lifted out of his tank, his legs squirmed and his beady eyes darted around the room in what seemed like a strange mixture of fear and excitement.

This 20-pound crustacean, measuring 21⁄2 feet from the tip of his tail to his claw, was headed to one of two places — the cooking pot or freedom.

Thanks to Steamers’ Super Bowl raffle grand prize winner Marlene Casciano, it was the latter.

He's Got Obamaphilia

No more 'We are the World' videos, says Joel Stein. It's possible to support Obama without looking like an idealistic star-dazzled hippie.

I plan to buy this bathing suit at J.Crew

In memory of a cyclist's cyclist

I discovered Sheldon online shortly after I bought my first real road bike, A Giant (size XXS which is what sold me on it) . Mostly I was confounded by my new gears and he has so many tips on his Web site that I immediately got hooked.
The Globe has a really nice piece in memory of Sheldon today; he died of a heart attack, apparently. I'm so sad I never got a chance to head down to the shop to meet him.
Read the article here at Boston.com.

No more tears

Yeah, this is for real.

It's a cream to lighten the skin around YOUR ASSHOLE.

Who invented that? Who needs this besides -- and even this is a stretch -- a porn star?

No surprise, it comes from South Beach.

The beanpot's tonight, the Blizzard of '78 was 30 YEARS AGO!

Awesome story about being stuck in the Garden after the blizzard.