As a college senior with plans to attend dental school, I never imagined my life would end up this way. I figured I'd graduate college, take the summer to prep for the Dental Admission Test, get into schools, then begin my trek toward normal, civilized life. That's what everyone else was doing in the biology department.

But I had no idea of the turmoil that lay in store. I ended up at Victoria's Secret the same way most men end up on daytime talk shows: I got dumped by my girlfriend; I couldn't get a new girlfriend to save my life; and, to top it all off, I began growing breasts. I now believe my boobs were the result of eating too much soy, which has a high amount of estrogen in it, and has been known to cause such reactions in prepubescent girls. But at the time I didn't realize this as I was simply too busy freaking-the-hell-out. It's one thing, as a man, to feel like you don't understand women; it is another to feel like you're becoming one.

Continue Reading...

Data companies are scooping up enormous amounts of information about almost every American. They sell information about whether you're pregnant or divorced or trying to lose weight, about how rich you are and what kinds of cars you have.

Regulators and some in Congress have been taking a closer look at these so-called data brokers — and are beginning to push the companies to give consumers more information and control over what happens to their data.

Continue Reading...

The ejection doesn't seem to have been entirely motivated by their public display of affection. It is worth noting that the smoochy couple singled out by security happens to be gay. Daniel Chesmore, 21, told the local Sacramento Fox affiliate this week, "I kissed him on the cheek. That’s how my boyfriend and I show affection." And, he said, "This is exactly what we did at the mall on Saturday." Chesmore adds that when he and his boyfriend, Jose Guzman, were confronted by a security guard, the man told them, "If you continue to kiss, you will be asked to leave the mall. Period … I counted you guys kissing 25 times." The couple also produced an audio of the guard telling them, "I told you before, we contact any couple" about this behavior.

Continue Reading...

The software is simplicity itself. First, you choose from one of 10 product categories: for example, "Bluetooth headset," "camera," "hiking shoes." (Vij says more categories will be added in the future.) Then you rank which attributes of that product are most important to you -- for the Bluetooth headset you might choose "easy to use" and "comfort," while another shopper might go for "signal" and "volume level." There's a slider bar to determine price range, and that's about it. You click your buttons, the app crunches "ratings" of the products culled from the Web, and pops up a ranked list of top-rated suggestions.

Click on the first choice -- a Bose Series 2 -- and along with a couple of links to purchase the item from Amazon and Best Buy (Arrow's business model, for the moment, is to generate cash as an affiliate) -- you will also see multiple reviews of the headphones from real people.

Continue Reading...

Mattel is the maker of Barbie and Hot Wheels, but this year its top selling toy is a plastic cell phone case, according to the Financial Times (subscription required):

 Whether a new Kindle Fire, or a hand-me-down iPad, analysts predict 2012 will be the year children as young as three-years-old will unwrap tablets at trendsetting rates. And that has the traditional toy companies scrambling to stay relevant.

“The top two guys, Mattel and Hasbro, they are terrified,” said Sean McGowan, managing director of equity research at Needham & Company, an investment banking firm. “They should be terrified, but the official party line is they’re not terrified.”

Continue Reading...

This year, self-gifting has hit an all-time high. Shoppers are rushing to sales racks and frantically loading up on everything from tablets to trendy sneakers for that very special someone known as Me.

According to the Wall Street Journal, market research company NPD has discovered that the trend is a prime driver of holiday shopping growth this year. Before the recession, the firm found that around 12 percent of shoppers said they’d purchased items for themselves during the holidays. Last year the figure was up to 19 percent for surveys that went out before Christmas. And the post-Christmas surveys showed that 26 percent of respondents had made holiday purchases for Numero Uno. This year, the figure is already up to a whopping 32 percent.

Continue Reading...

Even the savviest shoppers can be tricked into buying things they don’t want or need. There’s no need to feel foolish; the retail industry spends an inordinate amount of time and money figuring out the science (yes, it is a science) of how to sell the most stuff. But it is a good idea for consumers to know what they're going into, especially around the holiday season, when stress levels are running high and stores are packed with shoppers spending money left and right.

Though far from a comprehensive list, here are six tactics retailers use to get you to part with your hard-earned dough.

1. Holiday ploys: The scents and sounds of the season.

Continue Reading...

In the beginning, Google preached, "Don't Be Evil" -- but that changed ... when Google Shopping announced a new initiative. Simply put, all of their shopping results are now paid ads ...

... We say that when you limit choices and rank them by payment, consumers get Scroogled. For an honest search result, try Bing.

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

He always has the best booze. Let him show off his cocktail skills with this retro twin-engine airplane cocktail shaker ($79). Pair it with the wood and steel Sheesham Ice Bucket ($198) for a full service.

A classic badger shaving brush ($175) for a classic dude.

Customize his favorite jacket with these Ben Silver gold-plated blazer buttons featuring a wily fox ($225). The set includes three large coat buttons and six sleeve buttons.

On the surface he's a gentleman, but don't mess with him or his business. He can tuck in the message end of the Marc McNairy "F*** Off" pocket square ($18), but he'll know it's there.

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

Of course she has a crush on Nate Silver. And during her next campaign, she's going to want to know his secrets. Silver's "The Signal and the Noise" ($24) takes a long hard look at data and what the numbers can (and can't) tell us.

Help her keep her life together with the Tory Burch Robinson Smart Phone Wallet ($155) in brown Italian leather. It keeps her phone separate from her cards, and the wrist strap will ensure she doesn't lose more than her dignity at karaoke.

Because her desk is always two steps away from becoming a scary hoarder nightmare, she'll get a sick kick out of the visual pun that is Catherine Mui's Clipnote Organizer ($12).

Continue Reading...

Consider the example of the Kelley family in Fort Myers, Fla., so determined to sacrifice nothing of their quality of life while in quest for the perfect deal that they showed up in front of the local Best Buy's doors on Monday, equipped with a dinner table.

This is what we call not messing around:

Continue Reading...

What would she do? I asked. Would the family wait dinner for her?

"No," she said. "I'll eat leftovers when I get home from work. It's what I did last year, too."

And I was so angry on her behalf. But she needed her job, and she couldn't say no without the risk of being fired, and so a mother who should have been spending time with her child on our most family-friendly day was shipping off to help sell cheap flat-screen televisions to the masses.

How did this happen?

Thanksgiving used to be a time to be grateful for what you already had. Back when George Washington declared it a national holiday, almost all work came to a stop. I’m still moved by Norman Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post cover, depicting a family's simple joy. The painting was called “Freedom From Want.”

Continue Reading...

Coralville Police Chief Barry Bedford says the deer used doors that open automatically to get into a Kohl's store.

He says the fawns stayed in the store's vestibule, but their mother made it into the store and headed toward the back.

Police say employees opened up some back doors and the doe exited. The two fawns turned around and used the automatic exit doors to leave the store.

No injuries or damage was reported.

Continue Reading...