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The vehicle that many children are asking for this holiday season is not a fire truck. It's not a school bus or a race car. It's a bright green, clunky recycling truck, made of recycled milk jugs and stored in eco-friendly, cardboard packaging.

Barbie is a perfect example of that. She's often the villain. Often, she's run over by cars.   -Christine Williams

 

In one of the more clever, Web-savvy moves for a jewel in Conde Nast 's print crown, Lucky Magazine has launched a slick online shopping experience that's essentially a "big edit" of over 40 great retailers. The result is a kind of "e-boutique," with wares from more than 450 brands curated into categories like "stylish daytime clutches" and "statement rings" -- the kind of want-them-right-now trends you'd read about in the magazine itself. What's more, the new experience has even been integrated into th  

At all levels, it would appear that MSNBC has it out for Sarah Palin. Earlier this week, MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan had to apologize for using photoshopped images of Palin in a miniskirt and a bikini on November 13. His apology: "I want to apologize to Governor Palin and all of our viewers. On Friday, in a very misguided attempt to have some fun in advance of Sarah Palin's upcoming book Going Rogue , our staff mistakenly used some clearly photoshopped images of Ms. Palin without any acknowledgment."

Well I think if you pose for a picture and you’re a public figure, you should probably expect that it’s going to show up wherever and not complain about when it shows up on the cover of Newsweek   -Ruth Marcus

 

When it comes to tragic spectacles in this sorry age of reality television, beyond even the pathetic sight of Patti Blagojevich eating bugs on "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!," falls the obnoxious exploitation of Scottish homebody Susan Boyle. Diagnosed with learning difficulties and, she says, verbally tormented and physically abused by teachers and schoolmates, Boyle also was blessed with a pure, clear and ringing voice. Until a few months ago, the 48-year-old singer most often displayed he  

Robert Scoble has posted some thoughts on how Twitter's promised monetisation tools could work (worth reading the comment thread on that too). Targeted advertising is at the heart of it, but the execution is non-interruptive and doesn't mess with the 140-character message format that we all know and many of us love. I'm interested to hear from business owners and marketers on this.  

A FORGETFUL musician who improved her memory by meditating and eating nuts has written a book showing others how to do the same. Anne French, 65, from Bicester, used to find herself forgetting even the most simple day-to-day tasks. But since she began her research into memory techniques, Ms French, a pianist, has learned 11 Hungarian rhapsodies off by heart.  

While Sony will link its products to its vast library of digital content, the biggest difference with Amazon and Barnes & Noble is that in addition to selling product, according to a Money Times report at Sony's online service will permit visitors to tap into their preference for social networking by allowing them to create an account where they can upload their videos, photos and other digital content. Unfortunately a Business Week article indicated the store will not make the holiday deadline and will  

All big companies have their critics. But what's interesting about Apple's detractors is universal surprise. Their disappointment often stems from finding out that Apple isn't the company they thought it was.

App Store approval process is broken.   -Paul Graham

 

The Social Security's online retirement estimator, which is available at www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator , can provide immediate and personalized benefit estimates to people who have enrolled in Medicare but have not yet filed for Social Security ben-efits. These "Medicare only" beneficiaries previously needed to contact a local office in order to obtain an estimate of their benefits. About 500,000 a year file for Medicare and delay filing for Social Security benefits.

Social Security's Retirement Estimator has been a huge success — with the agency providing over 4 million personalized retirement estimates to Americans since its launch last year   -Michael J Astrue