Proof of global warming, perhaps? #GlobalWarming

theatlantic:

The Spring of 2012 Is the Hottest in U.S. History

In case, you know, you haven’t been outside in the past three month, it’s about to become official: unless a freak blizzard blankets the country by Thursday, the spring of 2012 will go down as the warmest for the U.S. in 117 years of record-keeping. The National Climatic Data Center won’t release a report on the temperatures in May until sometime in June, but based on their assessment of March and April, University of Maryland professor Steve Scolnik, who blogs at Climate Capital, says that our warm May will smash the 102-year-old record.

Read more at The Atlantic Wire. [Image: Dino Grandoni]

womensweardaily:

Spring ‘13 Fashion: Berry Cool

From left: JESSICA SIMPSON’s woven suede sandal; REBECCA MINKOFF’s lace-up strappy sandal; SAM EDELMAN’s ankle-strap peep-toe

Remembering the soldiers that have served so bravely to protect me and my freedom…#MemorialDay

RIP Donna Summer.  You will be missed.

LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948 – May 17, 2012^[1]), known by the stage name Donna Summer, was an American singer-songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the late 1970s. She had a mezzo-soprano vocal range, and was a five-time Grammy Award winner. Summer was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach number one on the U.S. Billboard chart, and she also charted four number-one singles in the United States within a 13-month period.

Summer died on May 17, 2012. The Associated Press reported she died that morning at her home in Key West, Florida at age 63. (Wikipedia)

Does where you do to college matter?  Interesting data….

theatlantic:

Does It Matter Where You Go to College?

Meet Ben. He’s a high school senior from a middle class family in Massachusettes who is choosing where to attend college next year. He’s down to two schools: prestigious Boston College, or the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, his state’s top public campus. Even with the generous financial aid package from BC, he would still graduate with a big mound of loans. UMass, meanwhile, would be more than $15,000 a year cheaper.

Which should Ben pick? Prestige or price?

With the cost of higher education climbing every year, and student debt surpassing $1 trillion, more and more young people will have to decide whether to make that trade-off. It begs the question: Does it really pay to go to an elite university, financially speaking?  Researchers have been investigating this issue since at least the 1980s. And their findings tend to show that when it comes to future earnings, where you go to college counts.

Read more.

carlinsolutions:

Report: U.S. Media Trends by Demographic

From Millenials to Boomers, males to females, and a variety of racial/ethnic groups, part two of Nielsen’s State of the Media: Advertising & Audiences Report presents an in-depth look at usage by demographic.  According to Nielsen, white TV viewers use their DVR twice as much as any other group on a daily basis, yet Asians watch the most timeshifted content as a share of overall TV time.  Among popular online destinations for TV content – Hulu, Netflix and YouTube – Hispanics were most likely to watch video on Netflix, while Asians were most likely to watch on Hulu and black viewers on YouTube.

Other findings include:

• Teens used a game console for eight minutes a night, on average, during primetime – more than twice as much as the general TV population.
• When watching TV and using their tablet simultaneously, male tablet users were more likely to look up information related to a TV program while females were more likely to up look info related to a TV ad.
• Females spend 61.2 percent of their timeshifted viewing during primetime watching Dramas.
• Online adults aged 25-54 are 23 percent more likely than the average U.S. Internet user to follow a brand via social networking and 29 percent more likely to purchase a product online that was featured on TV….(read more)

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!!!

Factoid: Cinco de Mayo has its roots in the French occupation of Mexico, which took place in the aftermath of the Mexican-American War of 1846-48, the Mexican Civil War of 1858, and the 1860 Reform Wars. These wars left the Mexican Treasury in ruins and nearly bankrupt. On July 17, 1861, Mexican President Benito Juárez issued a moratorium in which all foreign debt payments would be suspended for two years.^[13][14] In response, France, Britain, and Spain sent naval forces to Veracruz to demand reimbursement. Britain and Spain negotiated with Mexico and withdrew, but France, at the time ruled by Napoleon III, decided to use the opportunity to establish a Latin empire in Mexico that would favor French interests, the Second Mexican Empire…..

Beverly Johnson…still as beautiful today as she was in the 70’s. #BeverlyJohnson

blackhistoryalbum:

Vintage beauty Donyale Luna, the first African American model to appear on the cover o Vogue magazine, circa 1970s. (2 of 2)