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News shopping

Today’s Fun Fact: Why more women than men have herpes


Lipstick Sampler
Lipstick Sampler

After yesterday’s WEB WATCH post about the percentage of herpes infections in the US, we received a few questions about one of the CDC’s survey results that stated that more women than men suffered from herpes.

The question?  “Why?”

While we know some men can be sleeping around with more than one partner, that certainly doesn’t mean that men are the sole means that the herpes virus can get spread around.

Leave it to more scientific studies to help Web Watch out when we need to know more about herpes in just a few days than we ever thought was reasonable.

Categories
Funny News

Want to read the best paragraph ever written for a CNN news story? (Hint: it’s about STDs)


Herpes Stuffed Toy
Stuffed Herpes Toy

Web Watch was reading a CNN article the other day that shows how important it is to (a) have a good, gripping  headline to draw a reader into a story; and (b) a phenomenal opening paragraph that lays out exactly what the story is about.

These are two rules that every aspiring news reporter should try to follow with every story that they file.

Case in point, the CNN article in question:  THE DOWNSIDE OF “FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS”.

Categories
food Websites

Eating a double-cheeseburger at home is less expensive than buying the $1 version at McDonald’s


Double Cheeseburger
Double Cheeseburger

Web Watch has eaten many fast-food cheeseburgers over the years.

We’ve been to the standards – McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, Hardee’s – and have visited the occasional In-n-Out whenever possible.

But no matter how tasty and convenient for road trips the fast food burger can be, Web Watch will stand by our philosophy that nothing beats a good burger, done right at home.

Trent at The Simple Dollar agrees:  he has done the analysis and concluded that IT IS CHEAPER TO BUY THE INGREDIENTS TO MAKE DOUBLE-CHEESEBURGERS AT HOME THAN IT IS TO BUY THEM FOR $1 AT McDONALD’S.   

Categories
10 Things News

Playboy’s List of Top Party Schools 2010

Playboy Shot Glasses
Playboy Shot Glasses

Playboy has released their list of the 2010 TOP PARTY SCHOOLS FOR 2010:

  1. University of Texas at Austin
  2. West Virginia University
  3. University of Wisconsin – Madison
  4. University of Miami
  5. East Carolina University
  6. Arizona State University
  7. Rollins College
  8. University of California – Santa Barbara
  9. Plymouth State University
  10. University of Iowa
Categories
10 Things TV Websites

“50 things that every person should learn in life” can be applied to reality TV


Esquire's A Man's Guide to Life: The Rules
Esquire’s A Man’s Guide to Life: The Rules

Esquire’s book, A MAN’S GUIDE TO LIFE is just like THE MODERN MAN’S GUIDE TO LIFE or Denis Boyle‘s A MAN’S LIFE: THE COMPLETE INSTRUCTIONS – books filled with rules and helpful instructions to let any man prove that he is, in fact, A Man.  Web Watch highly recommends offering any of these three books to graduating high school seniors (or even as bar mitzvah gifts, since that is when A Boy Becomes a Man).

Categories
How To Science Travel

Little known NASA fact: astronauts can propel themselves in space by peeing in different directions


Astronaut Costume
Astronaut Costume

Here’s a LITTLE KNOWN NASA FACT that you won’t often hear on any space-oriented TV show or VIP tour:  astronauts can propel themselves through space by using their pee as a propulsion method.

It’s true.

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10 Things News

We all know men think about sex every 7 seconds. Here are 10 other facts about men’s brains

Pinky and the Brain
Pinky and the Brain

It’s been commonly reported that MEN THINK ABOUT SEX EVERY SEVEN SECONDS.  But that’s not the only thing that scientists have proven about how men’s brains work.

If you consider these following ten items and compare them to what you know about the men in your life, you may be surprised about what is going on inside that noggin.  Here are TEN THINGS EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ABOUT A MAN’S BRAIN:

Categories
Music

How much royalties do musicians make selling music? If sold via iTunes, almost not enough to live on


32GB iPod
32GB iPod

Previously, Web Watch has written about how little money artists receive from music sales

While that post was about the best band in the world and how they are still in debt to Warner Brothers even after millions of albums and downloads sold, new information has come to light regarding more current and popular artists and how they are affected by music royalty payment calculations… or lack thereof.

Lady Gaga, for example, was reportedly PAID JUST $167 FOR FIVE MONTHS WORTH OF STREAMING (totalling over 1 million plays) of the song “Pokerface” on the streaming service Spotify.  Of course, SPOTIFY DISPUTES THIS, and says that the payment that was reported was for a tiny timeframe, represents just one country, and was still when they were a lesser-known streaming service.  Web Watch thinks that even with those caveats, since the streaming totals or dollars paid weren’t updated in the counter-discussion, that Gaga’s low payment number still stands.

Referencing other EMPIRICAL DATA ABOUT HOW MUCH ARTISTS GET PAID for each type of distribution method, David McCandless put together a phenomenal graphic that VISUALLY SHOWS HOW MUCH (or little) MONEY ARTISTS ARE PAID, specifically looking at how many items in each distribution model need to be sold in order for the artist to make a monthly living minimum wage.  Let’s take a look at what David’s graphic is trying to tell us: