What you heard about this morning!

Five Things That Will Be Cheaper in 2012, and Five That Won't

 The website DealNews.com has a list of things they expect to be cheaper this year, and a list of things that will be more expensive. 

--One major thing you'll be paying more for is gas:  The national average is up 12 cents a gallon since the middle of December, and it's expected to keep going up.  But first, here are five things that will cost LESS. 

#1.)  iPads and Android Tablets.  The price of refurbished iPads dropped when the iPad 2 came out last year.  And the same thing will happen with iPad 2s when the iPad 3 comes out.  The cost of NEW iPad 2s might drop as well. 

--And now that the $199 Kindle Fire is Amazon's most successful product ever, the prices on ALL tablets are expected to start going down. 

#2.)  GPS Units.  GPS apps for your smartphone are getting better, so not as many people are buying stand-alone units.  Last year, you could get a GPS unit that used to cost $150 for about $70.  And they're expected to get even cheaper in 2012. 

#3.)  3-D TVs.  A year ago, you could get a 55-inch 3-D TV for about $1,500.  Now, you can get one for under $1,000.  And with newer models coming out, the prices on the old models should drop dramatically. 

#4.)  Car Rentals.  Rental companies apparently have a surplus of cars this year.  So the website DealNews.com is predicting more deals than there were in 2011. 

#5.)  Property.  Last year, average home prices were down 3.4%.  And unless the unemployment rate starts dropping significantly . . . which most experts don't think will happen . . . home prices should keep going down, or at least stay the same. 

Here are five things that are expected to be MORE expensive.

 #1.)  Airline Tickets.  According to American Express, the price for a seat in coach will go up 5%, and a seat in business class will cost 7% more than last year. 

--And if you're flying to any country in the European Union, you'll pay an extra $15 per passenger because of a new "green tax" that's aimed at reducing emissions.

#2.)  Hard Drives.  There's a shortage because of all the flooding in Thailand last year.  So prices will be up for the next few months, until production catches up with demand. 

#3.)  Gold.  The price of gold is expected to go up for the 11th year in a row.  On average, its gone up 17% a year for the past decade.  This year, it's supposed to go up 12%. 

#3.)  Water.  Cities all across the country have to increase revenue so they can balance their budgets.  And one of the easiest ways to do it is to up everyone's water bill. 

--In most areas, it probably won't be that significant.  But water bills in the Chicago area are expected to go up by as much as 25%.

 #5.)  Shipping.  Starting January 22nd, the U.S. Postal Service will start charging an average of 4.6% more to send a package. FedEx and UPS are also planning to charge about 5% more for small packages this Year. 

After at least a year of speculation, VAN HALEN is finally letting us know what they have planned for 2012.  And as expected, it's a tour with DAVID LEE ROTH . . . and a new album. 

--Dates for the tour haven't been announced . . . although that's expected to happen TODAY.  The band said the first tickets will go on sale next Tuesday. 

--Van Halen has also scheduled a small club event in New York City for Thursday.  They've invited some local journalists, but it's unclear if any tickets will be available to the public.  No one is saying what that's all about. 

--As for the album, word has it that it's coming out on February 7th . . . and that the first single will be out next Tuesday, but there aren't any other details.

--Here are the five cereals with the highest levels of sugar:

#1.)  Honey Smacks:  This cereal is 55.6% sugar by weight.  It contains as much sugar as a Twinkie.

#2.)  Golden Crisp:  It's also more than half sugar, at 51.9%.

#3.)  Froot Loops Marshmallow:  48.3% sugar.

#4.)  Cap'n Crunch Oops All Berries:  These are Crunch Berries without the little yellow non-berry cereal included.  It's 46.9% sugar.

#5.)  Honey Graham Oh's:  This one kind of pretends it's a healthy cereal, but it's 44.4% sugar.

 People Can Smell Your Personality?

 

Apparently, the way you smell is giving out more clues about you than you realized.  And we don't mean that it's telling people you like Axe body spray, or that you don't like showering. 

--In a new study out of Poland, researchers found that people could accurately predict someone's major personality traits just by smelling them.

 --By smelling people's T-shirts, the participants in the study were able to predict whether other people were outgoing and extroverted, or neurotic and anxious.  And they were particularly good at predicting those qualities in the opposite sex. 

--In other words, when you meet someone and start sizing them up as someone to date, your sense of smell is more involved than you realize. 

 

TIS THE SEASON TO RENT TOYS FOR YOUR KIDS????BACK 

So you want your kids to experience the joy of opening new toys this Christmas, but you kinda don't want to spend the money. 

--Well, there's an interesting new website that can help. 

--It's called Toygaroo, and basically it's the Netflix of toys.  For a monthly fee, you can RENT toys.  Then after a month or two . . . once your kids are sick of them . . . you return them.

 --The cheapest plan is $24.99-a-month, which gets you four toys every other month.  The most expensive plan is $52.99-a-month, for eight toys every month.
--But, based on what toys cost, they say you can save HUNDREDS or THOUSANDS of dollars a year instead of actually buying them. 

--Of course, the ultimate question here is . . . are you kids going to be disappointed that their toys are rented and not theirs to keep? 

--The website is Toygaroo.com.  If you're interested but aren't sure if you want to put down the money, they're offering a 14-day free trial.

Two recent studies . . . one from the University of Oklahoma and one from Tufts University . . . looked at whether people really do gain more weight over the holidays than they do the rest of the year.    

--The bad news is that people really DO gain more weight from late November to early January.  The good news is that it's only about a pound.

--People were weighed several times a year, and the ONLY time they consistently put on weight was over the holidays . . . and they never lost the weight they put on.

--Overweight and obese people gained more weight than the average person, and one in seven overweight people put on more than five pounds in December.
--If you're thinking you'll go on a diet over the holidays to prevent the weight gain, don't get your hopes up.  People who said they were trying to LOSE weight . . . ended up gaining about half a pound.--The reason for the weight gain over the holidays is . . . exactly what you'd think:  A combination of decreased physical activity and an increase in eating and drinking.
 

Cops are Summoned to an Elementary School After a Girl Kisses a Boy in Gym Class.....

We really had it good as kids.  Because when we were in school, if a girl came up and kissed you, you were a hero.  You weren't a VICTIM and she wasn't a CRIMINAL.

 --Last week, at Orange River Elementary School in Fort Myers, Florida, the assistant principal . . . 56-year-old Margaret Ann Haring . . . saw a girl walk up to a boy and KISS HIM during gym class.

 --The children's ages and grade weren't released.

 --And Haring's response was . . . to call CHILD WELFARE OFFICIALS.  Because she was worried she'd just witnessed a sex crime. You know, that notorious sex crime of an elementary school-aged girl kissing an elementary school-aged boy.

 --The person at the child welfare office told her to contact the sheriff.  So she did.  And a sheriff's deputy was dispatched to the school to investigate.

 --The deputy concluded that there were, quote, "no new allegations of sexual abuse" so no charges were filed against the girl. 

 
It Will Cost 13% More to Serve Thanksgiving This Year . . . Here's the Food-by-Food Breakdown.

Every year, the American Farm Bureau Federation releases a study about the retail cost of serving Thanksgiving dinner.  The bad news?  It'll cost you 13% more this year than last year.  The good news?  It's still less than $5 per person.

--Based on their numbers, it will only cost an average of $49.20 to serve Thanksgiving dinner for ten.  Yeah, we want to shop at their grocery store too. 

--Last year it cost $43.47.

-The dinner includes turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, cranberries, carrots and celery, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and coffee and milk.

--The turkey is the most expensive part AND had the biggest price increase . . . it's up $3.91 to $21.57 this year.  (--That's for a 16-pound bird.)

--Other items that went up are a gallon of whole milk, pumpkin pie mix, pie shells, whipped cream, peas, stuffing, rolls, sweet potatoes, and cranberries. 

--Carrots and celery went down in price, so did coffee, and so did some of the miscellaneous cooking ingredients like onions, eggs, sugar, flour, evaporated milk, and butter.--When the AFBF started this study in 1986, the average cost of Thanksgiving dinner was $28.74. 

Walmart's Starting Black Friday Even Earlier . . . on Thursday

 

In the past few years, stores have been opening earlier and earlier on Black Friday to try to get a jump.  This year, Target, Macy's, Kohl's, and Best Buy all announced that they're opening at MIDNIGHT on Thanksgiving night.--But yesterday, Walmart announced they're going to beat that . . . they're opening their doors for Black Friday at 10:00 P.M. ON Thanksgiving.  In other words, two hours BEFORE it's actually Friday.--But, they're going to hold off a little bit on their craziest deals . . . you know, the ones people trample each other for.  Those won't be available until midnight.

--This is the first time ever that a store has opened for Black Friday on Thanksgiving night. 

--A Walmart exec says they're making the move because, quote, "our customers told us they would rather stay up late to shop than get up early."

 

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Women Who Have Sex Four Times a Week Look Ten Years Younger . . . and More Women Than Ever are Having Sex Out of Obligation...

 A new survey by an organization called HealthyWomen has found that women think a healthy sex life is important to their overall health . . . but that's not enough to get them to actually HAVE sex. 

--More than half of women surveyed think that having sex a few times a week is healthy, and two out of five think it's extremely important to their overall health. 

--BUT . . . fewer than one in three actually have sex that often, and two out of three women admitted that they only have sex once a week or less.  

--In fact, a psychiatrist named Naomi Greenblatt who specializes in women's health says that when many women DO have sex, they're just doing it because they have to. 

--Naomi said, quote, "There seems to be a growing trend in women having sex for obligation, not enjoyment purposes.  Women say there are only 24 hours in the day, and they simply are not prioritizing sex." 

--But women might want to consider doing it a little more often.  Elizabeth Cahill of HealthyWomen said, quote, "an active sex life can decrease stress, strengthen pelvic floor muscles, increase immune system function and burn calories."    

--Naomi said that sex has a fountain-of-youth effect.  Women who have sex at least four times a week look up to 10 years younger than their actual age. 

 

The Happiest Moment of the Average Day is When You're Having Sex . . . But the Happiest Moment of the Year is Christmas Afternoon 

We've got the results here from a really interesting study by a researcher named George MacKerron from the London School of Economics.

--He created an iPhone app called Mappiness.  About 45,000 people installed the app and used it to post updates about their happiness levels for a year.  And now he's analyzed the data to figure out what makes us happiest and saddest.--Here's what he found . . .

 --The thing that makes people the happiest overall is . . . HAVING SEX.  That led to a 12.9% increase in happiness.

 --The rest of the top five things that make us happy are exercising . . . going to a concert . . . singing or performing . . . and, for some reason, going to the library.

--The thing that makes people the saddest is being SICK IN BED.  That caused a 19.7% decrease in happiness. 

--The rest of the bottom five things are waiting in a line . . . taking care of an old person (--Ha!) . . . commuting . . . and studying.

--Overall, the happiest moment of the year was 1:50 P.M. on Christmas day . . . so after presents but probably before you're dealing with extended family.

--The saddest moment of the year was January 31st at 8:00 P.M. . . . right in the dead of winter when vacation days and the summer seem endlessly far away. 

 

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90% of Women Decided Which Side of the Bed They Sleep On . . .
and Men are Fine With That Once you end up sleeping on a side of the bed,
you're there FOR LIFE.  And a new study found that when it comes time to pick
those sides of the bed . . . WOMEN make the choice 90% of the time.--Men only
get the final say on sides of the bed in 10% of cases.  The good news: 
 Men are totally fine with that.  In fact, it goes back to the male biological
instinct to PROTECT a woman.--Donna Dawson is a psychologist who ran the study.  
She says men are fine with a woman picking the sleeping territory because she
chooses the spot where she feels the most comfortable and safe.--Then, once
a woman chooses, a man subconsciously starts planning how he's going to defend
her when she sleeps there.