DENNIS RODMAN'S NORTH KOREA TRIP GETS EVEN WEIRDER

Former basketball star Dennis Rodman's trip to North Korea raised eyebrows from the start. But the tattooed former Chicago Bull really pushed the envelope on Friday, when he wrapped up his visit by calling the Hermit Kingdom's enigmatic young leader, Kim Jong Un, an "awesome kid." The unlikely pair on Thursday watched an exhibition basketball game together — featuring members of the Harlem Globetrotters, who traveled with Rodman to shoot an episode of a sports documentary — and Rodman declared that he had told Kim "you have a friend for life."

Jeans that fight cellulite!

In a world of “crazy fashion gimmicks,” Wrangler’s new Smooth Legs jeans are redefining crazy. Made of denim that contains retinol, caffeine, and algae, they’re supposed to fight cellulite as you wear them. Wrangler cites a study in which 69 percent of wearers claimed that their thighs looked better after several weeks in the jeans, but that’s not proof. A better bet might be the brand’s new aloe vera and olive extract jeans, which are said to release moisturizers through about six washes. Making it easier to slide into skinny jeans “doesn’t sound like the worst idea in the world.”

Stats- Football, Guns, Campaign spending 2/20/13

In 1983, the Washington Redskins won the Super Bowl with a single 300-pound player on the roster. This year’s Super Bowl teams, the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens, had 24 players who weigh more than 300 pounds.
The Wall Street Journal

Since 2009, there have been 43 mass shootings of four or more people—an average of one such killing spree a month. In only four of the 43 shootings had anyone raised concerns about the mental health of the killer to authorities.
The Washington Post

The total amount of money spent on the 2012 elections, from the bottom to the top of the ballot, was a record $7.3 billion, the Federal Election Commission said this week. Candidates spent $3.2 billion, parties $2 billion, and outside political committees $2.1 billion.
Politico.com

Law school applications have plummeted 38 percent since 2010, due to the rising cost of a law degree and declining job prospects and salaries for lawyers. “Thirty years ago if you were looking to get on the escalator to upward mobility, you went to business or law school,” said Indiana University law professor William D. Henderson. “Today, the law school escalator is broken.”
The New York Times

With 47 percent of global coal consumption, China now burns almost as much coal as the rest of the world combined.
ScientificAmerican.com
Poll watch

43% of Americans say the government is “definitely” or “probably” concealing the existence of extraterrestrial life on Earth.
Angus Reid Public Opinion

27% of Americans believe God plays a direct role in determining which teams win sports events. 53% believe God rewards athletes who have faith with success.
Public Religion Research Institute

16 year old, Sarah Kavanagh, takes on Gatorade and wins

PepsiCo is making some big changes to its Gatorade sports drink, thanks to a high school sophomore’s Internet petition, said Candice Choi in the Associated Press. Sarah Kavanagh, 16, a vegetarian from Hattiesburg, Miss., was scanning Gatorade’s ingredient list for animal products one day when she came across an item she didn’t recognize: brominated vegetable oil. A Google search led her to articles about BVO, which she discovered was patented as a flame retardant, linked to reduced fertility and altered thyroid hormones, and banned as a food additive in Japan and the European Union.
“When I went to Change​.org to start my petition, I thought it might get a lot of support because no one wants to gulp down flame retardant,” Kavanagh said. “But with Gatorade being as big as they are, sometimes it was hard to know if we’d ever win.” Kavanagh’s petition attracted more than 200,000 signatures, and last week the soda giant announced it would replace BVO in Gatorade, said Stephanie Strom in The New York Times, though it remains present in Mountain Dew and other citrus-flavored drinks. “I’m thinking about taking it to the FDA,” Kavanagh said, “and asking them why they aren’t doing something about it.”
The week magazine

Tip of the week... How to beat jet lag

Start with a boost. You can never eliminate jet lag entirely, says Ronald Kramer of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, but you can ease its effects. Start your first morning in the new time zone with a light workout, followed by a protein smoothie and a cup of coffee.

Don’t forgo naps. “One of the big mistakes is staying up all day.” Try to find time for a nap that’ll be over while the sun’s still up. Then turn in for the night at the same time the locals do.

Sleep through the night. Treat yourself to milk and cookies before bed: The light carbohydrates and stirring of childhood memories help the brain go quiet. Make sure your room is cool, and if all else fails, take a sleeping pill you’ve tried before. “Jet lag is one of the few situations” when a pill “can be really helpful.”
Source: Esquire

Best apps... For discouraging texting while driving

DriveMode
blocks all calls, texts, and emails, and prevents drivers from reading or typing. When you select the app, it sends out auto replies to let people know that you’re driving. (Free; AT&T only)

Textecution
automatically disables texting whenever your phone is traveling at speeds exceeding 10 mph. But you can send a request to the admin to override the block if you’re just riding in a fast-moving car, not driving it. ($30; Android)

text-STAR
uses the same 10 mph speed limit as Textecution, and also allows you to schedule auto-reply texts in advance, for periods when you know you’ll be on the road or otherwise occupied. (Free; Android)

DriveSafe.ly
doesn’t block incoming texts; instead it reads them aloud. It allows you to respond by voice instead of with your fingers. (Free; iOS, Android, Blackberry)
Source: Mashable.com

"We already are a welfare state" Mona Charen NationalReview.com

Conservatives unhappy with federal deficit spending often warn that we’re on the road to becoming a European welfare state, said Mona Charen. Who are we kidding? America is already a welfare state. In fact, if you add local and state government spending to federal outlays, the U.S. government spends more per citizen than do France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The only real difference is that “we aren’t honest about our appetite for big government.” When asked, most Americans will insist they prefer small government—in theory. But in reality, we’ve grown addicted to government services and checks: 60 million depend on Medicaid benefits, 54 million get Social Security checks, 48 million are on Medicare, and 45 million receive food stamps. More than 20 million work directly for government, and millions more are private contractors dependent on government funding. If you protest that you “paid for” your Social Security and Medicare benefits, you really didn’t. The average beneficiary gets far more in benefits than he paid in. “We are, in short, a socialist-style society just like Europe.” Admitting it is the first step in recovery.