Independent Survey says the Most Popular Sex Toy in the U.S. is...

Whether you’re going solo or looking to spice things up with your partner, sex toys can enhance stimulation and increase pleasure in the bedroom.

But which toy is best? It depends on your personal preferences, but this might give you an idea: 

According to a recent study conducted by Bespoke Surgical, dildos are the sex toy of choice across America, taking the #1 spot on a list of the most popular toys.

To come up with the list, researchers analyzed the search interest in sex toys on Google Shopping. They selected eight broad categories to narrow the results: 

1. butt plugs
2. vibrators
3. dildos
4. handcuffs
5. bondage gear
6. cock rings
7. male sex toys
8. strap-ons

The study also focused on the number one toy in individual states and major cities. Strap-ons were the most-searched sex toy in Rhode Island, Delaware, California, and New York. 

People in the Big Apple were most interested in adding cock rings to their cart, while Los Angelenos were on the hunt for bondage gear. Hey, no judgment from us; anything that increases sexual satisfaction also gives your health a boost, and we're all for that. “Sex toys really expand the erotic horizons for people because there are so many different types of devices and ways to use them,” Holly Richmond, PhD, a Los Angeles–based sex therapist, told Health earlier this year.

SOURCE

INFOGRAPHIC: Fuel Prices are Sky HIGH! by H&R Block

INFOGRAPHIC: Amazing penny facts about the US debt

[Via: Amazing penny facts about the US debt]
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Word Cloud's of all the State of the Union addresses ever given by a U.S. President

State of the Union

State of the Union (SOTU) provides access to the corpus of all the State of the Union addresses from 1790 to 2012. SOTU allows you to explore how specific words gain and lose prominence over time, and to link to information on the historical context for their use. SOTU focuses on the relationship between individual addresses as compared to the entire collection of addresses, highlighting what is different about the selected document. You are invited to try and understand from this information the connection between politics and language–between the state we are in, and the language which names it and calls it into being.

The Words
SOTU maps the significant content of each State of the Union address so that users can appreciate its key terms and their relative importance.

The horizontal axis shows the average position of a word in the document. The vertical axis displays the word’s relative frequency, determined by comparing how frequently the word occurs in the document to how frequently it appears throughout the entire body of SOTU addresses (see appendix for details).

Common words (“and,” “the,” etc.) and words that occur frequently in the entire corpus (“states”) are largely filtered out; what remains are words that are especially characteristic of a given address. The size of the word indicates how many times it was used in the document. Click the word to view the full text of the address with the word highlighted. Rollover the word to get detailed frequency data.

The Data
The data underneath the map of significant words shows trends in the language of the State of the Union addresses. On the graph, white bars indicate the word length of each address. The red dots indicate readability as measured by the address’s Flesch-Kincaid score, which is meant to suggest the grade level in an American school for which the text is comprehensible. The actual scores are displayed in the bottom right corner of the interface (for more information on Flesch-Kincaid, see the appendix).

The current corpus contains:

• 226 documents
• 1,734,587 words
• 27,308 unique words

The NEW American Dream as realized by foreign students coming to America to receive the BEST possible college education

Economic Impact:

International students contribute $17.8 billion to the US economy, through expenditures on tuition and living expenses.

Source: US Dept of Commerce

In China, rising incomes and the cheap dollar are increasingly making an American university education affordable. Many US schools, including small liberal arts colleges, are reaching out to Chinese families in the hope of establishing their brand in a region rich with promising young students. 

"They look at an education in the United States as something valuable," said Penny Johnston, the director of international admissions at Franklin & Marshall College. "It is different than the education they would get in China."
  
Johnston, along with her colleagues, is now traveling to China regularly to learn about geography and culture. "It's only been the last six or seven years that I have been traveling to China but each year I do a little bit more," said Johnston.

Among colleges that do not have a worldwide brand, there is a sense of urgency to get a critical mass of students from China, said John Latting, director of undergraduate admissions at Johns Hopkins University. "There needs to be an effect of building communities of people who have heard of the college," said Latting. In this growing and sometimes chaotic market, though, admissions officers face challenges. High schools and their standards are unknown and a growing number of agents that promise Chinese students placement in US schools have been unreliable and sometimes proven to be fraudulent. Johnston has occasionally asked her current students from China to help her with identifying fake transcripts. "If I ask them specifically to look at a letterhead, signature or a seal that has been stamped, some of them have been able to help me," Johnston said. China is not unique in the world in this aspect, said Latting. "The problem is just so much bigger because the growth is so much faster."

As US Consumers search for Quality and Affordable Dental Care, Dental Tourism begins to Flourish

It is perhaps the fastest-growing segment in travel and tourism, and the purpose might surprise you —cheaper dental care.

More than 200,000 Americans traveled abroad for healthcare in 2008, a number that is expected to double in 2011, according to one expert estimate. Some published reports put that number much higher: An estimated 1.6 million Americans will travel abroad for medical procedures by 2012, according to the Deloitte Center for Health.

As insurance rates skyrocket and hospital costs balloon, medical tourism may be a natural solution. Even when you factor in the cost of airfare, accommodations and recuperation, the overall cost of care abroad can be fraction of what you would pay here in the United States.

It’s not always a matter of jetting to a distant shore either. Just south of the U.S.-Mexico border is the tiny town of Los Algodones. Seven miles west of Yuma, Ariz., Los Algodones has more than 350 practicing dentists who charge up to 70% LESS than dentists in the United States.


Los Algodones is approximately a 2hr 38 min drive from San Diego, CA

Literally, all you have to do is park your car at a $3 lot in Yuma, walk over the border, and enter one of the hundreds of dental offices that line the streets there. Many of these dentists were trained in the United States, and most have English-speaking staff to help you navigate the process. As many as 33,000 Americans a day walk into Los Algodones in high season. With exceedingly few exceptions, there’s no waiting weeks for some laboratory to make impressions or molds. No return visits needed, either. Nearly all of the Mexican dentists have their own labs on premises. After your initial examination, you’re encouraged to go out for about two hours and have lunch. And when you return, the work is done, you’re treated, and you can be back across the border in time for dinner.

www.MedicalTourismCo.com

Act of Valor (2012)
Also Known As:        AOV
Production Status:   In Production/Awaiting Release
Genres:                     Action/Adventure and Drama
Running Time:         1 hr. 41 min.
Release Date:           February 17th, 2012 (worldwide)
Distributors:              Relativity Media Distribution Group
Production Co:         Bandito Brothers
Produced in:            United States
Filming Locations:  USA, Philippines, & Russia



When the rescue of a kidnapped CIA operative leads to the discovery of a deadly terrorist plot against the U.S., a team of SEALs is dispatched on a worldwide manhunt. As the valiant men of Bandito Platoon race to stop a coordinated attack that could kill and wound thousands of American civilians, they must balance their commitment to country, team and their families back home.

The Day the Space Shuttle Program Died...

The American Dream defined by Historian and writer James Truslow Adams in his 1931 book, "Epic of America".

The American Dream defined on Twitpic

The American Dream DEFINED: The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each women shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.-- Historian and writer James Truslow Adams in his 1931 book Epic of America.