Top Online Reads & Sees

Students See Hard Future if Free Fares Are Ended
Sharon Otterman, December 17, 2009, The New York Times

When Alejandro Velazquez, 15, was selecting a high school last year, he decided on Washington Irving in Manhattan because of its strong Spanish-English bilingual program. It was a 40-minute trip from his home in the Bronx, but his mother assented, in part because he could travel free.

His family’s calculus, he said, would have been different had he needed to pay $40 a month or more to get to and from school, a reality that will begin next fall if budget cuts passed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board on Wednesday are carried out. ...

7 Soldiers Cited in Pregnancy Ban on Soldiers in Iraq
MSN Lifestyle, msnbc.com staff and news service reports, December 22, 2009

Four female and three male soldiers in northern Iraq have been reprimanded for disobeying a ban on pregnancies, but the general in charge of troops there has backed off an earlier threat of courts-martial and prison time for such cases. ...

Hairstyle How-To: Sleek Evening Ponytail
By Danilo, Pantene celebrity hairstylist

This no-fuss, sophisticated style is easy to create at home and works well for both the office and all of your after-work events. Get more hair inspiration here.

A ponytail is a quick style that can be enhanced with jeweled combs or decorative pins. Since more attention will be drawn to your face, compliment this simple style by playing up your eyes. ...

DirecTV Thrives On 'Deception,' Lawsuit Alleges
By Bob Sullivan, Friday, December 18, 2009 MSNBC The Red Tape Chronicles

A lawsuit filed this week by Washington state against DirecTV could have a secondary purpose: It could serve as a textbook for consumers on tricks companies play to take their money.

The suit filed by Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna alleges so many forms of misbehavior that he thinks DirecTV, the nation's largest satellite TV provider, has "built deception into their business model." ...

Food History: How Your Favorite Foods (and One Appliance) Were Invented
By Lauren Donaldson, MSN Delish

Did you know one of your beloved candies was intended as an anti-smoking treat? Or that chocolate chip cookies were discovered by mistake? Check out the strange beginnings of some of your fave foods and one appliance you probably wouldn't want to live without. ...

Top Online News

Kiki Smith and Deborah Gans to Design Window for Eldridge Street Synagogue
By ROBIN POGREBIN, The New York Times, Arts Beat, November 23, 2009, 12:52 pm

Photo: Michael Nagle for The New York Times The Eldridge Street Synagogue

The Museum at Eldridge Street has commissioned the artist Kiki Smith and the architect Deborah Gans to create a new east window for its 1887 synagogue, a National Historic Landmark on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.... The synagogue reopened in 2007 after a 20-year restoration, but there were no available records of the original window.... While the design has yet to be released, Ms. Smith said it would feature the Star of David at the center “in a field of blue five-pointed stars.” The Eldridge Street Synagogue — reputed to be the first house of worship built by Eastern European Jews in the United States — has a neo-Moorish interior with 50-foot ceilings faux-painted and stenciled ceilings, 68 stained-glass windows. ...

Oasis of the Seas: Largest Cruse Ship Afloat
Text by Robin Dalmas, Bing Travel; photo editing by Connie Ricca

Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas debuts in December as the world’s largest cruise ship. It’s nearly five times the gross tonnage of the Titanic, and 1½ times longer than the U.S. Capitol building, has 16 decks and has a capacity for 6,296 guests. You may also be pleased to know that Oasis has the largest lifeboats in the cruise world. Each one can hold nearly 370 people. ...

*Note: This article features 18 fantastic photographs of the ship's various features, including an aquatic amphitheater, 7 themed neighborhoods (a bar that moves across three decks, Central Park, and the Royal Promenade), a beach pool, a zip line, 2 SurfRiders, a Rock Climbing Wall, loft suites, 24 dining options. Check them out!

Homeless brothers in line to inherit billions

Hungarian cave-dwellers could split grandmother's $6.6 billion fortune

msnbc.com

updated 6:44 p.m. ET, Thurs., Dec . 3, 2009

BUDAPEST, Hungary - Talk about a reversal of fortunes. Two brothers who are so poor they live in a cave on the outskirts of Budapest and get by selling scavenged junk are in line to receive a $6.6 billion inheritance from a long-lost grandmother, the U.K. Daily Telegraph reports. Zsolt and Geza Peladi have been informed that they are entitled to the fortune, along with a sister who lives in the United States, the newspaper reported Wednesday. “We knew our mother came from a wealthy family but she was a difficult person and severed ties with them, and then later abandoned us and we lost touch with her and our father until she eventually died,” Geza Peladi, 43, was quoted as saying by ATV television in Hungary. ...

15 Cities Top 15% Unemployment
By MSN Money staff and wire reports

October's unemployment rate topped 15% in 15 metro areas -- nine in California, three in Michigan and one each in Florida, Illinois and Arizona. And despite its 30% jobless rate -- the nation's worst -- the situation in El Centro, Calif., actually improved from 32.2% in September, as it did in 168 of the 372 metro areas tracked by the U.S. Department of Labor. Compared with a year ago, not a single metro area showed an improvement. ...

Saving the Last Wild Horses From Extinction

Dec. 2nd - The Przwalski horse came close to extinction in the 1970s, but thanks to research from the Smithsonian's Conservation and Research Center it's making a comeback. NBC's Wendy Jones reports. ...

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