A patron collapsed at the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas for the second time in two months. The 40-year-old woman was supposedly smoking, drinking a margarita, dancing and eating her “double bypass burger” – basically having a grand old time – when she collapsed. No word on whether it was due to a heart attack, like the previous incident was, but the restaurant, which prides itself on being unhealthy, will most likely not be responsible for any medical bills. The grill is a tourist destination in Vegas for a number of reasons: there’s the famous policy that anyone “over 350 lbs. eats free”; the waitresses dressed up in short, Halloween-style nurses costumes; the required “hospital gowns” for diners; and of course, the food: pats of butter on milkshakes and triple or double-bypass burgers. Dine at your own risk.

Google released the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)’s report into their Street View service, which collected private data from millions of households. We all love Google Maps – especially Street View, where you can pretend you’re in New York City or LA or Colorado and stroll along the streets – but creating the service came at a cost. While driving around their video-camera equipped cars that collected the images to create the service, Google was also collecting information (called payload data) like names and emails from their private internet connections. Google claims the collection was the act of a “rogue engineer,” but recent intel reveals that multiple members of the team knew what was going on. Google was fined $25,000 for interfering with the investigation (which is pretty much like loose change in Google’s pocket), but the FCC decided that Google didn’t break the law. Still, though. Not cool, Google. Not cool.

Former Senator and Presidential candidate John Edwards trial heated up this week. Edwards is being tried for breaking campaign finance law, but the trial became all about his affair when his former top-aide took the stand. Prosecutors say he broke the law when he accepted individual donations to campaign that exceeded the $2,300 individual limit. In fact, they far exceeded the limit. Edwards received nearly $1 million from a couple he was close with. The defense claims this money was a private gift from friends to hide the affair from his wife. Hmm… Whatever the outcome, it’s sure to be an exciting trial. This week, Edward’s number two man during the 2008 election described how Edwards called his mistress a “crazy slut” and used a private “bat phone” to call her. Tsk, tsk.

And now for the scariest news of the week: a recent study from the Associated Press reveals that 1 in 2 recent college grads is jobless or underemployed. We already knew we were in trouble, but 50%? That’s really not good. Regionally, those in the Mountain West were the worst off. About 3 in 5 are having trouble finding a good job, while those in the South, especially Texas, were the best off. And another shocking fact: only 3 of the 30 jobs with the most projected job openings in the next ten years will require a bachelor’s degree of higher. But… stay in school, kids… because… why again?

Pic o’ the Week

A forest fire near Guadalajara, Mexico has consumed about 185,000 acres of land.

Ulises Ruiz Basurto / EPA

We all remember seeing pictures of Paris Hilton at a club texting on her pink, bedazzled T-Mobile Sidekick phone. Well just as Paris Hilton has changed (her hair is longer), so has the T-Mobile Sidekick.

I got my hands on a T-Mobile Sidekick 4G, and I must say, it’s a pretty cool phone. It’s a texter’s dream. The sliding screen slides up to reveal a full keyboard, which is so much easier than texting on a touch screen (although you have that option as well). It also has Google Speak, so if you hate texting, you can just say what you want to text, and the phone will do the rest for you. It probably won’t pick up on your group of friends’ slang (“omg he’s sooooo adorbs”), but it will pick up on normal words (“I’m so drunk”).

The phone is an Android phone, so you have access to all Android apps. I’ve been playing Fruit Ninja Free in all of my classes to pass time. There’s basically an app for anything you want. You can get radio, Google Maps, Skype and a lot more.

I’ve owned a Blackberry before, and I loved that it had a notification light when I got a text, missed call, Facebook update or email (I know, I’m simple). So I was overjoyed when I learned that this phone has a notification light too. You can set your notifications to have different color lights (my texts are purple, and emails are blue).

My favorite thing about this phone is that it syncs all of your Facebook friends, G-mail contacts, and people you follow on Twitter to your contacts list. I’m a social media junkie, so this feature is AMAZING.

But the phone isn’t all sunshine and amazingness…

One thing I didn’t like was the screen. The screen is great indoors or when it’s dark out, but when I’m outside I can barely see the screen. If I want to see what someone texted me, I have to walk indoors or into a shaded area to see the screen.Also, in the area of themes, this phone disappointed me. I’m the kind of person who likes to use the backgrounds/themes my phone gives me, I just don’t see the point in having a background that is a picture of me at my drunkest. There are only a few themes on this phone, and none of them appealed to me.

Complaints aside, this is a great phone if you are looking for a phone that does it all. You’ll be able to get tons of apps, keep up with your Twitter followers, and text more than talk (which most of us do anyway).

Check out the camera’s mad skills. I took all these awesome UF photos on my Sidekick.

initiating the gallery...

Editor note: Samsung was kind enough to provide Jessica with a Sidekick to review. Thanks Samsung. And thanks Jessica for keeping the review honest and real.

[There are over 100 million sites on the Internet. 100 million! You might think you know about all the important ones (CollegeCandy, Gmail, Google, TFLN…), but there are thousands of other sweet sites out there (like Unhear It, ReQall, and Regretsy) and more showing up every day! We get it – it’s not easy or fun sifting through the crap and porn to find those gems, so we’re gonna bring the gems to you. Just sit back, kick up those feet and allow us to introduce you to the diamonds in the internet rough.]

College football season is officially under way, and whether or not you actually know anything about the sport, the fact is watching the games and rooting for your school is part of the college experience and a great way to socialize. Plus, what else is there to do on a Saturday?

But what about you recent grads out there?  Unless you still live in your college town (jealous!), you probably won’t get a chance to go to any games.  You could always head to a sports bar to watch the game, but that could get really awkward and/or dangerous if you’re the only one in the bar rooting for your team. (Editor’s Note: True story – poured a beer on a rival’s head once…then was swiftly escorted out.)

Unless you know which bar to go to.

College Bar Finder will help you find a bar that’s friendly to your team in any city, regardless of how far away it is from your college town.

Simply choose your city from a drop-down menu and type in the name of your school in the search bar located on the top of the page, and voila, College Bar Finder will find any and all bars in the selected city that cater to your college team.

There are currently over 1,000 bars in College Bar Finder‘s database, and you can help add more by suggesting any bars you know about that are affiliated with a specific team.

Seriously, how awesome is this site? Now, fans everywhere can come together to root for their favorite team….over drinks….. no matter where they are!

I started packing up all my non-perishable items (read: 2 cans of tuna, a bottle of Boones and a bottle of water) to move into my neighbor’s Y2K bunker. Surely the world was coming to an end. I mean, if Google wasn’t working, how would anything else? I was shocked, I was upset, and I was really scared.

I began to imagine my life without Google. A sad, information-less life.

1. I would have no idea how to get anywhere: Before I got Google maps on my iPhone, I got lost in Detroit more times than I can count. And I live in Ann Arbor. How I ended up in Detroit, I’ll never know. How I got out alive is also a mystery. Google maps is. my. life. Without it, I probably really would die.

2. I would have had to blindy talk to someone without knowing anything about them: Whenever I meet someone, the first thing I do is Google them. I don’t even know how to communicate with people without knowing their online history first. How am I supposed to carry on a meaningful conversation with someone if I don’t know where they are from, that they were the captain of the math team in high school and that they were once interviewed for the local news story on the great Quiznos vs. Subway debate.

3. I’d have to leave my house and actually go to the library to write papers: And I don’t even know where the campus library is.

4. I‘d have to figure out another way to find out what people are saying about me: What? You don’t Google yourself? How else am I going to know what people are saying about me if I can’t look myself up online? Eavesdropping is so 20th century.

5. I’d never know just what a whale erection looked like: Not sure why we wanted to know, but we did. If Google was gone, I’d never know.

Thank God everything is back up and running. I’m not sure how long I could have lasted with only one bottle of Boones. I may now return my regularly scheduled self-Googling.

Every Monday I will be back to teach you how to do something useful, even if it also happens to be completely random. Because, hey, you never know when you just might need to know how to change a tire…or mix a perfect martini.]

I’m off to the Obama inauguration with some friends this weekend, and I am sooo psyched about it. The inauguration itself will be cool, obviously (despite our lack of tickets—we hope), but what will really be cool is the ROAD TRIP!!!!!

There’s nothing better than hitting the road with some pals and feeling your everyday responsibilities and stresses trickle away behind you. Road trips seem to enable a greater sense of freedom than other vacations, and they can be done so spontaneously—just pack up and go, basically.

Still, a little planning goes a long way (both in terms of miles and preparedness). To ensure your road trip is a smashing success, follow these 4 tips.

1. Print directions!

A map is incredibly useful, yes, but it won’t necessarily get you to where you’re going. Some maps have such tiny print that you can’t read anything on them, and other maps aren’t detailed enough to get you back on track when you’re lost. To be safe and save time, use Google Maps or Mapquest to print driving directions for your trip, and designate the person sitting shotgun to be your navigator.

2. Be open to sideshows.

Road trips aren’t any fun if you just drive the whole way through—you have to explore! Before you take off, show your directions to everyone in your group, and ask each person to find a few places along the way that sounds interesting. They could be restaurants, museums, or really crazy national monuments, but if you hit up even half of them, you’ll be guaranteed an entertaining journey.

3. Keep a kit of essentials in the car.

On the open road, anything is possible—so do as the Scouts do, and be prepared. Store a box in the car that you’ve filled with a first-aid kit, wet wipes, Purell, a clean towel, a blanket (if you’re driving in cold weather), emergency phone numbers, a flashlight, and high-energy snacks.

4. Research detours, roadways, and traffic patterns.

I’m told that numerous streets and bridges will be blocked off in the D.C. area early next week for the inauguration. If I don’t check which streets are blocked before I go, I won’t be able to get home (which may not be entirely a bad thing…). To drive as safely as possible, try to learn about the roadways you’ll be traveling on before you go. That way, you won’t have to pull off any risky driving maneuvers or make any split-second risky decisions. Staying safe now means you can go on as many road trips as you want later!

[Image courtesy of autos.canada.com.]

Move over Crackberry. Step aside, iPhone. There’s a new boy in town and he aims to be bigger and better than his predecessors. (Note: and, no, John McCain didn’t invent this one, either.)

Rumors have been circling for awhile now that Google would be creating a phone, and in just a few days we will finally get to see it. It is called the Dream, which is quite a name to live up to. The information about this badboy is being kept under major lock and key, but many people (read: techy geeks) are sure that this phone will give Apple a run for its money.

If you are really nerdy, like me, you can watch the demo video to see what The Dream has to offer. But if you don’t want to waste 7 minutes, I can sum it up for you:

It looks and acts a lot like the iPhone: touchscreen, internet, Google maps…

I don’t know much about technology, or programming or phones (beyond texting), but I am not sure this Google phone is so revolutionary. I guess I’ll just have to wait until September 23rd to see. For now, I’m holding tight to my iPhone.