• what Toy company Build-A-Bear has recalled over 300,000 bears that were sold between April and December. So, if you gave or received a “Colorful Hearts Teddy Bear” this year, you should consider returning it.
• why The eyes of the bear were poorly secured, creating a choking hazard for children; the bears went through a security and safety screening which deemed the fabric around the eyes as “substandard.” Beware of bear, folks. source

• Aren’t jokes supposed to be funny? Mitt Romney’s son Matt was on the campaign trail for his dad the other day when he made an Obama birth certificate joke, in reference to Mitt’s own tax return issues. The joke, and we quote: “I heard someone suggest the other day that as soon as President Obama releases his grades and birth certificate …then maybe he’ll do it.” This was so toxic that Matt joined Twitter just to apologize for the joke:

I repeated a dumb joke. My bad. RT @emilyrs Romney’s son Matt made an Obama birth certificate joke on the trail in NH

— Matt Romney(@Matt_Romney) December 30, 2011

• » Worst reason to join Twitter ever? Perhaps. Most people quit Twitter over saying something stupid. source

• For some Paul is seen as a homophobe and a racist. So for her fans, that may be sending them a message that she concurs with his homophobic and racist ideals. This is a problem since she does have a wide variety of die hard fans which include gays and a wide range of ethnicities who are offended by her endorsement.
• Cooper Lawrence, author of the book “Cult of Celebrity” • Discussing why Kelly Clarkson’s endorsement of Ron Paul struck such a raw nerve with many of her fans yesterday. Part of it, perhaps, was the timing of Clarkson’s endorsement — Paul’s long-dormant newsletters, racially-tinged tomes which he’s long claimed he didn’t write but has never fully resolved honestly and openly, resurfaced just a week ago. (The Economist has a smartly-written piece on Paul that’s worth considering for these sentences: “In the end, Mr Paul’s obsession with the Fed is an anti-government conspiracy theory. And in America, anti-government conspiracy theories attract a lot of wingnuts, some of whom have never read Hayek or von Mises.”) For us, though, the real question is whether this whole affair will cause a big enough decline in Clarkson’s career to force a movie sequel: “From Kelly Back To Justin Again”? Justin Guarini’s floppy, Muppet-like hair is waiting for your call, Kelly.  source

• 4 million Kindles sold in December … well, at least we think so source

• » It’s an estimate based off of Amazon’s evasiveness. They said that customers “purchased well over 1 million Kindle devices per week” in the month of December. Sales of Kindle e-books were up 175% from last year’s period between Black Friday and Christmas; so while Amazon may not give us clear numbers, the company seems to be doing well in the fields it created.

• A tough teen with a gripping story: Ben Breedlove, a high schooler with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (and a YouTube personality known for offering dating advice to others), passed away from a heart attack on Christmas Day. It was only afterward that his parents discovered these two videos from Ben in which he told stories of coping with his disease, including three near-death experiences. In his third one, above, he describes an experience, while being revived by EMS paramedics, where he was with his favorite rapper, Kid Cudi. After watching Ben’s videos and hearing about his death, the artist wrote a message about Ben on his blog. Ben’s mother said that the videos were a “gift to us, and for him to be so confident and unafraid of death and to share it with other people was so touching.” source

• $2 fee to pay your bill online, as planned by Verizon Wireless source

• » Nickel and diming, redux: To be clear, this fee wouldn’t be instituted in every case — people using automatic bill-pay wouldn’t be subject to it, nor would people paying by electronic check (at least according to the initial source of this news, a leaked memo obtained by Engadget). That said, if you’re looking to make a one-off payment, or aren’t scheduled for automatic payments, you can expect  a tidy little $2 charge starting January 15th. What reaction consumers will have is yet unclear; it has, however, been a bad year for companies trying to slip extra fees onto customers.

• The oil spill examined: The first criminal charges to be filed against BP, regarding the explosion and subsequent oil leak at the Deepwater Horizon well, are being prepared by federal prosecutors. The charges, to come out next year, are expected to center on a group of engineers and whether false or misleading information about the safety of drilling at such deep depths in the Gulf of Mexico was submitted on federal documents. The spill in totality is very relevant right now — a couple months ago, the Obama administration approved BP for more drilling in the Gulf, despite no changes to spill-related financial liability laws. (Photo courtesy of ideum) source

• Not so “quiet”: As we mentioned yesterday, the leader of the group of monitors from the Arab League currently visiting Syria is a Sudanese general named Mohammed al-Dabi (whose record in that capacity has led human rights activists to denounce his role). Yesterday he insisted the violence stricken city of Homs was quiet, and that the monitors had not witnessed anything “frightening.” Today brought reports that, heading to the city hall in the capitol suburb of Douma, the monitors arrived as security forces opened fire on “tens of thousands.” source

• Kent Sorenson personally told me he was offered a large sum of money to go to work for the Paul campaign. Kent campaigned with us earlier this afternoon and went immediately afterward to a Ron Paul event and announced he is changing teams. Kent said to me yesterday that ‘everyone sells out in Iowa, why shouldn’t I?’, then he told me he would stay with our campaign. The Ron Paul campaign has to answer for its actions.
• Michele Bachmann • Trying to explain the late-stage defection of campaign co-chair Kent Sorenson, who yesterday jumped to the Ron Paul camp. In trying to explain this situation, which carries a big political cost to her already sub-tier candidacy, Bachmann is leveling a pretty loaded claim. It’s also one that Sorenson has flatly denied — he says the conversation Bachmann recounts never happened. source

• In the last few days, we have seen countless comments on various forms of social media and received many email messages, both pro and con on this issue. While the D’Addario family is committed to protecting its trademarks and family name, that commitment does not take priority over our respect for the U.S. Constitution and our right to free speech under the First Amendment.
• D’Addario & Company, Inc. founder Jim D’Addario • Discussing his company’s perceived support of SOPA, as a result of having been placed on an alleged list of supporters of the act. D’Addario (which makes great guitar strings that sound really good with Cm7 chords) has dealt with numerous counterfeiting issues in the past (“7 out of 10 sets of D’Addario strings sold in Chinese music stores are fakes!”), and when his company signed onto a list asking for further help in fighting against counterfeiting, his company did not assume the result would be SOPA. We spotted his letter because he cited our defense of the companies on a list distributed by the Chamber of Commerce, but we think  — again — it’s worth pointing out that when D’Addario and other companies signed onto the list, they were asking for something far different than SOPA. Protest with care. source