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Brad Pitt gave Angelina Jolie breath mints for Valentine’s Day.

How refreshing?

The stunning Angelina Jolie received breath mints for Valentine’s Day from Brad Pitt, her man of eight years, according to Us Weekly.

It wasn’t just an Altoid or a Tic-Tac, though. Jolie was allegedly presented with an Eatwhatever – a breath-freshening product that includes a swallowable gel cap and a mint to suck on. It’s also vegan, gluten-free and sugar-free.

The gift was intended as a loving joke because “he always teases her that she has bad breath,” a source told the magazine.

“It’s a joke gift,” the source insisted. “He’ll also get her something more serious.”Hopefully he came up with something good for lovers’ holiday — Jolie has a pretty impressive track record of presents to her beau.

In 2011, she reportedly showered her fiancé/father of their six children with gifts like a diamond pendant worth six-figures engraved with a microscopic love note. For Pitt’s birthday/Christmas gift last year, he was reportedly surprised with an actual California waterfall where they plan to build a house above. For Valentine’s 2010, the “Fight Club” star reportedly received helicopter and flying lessons that totaled $1.6 million.

Why online dating services are like financial markets (and not just because you might get lucky).

It is Valentine’s Day, an occasion for romance, for the celebration of the magical connection two people share when Cupid’s arrow strikes and true love blossoms.

But this is Wonkblog, and we won’t have any of that. Instead, we will explain a little bit about the economics of love—and specifically, what dating has in common with financial transactions.Think of it this way. In a dating marketplace, everyone is trying to get the best match they can find. Somehow, as millions of people each pursue their own best interest, mutually beneficial arrangements result. It is not unlike when buyers and sellers, each pursuing their best interest, come together in a marketplace.

Online dating is for relationships what modern, electronic financial markets are for people trading stocks or bonds. Those looking to buy and sell financial assets once crowded onto the streets of Lower Manhattan or the City of London, all coming to one place to engage in trade. Those are the equivalent of the bars that singles traditionally go to meet other singles.

The Scary, Online Dating Life of Tweens.

My daughter told me she was hanging out with a boy on Saturday. They went to the park and he asked her to the prom. This came as a surprise to me since I spent most of Saturday with both of my daughters. Also, she is 10. Going to the prom is about 7 years away, and boys are still “others,” usually only talked about when a male classmate did something particularly gross or incomprehensible in school one day.

When I asked her what she was talking about she told me not to worry, this all happened in a virtual world called Fantage, not in real life. And she informed me it’s all moderated — so not to worry.

So, naturally, I did.

Role-playing is the crux of virtual worlds. While everyone knows the stereotype of the geeky guy who creates a super macho avatar and lives out his fantasies in these online universes, kids are drawn to them for the very same reasons. You can be anything and anyone -– you can shop, decorate, socialize, dress and try on different personas, even push boundaries you wouldn’t normally try in real life. In many ways this can be incredibly positive for kids. After all, creating and exploring identity is a natural part of growing up and maturing for tweens and teens, and the best of these virtual worlds can provide opportunities to do that in a safe environment without real life repercussions. Nancy Friedman, in her blog FromHiptoHousewife, detailed her 12-year-old daughter’s first experience of getting hit on by an older man in a nightclub -– all virtually, of course — and how it completely freaked her out. Maybe it will translate into more careful behavior in real life when she gets older, and maybe not. But, it certainly opened the door to a discussion about being in places and dressing in ways that are appropriate for your age.

My daughter was not fazed by her online dating at all. Much like real life, having someone ask you to prom translates into social currency and ups your overall popularity. She even told me that sometimes she prefers the online social world because you can just have fun and relax, move in and out of situations easily and change who you are in an instant.

2012 Olympics: Australia, Japan Criticized For Olympian Gender Discrimination

Australia — Men up front, women in the back.
Not so fast, Olympians.Sports governing bodies from Japan and Australia are being skewered following complaints that male Olympic athletes flew business class to the London Games, while the women sat in the cheap seats.
Japan’s world champion women’s football team took exception to flying economy while their male counterparts sat in business en route to the games.
“It should have been the other way around,” Japanese soccer star Homare Sawa, the 2011 FIFA women’s world player of the year, said after arriving in Paris after the 13-hour flight, with just the short hop to London left. “Even just in terms of age we are senior.”
The Japan Football Association said the men’s under-23 Olympic team members flew in business class because they are professionals. The women, however, are likely be the bigger draw at the games. Only months after the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan last year, they brought a sliver of joy to their country by winning their first World Cup title.
The Australian women’s basketball team has also been more successful than the men, earning the silver medal at each of the last three Olympics.
On Friday, Basketball Australia said it would make sure the flight flap doesn’t happen again.”(We will) review our Olympic travel policy with the goal of ensuring there is equity between travel arrangements for the men’s and women’s teams attending future Olympics,” the basketball governing body said in a statement.

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ auditing of Centro property group in 2007 came under attack yesterday by legal counsel for Centro Retail Trust, who alleged that the professional services firm delivered a “botched audit” that showcased carelessness, poor procedures and ineptitude. The claims yesterday were the first time the company has criticised its former auditor of any wrongdoing that contributed to billions of dollars of short-term debts being wrongly classified. Page B1.

A study prepared by accountants Ernst & Young for the National Retail Association has claimed that more than 40,000 retail workers will be made redundant over the next three years unless and goods and services tax exemption for foreign online retailers is abolished. “Almost 10 per cent of existing retail jobs will disappear over the next three years unless the Government removes the unfair advantage it is currently giving to foreign-based online retailers,” Gary Black, executive director of the lobby group, said. Page 19.

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Luxury retailer Myer yesterday downgraded its annual sales projections for the 2011-12 financial year after announcing a 19.8 per cent slump in interim profit. “There’s no sign that we’re seeing a reversal of fortunes from a consumer-sentiment point of view and disposable income expenditure, so we’re conservatively saying that we expect our sales to be, at best, flat,” Bernie Brookes, chief executive of Myer, said. Page 19.