An Auspicious Day for Romance
Chinese New Year kicks off on Valentine’s Day this year, so if you’re looking to avoid a sea of rose-red on Sunday, well, you’re out of luck. At least stay out of Chinatown this week.

It’s Debauchery Season
For Roman Catholics about to kick off Lent, this week is the last hurrah before the requisite forty days of abstinence for Easter. Whether it’s Carnival or Fat Tuesday, wild celebrations abound.

More after the jump.

Big Win for the Big Easy
With next week’s Mardi Gras coinciding with their beloved football team finally winning the Super Bowl, New Orleans this week is going to be like Boston after the 2004 World Series (except with nicer, less destructive drunks).

Canada Sur La Sellette
The Winter Olympics in Vancouver begin on Friday with the Opening Ceremony. West Coast winter paradise Whistler finally gets its fifteen minutes.

President Obama’s ten-year budget proposal has drawn fire from both Republicans and Democrats for cutting too much and increasing the deficit. We have no idea why everyone’s complaining, because the budget outline shows that even while he’s trying to get the U.S. out of a mess that he didn’t start, Obama’s doing exactly what he said he’d do: cut ridiculous military spending, tax the rich, give breaks to the middle class, fund education and research, and scrap that insane Bush-era promise to put us back on the moon by 2020. So kwitcherbitchin!

Health care legislation is assumed and provided for in Obama’s budget outline. But with health care reform champion Senator Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts seat taken over by some sexy-ass punk who voted to filibuster the current health care bill, the 60-seat majority needed to pass the bill in the Senate has been reduced to 59. To try to woo one of the opposition, bill negotiations are flying so fast that even the press can’t keep up. Americans are now doubtful that the reform will pass, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed. After all, health care reform might help solve that deficit problem you’re all whining about.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, the longstanding policy for gays in the military, came under fire from the Joint Chiefs’ own chairman on Tuesday. (By the way, if you didn’t see the State of the Union last week, at least watch the part where the Joint Chiefs of Staff all get hilariously stone-faced when Obama suggests getting rid of DADT.) The Pentagon is launching a lengthy investigation into the matter, i.e. they’re hemming and hawing, but given that their top guy basically just said, “Look, guys, this policy is f***ing stupid”, it looks like DADT is on the out and out. Score one for the American LGBT community, who’ve been suffering setbacks in gay marriage as of late.

Abstinence programs are back in the limelight this week because a new study said that they might be effective. With Heisman winner and nearly-aborted fetus Tim Tebow’s anti-abortion ad coming out on Super Bowl Sunday, we’d like to point out a few problems with this study, with special regards to the way it’s being touted in the media.

First of all, there is a HUGE difference between the wait-until-you’re-ready abstinence program used in the study and the no-sex-before-marriage programs that seem to have made the teen pregnancy rate shoot up during the Bush administration: Namely, this program doesn’t involve religion! But the no-sex-before-marriage folks are going to use the study’s success anyway as proof that their religion-based health curriculum works, which is like vegans using studies confirming the positive health effects of vegetarianism to promote their beliefs.

Secondly, although it’s great that there’s now federally-funded proof of a method to keep kids from doing the nasty until they’re older, these kids were only followed for two years. By the end of the study, they didn’t even reach 15-19, the average age range when first-world kids start having sex. Even the study’s authors warn that abstinence isn’t a long-term solution. Kids are eventually going to have sex, and this study didn’t account for that in the least. In fact, it didn’t account for the long term at all. Sounds like Capitol Hill to us!

Follow That Food Truck!
The New York Restaurant Week Truck will be selling $6 soups from the city’s best restaurants on a few choice street corners all this week. Get ‘em while they’re hot!

Back To The… 1970s
SF IndieFest is holding their annual Roller Disco Party on Saturday. $10 cover, $5 in costume, free with IndieFest ticket stub.

Critical Mass Criticism
The original Critical Mass bike ride in San Francisco may get the axe. Pissed-off motorists in major cities around the world are waiting with bated breath for the end of an era.

More after the jump.

The ‘Hood As A Tourist Attraction
According to news reports, LA Gang Tours is helping former gang members get back on their feet. But could this become yet another case of exploitation?

Seeing Green Behind The Wheel
With the Washington and Detroit Auto Shows over and the Chicago show about to begin, everyone’s focused on greening their cars. Tesla Motors, the luxury EV darling, filed its $100 million IPO last Friday. Is the electric car coming back from the dead?

Back To The… 1980s
We can’t end a wind-up about wheels without mentioning the recent Toyota recall that’s giving Japan flashbacks of the 1980s. As Camry owners ourselves, we hope to stop hearing about fiery floor mats of death, stuck throttles and ghost acceleration soon.

Apple’s iPad, announced Wednesday, looks poised to revolutionize the e-book, netbook, publishing, advertising, and game industries. Then again, it could go down in history as a feminine hygiene-insensitive flop, as predicted by MadTV three years ago. (We’re guessing the latter.)

The iPad is basically a larger version of the iPhone with no unique features. It’s got no stylus or handwriting recognition to please old-school tablet PC fans, no serious operating system to appeal to your typical multitasking PC user, no camera or significant increase in memory to convert iPhone and iPod Touch users, and no Flash support or widescreen-friendly aspect ratio to woo YouTube/Hulu and movie buffs. And the name. THE NAME!

FounderDating, a “matchmaking” service for aspiring startup entrepreneurs looking for same, held an event in San Francisco on Thursday. Okay, so the Silicon Valley startup garden (or the fields surrounding the Farm, if you will) now has a pollination ground, various incubators, just enough water (VC), and the most fertile economic soil in years (since our economy recently shat itself). Want to place bets on which industry will start harvesting first?

Twitter won’t stop being in the news. They rolled out their “Local Trends” feature recently, and news outlets have been taking notes on tweeting trends about everything from the State of the Union to “alternative” names for the iPad. Even Bill Gates recently joined. Now Japan, in a rare reversal of technology early adopterism, is finally picking up the Twitter slack. Let it be known, though, that Japanese girls were already micro-blogging cheesy romance bestsellers on their cell phones during the train ride to school in 2000. Stephenie Meyer and Biz Stone, eat your hearts out.

Y&F’s Techie Phrase of the Week: Cloud Computing

Now that music is moving into cloud computing (think Pandora, but with a paid subscription for unlimited, on-demand access to songs), the term is starting to show up in news and popular parlance. For the less tech-savvy, let us explain.

Definition: Cloud computing basically means using online products and services to store and manage your data. (“The Cloud” is a fancier name for “Internet”.)

Examples: You’re using it already. Gmail, Facebook, YouTube and blogging clients like LiveJournal and WordPress are all cloud applications.

Advantages: When you store files in the “cloud”, i.e. other people’s servers, you’re not using your own PC’s memory, and your files can be easily accessed from any computer with an Internet connection.

Drawbacks: Internet privacy is a fake idea!

Eat for the Cause
Restaurants across the U.S. are raising funds for Haiti relief this month. Stop by one of the participating restaurants on the designated days to do your part. And don’t forget to text “HAITI” to 90999.

Gearing Up for Super Bowl Season
This year, the Super Bowl is the latest it’s ever been. With all that extra time, practice whipping up these delicious nacho dips for February 7th.

East Coast vs. West Coast: Burgers
Can San Francisco’s sleek and chic Burger Bar hold a candle to New York City’s rabidly popular (and equally alliterative) Shake Shack? Mmmm… we’ll get back to you about that in a bit.

Easy-Does-It Cooking
Cooking for the truly lazy: perhaps you can pair Ms. Wisniewski’s super-simple Steak and Eggs Hash with Mr. Vongerichten’s no-nonsense Ginger Fried Rice. They both take about a half hour to make.

New York
Kandinsky at the Guggenheim
If you’re a fan of abstract art, hurry and see this exhibition before it closes on Wednesday. Check out the symposium The Universe Resounds: Kandinsky, Synesthesia, and Art (tomorrow, 2-7pm).
Tim Burton at the MoMa
A look at Tim Burton’s life and art, from childhood to the present. Accompanied by film exhibitions screening his works, such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and Edward Scissorhands.

San Francisco
After Dark at the Exploratorium
This adults-only arts and science mixer happens every first Thursday of the month. Next up: Sexplorations, a look at the exchange of genetic information that creates plants, insects, and us.
NightLife at the California Academy of Sciences
A weekly Thursday night mash-up of science and entertainment, to the beats of the resident DJs. This week they’ve got planetarium shows and improv; next week it’s gourmet coffee tasting.

Los Angeles
Heroes and Villains: The Battle for Good in India’s Comics at LACMA
A look at India’s cultural past through the eyes of its globalized present. See how ancient divine heroes from Indian narrative tradition are translated into this originally American art form.

Take note of the fact that this classic was made in the middle of the Great Depression over 75 years ago, yet its style would still be lauded today. From Mr. Astaire’s smart tuxes to Ms. Roger’s insane ostrich feather number in “Cheek to Cheek”, Top Hat made ripples in the fashion world that we still see in the sharp, coordinated suits of today’s metrosexual men and in the jaw-dropping, outlandish dresses of today’s Oscar-going leading ladies.

Gentlemen, don’t try Fred Astaire’s swoon-inducing moves at home (or your local pick-up joint, for that matter). This is a very skilled man with many talents other than flirting, and copying all of his slick talk without the dance moves to back it up could get you humiliated. Do, however, find a tailor who can make you look anywhere near that good, and swear your allegiance to them for life.

And for Bollywood lovers, check out Ginger Rogers’ facial expressions and hand movements during the song “The Piccolino”.

I’m not sure who was riffing from whom at the time, but you might find that Ms. Rogers reminds you a lot of, say, Madhuri Dixit as Chandramukhi in the 2002 film Devdas.

For inspiration, we present the following ornaments:

Antique - Papier Mâché Globe, Pottery Barn

Classic - Finial Ornaments, Crate and Barrel

Playful - Felt and Wire Ornaments, MoMa Store

Modern - Porcelain Origami Cranes, The Well Dressed Home

If you’re good with DIY projects or would rather use the cash towards the vice of your choice, you can also try your hand at making some of your own decorations. Paper cranes and snowflakes look great on trees and in windows, and these modern paper ornaments just need scissors and glue. With large jingle bells and some ribbon, you can make these easy ornaments for a fraction of Pottery Barn’s price.

If you own plain ball ornaments, you can spruce them up by painting them or gluing any number of things to them, such as paper punch outs, antique buttons, strips of ribbon, jewels or even a bit of glitter. Just be careful and keep in mind that a bad DIY job looks like an elementary school art project. So: details, details, details.

Meanwhile, in Japan, it’s just the opposite. Young women in the middle class have driven up demand for designer shopping bags, which are now used in place of grocery “eco-bags”, backpacks and even handbags. This trend emerged in the 1980s as a status marker amongst teens. Now, it’s been adopted by female Tokyoites who want to savor the memory of a past shopping experience they might not be able to afford now.