Weblogic

This month, 63-year-old Geri Brin, launched "Date My Single Kid," an online dating site to expand the scope of potential suitors for her 31-yea-old son, Colby. Just like any thoughtful best friend, who can be nosy at times, she relentlessly seeks the perfect woman for him by setting him up on dates, bragging about him to friends who have daughters his age.....and now by setting up a website!

"We aren't trying to start a scientific matchmaker service like eHarmony," says Geri Brin. "We are doing it like a mother would do it. You know what your child wants. I know what Colby wants 100 percent."

Embarrassing? Overbearing? Annoying? Some critics of matchmaking parents may think so, but Colby Brin lauds his mother's active participation in his dating life. He estimates she set him up on at least 30 dates before her site went live. Some dates went well. Others lacked a spark. The idea of moms and dads meddling in a young person's love life may evoke shudders and headaches for some singles. But parents like Brin say parental involvement is natural today, when many parents act more like friends of their children. Already her site has lured in more than 200 parents, who are advertising their 20-, 30- and 40-something children as available for dates.

Question: If you are a parent, are you in favor of doing something like this to find the perfect mate for your child? If you are a single, would you allow your parents to set up a website to find your mate?

"It's official. Consumer Reports' engineers have just completed testing the iPhone 4, and have confirmed that there is a problem with its reception," the esteemed product-testing group wrote Monday on its blog. "Due to this problem, we can't recommend the iPhone 4."

After a decade of hit products that made Apple the cutting-edge darling of the mobile and computing world, the rollout of the iPhone 4 has been an atypical and ugly scratch on the company's glowing image. From a lost prototype of the device that slipped into the hands of a technology blog to what some have called a tone-deaf response to the new phone's reception problems, the knocks have kept on coming. Today, Steve Jobs and his Cupertino, California-based company hope to set things to rights with a news conference expected to address the drumbeat of complaints, and bad press, about the iPhone 4's antenna. One of the new phone's vaunted features is its sleek design, nearly 25 percent thinner than its most recent predecessor. That's achieved, in part, by snaking the antenna through a metal band around the edges of the phone. Analysts determined that holding the band in a certain spot leads to interference, causing weakened reception and, sometimes, dropped calls.

Perhaps as a result of the bad press, Apple's stock has taken a hit. During the past week, shares were down about 1.5 percent, and they'd dropped 8 percent overall since the iPhone 4 came out in late June.

Question: What should Apple CEO Steve Jobs tell consumers at the press conference today and what should Apple offer to all of the iPhone 4 owners?

The team, which included colleagues from the University of Warwick, were researching a protein found in eggshells called ovocledidin-17. It is also found in chickens' ovaries, but until the team's research its purpose was not clear. Using Britain's national supercomputer, a machine dubbed HECToR based in Edinburgh, Scotland, they were able to simulate the process of biomineralization, or the production of minerals or solid materials inside organisms. It was a world first and revealed that one potential purpose of the protein ovocledidin-17 is to speed up the production of eggshell within the chicken so that in 24 hours an egg is ready to be laid.

"What we have really identified is that the protein seems to accelerate the crystallization process so it can make that eggshell appear far quicker. In simple terms it accelerates calcite formation," said Colin Freeman, one of the paper's lead authors from the University of Sheffield. They also found that the egg can't be produced without the protein ovocledidin-17 in the chickens' ovaries, so that means that the chicken must have come first. Right?

Question: So what do you think - which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Now comes the hard part: Getting the blessing of Sarah Palin, who has made no secret of her feelings for Levi. He provoked her fury last fall when he claimed that she had called her infant son Trig (who has Down syndrome) "retarded." She fired back, telling reporters that anyone who posed for Playgirl would "say and do anything for even more attention." Later, during an interview with Oprah Winfrey she dubbed him "Ricky Hollywood" and called his "aspiring porn" career "heartbreaking." Says Bristol, "It is intimidating and scary just to think about what her reaction is going to be. Hopefully she will jump on board."

The Palins released this statement on The Today Show Wednesday morning: "Bristol at 19 is now a young adult. We obviously want what's best for our children. Bristol believes in redemption and forgiveness to a degree most of us struggle to put in practice in our daily lives."

Question: What do you think about Bristol and Levi's nuptial announcement and the fact that her parents were not told before the story broke in Us Magazine?