What's up?

This is very cool: President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," according to NBC News. He is only the third sitting U.S. president to win the award. President Theodore Roosevelt won the award in 1906 and President Woodrow Wilson won it in 1919.

Parents ran a comprehensive list of homemade Halloween costumes. Only a few were mentioned online, but there were many in the mag that I dug like the "crayons." Three kids were wearing pointy party hats with matching colored outfits that simply said the word "CRAYON." Cute.

In related news, Katy Farber over at Non-Toxic Kids gave tips for a "green" Halloween.

Unfortunately, I already purchased my kids' costumes even though I entertained the idea of making them. Because I am lazy, Eli will go as Dorothy from Wizard of Oz courtesy of Target. Ari will be Bumblebee of the Transformers thanks to a sale at Toys R' Us some months ago. What will your children be for Halloween?

Speaking of shopping, I spotted this news item in Parenting magazine: "An Ohio State University study found that if you touch an item for more than a few seconds while out shopping, you get attached and are likely to buy it." The emphasis was the magazine's, not mine, by the way.

More babies are born in August than in any other month, according to Parents. Also in the August edition of Parents: There was an article about only children. The article included a fun sidebar on celebrities with no siblings: Alicia Keys, Lance Armstrong, Daniel Radcliffe, Shawn Johnson, Condoleeza Rice and Blake Lewis.  

Newsweek ran an interesting article on what is in shampoo. I did not know this, but 80 percent of any shampoo is water.

"Whatever" beat out "you know" and "anyway" as the most annoying word in the country, according to a story in the Associated Press.

Because Kraft Foods passed the buck to the FDA, MomsRising is requesting a meeting with the company to ask it to remove synthetic chemicals from its mac and cheese.

Oh. My. God. Levi Johnston, who at one point was supposed to be Sarah Palin's son-in-law, will pose nude for Play Girl, according to People magazine. He is on a low carb and high protein diet and working out three hours a day at the gym. Oy vey.

What else is in the news? What's up with you?