Valentine's Day Facts

Valentine's Day Facts from the US Census 

"Valentine's Day is traditionally a day in which people express their love to one another by presenting gifts, such as cards, candy, flowers and other symbols of love or affection. Opinions differ as to who was the original Valentine but the most popular theory is that he was a clergyman who was executed for secretly marrying couples in ancient Rome. In A.D. 496, Pope Gelasius I declared Feb. 14 as Valentine Day. Through the centuries, the Christian holiday became a time to exchange love messages, and St.Valentine became the patron saint of lovers. Esther Howland, a native of Massachusetts, is given credit for selling the first mass-produced valentine cards in the 1840s. The spirit of love continues today with even young children exchanging valentine's cards with their fellow classmates".

Check out this site for these figures and many more

• Candy: # manufacturing establishments that produced chocolate, # pounds per capita consumption by Americans . . .
• Flowers: $ value of cut roses sold, #of florists . . .
• Jewelry: # jewelry stores, # jewelry manuracturing establishments
• "Please Be Mine": #marriages, median age at first marriage . . .
• Looking for Love: # dating service establishments
• Giving Love a Second Chance: % people remarried. . . available as pdf

for more facts and figures on Valentine's Day, check out these sites

ArticlesBase: the Not-so-mushy Statistics During Valentine's Day- http://www.articlesbase.com/relationships-articles/the-notsomushy-statistics-during-valentines-day-99897.html
Information Please: Candy hearts, mushy stories, and love poems on the Web
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/valentines-day.html
Love stamps from the US Postal Service
http://honeymoons.about.com/cs/valentinesday/a/LoveStamps.htm

ArtsJournal: Arts - Culture - Ideas

Dance - Music - Theatre - Issues - Ideas - Media - People - Publishing - Visual

"ArtsJournal was founded September 13, 1999 in the heady days of the dotcom boom. The site is a digest of some of the best arts and cultural journalism in the English-speaking world. Each day ArtsJournal features link to stories culled from more than 200 English-language newspapers, magazines and publications featuring writing about arts and culture. Stories from sites that charge for access are excluded (though there seem to be fewer and fewer of pay-access sites).

. . . . the site now features more than a dozen prominent writers on culture. We expect to keep adding to the number with individuals, group and limited-time group debate blogs.

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If you encounter a registration screen after clicking an ArtsJournal link, try logging in as either 'ajreader' or ajreader@artsjournal.com with the password 'access'. If you prefer to get ArtsJournal as an email (rather than visiting the site), you can sign up for a subscription on the home page in the box at the top right. . . .
For anyone connected with the arts as a practitioner, patron, or simply an interested party, this site should be bookmarked for weekly or daily visits. Those eager to keep a finger on the pulse of the arts will find this a valuable resource. Researchers on contemporary art, students, practicing artists, and other art professionals will appreciate the currency and wide-ranging scope of this dynamic, intelligently compiled, and free resource." Selected as an 2010 outstanding resource by Choice reviewers.

Physorg.com: Science News, Technology, Physics, Nanotechnology, Space Science, Earth Science

PHYSORG.com "this popular, UK-based Web site offers comprehensive daily coverage of science-, technology-, and medical-related news. Chief editor John Benson and a team of seven full-time staff and six professional wrihttp://www.physorg.com/ters use sources from major news services, universities, and private research centers to create and maintain this resource. Users can simply browse the stories posted on the main page or view stories by subject categories such as Nanotechnology, Electronics, and Chemistry. Site visitors can also select news stories accompanied by videos, podcasts, the week's top news stories, and more . . .(approximately 100 articles added daily) . . .
This free site is an excellent clearinghouse for scientific information, offering added value through Web-based technology and traditional editing skills. Readership has grown steadily and includes a wide audience of nearly two millions scientists, students, and other educated users monthly". Ranked as one of the 2010 Outstanding Websites by Choice Magazine, December.