Plenty.

Let me start with the drunks and new parents. Monday night I boarded a very delayed flight fromto . Behind me were four 20/30-somethings boisterously swigging from "coffee" cups. (Our gate was across from a Cantina and you could practically smell the tequila in their paper cups.)

As the boarding continued they grew increasingly animated. Their frenetic energy seemed to wind up not just each other but everyone around them. Fellow passengers were visibly agitated.

Just before the plane doors closed, a young couple came on with a sleeping baby. The last two open seats were amongst this motley crew.

Suddenly, everything changed.

The presence of the earnest and exhausted parents had an immediate calming effect on both the inebriated passengers and those around them. It was as if a mirror had been placed in the center of the plane to remind us all of our humanity.

Enter, Jo Piazza's delicious new book, .

To me, this book is the figurative version of the newborn's parents getting on the plane. It serves as a mirror reflecting back the reality what's in the "coffee" cups of the celebrity scene.

That got me wondering what other financial lessons the author of Celebrity, Inc. might have stumbled across while writing this fascinating book. Thankfully, Jo Piazza was willing to share with us...

Q: Of the celebrities you profile in Celebrity, Inc. whose money attitude were you most impressed with and why?

(2) What surprised you the most about the money habits you observed during your Celebrity, Inc. research?

(3) What personal finance lessons do you think the rest of us can take away from the way famous people live their lives?

In many ways our celebrity culture is like a group of chaotic drunk people. It lurches rapidly from one topic and fad to the next. In the heat of the excitement money can feel like no object. But the financial hangover of being, or trying to emulate, that lifestyle can result in a serious financial crash.

So pick up a copy of Celebrity, Inc. and tell me what you think. Does our national obsession with the lifestyles of the rich and famous ever cause you to do things with your money that you later regret?

[This post originally appeared at .] For more MoneyZen in your life, follow Manisha on Twitter aton Facebook ator sign up to receive Manisha's MoneyZen blog via email .

Teacher Orvar Arnarson, 41, and student Andrimar Pordarson, 25, jumped separately, not in tandem, on Saturday after successfully completing two jumps earlier that day with 20 other people. The two Icelandic skydivers did not return from their third jump, tipping off an hours-long air and ground search around the Zephyrhills facility, about 30 miles northeast of Tampa. The bodies were discovered later that evening in the woods.

Investigators will review the helmet cam footage to try to glean more about what happened, said Pasco County sheriff's spokeswoman Melanie Snow.

The cause of death was blunt force trauma, the medical examiner's office said. Autopsy results were pending, but a preliminary investigation determined that the manner of death was accidental.

The men didn't deploy their main parachutes, which could mean that they lost altitude awareness and didn't know where they were during the jump, Skydive City co-owner T.K. Hayes told The Associated Press on Sunday. Both victims had backup automatic activation devices, but they didn't have time to fully inflate.

Out of just over 3 million jumps, 19 skydivers died last year across the U.S., according to the United States Parachute Association. Experts said it is "very rare" for two jumpers to die in the same accident.

"It happens from time to time if two skydivers collide while flying their parachutes if they don't see each other," said Nancy Koreen, Director of Sport Promotion for association.

"In that situation, their canopies can tangle, causing an accident. I don't yet know the details of this particular accident, but from what I understand, this was a different case," she said, adding that "it's extremely rare for this type of double fatality to occur."

The victims were part of a skydiving group from Iceland who travel to Florida annually.

Board unanimously approves the recommendation of current manager Alex Ferguson

Moyes to take the helm on 1 July

Committed to long-term in 6-year deal

NYSE:MANU, Manchester UK. David Moyes will take over as the

Manager of Manchester United from the 2013-14 season.

David, 50, has been the Everton manager since 2002, joining after a successful spell as manager of Preston North End.

Alex Ferguson said:

"When we discussed the candidates that we felt had the right attributes we unanimously agreed on David Moyes. David is a man of great integrity with a strong work ethic. I've admired his work for a long time and approached him as far back as 1998 to discuss the position of Assistant Manager here. He was a young man then at the start of his career and has since gone on to do a magnificent job at Everton. There is no question he has all the qualities we expect of a manager at this Club."

Club director Bobby Charlton said:

"I have always said that we wanted the next manager to be a genuine Manchester United man. In David Moyes, we have someone who understands the things that make this such a special club. We have secured a man who is committed to the long-term and will build teams for the future as well as now. Stability breeds success.

"David has tremendous strength of character and recognizes the importance of bringing young players through and developing them alongside world class talent. At United, I think David will be able to express himself. I'm delighted he has accepted and I'm looking forward to working with him."

Ed Woodward, executive vice-chairman and CEO from July, said:

"In David Moyes, we have secured the services of an outstanding manager who has all the skills to build on the phenomenal legacy in place today. I have no doubt that he will bring an energy and commitment to deliver winning football that is part of the fabric of this Club. In this respect, he is cut from the same cloth as the Old Trafford greats who go before him.

"I have been very impressed by David's personal and managerial traits, which reflect the Manchester United values. I have no doubt that he will embrace, and soon become an integral part of, United's unique culture and heritage."

Co-chairman Joel Glazer said:

"I am very pleased David has agreed to lead Manchester United into the future. His hard working style and steely determination and are characteristics we value at the Club. He has impressed as a coach for many years now and we strongly believe he will be able to take up from where Alex is leaving off by continuing this Club's tradition of flair football played by exciting, world class players."

Co-chairman Avie Glazer said:

"The search for a new manager has been very short. Alex was very clear with his recommendation and we are delighted that David has agreed to accept the job. He comes to us with excellent credentials and a strong track record. I know he is keen to get started and Ed will be sitting down with him as soon as the season is over to discuss plans for the summer and beyond."

(Compiled by Mitch Phillips, editing by Ed Osmond)

On April 27, NASA's Swift Space Telescope and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope spotted the highest-energy gamma-ray burst (GRB) an explosion of a massive star in the last stage of its life ever before seen.

NASA scientists combined the observations into ato illustrate the surprising brightness of this star explosion. []

"We have waited a long time for a gamma-ray burst this shockingly, eye-wateringly bright," Julie McEnery, a project scientist for the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement. "The GRB lasted so long that a record number of telescopes on the ground were able to catch it while space-based observations were still ongoing."

One of the gamma-rays emitted during the eruption seen in the constellation Leo was three times more energetic than any other gamma-ray burst recorded by Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT), the instrument on the spacecraft responsible for detecting these kinds of explosions.

The gamma-ray burst (named GRB 130427A) was also the longest ever recorded, NASA officials said.

"The GeV [energy] emission from the burst lasted for hours, and it remained detectable by the LAT for the better part of a day, setting a new record for the longest gamma-ray emission from a GRB," NASA officials added.

are the brightest explosions yet observed in the universe.

"Astronomers think most [gamma-ray bursts] occur when massive stars run out of nuclear fuel and collapse under their own weight," NASA officials said in a statement. "As the core collapses into a black hole, jets of material shoot outward at nearly the speed of light."

Swift's detection of this burst was delayed. The satellite was moving between cosmic targets at the time of the eruption, but the spacecraft captured the explosion less than a minute after it began. Swift also aided astronomers in placing the gamma-ray burst closer to Earth than most other star explosions of its kind, NASA officials said.

"This GRB is in the closest 5 percent of bursts, so the big push now is to find an emerging supernova, which accompanies nearly all long GRBs at this distance," Goddard's Neil Gehrels, principal investigator for Swift, said in a statement.

Scientists are hoping to find awithin the area of the explosion in order to trace the gamma-ray burst back to its origins.

Observatories on the ground are keeping an eye on GRB 130427A's area of the sky to locate the supernova by mid-May.

Follow Miriam Kramer onand . Follow us on , and . Original article on SPACE.com.

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I am probably the least informed person in our industry, by choice. When I wake up, I open the email app called , which has this thing with gestures that you can use to clean up junk. You can very quickly swipe right to archive, to the left to put into a list. It's cool. Emails that aren't time sensitive I'll just snooze them for later in the day, tomorrow, or next week, so I am just left with stuff starred for action.

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Then I get up. Maybe I'll surf—I usually wake up around 6 a.m. so I can do that. Sooner or later I get to my computer and I head to my inbox. But before that I go toand I see if there is anything going on. I'm basically just seeing if there is some major news thing. Three swipes going down Twitter on the iPhone and you'll know if there's a Boston Marathon level thing happening. Otherwise, 95 percent of the day what's happening in the news I find completely irrelevant. I just don't give a shit. 

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I try not to open Twitter too often. Some editors, I don't know how they're getting any work done. On the other hand, there are the magazine feature writers who only tweet when they have to promote a story.  [of The Atlantic] is good. He's a good combination of dropping links and curating and conversational stuff.  [of Wired] is one of my good friends but I will go on record saying he is horrible on Twitter, he is always trolling people.  [the new Valleywag] is atrocious on Twitter. He is like emotionally vomiting.  [of Pacific Standard] is the worst person on Twitter that I still can't unfollow. He just gets drunk and talks about the media.

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I usually check , for which I have a full digital subscription. I usually do that on my iPad. On Twitter, I'm just starring stuff for later, usually for night-time, and I'm also putting stuff into . Generally if it's not news and it's an interesting longform article it goes straight to Pocket and I read that twice a week or three times a week. I'll grab stuff from , , , , and . I also subscribe to , , , , andon my iPad.

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I read  [of The New Yorker] and Alexis Madrigal pretty regularly. I usually look more for information than I do prose, but they have really beautiful ways of describing something. I should also admit that even though I've subscribed to The New Yorker for five years I've read probably about 2 percent of what they put out. That's kind of the beauty of it: To have something that's not optimized for the masses, that's not a Michael Bay version of a magazine article. 

I just like getting away from blogs almost entirely—any place with a clicking agenda. I just know they're trying to make noise to make traffic. I don't want to use up my time getting involved in that. The same thing goes almost for some newspapers. I really don't like the . I feel like there is a lot of CEO worship, a lot of consumerism, and capitalist thinking. I've never met a WSJ reporter that I like personally. I'll go ahead and throw out any chance of WSJ jobs right now.  and  have a way of tickling your mind. That's integrity: When you give up money to do what you think is right. That's the only test for editorial integrity. 

I don't subscribe to much in print because I dont really stay in one place. I moved from this house in California, where I thought I would maybe be in a position to start a family. My whole life blew up. So I ended up being this single guy, dating really not seriously, in a huge house for one person. It was just too much. I moved to Hawaii and got a small place. I got rid of almost all my gadgets: I just have a WiFi router, a computer, an iPhone, and I have a camera for underwater.

I even got rid of 80 percent of my print books and kept the ones I really care about. I have a print subscription for the . It's just like people going places and doing field science. I also subscribe to . It's an amazing, not really ad supported, really expensive subscription. Surf trade magazines are pretty much the worst thing in the world. But this is all travel-based and not surf profiles and contests. It's like: "Get lost in Mexico and have your car break down and be stranded and hitchhike to California" kind of stories, which have no commercial value at all. I also get , because I just moved here and I have no friends so I have to know what's going on. 

I dont have any media diet from 9 to 5. I turn off Twitter and I dont answer emails except in bulk. I try to do all my emails once or twice a day. Right now I have 400 messages that are starred. I won't get to a lot of them for another day or two. 

As far as my own professional work, I need to know if new gadgets are coming out. I don't read gadget blogs and reviews sites, I have someone do that for me. There is this old computer website that is so fucking amazing if you're getting into the hardcore computer shit. It's called , it's super high quality. Then there is —my first editor used to work at Ars, so I've got Ars DNA.is doing a good job;  is doing a good job. I thinkhad a bunch of kids writing their reviews. But it's getting better because the kids are getting older. That was hard to watch, so I don't watch it. 

Here's a really fucking weird secret: , , andare amazing. If they did a tech site, it would be fucking unreal. They would probably beat everyone. They do a much better job about telling the journey they go on to figure out stuff. I really, really worship those guys. Consumer Reports has been really fascinating. Often we do research on existing data out there. What we find is Consumer Reports has the best stuff—but not from reading their articles. When you go talk to them they'll tell you some crazy shit.

I work pretty late because I take a break in the middle of the day for a couple of hours. I work back up after dinner and I use this app called . The screen on your computer is a blue-ish tint that approximates sunlight and keeps you up. F.lux turns the hue of your screen more like a candle, or a halogen light bulb. You can feel it not keeping your eyes as perked up so your computer won't keep you up. When I use it I actually have an easier time falling asleep.

Then from there I usually grab an iPad and play a couple of rounds ofand then I'll read some magazine or I'll watch a movie on my iPad, once in awhile. I don't have cable. I don't have a TV. I'm just getting a projector for movies. I don't even watch that many movies because the more time you use watching the less time you have to create. 

I broke up with a girl I've been really in love with lately, it was mutual. Whenever that happens I start reading a lot of old philosophy books. I'm readingby Hermann Hesse; I'm reading this crazy book . It's really gnarly. I'm also reading the , , which is about treasure, and the Ted Kaczynski book, . You can kind of see what he's getting at when you read it.

The other weirdo thing I do is I'm obsessively checking surf cameras and surf reports. There's always a monitor of what the beach looks like propped up. Surf conditions change really quickly, like within 20 minutes. The wind, the tide, and the swell all have to coincide and the wind can change the quickest. The wind is, like, very fickle. 

Interestingly, though, . Obviously, turning the page towards a New Year inspires a fresh start and thats completely understandable, too. If youre headed in that direction, it makes sense to spend a little time this month planning ahead. You can do so discreetly, and then know that youll truly be ready to start the New Year on the right foot.

To help get you begin, here are a few things you can do now to help make the divorce process smoother in 2012:

1. Start collecting financial documents.Watch the mail for year-end statements from banks, credit card companies, etc. As we outline in our , preparing for divorce requires gathering all the relevant documents related to your bank and brokerage accounts, credit cards, mortgages, etc. Once you have collected them, make copies, and take them to a trusted friend/family member, or use a safe deposit box that your husband cant access.

2. Check your credit report. While youre gathering your financial records, keep a careful eye on your credit card statements, and if you havent already done so, request a copy of your credit report. Once you have the report, monitor your score carefully so youll be the first to know if any unusual activity occurs. (For example, is your husband using your joint credit cards to buy his girlfriend gifts this holiday season?) See my post, , for more tips

3. Research divorce professionals in your area. If you want to ensure the best possible outcome for your divorce, take the time to build a . I recommend you start with these three players: a matrimonial/family law attorney, aand a therapist/counselor. Spend some time this month researching divorce professionals and create a short list of candidates for each position. Schedule interviews with each top contender in January, and rest easy knowing that by February 2012, youll be benefiting from the expert guidance of a top-notch divorce team.

4. Open new accounts in your name. Moving forward as a single woman in 2012 will require that you have a bank account and credit cards in your name. Lay the groundwork now. Dont use the bank where you currently have your joint accounts. Go to a different bank and open both a savings and a checking account in your name. Youll need your own credit card, too, so you should start that process now, as well.are making it harder than ever for women with little or no income to establish credit on their own. You can do it. But, plan accordingly and know that securing credit is going to be more complicated than just filling out an application or making a single phone call.

5. Remain vigilant. Is your husband using the good cheer of the holidays as cover while he dissipates family assets? Be attentive, and if you are concerned at all about financial shenanigans by your husband, you may want to .

Some women who are considering divorce let the holidays get them down. Dont be one of them. Use this opportunity to start planning ahead, and youll be able to start the New Year confident that you are on the way to a more stable and secure financial future.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeffrey A. Landers, CDFA is a Divorce Financial Strategist and the founder of Bedrock Divorce Advisors, LLC (), a divorce financial strategy firm that exclusively works with women, who are going through, or might be going through, a financially complicated divorce. He also advises women business owners on what steps they can take now to divorce-proof their business in the event of a future divorce. He can be reached at .

All articles/blog posts are for informational purposes only, and do not constitute legal advice. If you require legal advice, retain a lawyer licensed in your jurisdiction. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author, who is not an attorney.

Follow Jeffrey A. Landers on Twitter:

Proponents of gun control also asserted that they are in their fight for the long haul and have not been disheartened by last month's defeat of a bill that would have expanded background checks for gun sales.

The debate over gun control legislation has reached a fever pitch in the wake of December's mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in which 20 first-graders and six educators were killed. The expanded background checks bill supported by President Barack Obama and other lawmakers in response to the Connecticut shooting failed to pass in the Senate.

During a fiery and defiant speech Saturday, Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, the public face of the NRA, said the "political and media elites" have tried to use Sandy Hook and other recent shootings "to blame us, to shame us, to compromise our freedom for their agenda." He said the proposed bill "got the defeat that it deserved" and that the measure would do nothing to prevent the next mass shooting.

"We will never surrender our guns, never," LaPierre told several thousand people during the organization's annual member meeting, which is part of the yearly NRA convention being held this weekend in Houston. More than 70,000 NRA members are expected to attend the three-day convention, which began Friday. Acres of displays of rifles, pistols, swords and hunting gear could be found inside the convention hall.

James Porter, the incoming NRA president, said Obama's gun control efforts have created a "political spontaneous combustion" that has prompted millions of Americans to become first-time gun owners and created a national outrage that will manifest itself in next year's midterm elections.

"The Senate and House are up for grabs," Porter said during Saturday's meeting. "We can direct this massive energy of spontaneous combustion to regain the political high ground. We do that and Obama can be stopped."

LaPierre said the NRA now has a record 5 million members, but he urged for increased membership and added that it "must be 10 million strong" in its battle against gun control.

Meanwhile, across the street from the convention, advocates of expanded background checks and other gun control measures vowed to continue their fight.

Kellye Bowman of the Houston chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a national grassroots effort promoting gun control that was started after the Sandy Hook shooting, said her organization was not discouraged by last month's failure of the gun control bill. She said its defeat actually increased her group's membership.

Bowman, who described herself as a fifth generation Texan who grew up shooting guns, said her group's primary focus now is meeting with legislators and supporting those who agree with their efforts and using the ballot box to remove those that don't.

"We can turn any mom into an activist. They need to start listening to us," said Bowman, who was among more than 60 protesters who had gathered Saturday afternoon across the street from the convention.

Many of the protesters held up signs that read: "Texans For Smart Gun Regulations" and "90% Want A Background Check," a reference to recent polls that have shown that up to 90 percent of Americans are in favor of expanded background checks.

Another of the protesters, Caleb Rogers, 33, a residential appraiser from Houston, said he doesn't believe the NRA is unstoppable.

"I think their time will come when they have to listen to common sense and do what's right for the country," he said. "I think someday, maybe not today or tomorrow or the next decade, but someday we'll get there, where there is a little common sense about what kinds of weapons we want on the streets."

Gun control supporters have promised to keep pressing the issue and have made significant strides at the state level, including passing new restrictions on firearms in Colorado and Connecticut.

LaPierre implored lawmakers to direct their efforts at enforcing current federal gun laws and sending violent criminals who break them to prison, instead of focusing on new gun control legislation.

But LaPierre added the NRA is preparing for "round two" of the gun control fight.

"They are coming after us with a vengeance to destroy us and every ounce of our freedom," he said. "It's up to us, every single gun owner, every American to get to work right now and meet them head-on."

___

Follow Juan A. Lozano at http://www.twitter.com/juanlozano70 .

Motorsport director Paul Hembery said in a statement on Thursday that the decision was taken in consultation with all 11 teams, some of whom have been complaining that the tyres are too unpredictable and do not last long enough.

"We took the decision...to change the hard compound from Spain onwards, as we did in Barcelona two years ago when we also introduced a new hard tyre for the rest of the season," he said.

"This latest version of the hard compound is much closer to the 2012 tyre, with the aim of giving the teams more opportunity to run a wider range of strategies in combination with the other compounds, which remain unchanged."

Team will be given an allocation of hard and medium tyres, the hardest in Pirelli's range, to cope with the high-energy demands of the May 12 Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya.

For the subsequent race in Monaco, they will use soft and super-soft tyres, while Canada will see the use of medium and super-soft. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Patrick Johnston)

Back in August, Obama bluntly warned Assads regime that while he had not at this point ordered an American military response to Syria's civil war, is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized."

When it comes to chemical weapons, what is "a whole bunch"? What does "systematic" mean? The White House has carefully refused to define either term precisely, keeping the president's options open. Republicans have called for a far more forceful U.S. role in Syria, notably by arming the rebels and establishing "safe zones" to protect the opposition or Syrians fleeing the fighting.

In 2008, Obama used his opposition to the Iraq warand Hillary Clintons initial support for itas a potent weapon to capture the Democratic presidential nomination. The flawed case for toppling Saddam Hussein looms large now as the president wrestles with the U.S. response to signs that Assads iron-fisted regime used chemical weapons in Syrias two-year civil war. The conflict has claimed the lives of an estimated 70,000 people.

I think all of us, not just in the United States but around the world, recognize how we cannot stand by and permit the systematic use of weapons like chemical weapons on civilian populations, Obama said as he met Friday in the Oval Office with King Abdullah II of Jordan.

The presidents comments came a day after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and the White House revealed that U.S. intelligence believed , specifically , against opposition forces in the country's ongoing civil war.

On Thursday,that "our intelligence community does assess with varying degrees of confidence" that Assad's regime had used sarin. But top officialsfrom Hagel on downwarned that those findings did not mean that Assad had now crossed Obama's "red line" or that American military action might be imminent. Instead, they said Washington will now work with its allies, Syria's opposition and the United Nations to build what one top Obama aide called an airtight case.

"These are preliminary assessments; theyre based on our intelligence gathering. We have varying degrees of confidence about the actual use, but there are a range of questions around how, when, where these weapons may have been used," Obama said Friday, vowing "to make sure that we are investigating this as effectively and as quickly as we can."

"But I meant what Id said, and I will repeat," he said. "Horrific as it is when mortars are being fired on civilians and people are being indiscriminately killed, to use potential weapons of mass destruction on civilian populations crosses another line with respect to international norms and international law. And that is going to be a game changer."

"We have to act prudently. We have to make these assessments deliberately. But I think all of us, not just in the United States but around the world, recognize how we cannot stand by and permit the systematic use of weapons like chemical weapons on civilian populations," he said.

Just how big a factor is the March 2003 invasion of Iraq? A senior Obama aide, briefing reporters Thursday on a conference call arranged by the White House, made repeated references to it as a reason to tread cautiously.

Id say that given our own history with intelligence assessments, including intelligence assessments related to weapons of mass destruction, its very important that we are able to establish this with certainty and that we are able to present information that is airtight in a public and credible fashion," he said. "That is, I think, the threshold that is demanded."

White House press secretary Jay Carney sharply rejected any notion that Obama might show more "leniency" on weapons of mass destruction because of the Iraq War. "Absolutely not," he told reporters at his Friday briefing.

"The fact is that we do have some evidence and we need to build on that," Carney said. "The precedent you cite I think is a significant one, and it simply stands to reason that the assessments that we make, the intelligence community makes, are extraordinarily valuable, and they do excellent work, but they are building blocks towards a broader objective here, which is the accumulation of concrete evidenceevidence that can be corroborated, evidence that can be presented and reviewed and then acted on if the conclusion is that a red line has been crossed."