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Forget lack of cheap or available parking, the Daily News today has another reason not to keep a car in the city: rats. Yes, according to an opinion piece by ABC News writer and producer Joel Siegel, the city's furry/gross friends . Siegel tells the tale of the multiple rat "parties" -- his mechanic's words -- that took place in the hood of his Volvo. We're just imagining all the city's rats getting together and saying, "look we've gotten recognition for our domination of the subways and parks, how can can we promote our work in other fields?"

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Putting on a seatbelt in a cab sometimes seems like the biggest effort in the world. Because, really, you're only going to be in the cab for five minutes, you don't know where that piece of fabric has been or whose neck it has touched and you also want to be able to lean forward when the meter goes on so you can turn off the Taxi TV the instant it starts to jabber away. However -- if those ads instated back in December (on the TVs, mind you) didn't send a motherly reminder to buckle up -- then maybe these New York Daily News stories today will. Daily News explains how people who don't put their seatbelts on in cabs are getting gruesome injuries after their faces slam into the plastic partitions in between riders and drivers. And there's a picture!

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The Environmental Protection Agency has finally released its report on the non-cancer dangers of dioxins -- toxic chemicals that abound in most consumer products.

Though health advocates have been wary of dioxins for years, the FDA has said after a nearly 3 decades-long delay that the nasty carcinogenic chems -- in everything from office paper to computers to building materials -- can cause "chloracne, developmental and reproductive effects, damage to the immune system, interference with hormones, skin rashes, skin discoloration, excessive body hair, and possibly mild liver damage."

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Love is supposed to be everlasting. Unfortunately for many, the only permanent thing to come out of a relationship is an incurable sexually transmitted disease.

And that's why Cyrus Sullivan, of Portland, Ore., claims that he runs STD Carriers Disease Control and Prevention Services, a website that lists claimed and confirmed carriers by their names, locations, descriptions, and sometimes their photos.

The database is completely open to the public -- you don't have to login to browse the listings, and many of the recently added carriers' pics are displayed prominently on the site's front page. Users submit photos freely. There are about 1,500 listings.

From the workmanlike design and sluggish flash slideshow and bizarre comparisons between Pearl Harbor's "hostile Asian men" and STD awareness, you might get the impression that Sullivan, who also runs an online reputation-management business, operates with a tongue-in-cheek M.O.

And you'd be wrong: Sullivan is for real and his work (for better or for worse) is heartfelt, -- and he has updated his site just in time for Valentine's Day.

From the mission statement: "It is our goal that by promoting the sharing of information that we can ultimately protect you health from dangerous diseases while protecting your civil liberties and providing quality entertainment."

Oh boy.

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Cruise ships have never been something we've found appealing, personally. Really, there's something about being trapped in a large vessel on the open sea with a bunch of people we don't know that has always kind of freaked us out. The boats themselves haven't been doing a lot to prove us wrong recently. First, the Costa Concordia tragedy. Now, CNN reports outbreaks of Norovirus on two Princess Cruise ships. Cruise ships, you aren't doing yourselves any favors here.

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Did you enjoy looking at that picture of the giant rat in the Bronx Foot Locker? Yes? First, ew, and second, we've got the perfect quest for you. As part of their "New Yorkers Deserve A Rat-Free Subway" campaign, the city's Transport Workers Union has started a "Rate My Rat" contest.

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Have you witnessed the latest giant dead rat of New York City, as photographed in what appears to be a Foot Locker stock room in the Bronx? It is a beaut! Actually, it is horrifying. The picture was tweeted by @TheGoodfella, who writes, "SON THEY FOUND MASTER SPLINTER AT A FOOTLOCKER IN THE BX...THIS SHIT WILD."

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A townhouse development in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, is facing an unprecedented scourge from above. Thousands of seagulls have appeared, Alfred Hitchcock-like, except that instead of terrorizing citizens and pecking them to death, they are terrorizing them with their poop. It's gotten so bad that children are being armed with umbrellas on sunny days, and, well, it sounds pretty damn apocalyptic:

Rooftops in Fox Chase are splotched white from the droppings, small animal bones litter backyard patios, feathers are everywhere and children who use the play equipment end up with white residue on their clothes.

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"Make dinner happen."

I wasn't going to write about this, but it started making me madder and madder, so here I am. Business Insider today writes of a woman named Jessica Sporty, who, at 23, was simply too poor on her $45K salary to take care of her $1,475 a month (ahem -- Murray Hill) apartment and also her extra $500 or $1000 in credit card bills, so, she took to Internet dating on Match.com to essentially get dudes to buy her dinner and keep her out of debt.

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That photo, published on Animal NY today and via MSNBC web producer Meg Robertson, is of a New York City water main. This was on 15th Street near 5th Avenue.

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