The Hurler On The Ditch

Rip Off

2010-05-04T19:38:00.004+01:00

A 'special offer' from Marks & Spencer, Liffey Valley, Dublin. £6 converts to €7.

Nuf said.

NAMA- an explanation

2009-08-04T19:32:00.003+01:00

A lot has been written about NAMA. Karl Whelan has a clear and concise exposition.

Millions and Billions

2009-06-17T21:41:00.002+01:00

We hear a lot now about billions not millions. It is hard to grasp the relative size of these two amounts. A letter in the Irish Times is helpful.

"...one method of grasping the increase from a million to a billion: a million seconds is under 12 days, while a billion seconds is over 31 years."

And we in Ireland are pouring mega billions of euros into the banks. Privatise profits and socialise losses

At last

2009-05-08T12:01:00.002+01:00

A breakthrough national project showing how Ireland can become energy independent

"Step 1 promises Energy Independence for Ireland within 5 Years with a €10 billion stimulus to the economy. Step 2 will see energy exports from Ireland in years 6, 7 and 8 of €3 billion to €5 billion per year or up to €50 billion over the following 10 years. Both phases will seek to help secure Ireland’s financial future."

Spirit of Ireland

The wooden spoon

2009-04-21T21:04:00.004+01:00

The banks and us, Bloomberg report

"The IMF said “stabilization costs” by the end of 2009 would account for 13.4 percent of Britain’s 1.3 trillion-pound a year gross domestic product. Only Ireland is spending more per capita on its banks, about 13.9 percent of GDP, according to the IMF. The U.S. was next out of 19 countries at 12.1 percent."

HELP! the lunatics are running the asylum.

Poetry in hard times

2009-04-10T19:02:00.002+01:00

From 'The Magpie' in todays Irish Times

THE FOLLOWING untitled poem, which Magpie has decided shall henceforth be known as Ode to Biffo, was doing the rounds among certain Fine Gaelers on Budget Day:

“Cowen is my shepherd, I shall not work.
He leadeth me beside still factories.
He restoreth my faith in the Fine Gael.
He guideth me to the path of unemployment.
Yea, though I wait for my dole,
I own the bank that refuses me.
Cowen has anointed my income with taxes,
My expenses runneth over my income,
Surely, poverty and hard living will follow me all the
Days of his term.
From henceforth we will live all the days
Of our lives in a rented home with an overseas landlord.
I am glad I am Irish,
I am glad that I am free.
But I wish I was a dog
And Cowen was a tree.”

Radio rage

2009-03-04T21:50:00.003Z

A mobile phone ringing tone followed by a message received tone. You are driving on the M50 motorway. Nothing for it but to leave the motorway at the next junction and see who is calling. When you pull off and find a place to stop you discover that you have no missed calls or messages. The penny drops.

You had the radio on to RTE1 tuned to the Mooney show. This has an ad for their own show which has mobile phone ring tones in the background. In all, by the time you rejoin the motorway you have wasted 15 minutes. Thanks RTE.

An Interesting Omission

2009-03-02T20:19:00.003Z

A recent article in The Irish Times by Peter Sutherland gave sage advice on what the Irish State must do. The article listed some of his many portfolios. But it omitted to mention that he was a main board director of Royal Bank of Scotland.

"Peter Sutherland is chairman of British Patroleum (sic) and Goldman Sachs International, the UK-based brokerage subsidiary of Goldman Sachs of New York. He is a former attorney general of Ireland, European commissioner and director general of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (now known as the World Trade Organisation"

Is he embarrassed as he was on the board which oversaw the financial adventures which brought the once great organisation to its knees?

Disclosure: I lost money on RBS shares

The Power of Dreams

2007-06-04T15:03:00.000+01:00

The Honda Civic choir.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuyaVcqTgic

3quarksdaily

Six degrees of honorary degrees

2007-05-05T18:56:00.000+01:00

3 quarksdaily

Bush Day

2007-05-01T23:16:00.000+01:00

"Four years ago, President Bush took a joyride in a fighter plane and declared "mission accomplished" in Iraq. The event was hailed at the time as a political triumph but has ended up being an emblem of our leader's utter cluelessness and incompetence. Only a man who had no idea what he had gotten himself into could have declared major combat operations "over" on May 1, 2003. And only the biggest of idiots would have created a spectacular military pageant to amplify his stupidity and make himself look all the more ridiculous to the judgment of history."

Hat Tip The J-Walk Blog

New Blogging Magazine

2007-04-23T19:31:00.000+01:00

Do we really need this?

Blogger and Podcaster

Hat Tip The J-Walk Blog

Daylight Saving

2007-04-20T12:10:00.000+01:00

It seems that Connie M. Meskimen is a lawyer in Little Rock nuff said.

Thanks The J-Walk Blog

Loves Labour Lost

2007-04-18T19:34:00.000+01:00

A Labour Party flyer which came in the door this evening. I despair.

They want to be in government and they can't do simple sums.

5-4=1 when I last looked.

Inflation

2007-04-06T22:45:00.000+01:00

I went over to the green waste recycling depot in Lucan only to discover that they have increased the price for a private car load from €5 to €8. An increase of 60%! This is price gouging on a grand scale and there is no choice as there is no competition.

Once again it is the public sector as the facility is operated by the County Council.

MBNA

2007-03-20T18:03:00.000Z

My wife and I have MBNA credit cards. We have had them for several years and no problems, yet.

The cards are about to expire and today I got a letter claiming to be a reminder of my PIN. The number is not correct and when I went to my account on their web site I discovered that they had changed the PIN for my existing active card! Luckily I had not tried to use it for the last few days.

I spent half an hour of increasing frustration trying to get an answer. I am waiting for a 'customer service' person to call with an explanation.

Snap preview

2007-02-28T18:14:00.000Z

I for one don't like it...

We certainly haven't seen anything to match the outpourings of bile that have followed the wannabe search engine's little page previews, which appear on a number of wordpress.com sites and elsewhere.

The Snap Preview Anywhere technology (also available as a Firefox plugin!) means that if you hover your mouse over a link, you'll see a little popup window showing the site being linked to, attached to the place where your mouse is. The first time, you think, "Cool!" The second time, you think, "Oh, that." The third time, most people think, "How the hell do I turn this thing off?" (Clue: click on the little "Options" text in the popup box and choose "Disable for ALL sites." Add "Damn you!" if you like.)

Technology Guardian

Fusion power

2007-02-28T17:42:00.000Z

An interesting post from The New York Times

A few small companies and maverick university laboratories, including this one at U.C.L.A. run by Seth Putterman, a professor of physics, are pursuing quixotic solutions for future energy, trying to tap the power of the Sun — hot nuclear fusion — in devices that fit on a tabletop.

Dr. Putterman’s approach is to use sound waves, called sonofusion or bubble fusion, to expand and collapse tiny bubbles, generating ultrahot temperatures. At temperatures hot enough, atoms can literally fuse and release even more energy than when they split in nuclear fission, now used in nuclear power plants and weapons. Furthermore, fusion is clean in that it does not produce long-lived nuclear waste.

Dr. Putterman has not achieved fusion in his experiments. He and other scientists form a small but devoted cadre interested in turning small-scale desktop fusion into usable systems. Although success is far away, the principles seem sound.

A lecture by Dr Putterman on his work is on Google Video.

Update: Now that I have seen the full video I am reminded of the man who attended a public lecture by Einstein who was trying to bring the topic to a form understandable by ordinary people. Afterwards Einstein asked how he found the talk and the man said that he understood the words but he had trouble with the sentences.

Hat Tip 3 Quarks Daily

Water water...

2007-02-27T20:37:00.000Z

I was driving on the M50 motorway last night with the petrol empty light flashing. Not a very comfortable position with the motorway reduced to two lanes with roadworks. Nowhere to go if I ran dry!

When I got a chance at the Palmerstown roundabout I gratefully turned off and into a filling station. The petrol was €1.03 a Liter. And then I saw the special offer: 1 Liter of still water €1.25. And we think petrol is dear!

Help desk

2007-02-18T12:00:00.000Z

A great video clip on YouTube. I know the feeling but I still call help desk.

Hat tip Status-Q

Cartoon

2007-02-10T18:35:00.000Z

from Time

hat tip 3 Quarks Daily

Smell of sweat

2007-02-08T20:40:00.000Z

A whole new range of after shave...

Reported in Scientific American:

Rats, moths and butterflies are all known to send chemosignals to secure mates. Similar phenomena have been suggested but not proved in humans: Studies such as Elizabeth McClintock's work in the early 1970s—in which women living together in a dormitory were found to have synchronous menstrual cycles—indicate that a sort of sixth sense exists that allows people's bodies to communicate with one another.

But no evidence was produced, says Claire Wyart, a postdoctoral neuroscience researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, "that a single component of a complex mixture like sweat could induce a change on a hormonal level" without direct contact. Now a new study led by Wyart, published in this week's issue of The Journal of Neuroscience does just that.

The researchers exposed 21 subjects to 30 milligrams of androstadienone and to yeast, which is not in sweat but has a similar olfactory sensation. The results: smelling the androstadienone increased positive mood, total physiological arousal and sexual arousal, which grew with longer exposure.

3Quarks Daily

Your number is up.

2007-02-07T16:47:00.000Z

Grab a calculator. you probably won’t be able to do this in your head.

Key in the first 3 digits of your phone number (not the area code)

Multiply by 80

Add 1

Multiply by 250

Add the last 4 digits of your phone number.

Add the last 4 digits of your phone number again (just for good measure)

Subtract 250

Divide your answer by 2.

Do you recognize the answer?

If you did the correct math the answer should be your phone number.

The comment, which explains the maths, is the most interesting

Bits & Pieces

I'm angry, angry

2007-02-06T17:59:00.000Z

On Today's Liveline programme, a young woman called Rosie spoke about her diagnosis of terminal bowel cancer - and the delay she has experienced in getting the proper treatment. She had sent in an e-mail to the programme,the text is here.

The state of the health service is the major issue and will explode on all the politicians at the next election. The day of reckoning is near.

2007-02-01T22:04:00.000Z

Great. A pair!

Sign in a shoe shop window at the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre.

Equality

2007-01-28T13:51:00.000Z

The emergence of a small group of people increasing their wealth when a large group are struggling is laying the foundation for future problems.

First wealth. A recently released study says that the inequality in wealth throughout the world is extreme and growing more so. The report by the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University paints an informative picture of the world's wealth distribution as of 2000, the last year for which figures are available. It states that the top 1% of the world's population - about 37 million adults - had net assets (note: not income) worth at least $500,000. This constituted approximately 40% of the world's assets.

In contrast, the top 50% of the world's people owned a bit less than 99% of the wealth, and this translated into a median wealth (half the world's population having more, half less) of just over $2,000. To be in the top 10% required net assets worth about $60,000.

Remember that the new oppressed are well educated and will not accept this unfairness.

Here, the revelations of recent tribunals and the patent unfairness where the value of a house increases tax free compared with an earned income which is taxed at up to 41% is storing up trouble.

3quarksdaily

A Paulin conversion

2007-01-28T13:26:00.000Z

I am suspicious...

You batter your head against the door until you begin to wonder whether it is a door at all. Suddenly it opens, and you find yourself flying through space. The superstores’ green conversion is astonishing, wonderful, disorienting. If Tesco and Walmart have become friends of the earth, are any enemies left?

These were the most arrogant of the behemoths. They have trampled their suppliers, their competitors and even their regulators. They have smashed local economies, broken the backs of the farmers, forced their contractors to drive down wages, shrugged off complaints with a superciliousness born of the knowledge that they were unchallengeable. For them, it seemed, there was no law beyond the market, no place too precious to be destroyed, no cost they could not pass to someone else.

... the leopard changing its spots.

3quarksdaily

Can I?

2007-01-23T21:48:00.000Z

Can I park or can't I? I am entitled to use a disabled space but is this one or not?

I'm keen not to get clamped and John Waters recent rant in the Irish Times, (behind a paywall) but repeated by Susan Carey, has made me very sensitive. I would like to be sure as this part of Jervis Street is a 24 hour clearway. In the end I took no chances and put the car in the Jervis car park at their exorbitant rates. I can see why the out of town centres are so popular as I only wanted to look for a book in Waterstones.

Update: The City Council wrote to me to say that they altered the parking arrangements in Jervis Street as part of the Christmas Freeflow operation (a special effort to help traffic move in the city centre during the Christmas period). They say that everything has now returned to normal. I will have a look the next time I am around that area.

Speed, Heat, Sand.

2007-01-20T16:25:00.000Z

Some spectacular photographs of the Lisbon to Dakar rally.

The dragon rejects coffee

2007-01-18T21:56:00.000Z

One of the most incongruous sights of the globalised age - the Starbucks coffee shop inside Beijing's Forbidden City - could soon be a thing of the past after a furious online campaign for it to be relocated outside the palace's 600-year-old walls.

In response to this latest demonstration of “netizen” power in China, the guardians of the ancient site have announced plans to review the presence of the Seattle-based coffee chain. A decision on its future will be made within six months, the local media reported today.
...The trigger was a blog entry posted on Monday by Rui Chenggang, a TV anchorman, who called for a web campaign against the outlet that, he wrote in his blog, "tramples over over Chinese culture".

According to local media, half a million people have signed his online petition...

Guardian

The fine art of procrastination

2007-01-18T21:42:00.000Z

I was putting off reading this blog but this caught my eye...

I am a moderate procrastinator. Even when I believe that I would be best served by finishing a task (say, filing this story), I will occasionally put it off in favor of some short-term reward (like a much needed caffeine fix). This tendency on my part to delay what is in my long-term interest can now be explained by a simple mathematical equation, according to industrial psychologist Piers Steel of the University of Calgary.

Steel developed the equation U = E x V / I x D, where U is the desire to complete the task; E, the expectation of success; V, the value of completion; I, the immediacy of task; and D, the personal sensitivity to delay, as a way of mathematically mapping a given individual's procrastination response. So, for example, my desire to finish this article is influenced by my relative confidence in writing it well and the prospect of a paycheck as well as a looming deadline and my inherent desire to go home at the end of the day. "You're more likely to put something off if you're a very impulsive individual," Steel says. But, "if you only work at the last minute, time on task tells."

...you can read more at

3quarksdaily

Worms may keep multiple sclerosis at bay

2007-01-18T21:21:00.000Z

As a person who has multiple sclerosis I find all related to it interesting...

Could a spoonful of worm eggs help patients to fight the crippling symptoms of a nerve disease? Perhaps, say scientists who suggest that patients with multiple sclerosis can benefit from certain types of parasitic infection.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease in which the body's own defence cells attack protective nerve tissue. This can cause pain and problems with vision, movement, memory and thinking. But scientists in Argentina have published a study claiming that these symptoms of the disease may be lessened in people whose immune system has been affected by a parasite.

...help may come from the strangest places.

3quarksdaily

The statin/Parkinson's link

2007-01-17T20:01:00.000Z

New research showing a strong link between Parkinson's disease and low levels of "bad" cholesterol are so worrying that U.S. researchers are launching a study to look into it.

The team at the University of North Carolina is planning clinical trials involving thousands of people to see whether statin drugs, which lower low density lipoprotein, or LDL, might actually cause Parkinson's in some people.

Other research has for several years suggested that people with abnormally low levels of LDL might be at higher risk of Parkinson's.

Xuemei Huang and colleagues found that patients with low levels of LDL cholesterol are at least three and a half times more likely to develop Parkinson's disease than those with higher LDL levels.

... Oh dear... I've been on them for twelve years ...pass the butter please.

Reuters

Hat Tip mcarthurweb

All at sea

2007-01-15T19:48:00.000Z

I was looking at an advertisement in this weeks travel magazine in the Sunday Independent. It was for a 'Captains Special' cruise lauding their best ever offer. No I'm not taking one, thanks, or even thinking of it. After reading the ad my eye was caught by the very small print 'Prices exclude a compulsory fuel levy of €58'
It's time that the advertising standards authority stopped the inclusion of compulsory payments in the small print.

Some thoughts on English Writing

2007-01-08T17:00:00.000Z

A useful tool.40+ Tips to improve your grammar and punctuation.

I have a lot to learn. What have I been doing all these years? Sigh.

Hat tip Bits & Pieces

Not fit for purpose

2007-01-08T12:10:00.000Z

The Irish Medical Service continues as a source of controversy. The Pat Kenny show RTE Monday at 10 55 had a very interesting interview with Dr Donal Hickey a consultant urologist at Beaumont Hospital. He is familiar with the Cuban health service and argues persuasively that there is a lot we can learn from it.

The real question seems to me to be - are the vested interests, medical and government, prepared to listen and to acknowledge there may be a better way?

Beyond argument the present system is not 'fit for purpose'.

Good things happen when you do good.

2007-01-05T18:49:00.000Z

To balance the depressing news coming out of Iraq...

...50-year-old construction worker Wesley Autrey leaped onto a Manhattan subway track as a train approached to save the life of a man who had fallen after suffering a seizure.
Unable to pull him up in time, Mr Autrey placed his own body over that of the other man, holding him down in the low trench between the tracks as the train carriages passed millimetres above his head.

"We're OK down here," he yelled, in true Hollywood style, as the train stopped above, onlookers' screams turning to applause.
...according to Mr Autrey, ..."Good things happen when you do good."

Guardian

I hope not

2007-01-03T16:16:00.000Z

I had a lovely Christmas and hope you had.

It seems others have different hopes as this advertisement was in the Irish Times for the last few days.

Very Happy New Year to all.

Update
On the Marrion Finucane show RTE Sunday this ad got very unfavorable comment. All the panel felt it was in very bad taste and hitting at people who might be in a vulnerable period.

Look forward to a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority - though as they have no teeth it doesn't really matter. Perhaps the ASA should be reviewed and made statutory?

Giveaway of the day

2006-12-24T11:46:00.000Z

A very useful site is giveawayoftheday.com.

They offer licensed software titles for free! The offer is different each day so worth a bookmark.

Christmas Greetings

2006-12-23T19:19:00.000Z

Haven't been attending to the blog of late, no problem just sloth on my part. Will do better.

Christmas greetings to all.

eBay University

2006-09-24T12:58:00.000+01:00

John Naughton comments on the 'eBay university'. I got an email to say that 'eBay university 2006 comes to Dublin and Limerick'. Interesting. This may be in contravention of the Universities Act, 1997 section 52.

'Except in relation to an educational institution or facility established and described as such before the 30th day of July, 1996, (in which case it may continue to be so described), a person shall not, without the approval of the Minister, use the word "university" to describe an educational establishment or facility.'

Hope they have the Minister's OK here in Ireland.

Now We'll Know

2006-09-20T19:50:00.000+01:00

Gambling is seen as an 'investment' for certain quarters, and the impending deregulation of the gambling industry in the U.K. next year has sent thousands of gamblers scampering to purchase a £1,000 device that helps them win roulette games. This predictive device consists of a time recorder, a hidden computer, and an earpiece. When operated by a 'skilled' roulette player, this device could tip the game towards the player's favor as he/she learns to make a much better and calculated call. Tests have shown that potential gains of up to 100% can be achieved when using this device. Don't expect to import one over across the Atlantic for use in Vegas as you might end up with a couple of limbs missing.

Ubergizmo

David Copperfield

2006-09-08T14:32:00.000+01:00

He was right for me video here.

Text Annoyance

2006-09-04T20:04:00.000+01:00

I heard the mobile phone ring to tell me that there was a text message. Only a few people have that number so the message must be urgent.

The traffic was heavy and at the first opportunity off the motorway and into a car park to read the message. It was a promotional advertisement for the mobile company O2. In all it wasted fifteen or twenty minutes, by the time I had got back in the moving traffic on the motorway.

As you cannot use a hand held mobile and drive a car at the same time (the law was changed recently) these selfish promotional messages should be banned.

A quick annoyed email to O2. Let's see if this has any impact.

Update: An email from O2 and they say they wont send any more. A result.

Inisheer

2006-09-01T11:38:00.000+01:00

I had the good fortune to spend two months on the smallest of the Aran Islands, Inisheer (Inis Oirr), in 1962. This was the year before I sat the Leaving Certificate examination, the final school examination in Ireland. At that time if you didn't pass Irish you failed the examination and couldn't go to University. So the idea was that I would improve my Irish. This worked and was a fantastic experience. One that has left me with a deep affection for the islanders, their way of life and the Irish language along with a small collection of photographs.

At that time I only had a basic 35mm camera and a few rolls of film. You couldn't get more film on the island at that time and anyway I couldn't afford it. When I came home after spending a month longer than originally agreed all I could do was develop the film but no prints! The negatives were kept among my personal stuff, put in a press and forgotten about.

Last year I was using my son's scanner, remembered these negatives and discovered that they could be scanned. He then introduced me to Flickr and suggested I should put them up there which I did. I moved on to other things and forgot about them until recently.

An email arrived from the 'Crashed' music group asking if some of them could be used on the cover of a new CD. The result was that one was used as the outer cover of a CD and two more were used on the inlay.

They were of the wreck of the MV Plassey which went aground on an offshore rock during a severe storm on the night of 8th March 1960. The 11 crew were rescued by the local onshore rescue crew using a Breeches Buoy. It was later driven onto the island during another storm. It is on the rocks in the opening scene of the Channel 4 comedy series 'Father Ted'.

Big Tobacco

2006-08-31T22:00:00.000+01:00

There at it in the US and why would they leave us out?

All tobacco brands have been increasing the nicotine dosage in each cigarette steadily during the last six years, says a report from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The overall increase has been about 10% during 1998-2004. The higher the nicotine dose, the more hooked you get - it is much more difficult to quit.

The only conclusion one could come to is that the tobacco industry has taken steps to secure sales by making people more addicted...

The pressure has come off in recent years. How much is this costing the health service and contributing to their problems.. this is a dangerous drug...More tax please...

Medical News Today
Hat Tip mcarthurweb

Secret World

2006-08-28T21:18:00.000+01:00

A fantastic view... which shows how insignificant we are ...

View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons.

Molecular expressions

Hummingbird Hawkmoth

2006-08-26T19:27:00.000+01:00

A fantastic photo of a hummingbird hawkmoth (macroglossum stellatarum) by flickr user janerc.

A really great shot. Wish I had take it.

Source Boing Boing

Open Or Closed What Difference

2006-08-25T13:13:00.000+01:00

A while ago Don Macarthur wrote about the technique of opening locks by 'bumping' and he picked up this piece in Slashdot.

Leave the door open, no point in locking it.

Now He Tells Us

2006-08-24T12:03:00.000+01:00

President Bush was in the midst of explaining how the attacks of 9/11 inspired his “freedom agenda” and the attacks on Iraq until a reporter, Ken Herman of Cox News, interrupted to ask what Iraq had to do with 9/11. “Nothing,” Bush defiantly answered. Watch it.

Hat Tip mcarthurweb

Always Time To Learn

2006-08-22T19:58:00.000+01:00

Guy Kawasaki has a very interesting post where he sets out Ten Things To Learn This School Year, no problem that he gives us twelve, they are worth reading. I'm well past school age but who said I should ever stop learning?

Hi Again

2006-08-22T19:46:00.000+01:00

Just back blogging after the summer. When I went away for a few weeks I got out of the habit though I saw a few interesting things on line which I will blog about over the next few weeks.

Ashes to Ashes ...Dust to Diamonds

2006-05-09T21:45:00.000+01:00

...This might be old news to some, but did you know that you can get the remains of your loved ones turned into a diamond?! The point is a matter of simple physics. After cremation, you have a decent amount of ash left over, which is carbon-rich. All you need is to extract that carbon, and turn it into diamond a matter of changing the crystal structure from one form into another under high temperature and pressure.

There is a company (or companies, e.g Life Gem) that does this for you, and sends you a nice piece of jewelry made out of your dearly departed. There are slight variations in colour of the finished product. depending upon the non-carbon impurities (if you pardon the term) associated with the source material. So it is very personalised indeed.

Is this the way ...to last for ever.

Cosmic Variance Hat tip mcarthurweb

How to sue an airline and win

2006-05-05T17:05:00.000+01:00

Good to see a win when you stand up to them.

You don't need Channel 4's five months of undercover filming to find out that Ryanair takes a hard-nosed attitude to its customers. Just try claiming for a pair of missing prescription sunglasses.

On the journey home from a family holiday in Italy, my prescription sunnies vanished from the zipped outer pocket of my bag after I had checked it in at Rome Ciampino airport for the Ryanair flight to Stansted. I did not notice they were missing until unpacking at home that night.

I reported the loss the next morning, via expensive phone calls (RyanairÂs number is a premium-rate line) and then faxes. Ryanair refused to consider my claim, aiming a double-barrelled shotgun at me. Bang: I had not filled in a Property Irregularity Report at Stansted, detailing my loss. Bang: I should not have packed ÂvaluableÂ spectacles in my checked baggage...

I filed a compensation claim against Ryanair online....

some months later that I finally got my day Â well, my hour Â in the county court at Hastings. I represented myself. Ryanair sent a solicitor from London on a 100-mile day return. Expensive, but he looked young enough to pay half-fare...

It took the judge less than 10 minutes to rule in my favour. The specs had gone missing while in RyanairÂs care.

Times

Five most common lies in business

2006-05-04T17:47:00.000+01:00

These are very familiar.

Lie: "People are our most important asset."

Truth: "People are our most worrisome and unpredictable asset. Our most important assets are really our financial assets."

B.S. Detector: This may be the leading lie of our times. "When management starts talking about how important people are," LaFontaine says, "you can bet there is going to be an unpopular human resources decision coming soon."
Lie: "This was a rational decision."

Truth: "I wanted to do this."

B.S. Detector: People "want what they want just because they want it," says LaFontaine.
Lie: "We judge people by their performance."

Truth: "I judge your performance based on how much I like you."

B.S. Detector: "Why do most people who keep their jobs keep them?" LaFontaine asks. "Because the people they work for like them. And you get fired when the people you work for don't like you anymore.
Lie: "This is business, it isn't personal."

Truth: "Everything's personal."

B.S. Detector: "As people, we get mad at each other," says LaFontaine. "Attempts to avoid it are cowardly. So get mad. Then get over it and move on." LaFontaine believes that any disagreement can be handled with an honest conversation.
Lie: "The customer comes first."

Truth: "I come first."

B.S. Detector: "More often than not, 'the customer' is an abstraction," LaFontaine warns. "People take care of customers when it benefits them and ignore customers when they can get away with it. Nobody says 'I come first,' which is what's usually going o

Fastcompany hat tip digg

A long light

2006-05-04T16:30:00.000+01:00

Its been burning since 1901.

Declared the oldest known working lightbulb by Guinness Book of World Records. Ripley's Believe-It-or-Not in 1972 researched it and declared it the oldest...

Made by the Shelby Electric Company, a handblown bulb with carbon filament. Approximate wattage-4 watts. Left burning continuously in firehouse as a nightlight over the fire trucks.

Can I have one of these please.

Livermore's Centennial Light

01:02:03 04.05.06

2006-05-03T16:28:00.000+01:00

A timely combination

An hour and two minutes after midnight tonight the clock will tick:
01:02:03 04.05.06

That's it for this century

F-secure

Stephen Colbert

2006-05-01T18:21:00.000+01:00

Stephen Colbert calls it like it is.

The speech is in three parts so follow the links to part 2 and part 3. He speaks his mind with a very acerbic humor.

Your Tube

update: NYT finally notices Colbert's White House gig
Well, it only took four days, but the NYT finally noticed that Stephen Colbert delivered a ground-breaking, witheringly sarcastic attack on the President and the press at the White House Correspondants' dinner.

Boing Bong

update: you tube has removed the broadcast for copyright reasons. There is a full discussion on this on BoingBoing

update A link on BoingBoing

Karen says,

I thought you might like to know that Crooks and Liars still has the video of Colbert's speech on Saturday night. Here's the link. Both of the video links were up and working as of 5 minutes ago (12:31 MT on 5-4-06). I hope YouTube will have it back up soon.

MuSmate

2006-04-30T14:26:00.000+01:00

I have Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and this affects my right leg and in particular causes 'dropped foot' syndrome. Walking is difficult and can be restricted to a hundred meters or so on a bad day. Even at best five hundred meters is as much as I can manage. After that a wheelchair is needed and you rapidly find out how unfriendly many places are to users!

Some months ago I came across the Odstock Dropped Foot Stimulator and it seemed that it might help. Some research and the assistance of the Multiple Sclerosis Society put me in touch with a physiotherapist who was trained in fitting it. An afternoons trial made it clear that unfortunately it made no improvement for me.

The BBC technology site has an interesting report today .

A scientist whose wife has multiple sclerosis has developed a walking aid that has been shortlisted for an award...

"We found a way of transferring energy from the strong muscles in the thigh and back to the ones that weren't working."...

...The device consists of a shoulder harness and an elasticated cord connected the wearer's shoe.

...The next stage in the product's development was to have it tested by a larger group of people. The South-West MS Society helped by coming up with around 20 volunteers.

According to Mr Armitage, over a 90 day period their walking speed increased by more than 100%.

The volunteers also reported - though this was not measured scientifically - that the distance that they were able to walk increased by up to 600%.

This looks interesting.

2006-04-28T19:51:00.000+01:00

On his blog now called Signum sine tinnitu (I've no idea what this means, if you can translate please let me know.) Guy Kawasaki returns to his 'top ten series'. He sets out the top ten lies of engineers as he sees them. They're all very apt but the one I like best is number 10

10. "This time we got it right." The scary thing about this lie is that the engineer really believes it. Again. The problem is that "this time" occurs over and over again. I have great faith in engineers and believe that in the long run, they do get it right. It's just that in the long run, we're all dead.

The whole listing is well worth a read.

Da Vinci code puzzle

2006-04-27T21:27:00.000+01:00

This has become an enigma wrapped in a puzzle, see if you can solve it.

In another twist to the publishing phenomenon, it was disclosed yesterday that the judge in the recent plagiarism court case included a coded message in his written judgment.

Contained within certain words, Mr Justice Peter Smith wrote certain letters in bold italic. On first inspection, there seems to be no pattern or reason why the letters are chosen and they could be easily viewed as a typographical errors. But Dan Tench, an observant solicitor at the London-based law firm Olswang, thought otherwise. ÂWeÂre not sure yet what it means, but weÂre working on it,Â he said...

Mr Justice Smith confirmed Mr TenchÂs suspicions when he said the pattern was Âsomething more than a typoÂ...The judge...said that paragraph 52 of his judgment would give readers a clue to the puzzle.

That paragraph reads: ÂI have set out at some length what in my opinion is an overall analysis of HBHG [The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail]. I have done that and will do the same further in this judgment in respect of DVC [The Da Vinci Code] because that is essential in my view to deciding this case.ÂThe paragraph ended: ÂThe key to solving the conundrum posed by this judgment is in reading HBHG and DVC.Â

...In Mr Justice SmithÂs coded judgment, the first nine digits obviously spell Smith Code: s,m,i,t,h,c,o,d,e,J,a,e,i,e,x,t,o,s,t,p,s,a,c,g,r,e,a,m,q,w,f,k,a,d,p,m,q,z.

Beyond that is anyoneÂs guess...

...Concealed in the earlier pages of the 71-page judgment are at least 38 single letters printed in bold italics. One page contains a total of eight single bold italics.

It is not clear whether the page or the paragraph that the italicised letters are hidden in is relevant to breaking the cypher.

The only upper case letter is a ÂJÂ. The judgment includes other italicised words, often quoted speech or names of texts, which have not been included in this list.

The most difficult to identify while scanning the text are the letters ÂcÂ and ÂiÂ, among others. This list is by no means exhaustive.

The first letters on page 5, if they are not an anagram, spell out the words Âsmith code JÂ. The judge is Mr Justice Peter Smith. Or maybe the J stands for ÂJesusÂ or ÂjudgmentÂ.

Page 5 s m i t h c o d e J

Page 6 a e i e x

Page 7 t o s t

Page 8 p s a

Page 9 c g r e a

Page 10 m q w f

Page 11 k a

Page 12 d p m q

Page 13 z

The London Times

Update: The challenge has been solved.

After much trial and error, we found a formula which fitted. This revealed (disregarding a few slips by the judge) the slightly perplexing script "JACKIEFISHERWHOAREYOUDREADNOUGHT", which is presumably to be rendered: "Jackie Fisher, who are you? Dreadnought". This must be taken as a doubtless riposte by the judge, who lists the study of the early 20th century admiral, Jackie Fisher, as a main interest. When asked who was Jackie Fisher, how many times must he have answered that Admiral Fisher conceived of the great battleship HMS Dreadnought?

Yesterday the judge sent a message: "Brilliant. You got it all ... You can rightly claim that you started it and got there first. I thought it had been missed until you found it."

Guardian unlimited Books

A blog gives meaning

2006-04-24T20:18:00.000+01:00

People find it hard to believe that in this day and age this happens despite all the services the state and private individuals provide..

A homeless woman in London has been living in a car since last summer. But by writing a blog she has put herself in touch with an international audience.

It's a tale of our time - about being cut off from everything around you but still connected to people thousands of miles away.

A woman becomes homeless, so she gets into her car and drives. Except she has nowhere to go - so she stays in the car, with all her possessions heaped in the back, sleeping in the front seats, parking in secluded streets...

...but this is the information age. And even though she doesn't speak to anyone, she can go into a library where she can access the internet and write an online journal - a homelessness blog - which she uses to describe all her unspoken experiences and feelings...

...So even though she has no one to talk to in London, using the identity of Wandering Scribe, she's exchanging e-mails with people in the United States - and the New York Times interviews her for its own story on homeless people living in cars. There's even talk of a documentary about her.

This is part of the price we pay for the loss of the small local units. Yes everyone knew everyone's business, but was that a bad thing?

hat tip BBC

Crazy traffic

2006-04-19T19:26:00.000+01:00

Here's a hypnotically captivating video of a congested street in India. The pedestrians, scooter drivers, impossibly tiny-car drivers, and huge-truck drivers seem to have ESP because everything flows so smoothly...

...Things to look out for:
* The pedestrian momentarily trapped between a car and a scooter
* The white car in the top right corner which goes the wrong way.

BoingBoing

This is real commuting

2006-04-19T19:00:00.000+01:00

Mariposa resident Dave Givens makes a 186-mile drive -- each way -- five days a week to his job in San Jose.

The electrical engineer has been doing that commute since 1989, spending seven hours every day getting to and from work at Cisco Systems Inc

Givens is the "ultimate road warrior," according to Midas Inc. and drove home with its first-place prize in the nationwide search for "America's Longest Commute." Givens out-drove thousands of other entrants to take home $10,000 in gas money and a range of maintenance services and products.

"I have a great job and my family loves the ranch where we live," Givens said. "So this is the only solution."

On his long trek he said he listens to the radio, keeps his eyes on the road and drinks "a lot of coffee."

...and I used to think that half an hour to travel seven miles was bad.

BusinessJournal hat tip mcarthurweb

Crazy roll over

2006-04-18T18:26:00.000+01:00

A Reuters video which shows the crazy dare devil action as these fanatics roll their cars over.

Curses...curses

2006-04-17T21:27:00.000+01:00

Russian police are looking for two mystics who persuaded a student to part with more than $160,000 in exchange for lifting a curse, RIA news agency reported Sunday.

"Two unknown women, on the pretext of lifting a curse, stole $150,000 and some jewelry by means of deception. The total amount stolen is estimated at 4.48 million roubles ($161,800)," the agency quoted a police source as saying.

The victim is a female student at Moscow's elite State Institute for International Affairs, RIA said. Many Russians are highly superstitious. They spend huge sums each year on faith healers and alternative medicine.

Reuters

Kaleidescope

2006-04-16T14:06:00.000+01:00

A really clever on line tool which lets you create your own kaleidescope.

Hat tip mcarthurweb

Panting

2006-04-11T21:05:00.000+01:00

President Bush is asked a straight question and this is how he answers it. Embarrassing.

Tech support

2006-04-08T18:02:00.000+01:00

A really funny video about the trials of tech support.
I am starting to feel sorry for them...just.

hat tipAngie Mc Kaig

Make a pledge

2006-04-06T12:30:00.000+01:00

Social websites are regularly springing up on the internet and one of the more interesting ones is PledgeBank.

We all know what it is like to feel powerless, that our own actions can't really change the things that we want to change. PledgeBank is about beating that feeling by connecting you with other people who also want to make a change, but who don't want the personal risk of being the only person to turn up to a meeting or the only person to donate ten pounds to a cause that actually needed a thousand.
The way it works is simple. You create a pledge which has the basic format 'I'll do something, but only if other people will pledge to do the same thing'. For example, if you'd always want to organise a street party you could organise a pledge which said 'I'll hold a street party, but only if three people who live in my street will help me to run it'

Shows once again how the web can be used to empower individuals.

Guardian

I can't think where I put them...

2006-04-04T19:55:00.000+01:00

German authorities are changing 150 locks at a nuclear power plant after its owner said they had lost keys to a security area, a ministry spokesman in the south western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg said Monday.
..."This has never happened anywhere in Germany before," the ministry spokesman said. "The keys have simply disappeared."

...can't think where I put them

Reuters

Photo editing PXN8

2006-04-02T15:10:00.000+01:00

I have just seen an interesting article by John Collins about PNX8 an online photo editing application. This was in the “Business This Week" section of the Irish Times (It's shielded behind their paywall). This is a really neat application and very easy to use.

Tim Berners-Lee on the future of the web

2006-03-31T14:20:00.000+01:00

It's great to get a chance to hear the inventor of the web speak on how he sees the way forward.You can get his talk as a webcast or the audio is available as an MP3.

BoingBong

Driving your competition crazy

2006-03-30T18:57:00.000+01:00

Guy Kawasaki at Bona Tempora Volvantur has a great post on the art of driving your competition crazy. It's very funny but very true. I particularly like part 8

Play with their minds. If you're doing all this positive, good stuff, then it's okay to have some fun with your competition--that is, to intentionally play with their minds. Here are some examples to inspire you:

* During the Korean War, the U. S. Army Office of Strategic Services left a supply of condoms for the Communist Chinese to find. The condoms were specially manufactured in an extra-large size. The label on the boxes, however, said, “Made in the USA Size Medium.”

* Hannibal once had his soldiers tie bundles of brush to the horns of cattle. At night, his soldiers lit the brushwood on fire, and Hannibal's Roman enemies thought that thousands of soldiers were marching towards them.

* A pizza company that was entering the Denver market for the first time ran a promotion offering two pizzas for the price of one if customers brought in the torn-out yellow pages ad of its competition.

* A national hardware store chain opened up right next to a longtime community hardware store. After a period of depression and panic, the store owner came up with a very clever ploy. He put up a sign on the front of his store that said, “Main Entrance.”

This is the fun piece and he also makes very good points in the first 7 parts.

Nontransitive Dice

2006-03-29T17:51:00.000+01:00

A further nontransative problem from BoingBoing.

Nontransitive dice

2006-03-27T20:49:00.000+01:00

This works, but I don't understand why. BoingBong Nontransitive dice. I'll have to go figure.

Hard Times

2006-03-23T18:43:00.000Z

It seems that the Minister for Justice should have a look at this ... but then perhaps not. He's doing so many strange things of late that he might do this.

The Web site reads like an advertisement for a holiday home.

"Is Bastoy the place for you?" it asks next to photographs of a sunset sparkling off the tranquil waters of the Oslo fjord and horses pulling sleighs over packed snow.

This wooded island could be -- if you are a rapist, a murderer, a drug trafficker or have accepted a large bribe.

"We try to take a cross-section of the country's prison population, not just the nice criminals," said Oyvind Alnaes, governor of the minimum security prison on Bastoy Island about 46 miles south of the Norwegian capital.

Inmates have included Norway's most notorious serial killer, Arnfinn Nesset, convicted of murdering 22 elderly people when he was manager of a nursing home in the 1970s. He was freed for good behavior after serving two-thirds of a 21-year sentence.

"A lot of people in Norway say that we treat them (the prisoners) too well because they should be punished. But this is the biggest mistake we have been making since the 1600s. Taking this line makes people bad," Alnaes said.

"You have to believe people are born good."

The one square mile island offers its 115 "residents" cross-country skiing, tennis and horse-riding, but before the inmates can slope off to practice their serve or head to the beach for a swim, there is work to do on the farm...

Spike Island?

Reuters

Making the Right Choice

2006-03-21T21:21:00.000Z

A counter intuitive argument suggesting that decisions may be best made without deliberation.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, it is not always advantageous to engage in thorough conscious deliberation before choosing. On the basis of recent insights into the characteristics of conscious and unconscious thought, we tested the hypothesis that simple choices (such as between different towels or different sets of oven mitts) indeed produce better results after conscious thought, but that choices in complex matters (such as between different houses or different cars) should be left to unconscious thought. Named the "deliberation-without-attention" hypothesis, it was confirmed in four studies on consumer choice, both in the laboratory as well as among actual shoppers, that purchases of complex products were viewed more favorably when decisions had been made in the absence of attentive deliberation.

Science Magazine hat tip Malcolm Gladwell

Getting Your Own Way

2006-03-18T20:57:00.000Z

A very apt post as to how we should behave, particularly if we want to get results.

A friend who worked at O'Hare International Airport told me this story. He once watched a passenger absolutely scream at an airline ticket agent. The ticket agent, however, remained completely calm. After the tirade was over, my friend asked her how she could remain so calm, and she said, "That's easy. He's going to Auckland, but his bags are going to Sydney."

One of the great misconceptions of selling, pitching, and partnering--basically, any time you want to get someone to do something for you--is that you should suck up to the people with the big titles and "A list" designation. Sometimes you do--as you've already read in this blog [Bona tempora volvantur], but the ability to suck up to the folks who don't have big titles but make the world run is more useful...

He goes on to make nine suggestions of things we should do. Well worth reading.

Met Map

2006-03-16T12:23:00.000Z

Met Eireann have a map showing rainfall radar images. This is a composite of data from two radars - one at Dublin Airport and the other at Shannon Airport. These are very interesting as you can see what recently happened and what is heading your way.

Turn Your Head

2006-03-14T21:38:00.000Z

I came across this cool idea on Boing Boing.

At Turn Your Head, we fill the space between two opposing profiles of your face. By spinning that space into a three dimensional “visage” that follows the outlined silhouettes of your two profiles, we create the "Pirolette".

Place the “Pirolette” to your face and it will match your profile. Locate it near a wall and the shadow of the "Pirolette” will be your silhouette.

Your profile captured forever in an object of art. An optical illusion of shadow and light, each one unique because it’s you!

The “Pirolette” is hand crafted from American Black Walnut, Cherry or Maple and is hand polished to a natural luster.

Turn Your Head

Life on the Ocean Wave

2006-03-14T18:17:00.000Z

Always enjoyed watching boats racing under full sail. Though watching is as far as I've got. I recently came across sail.tv where it's great fun to watch the yachts at speed under full sail.

hat tip web user

No Sense of Fun

2006-03-09T21:41:00.000Z

...they've lost there sense of humor. Did they ever have one?

The country that gave the world such risque comic acts as Benny Hill, the Two Ronnies and Little Britain has banned Australia's new "bloody hell" tourism ads from television because they are too rude.

Australian Tourism Minister Fran Bailey said Britain had banned the television ads, which end with a bikini-clad woman on a beach asking "so where the bloody hell are you?," although the ads would still be seen in British cinemas and appear in print.

"The regulators have clearly misplaced their sense of humor..." Bailey said in a statement Thursday.

...But Tourism Australia was unfazed by the British TV ban, welcoming it as unexpected publicity for the campaign.

"It's a bit of a PR dream," Tourism Australia managing director Scott Morrison told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

"This is a great opportunity to really promote the campaign. We'll be driving people to the Internet like there's no tomorrow," he said.

... you can see the ad here.

Wish I had been so lucky with my campaigns.

Reuters

Ebay

2006-03-07T14:44:00.000Z

I haven't used Ebay very much and have found all the transactions I was involved in very satisfactory. However, as Boing Boing reports, their are some salutary cases out there. Buyer beware!

Standards for Documents

2006-03-03T19:57:00.000Z

With government records, reports and documents increasingly being created and stored in digital form, there is a software threat to electronic access to government information and archives. The problem is that public information can be locked in proprietary software whose document formats become obsolete or cannot be read by people using software from another company.

To cope with the problem, 30 companies, trade groups, academic institutions and professional organizations are announcing today the formation of the OpenDocument Format Alliance, which will promote the adoption of open technology standards by governments...

...Microsoft supports another open standard for documents, called OpenXML Document Format. In Office 2007, which Microsoft will ship in the second half of the year, OpenXML will be the default format for saving documents instead of Microsoft's proprietary formats, said Alan Yates of the company's Office division.

The OpenXML format is supported by Intel, Apple, Toshiba, BP and the British Library, among others, Mr. Yates said. Microsoft submitted OpenXML to Ecma International, a standards body in Geneva, last year.

Let battle commence.

New York Times

Living dead win Oddest Book Title award

2006-03-03T19:45:00.000Z

Reuters has a report on the "living dead" winning the award given by Bookseller magazine for the Oddest Book Title of the Year

The living dead beat rhino horn to be named Oddest Book Title of the Year.

Bookseller magazine gave the award Friday to a self-help book on being haunted entitled "People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It."

In a close fight, the runner-up was "Rhino Horn Stockpile Management: Minimum Standards and Best Practices from East and Southern Africa."

Previous winners have been "Bombproof Your Horse" and "Greek Rural Postmen and their Cancellation Numbers."

Gum Gets Everywhere

2006-03-02T21:22:00.000Z

It's no longer just your shoes...

Painter Helen Frankenthaler's landmark abstract work "The Bay" just got a little more abstract -- to the dismay of Detroit museum officials.

A 12-year-old boy visiting the Detroit Institute of Arts with his school group on Friday stuck a wad of chewing gum on the painting, which is worth an estimated $1.5 million, the Detroit Free Press said.

The barely chewed Wrigley's Extra Polar Ice gum left a residue stain about the size of a quarter in the lower left-hand corner of the painting, the newspaper said...

...Museum curators expect to be able to remove the gum residue with a solvent once they have researched the chemicals contained in the gum, assistant contemporary art curator Becky Hart said....

Reuters

The Enigma Codes

2006-03-02T18:18:00.000Z

This one took some time to solve...

Three German ciphers unsolved since World War II are finally being cracked, helped by thousands of home computers.

The codes resisted the best efforts of the celebrated Allied cryptographers based at Bletchley Park during the war.

Now one has been solved by running code-breaking software on a "grid" of internet-linked home computers.

The complex ciphers were encoded in 1942 by a new version of the German Enigma machine, and led to regular hits on Allied vessels by German U-boats.

Allied experts initially failed to deal with the German adoption in 1942 of a complex new cipher system, brought in at the same time as a newly upgraded Enigma machine...

...The latest attempt to crack the codes was kick-started by Stefan Krah, a German-born violinist with an interest in cryptography and open-source software...

Rubik's Cube

2006-03-01T20:42:00.000Z

I love puzzles but I was never any good at solving Rubick's cube. A Robot created by Evan Gates solves the Rubik's Cube in approx. 15 seconds. at the Caltech Spring 2004 Rubik's Cube tournament.

There are also some videos here of of the competitors in the Caltech Spring Tournament 2004. These are impressive with one solve in 12.11 seconds.

Sudoku

2006-02-27T20:52:00.000Z

For come time now I have been sort of addicted to Sudoku. It is a great thief of time but a source of great satisfaction when you get a difficult one out. This site has a great collection of puzzles.

The Web edition of Newsweek tries to explain the phenomenon

Not since the Rubik's Cube of 1980 has a puzzle been this hot. From its mind-teasers have sprung clubs, competitions, computer-games and a cult-like following. It has become a fresh way to procrastinate. And some experts are even asserting that it can lower your blood pressure, relieve stress - even make you smarter. It might just be the least-harmful addiction around.

I have to go now and finish one.

Nobel Peace Prize Nominees

2006-02-25T20:05:00.000Z

Among the nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize are Bono and Bob Geldof. This is their second nomination, they were also nominated last year.

That was the easy part.

Making the Norwegian award committee's deeply secret shortlist, already whittled down from the 191 nominees, is another matter, the nonvoting secretary said Friday.

"It's easy to get nominated, but very hard to win," Geir Lundestad told The Associated Press in releasing the number he compiled and checked after the Feb. 1 deadline for mailing proposals.

I disagree, it isn't easy. Two years in a row : fantastic.

We should bask in the glory that they have brought to this small country and give our wholehearted support and cash to their projects.

I feel the reflection.

Yahoo News

This is why I always wear a seatbelt.

2006-02-22T20:00:00.000Z

I have never doubted the wisdom of wearing a seatbelt. In fact when I started to drive, a long time ago (grin) I learned to always wear one. Now I feel undressed without it. Some time ago, after surgery, I couldn't wear one for a while and felt so strange and vulnerable.

Have a look at this video and you see why you should wear. Watch what happens the person thrown out.

Inter Library Loan

2006-02-21T20:42:00.000Z

A great new service is offered by BorrowBooks.ie

...[This] allows you to search across the Irish public libraries' online catalogues to locate and request an item which is not held in your own library service.

...BorrowBooks.ie is an initiative of the Irish public libraries, supported by An Chomhairle Leabharlanna and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and funded by the Information Society Fund.

This is the way to go. I hope that it will speed up the search for things I want to read.

A Good Idea

2006-02-19T18:08:00.001Z

A sign of the changing times.

Amsterdam's famed red light district held its first ever "open day" Saturday as its peep-shows and brothels gave crowds of wide-eyed visitors free entry to help shed the area's increasingly negative reputation.

Armed with a list of 25 establishments opening their doors and flinging back their red curtains, hundreds of tourists and locals seized the opportunity to see a prostitute's bedroom, watch a brief live peep-show or chat to a lap dancer...

..."The open day is partly to promote the red light district but also to help change the image of the area because we think it is too negative," said organizer Mariska Majoor...

I suppose all business have to promote themselves.

Reuters

Of Course I'm Afraid

2006-02-18T18:32:00.000Z

It's a sad reflection on how little progress we have made.

...al-Asaadi [ the editor of the pro-government Yemen Observer newspaper] has not been party to the sort of controversies that have seen many Yemeni journalists jailed in recent years. But when his newspaper ran an article about the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist, Asaadi decided to reprint the cartoonsÂalbeit with a large X censoring most of them, and an article denouncing them. On Feb. 11, he was arrested and charged with insulting the Prophet. He is now in jail in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, awaiting trial...

...Some hard-line preachers at Friday prayers called for your execution; some even suggested death by beheading or immolation. Aren't you afraid for your future, in or out of jail?

Of course I'm afraid. I'll have to take precautions when I go to and from my office and travel around in the future. But Yemenis as a whole are very moderate, and I know I can persuade any reasonable person that I did nothing wrong. And I believe in God. What I did was in defense of the Prophet, and I don't think God will let me down for doing that.

Newsweek

His Face Was Red

2006-02-16T11:50:00.000Z

A German youth who tied himself to a foldaway bed because he was bored was rescued by police after becoming trapped in its mechanism, officials said on Tuesday.

Neighbors alerted the police in the western German town of Schwelm after hearing the 16-year-old's cries for help late on Monday night.

When police entered the apartment, they found the bed had folded itself away and the red-faced youth was tied upside down to it with a tow-rope and wire and unable to free himself.

"He said he did it because he was bored," said Dietmar Trust, a spokesman for the local police. "He was visibly embarrassed but it was also a pretty amusing situation."

Reuters

2006-02-16T11:27:00.000Z

I blogged some time ago on Tysabri and it's subsequent withdrawal.

It is now reported that the F.D.A. allows some patients to resume M.S. drug.

The Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that it would allow some patients in a clinical trial to resume treatment with Tysabri, a multiple sclerosis drug that was abruptly withdrawn from the market a year ago because of safety risks.

The decision appears to strengthen the probability that Tysabri, developed by Biogen Idec and Elan, will be allowed to return to the market. The F.D.A. is scheduled to decide on that question by the end of March.

"You can certainly deduce that we've concluded that there are at least some people for whom the risk is worth it," Dr. Robert Temple, director of medical policy for the drug division of F.D.A., said in an interview.

Still, he said, the decision yesterday was to allow the drug to be used only under the controlled conditions of a clinical trial and only by patients who had previously benefited from it in a clinical trial. "That's not at all the same as making it available for marketing," he said.

Some hope again for many people.

Don't Get Sick

2006-02-15T20:51:00.000Z

The spiraling cost of medicines. This will give you wallet burn and a heart attack. I hope you never need it.

Doctors are excited about the prospect of Avastin, a drug already widely used for colon cancer, as a crucial new treatment for breast and lung cancer, too....

But then greed set in.

...But doctors are cringing at the price the maker, Genentech, plans to charge for it: about $100,000 a year.

That price, about double the current level as a colon cancer treatment, would raise Avastin to an annual cost typically found only for medicines used to treat rare diseases that affect small numbers of patients. But Avastin, already a billion-dollar drug, has a potential patient pool of hundreds of thousands of people Â which is why analysts predict its United States sales could grow nearly sevenfold to $7 billion by 2009.

Doctors, though, warn that some cancer patients are already being priced out of the Avastin market. Even some patients with insurance are thinking hard before agreeing to treatment, doctors say, because out-of-pocket co-payments for the drug could easily run $10,000 to $20,000 a year.

The spin.

Until now, drug makers have typically defended high prices by noting the cost of developing new medicines. But executives at Genentech and its majority owner, Roche, are now using a separate argument — citing the inherent value of life-sustaining therapies.

If society wants the benefits, they say, it must be ready to spend more for treatments like Avastin and another of the company's cancer drugs, Herceptin, which sells for $40,000 a year.

New York Times

Hat Tip mcarthur

A Foxy Lady

2006-02-15T20:44:00.000Z

Girl #1: Is that a real fur coat?
Girl #2: Yes, oh my god and this woman started yelling at me this morning. I was like, "Please don't throw blood on me or something. I don't hate animals; I have a dog!"
Man: Not around your neck.

--Elevator, Broadway & Dey

Overheard in New York

Hat Tip mcarthurweb

It Could Be You...after 75,999,999 others

2006-02-11T20:50:00.000Z

...we need a dream.

The odds of winning the EuroMillions lottery are 76 million to one. So why are so many buying tickets?

...are we just taking a chance or being taken for a ride? According to bookmakers William Hill, the odds on winning the jackpot are 76 million to one.

To put this in perspective, spokesman Graham Sharpe says this week the bookmaker has given similar odds to two other gambles - one for the world to end, and the other for Chantelle from Celebrity Big Brother to become the next England football manager.

As likely as that? But when we've virtually no chance of winning, why are so many of us queuing up to hand over £1.50 for a ticket?

Professor Alastair Ross, a psychologist who specialises in interpreting gambling and risk, says we find it almost impossible to understand such a huge level of improbability.

French lottery
Europe in the grip of lottery fever
"People can't conceive how unlikely it is," says Dr Ross

...he says that a weekly player of the national lottery could only expect to win a jackpot if they lived to be 300,000 years old.

Being dealt a Royal Flush poker hand - 1 in 650,000
Being killed today in a road accident in the UK - 1 in 6 million
Winning the EuroMillions jackpot - 1 in 76 million
Source: John Haigh, University of Sussex

We can still dream...it could be you.

BBC