Tuesday, February 28, 2006

MICROSOFT TO OFFER 6 VERSIONS OF WINDOWS VISTA

Technology Reuters.com

How many versions do we really need? Mon Feb 27, 2006. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) plans six core offerings of its upcoming Windows Vista operating system, targeting how people use computers instead of PC hardware specifications, the company said on Monday.

The world's largest software maker plans three offerings aimed at consumers, two at business users and a stripped-down edition for emerging markets. Unlike the current Windows XP, there will no versions designed specifically for advanced 64-bit computing, multimedia computers or Tablet PCs.

"We're delivering the exact same number of offerings as in Windows XP, but the big difference is that each of those offerings are targeted differently with a different set of features," said Barry Goffe, director of Microsoft's Windows client product marketing.

Windows Vista, due out in the second half of 2006, is the much-anticipated upgrade to Microsoft's flagship product. Windows, which is found in about 90 percent of all computer desktops, is also one of Microsoft's earnings cash cows.

The company, which accidentally posted some details of the Vista product lineup on one of its Web sites earlier in the month, has promised that Vista will feature improved security, simplified search across the desktop and a cleaner interface.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft expects Windows Vista Home Premium to be the mainstream consumer product, allowing users to record and watch high-definition television, burn and author DVDs and perform other multimedia functions.

It also incorporates Tablet PC technology to decipher handwriting to let users write notes on the computer.

Vista Home Premium will be the middle option for consumers, sandwiched between the high-end Windows Vista Ultimate, which also includes business-oriented features, and a bare-bones Windows Vista Home Basic without the multimedia capabilities.

For business users, Microsoft plans Windows Vista Business for small and medium-sized businesses that may not have a information technology support staff.

Windows Vista Enterprise will be aimed at large, global companies with encryption features to protect information even if a computer is stolen and tools to enable compatibility with applications designed for older operating systems.

All the versions for consumers and businesses are available for both 32-bit or 64-bit computer systems. Sixty-four-bit processors can crunch twice as many bits of information at one time as the more prevalent 32-bit processors.

Microsoft will also offer a version of Vista Home Basic and Vista Business without a Windows Media Player in Europe to comply with European Union antitrust rulings.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

JAPAN'S BLONDS VANISH AS WOMEN TURN TO DARK SIDE...

Reuters.com By Isabel Reynolds

Fri Feb 24, 2006. TOKYO (Reuters) - It's a case of the vanishing blondes. Ten years ago, a stroll through central Tokyo could leave travelers wondering what country they were in as they watched a parade of tanned, fair-haired women walking tall in precarious platform shoes.

Now fashion has moved on and hairdressers say bleached blonde tresses are going the way of fake tans, although a dark brown tint still seems more popular than natural black.

The only fair-haired women to be seen on the covers of Japanese fashion magazines nowadays are foreign models.

Even Ayumi Hamasaki, the Japanese pop world's answer to Madonna, has dyed her trademark platinum locks sleek black to stay ahead of the curve.

"What's seen as attractive now is to look well groomed and cute," said hairdresser Yuko Shimizu of the afloat-f salon in Tokyo's trendy Aoyama district. "People want natural-looking shiny hair, whereas dyeing it blonde tends to damage it."

Neighboring countries are providing inspiration, with popular actresses Zhang Ziyi of China and Choi Ji-woo of South Korea often seen showing off their glossy dark hair in TV commercials that emphasize their Asian identity.

Japanese women of a certain age have long tinted their tresses to cover the grey.

Light-colored hair was popular because it was believed to make the face appear brighter and to be easier to coordinate with Western-style fashions, hairdressers say.

Admiration for European hair made even mousy brown tones a more desirable option than black, while younger Japanese of both sexes sought to express individuality with a palette of colors.

While brassy blonde is out, hairdressers say few fashion-conscious Japanese women are prepared to go completely natural, since many feel poker-straight black hair is unflattering.

"Black hair simply doesn't suit Japanese women any more, because their complexions are fairer than they used to be," said Kenichi Uehara, a veteran stylist at the Double salon in Harajuku, an area popular with young people.

"Magazines put forward the idea of black hair, but women aren't actually taking it up," he added. "The idea is to find a color that's not too light but not too dark."

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

BRAZIL BISHOPSSAY GO EASY ON CARNIVAL SEX, BOOZE...

Reuters.com

Fri Feb 24, 2006. BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil's Roman Catholic Church urged revelers on Thursday to abstain from reckless sex, too much alcohol and violence during the country's Carnival celebrations.

"We are not against people having fun but caution them against hurting others or abandoning good customs," said Cardinal Geraldo Majella Agnelo, head of the National Conference of Brazil Bishops.

Carnival begins across Brazil, the largest Catholic country in the world, this weekend and crowds of people indulge in a frenzy of drinking, dancing and often licentious behavior.

Although the pre-Lenten festival has its roots in Christian tradition, it provides an annual headache for the church.

Agnelo told reporters "Carnival is not intrinsically bad" but said the use of condoms and "day-after pills" were incentives for promiscuous behavior.

The government will hand out 25 million free condoms to promote safe sex during the several days of parties, revelry and parades. In northeastern Salvador, health officials will provide "next-day pills," Correio da Bahia newspaper reported.

"We don't want a stand-off with the government but the question is whether this is good for society, for Carnival," said Odilo Pedro Scherer, conference secretary-general.

The Rio de Janeiro archdiocese this week barred Mocidade Carnival samba troupe from taking a float with a statue of the Virgin to the Sambadrome parade strip, saying that the use of sacred images in a profane festival may offend Catholics.

The group, one of 14 competing for the champion's title with lavish floats and thousands of bright costumes in Brazil's most famous Carnival, said it will abide and probably cover the statue with a veil.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Friday, February 24, 2006

INJURED WOMAN CAN SUE POSTAL SERVICE...

Reuters.com

It was a good trip, wasn't it? Thu Feb 23, 2006. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A woman who tripped and fell over letters, packages and periodicals left on her front porch can sue the U.S. Postal Service for damages, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.

The 7-1 ruling was a victory for Barbara Dolan, who said she suffered wrist and back injuries when she fell in 2001 in front of her Glenside, Pennsylvania, home.

She said postal employees acted negligently by leaving the mail on her porch. No further details were available on the circumstances of her fall.

The justices said a U.S. appeals court had been wrong to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that federal law provided immunity to the Postal Service over lawsuits claiming negligent mail delivery or placement.

In the court's majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy rejected the federal government's argument that Congress in adopting the law must have intended to insulate the Postal Service from liability over delivery-related lawsuits.

The Postal Service delivers about 660 million pieces of mail each day, and government lawyers had raised the specter of frivolous slip-and-fall lawsuits inundating the Postal Service if the high court ruled against it.

But Kennedy rejected that argument and said the risk of lawsuit is shared by any business that makes home deliveries.

Only Justice Clarence Thomas dissented from the ruling.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

IF YOU CURSE AT THEM, THEY WILL COME?

Reuters.com By Paul Tate

Of course it is a BLOODY good country <--- "Where the bloody hell are you?"

Thu Feb 23, 2006 SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia launched a new A$180 million ($133 million) advertising campaign Thursday which seeks to attract international tourists by swearing at them.

"Where the bloody hell are you?" asks the new campaign launched by Australian Tourism Minister Fran Bailey.

Bailey said the campaign will target potential tourists in China, Japan, India, the United States, Germany and Britain and would be rolled out in the next few weeks.

It echoes the hugely successful "Put another shrimp on the barbie" tourism campaign of the 1980s, which featured singlet-wearing comedian Paul Hogan and which lured an estimated 250,000 American tourists to Australia.

The new campaign, which can be seen on Tourism Australia's Web site (www.wherethebloodyhellareyou.com), features a series of Australian backdrops.

It begins with characters saying: "We've poured you a beer and we've had the camels shampooed, we've saved you a spot on the beach ... and we've got the sharks out of the pool."

A bikini-clad woman then asks: "So where the bloody hell are you?."

Bailey and Prime Minister John Howard both defended the campaign against complaints about the use of the word "bloody," a mild profanity used to express annoyance.

"It's a colloquialism, it's not a word that is seen quite in the same category as other words that nobody ought to use in public or on the media or in advertisements," Howard said.

"I think the style of the advertisement is anything but offensive but is in fact in context and I think it's a very effective ad," he told reporters in Sydney.

Howard complained last month about the decline of good manners in Australian society, blaming the drop in standards on increasing vulgarity on television.

Bailey said the campaign had been tested in some of Australia's key markets and had been successful, although she gave no details.

"This is presenting Australia as we are. We're plain-speaking, we're friendly. It's using the vernacular," Bailey told reporters.

While the "shrimp on the barbie" campaign attracted thousands of tourists, its crassness caused many Australians to cringe.

It was followed in 1995 by a A$100 million ($74 million) campaign -- then Australia's biggest single marketing and advertising campaign -- which sought to convince the world Australia also had culture.

Bailey said Australia's tourism industry was worth A$73 billion and employed 500,000 Australians.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Philips designs watermark system to curb video piracy...

PC World John Blau, IDG News Service

22/02/2006. Dutch electronics manufacturer Koninklijke Philips Electronics has developed a new system, based on watermarking technology, to help the movie industry battle video piracy.

CineFence embeds watermarks with information about date, time and place into the picture and soundtracks of movies, allowing moviemakers to trace camcorder-captured copies back to the cinema in which the illegal copying took place, Philips said Tuesday. The watermarks are imperceptible to viewers.

Illegal copying is estimated to cost the movie industry more than US$3.5 billion per year, with camcorder recordings made by cinema goers identified as one of the biggest causes of movie piracy, according to Philips.

The forensic watermarks embedded in the picture and sound by CineFence remain detectable even when camcorder recordings are compressed into formats such as BCD, DivX and MPEG4.

The watermarking technology underlying CineFence is an enhanced version of a system used to expose the origin of illegally-copied versions of major motion pictures intended only for film award review prior to their official release.

Philips watermark technology can be used to trace illegal copying in other areas, such as broadcast media and Internet, the company said.

CineFence complies with the forensic marking requirement of the Digital Cinema System Specification V1.0 and is one of several watermarking products available from the Philips Content Identification group.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Which Cut Is Older? (It's a Trick Question) ...

New York Times By Mariam Burros

Please keep the meat red!!!February 21, 2006. If some of the meat in supermarkets is looking rosier than it used to, the reason is that a growing number of markets are selling it in airtight packages treated with a touch of carbon monoxide to help the product stay red for weeks.

Both of these steaks were red when bought on Feb. 3. Kept refrigerated, they were then photographed on Feb. 16. Why the difference? The one at top was treated with a process that has some consumer groups angered.

This form of "modified atmosphere packaging," a technique in which other gases replace oxygen, has become more widely used as supermarkets eliminate their butchers and buy precut, "case-ready" meat from processing plants.

The reason for its popularity in the industry is clear. One study, conducted at Oklahoma State University for the Cattlemen's Beef Board in 2003, said retailers lost at least $1 billion a year as meat turned brown from exposure to oxygen, because, though it might still be fairly fresh and perfectly safe, consumers simply judged meat's freshness by its color.

The carbon monoxide is itself harmless at the levels being used in the treated packaging. But opponents say that the process, which is also used to keep tuna rosy, allows stores to sell meat that is no longer fresh, and that consumers would not know until they opened the package at home and smelled it. Labels do not note whether meat has been laced with carbon monoxide.

The Food and Drug Administration approved use of the process in 2004. The Washington Post reported in its Monday editions that Kalsec, a Michigan producer of a natural food extract that helps slow the discoloring of the meat but does not "fix" it in the same way as carbon monoxide, had petitioned the agency to reverse that decision.

The Consumer Federation of America and the advocacy group Safe Tables Our Priority have written a letter to the agency in support of the petition because, they say, the bright red color could mask spoilage and dangerous bacteria in older meat or meat that has not been kept at the proper temperature.

Supermarket chains including A.&P. and Pathmark do not carry the treated meat, but it is showing up with increasing frequency elsewhere. In New York City, it is sold at 30 Gristede's stores, at D'Agostino markets under the labels Laura's Lean Beef and Creekstone's, and at the Morton Williams stores in the Associated chain. A spokeswoman for Safeway did not respond to phone calls and e-mail messages about sale of the treated meat there, but it was available at a Safeway market in Bethesda, Md., earlier this month. SuperTarget stores are also selling it, and Wal-Mart reports carrying it in 150 stores.

"This is what is going to happen in the meat business," said John A. Catsimatidis, chairman and chief executive of Gristede's. "The meat looks great. It looks as red as the day it was cut."

Processors say treated ground meat can be sold for 28 days after leaving the plant, and solid cuts for 35 days. The agribusiness company Cargill says it has sold 100 million packages in the last year.

Randy Huffman of the American Meat Institute Foundation, an industry group, said, "The primary benefit in providing this product to consumers is the red color they have grown to expect."

In a firsthand look at the treated meat, a package of a conventionally wrapped rib steak and one with the carbon monoxide were both red when bought on Feb. 3 near Washington. They were then kept refrigerated. By Feb. 16, when they were photographed for the pictures that appear with this article, the conventional meat was brown, but the treated meat was still rosy. And as of yesterday, other treated meat bought at the same time was still red despite having been left unrefrigerated on a kitchen counter since Feb. 14.

Some food scientists who approve of other forms of modified atmosphere packaging as a way of extending a product's life say this form of it can be unsafe. Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia, says one study found that when meat in modified packages that included carbon monoxide was stored at 10 degrees above the proper temperature, salmonella grew more easily.

Representative John D. Dingell of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has asked the F.D.A. to explain its approval of the process.

"It's just common sense that when consumers buy meat, they use color as an important indicator of its freshness," Mr. Dingell said in an e-mail message to a reporter. "For F.D.A. to rely on a promise of some stamp on the package that says 'use or freeze by' is just naïve."

Autism surrounded by misunderstanding: experts...

Health News Reuters.com By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

Mon Feb 20, 2006. ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - People with autism are more intelligent and able to function better than previously believed, but mistrust of doctors, biased tests and the Internet have bred myths about the condition, experts said on Sunday.

At a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, researchers presented reports showing that even autistics who do not speak can have above-average intelligence. They also offered additional studies disputing claims that vaccines can cause autism.

"The current figures are that 75 percent of autistic people are mentally retarded, with the mute the most ... impaired," said Dr. Laurent Mottron, an autism researcher at Montreal's Hopital Riviere des Prairies.

But Mottron believes the wrong intelligence tests are used to assess autistic children. Many are tested using the Wechsler scale, a common IQ test that includes questions about words and concepts learned in school.

The Raven's Progressive Matrices test measures abstract reasoning and consistently gives autistic children higher scores, Mottron said.

The average boost in score is 30 points, Mottron said, enough to put someone previously considered mentally retarded into the normal range and the average to gifted status.

Mottron was so impressed by the abilities of one autistic student, Michelle Dawson, that he made her a co-author of some of his papers.

Autism is a term used to describe a broad range of symptoms, from an inability to use language normally, to exhibiting deeply disturbed and repetitive behaviors. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it affects anywhere between one in 500 and one in 166 children.

Morton Gernsbacher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison questioned a common idea among autism researchers that autistic people lack a "theory of mind," which, among other things, gives an ability to empathize with others.

Again, she said, the wrong tests are used to assess this ability.

NO AUTISM EPIDEMIC?
Dr. Judith Grether, a California epidemiologist, said she questions the idea that there is a new autism epidemic.
She said it is impossible to find out how many cases of autism there were in the past, because many people with autism were often diagnosed as retarded, or never diagnosed. Without that information, it is impossible to say if the number of cases has grown, she said.

"We have to do the studies to find the answers," she said.

Grether said researchers in California have begun taking prenatal blood samples from pregnant women and will look for clues when and if some of their children are diagnosed with autism. They are examining hormones, heavy metals, immune system proteins and other factors.

The studies found no link with vaccines, said Dr. Irving Gottesman, a psychiatrist at the University of Minnesota, but said the CDC has initiated four new studies "to tie up the loose ends."

New studies are focusing on genetic susceptibilities.

Gottesman said the studies may help ease the fears of parents that a vaccine-autism link has been covered up.

But he said scientists are battling a plethora of Internet Web sites devoted to the idea that mercury causes autism like http://www.safeminds.org/.

Gernsbacher, the mother of a child with autism, said some parents may join these lobbying groups over the advice of doctors because they get "pat answers" to initial concerns about their children. Many may have been told that boys develop later than girls, for instance.

"The mistrust (of government-funded studies and of their pediatricians) may have arisen from those kind of experiences," she said.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

GUY SEEKS POLICE HELP FOR SOMETHING MORONIC...

Reuters.com

Mon Feb 20, 2006. BERLIN (Reuters) - A 52-year-old man from the German town of Darmstadt tried in vain to get a refund for 400 euros ($475) worth of what he said was "bad marijuana" from his dealer before turning to the police for help, according to authorities.

The police then charged the man with violating drugs possession laws and confiscated the 200 grams of marijuana he brought with him to the police station, according to a report in Bild am Sonntag newspaper Sunday.

"It is un-usable," the man told police in the hope they would help him get his money back. Amounts of up to 30 grams of marijuana are allowed in most German states for private consumption.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Poll reveals 40pc of Muslims want sharia law in UK

Telegraph News Poll By Patrick Hennessy and Melissa Kite

Sunday 19 Feb. 2006. Four out of 10 British Muslims want sharia law introduced into parts of the country, a survey reveals today.

The ICM opinion poll also indicates that a fifth have sympathy with the "feelings and motives" of the suicide bombers who attacked London last July 7, killing 52 people, although 99 per cent thought the bombers were wrong to carry out the atrocity.

50pc said interracial relations were worsening.

Overall, the findings depict a Muslim community becoming more radical and feeling more alienated from mainstream society, even though 91 per cent still say they feel loyal to Britain.

The results of the poll, conducted for the Sunday Telegraph, came as thousands of Muslims staged a fresh protest in London yesterday against the publication of cartoons of Mohammed. In Libya, at least 10 people died in protests linked to the caricatures.

And in Pakistan, a cleric was reported to have put a $1 million (£575,000) bounty on the head of the Danish cartoonist who drew the original pictures.

Last night, Sadiq Khan, the Labour MP involved with the official task force set up after the July attacks, said the findings were "alarming". He added: "Vast numbers of Muslims feel disengaged and alienated from mainstream British society." Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "This poll confirms the widespread opposition among British Muslims to the so-called war on terror."

The most startling finding is the high level of support for applying sharia law in "predominantly Muslim" areas of Britain.

Islamic law is used in large parts of the Middle East, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, and is enforced by religious police. Special courts can hand down harsh punishments which can include stoning and amputation.

Forty per cent of the British Muslims surveyed said they backed introducing sharia in parts of Britain, while 41 per cent opposed it. Twenty per cent felt sympathy with the July 7 bombers' motives, and 75 per cent did not. One per cent felt the attacks were "right".

Nearly two thirds thought the video images shown last week of British troops beating Iraqi youths were symptomatic of a wider problem in Iraq. Half did not think the soldiers would be "appropriately punished".

Half of the 500 people surveyed said relations between white Britons and Muslims were getting worse. Only just over half thought the conviction of the cleric Abu Hamza for incitement to murder and race hatred was fair.

Mr Khan, the MP for Tooting, said: "We must redouble our efforts to bring Muslims on board with the mainstream community. For all the efforts made since last July, things do not have appear to have got better."

He agreed with Sir Iqbal that the poll showed Muslims still had a "big gripe" about foreign policy, particularly over the war on terror and Iraq.

David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: "It shows we have a long way to go to win the battle of ideas within some parts of the Muslim community and why it is absolutely vital that we reinforce the voice of moderate Islam wherever possible."

A spokesman for Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, said: "It is critically important to ensure that Muslims, and all faiths, feel part of modern British society. Today's survey indicates we still have a long way to go… [but] we are committed to working with all faiths to ensure we achieve that end."

WHAT IS SHARIA LAW?
Sharia law is "the path that must be followed by a Muslim".

It brings together elements from the Koran and the Hadith (a collection of the deeds and words of Mohammed), plus judges' rulings from Islam's first centuries. It was fixed by about the 10th century, and contains detailed instructions for practically every aspect of life.

In the West, it is most famous for its penal code: the prescribed punishments for sexual offences, which include stoning; for theft, which include amputation; and for apostasy, for which the punishment is death.

Much more important for most Muslims, however, are the parts of sharia that relate to the status of women, to contracts and to family law.

These include provisions that allow men several wives and that enshrine, in law, the inferiority of women.

Women can be divorced merely by their husbands reciting "I divorce you" three times; their testimony is worth less than that of men; and they cannot marry a non-Muslim man - although it is permissible for a Muslim man to marry a non-Muslim woman.

It is parts of sharia such as these that come into immediate conflict with Britain's secular law, which is committed to treating all citizens equally. But it is those provisions which Muslim clerics most want to cordon off from any secular influence.

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2006. Terms & Conditions of reading.
Commercial information. Privacy and Cookie Policy.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

GAY PRIDE CHALLENGES MOSCOW...

BBC NEWS World Europe By Patrick Jackson. BBC News Moscow

Is Gay Freedom around the corner? <--- Gay Moscow has been keeping its rainbow flags indoors.

Fri, 17 February 2006. Public gestures of affection of the most innocent kind between a man and a woman, such as holding hands, can upset Sasha, a young gay man from Siberia.

They hurt him because much of Russian society rejects the right of he and his boyfriend to do the same.

However, if a bid to hold Russia's first Gay Pride parade pays off, Sasha and thousands of other gay men and women will take their sexual orientation to the streets of Moscow on 27 May.

It is a big "if" in the face of strong opposition from politicians who do not question the legal right of gay people to pursue their lifestyles in privacy, but do not want to see them making a show of it.

Clergy from Russia's two biggest faith groups, Russian Orthodox Christians and Muslims, have equally frowned upon the idea.

This week, the issue of the Moscow Pride electrified Moscow's media after a Muslim cleric was quoted as saying the paraders should be "thrashed by decent people".

It is a scenario which alarms Moscow's authorities in a year when Russia is entrusted with both stewardship of the G8 and, from 20 May, the Council of Europe - a body dedicated to promoting human rights.

Privacy and provocation.
Inna Svyatenko, chairwoman of Moscow City Council's security commission, does not have a problem with the city's gay community.

BEING GAY IN RUSSIA.
In Russian slang, a gay man is "blue" (goluboy) and a gay woman "pink" (rozovaya)
Homosexual acts in Russia were punishable by prison terms of up to five years until 1993

Sasha's story...
"This city and civic society here are very protective of our sexual minorities," she says.

Gay people work freely in the city and are greatly respected for their contribution in areas such as retail and the creative professions, according to Ms Svyatenko.

They have their own clubs and, she adds, you need only look out the window of her downtown office to see where a gay lifestyle store opened its doors recently. She argues against the parade on three grounds:

*that much of the gay community allegedly oppose it themselves

*that similar events in East European capital cities like Riga last year ended in violent clashes

*that the preferred route would cause massive traffic disruption.

According to her information, most gay people in Moscow do not want the Pride because "it is their private life and they do not want to put it on show" and because such an event could provoke violence.

Inna Svyatenko wants to avoid the clashes seen in Europe last year. "In our fragile society, do we really need to provoke a situation in which the ultra-right and so-called skinheads rise up and the law enforcement agencies are unable to guarantee the safety of the paraders?" she asks.

Of course, the police could suppress any disorder if necessary, she says, but nobody in the city authorities would be prepared to take responsibility for "artificially provoking the disorder".

To allow a parade down Tverskaya Street, Moscow's central artery, would cause massive disruption in a city already choked with traffic. "If the gays chose an area on the outskirts of the city or somewhere in Moscow Region, I think the authorities might take a different view," she says.

Inna Svyatenko accuses the organisers of the parade, and their supporters outside Russia, of "wanting to make a name for themselves without any thought for the impact of such an event on other people like them".

"I realise there are certain European countries where these parades have a long history and nobody cares but let's not drag Russia into this - Russia is not ready," she argues.

Breaking the ice
The word "pidor", a corruption of "pederast", is still one of the most common terms of abuse in Russia.

Whatever the local objections in Moscow, the parade would mark the first-ever Pride in Russia as a whole and public tolerance of gay people is still largely confined to a few big cities.

"Russia needs the parade because it will help the country to show that we are a tolerant society," argues Nikolai Alexeyev, the chief organiser of the Pride. If people had really maintained the status quo in our history... homosexuality would still be a crime.

"It will be a very strong attempt to break the ice between society and the gay community. People will understand that there are no reasons to be scared of sexual minorities."

Russian media, in his opinion, distort the image of gay people, portraying them as "perverts and people who only need pity".

Predicting a turnout of some 5,000, he strongly objects to moving the parade away from the centre though he is open to negotiation about the final route.

He also rejects the suggestion that many gay people do not want the Pride. Some gay businessmen, he suggests, are anxious about the Pride's possible commercial fallout, but, "at the end of the day, the fact is that activists and individuals support this event".

The Pride organiser links homophobia in Russia to poverty, saying the "more wealthy people are, the less they care about such things".

But some of the event's most vocal opponents are religious leaders, refusing to accept the validity of "non-traditional" sexual orientation, to use the Russian euphemism.

'Glorifying sin'
Talgat Tadzhuddin, head of the Muslim Spiritual Board in Central Russia, told Interfax news agency that Muslim anti-Pride protests could be angrier than those seen abroad over the Muhammad cartoons.

But his reported call to "thrash" paraders was not taken up by his counterpart in Asian Russia, Nafigulla Ashirov, who went on a Moscow radio station to say the use of violence was unacceptable.

While also rejecting the use of violence, the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow has condemned the Pride as "homosexual propaganda and the glorification of sin".

Men interviewed in Moscow's new gay store did not believe the gay parade would happen simply because of the mounting hostility.

Its fate will not be decided until two weeks before it is due to be held, when the formal application for permission must be lodged with the Moscow mayor's office.

The mayor's office could not be reached for official comment but is believed to be strongly opposed.

Wilde's legacy
Among foreign figures lending support is Merlin Holland, grandson of Oscar Wilde, who, while not gay himself, plans to be in Moscow.

"I am happy to add my voice to those raised in protest against homophobia; my grandfather was imprisoned in 1895 simply for being a homosexual and our family was almost destroyed as a result," he wrote in a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin this month.

Nikolai Alexeyev passionately believes in the need to make a stand, whatever the risk of a backlash. The Pride is timed to fall on the 13th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Russia.

"If people had really maintained the status quo in our history, the Cold War would have never ended, Boris Yeltsin would have never come to power and homosexuality would still be a crime in Russia," he says.

Meanwhile, in the Moscow gay store, the little plastic rainbow flags of the international gay rights movement stay firmly on the shelves and the store's business card refers only to "our theme".

Evidently, for some, a "love that dare not speak its name" must remain anonymous in Russia.

THOSE GOATS ARE BACK, HONEY -- GET THE TIGER POOP...

Reuters.com

The aroma is pungent but efficient... <--- Boo, or is it my potent Poo?

Fri Feb 17, 2006. CANBERRA (Reuters) - A tiger's roar might be scary, but Australian researchers have found that the predator's poo is just as potent.

Researchers at the University of Queensland said Friday they had successfully tested a tiger poo repellant, warding off wild goats for at least three days.

"Goats wouldn't have seen a tiger from an evolutionary point of view for at least 15 generations but they recognize the smell of the predator," repellent creator Peter Murray said in a statement.

"If we can show this lasts weeks ... we've just tapped into probably a billion-dollar market. It's enormous," he said.

Murray said the repellant, made of fatty acids and sulphurous compounds extracted from tiger excrement, also worked on feral pigs, kangaroos and rabbits and might deter deer, horses and cattle too.

In an average year pest animals cause about A$420 million (US$311 million) worth of agricultural damage in Australia the government has said. Others put the cost in the billions, mostly from European imports such as rabbits, foxes and crop-choking weeds.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Friday, February 17, 2006

"Happy Hooker" Hollander says she won't fade away...

Reuters.com By Carolyn Abate

I have always liked what I am doing <---Xaviera, remained dressed....

Thu Feb 16, 2006. SAUSALITO, California (Reuters) - As several naked couples watched a live demonstration of sexual technique, Xaviera Hollander, the former prostitute and author of "The Happy Hooker," stayed dressed but freely shared details of her past lovers, men and women alike.

Hollander, 62, was in the San Francisco area to attend the screening of a new documentary about her, to speak at a sex workshop and to reflect on her colorful past that made her a matriarch of the sexual revolution.

"I want to be remembered as a living legend. I don't want to disappear like Mae West or Greta Garbo," she said in an interview.

During a three-and-a-half hour seminar led by an outgoing couple, Hollander -- who insisted she was not an exhibitionist -- let the others do the heavy breathing. As the woman leading the workshop assisted by a male partner moaned with pleasure, another woman in the audience was so moved by the show that she too went into ecstasy.

Hollander watched the event sponsored by the Center for Sex and Culture passively from a few feet away. But as her memoir of more than 30 years ago tells, she has seen it all before.

Born Vera De Fries in Indonesia to Dutch parents, Hollander and her life are the stuff of movies, and four years ago, she approached director Robert Dunlap to document her story.

The filmmaker, who is married to Hollander's cousin, jumped at the chance. He spent the next few years following her around Europe, interviewing friends and past lovers and searching through thousands of family photos.

WARTIME SUFFERING

The movie "Xaviera Hollander: The Happy Hooker" begins somberly with a little-known fact: For the first three years of Hollander's life she and her parents lived in a Japanese concentration camp during World War Two in Indonesia.

From there the film continues through her humble beginnings as a secretary, her first foray into prostitution and her rise to fame after the release of "The Happy Hooker." Throughout, Hollander provides detailed accounts of some of her more memorable sexual encounters.

The film, which has not yet found a distributor, also tackles rough spots, including her family's backlash when they discovered her profession. Hollander's mother was outraged; an aunt burned the book.

Her father -- with whom she was very close-- had died years earlier. She says had he lived, she probably would not have become a prostitute. "I wouldn't have wanted to disappoint him," she said.

That is quite a statement for a woman whose fame and fortune is rooted in her sexual exploits. She has written nearly a dozen books on the subject and speaks frequently at seminars and conventions for sex therapists and sex workers. For 30 years she has penned a column in Penthouse magazine title "Call Me Madam."

"I had so much fun," she said about her career. "I was pretty much a one-woman show."

Does she get tired of being referred to as the Happy Hooker? "It will always be the moniker on my back. I don't mind -- as long as they remember me," she said.

Since its release, "The Happy Hooker" has sold 15 million copies. Asked why the book has endured all these years, Hollander attributes it to honesty.

"It was a true book, not a phony book, based on reality," she said, dressed in a cream-colored house coat with bright stitching and flip-flop sandals. "It showed that sex can be fun."

Quick to laugh and pepper her conversation with salty language, her green eyes and pale lips show no signs of botox or plastic surgery. The once svelte body has given way to a heavier-set figure.

For Dunlap, his film is less about Hollander's sexual past than about a woman who overcame enormous obstacles.

"It's the story of an ultimate survivor," he said. "This is a film about a real person. She lived it, she loved it and she will die having done what she really wanted to do."

At her home base in Amsterdam, Hollander also runs a bed and breakfast. Two heart attacks nearly three years ago forced her to give up her other job producing cabaret theater. She was even celibate for two years, she said.

But health issues aside Hollander is not one to sit around. Her next project is another book, a collection of the best of her Penthouse column.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

WELL, IT IS SO EASY TO GET THEM TO HOLD STILL...

Reuters.com

It is stiff and will not move... <--- The final picture!

Thu Feb 16, 2006.TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's obsession with camera-equipped mobile phones has taken a bizarre twist, with mourners at funerals now using the devices to capture a final picture of the deceased.

"I get the sense that people no longer respect the dead. It's disturbing," a funeral director told the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.

At one ceremony several people gathered round the coffin and took out their phones to photograph the corpse as preparations were made to begin a cremation, she was quoted as saying.

"I'm sure the deceased would never want their faces photographed," she said.

But others called it a form of a memento in the modern age.

"Some can't grasp 'reality' unless they take a photo and share it with others ... It comes from a desire to keep a strong bond with the deceased," social commentator Toru Takeda told the paper.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Nano golf ball gets approval for tournament play | CNET News.com

CNET News.com By Michael Kanellos_Staff Writer.

February 10, 2006. Golfers can now use a golf ball that flies straighter than normal golf balls, and they can do so without getting hauled in by the tournament cops.

The U.S. Golf Association has approved the NDMX golf ball from NanoDynamics for tournament play.

The ball sports an unusual hollow steel core and a special casing that allows the ball to correct its flight slightly so that it goes where the golfer intended it, rather than to the side. The chemical and physical properties of the materials used in the ball help it redistribute its weight on the fly.

Other companies are touting nanotechnology for lighter bike parts, stiffer tennis rackets and socks that don't stink.

The USGA has been cracking down on technological changes in golf, fearing that it could take some of the competitiveness out of the game, according to Keith Blakely, CEO of NanoDynamics. The USGA can't outlaw things like drivers that send the ball farther than normal, but it can withhold approval for tournament play. This potentially discourages use and sales.

The organization found, however, that the NDMX fell within its guidelines. Though it's hard to quantify how much the ball might assist someone's game, early tests show that it can help.

"It depends entirely on how good or bad the golfer is. If a recurring problem is either hooking or slicing the ball off the tee, the NDMX ball will make a significant difference according to many of our beta testers," Blakely wrote in an e-mail. "Similarly, the ball appears to offer an advantage on the putting green that just might make the difference between an 'almost' and an 'in the cup' putt."

The company started selling the ball late last year on its Web site. A dozen cost about $60.

NET TELEPHONY MAKES SENSE DOUBLE CLICK...

Australian IT By David Frith

FEBRUARY 14, 2006 It seems rises in phone bills are just around the corner, following Telstra's decision to increase the amount it charges other phone companies to access its network.

If you haven't already done so, it's time to think about voice over internet protocol, which routes phone calls over the internet, rather than through Telstra's exchanges - at a lower cost.

VoIP is getting easier to use and has features that business users want, such as conference calls.

Most computer users probably know about Skype, the world's most popular software-based VoIP service.

Load Skype's free software on your PC or Mac, plug in a headset or a USB handset, and you can talk to Skype users anywhere in the world for free, if you have enough bandwidth and remain within your download limit.

Or plump for SkypeOut which, for small a fee, enables you to ring conventional phones. The price is about 2.2c a minute for most destinations. It costs the same to ring London, Mexico City or the house next door.

There are alternative VoIP offerings that allow users to plug in a handset and start dialling.

Popular ones here are Engin, BroadbandPhone, and MyNetFone. Most have a range of monthly subscription plans with untimed national calls costing about 10c, and international calls for about 2c-4c a minute.

NetComm, an Australian company mainly known for its modems and networking gear, last week entered the fray with what it describes as an easy-to-install VoIP phone bundle.

Its unimaginatively named the V100LS Telephone Adaptor/DECT Phone Bundle includes a cordless handset - rare with VoIP products - so you can make and receive internet calls from anywhere round the house or office.

Set-up is "as easy as connecting two cables together and plugging the phone into your broadband router," NetComm managing director David Stewart says.

The bundle comes configured with a connection to the MyNetFone service, with $5 credit, so you can make calls immediately.

DoubleClick hasn't used a VL100S so we can't vouch for the voice quality, but Stewart says it's equal to normal telephone landline services.

You can buy the V100LS bundle from computer stores for $179.

If you're a Skype user who wants to go hands-free, you may consider InfoAction Chatterbox, a gadget from Sydney-based IW Distribution.

The Chatterbox is about the size and shape of a computer mouse. It's a tiny voice conferencing unit: just plug it in to a free USB port on your PC or laptop and start talking.

The Chatterbox is designed to pick up sound up to four metres away.

It's a full-duplex device, which means both parties can hear each other simultaneously during a conversation.

No software is required, and digital signal processing is said to greatly enhance the sound quality.

The $69 Chatterbox is Skype-certified and can be ordered directly from www.iwdistribution.com.au

More involved VoIP voice conferencing is on the way for Skype users, thanks to an exclusive deal between it and chipmaker Intel.

The latest version of Skype's software hosts up to 10 users on a conference call - but only if your PC has a dual-core processor from Intel.

The limit is five callers for PCs using single-core chips or AMD's dual-core Athlon 64 processor.

The Skype 2.0 software will allow 10-way conference calls if it detects code specific to Intel's chips when the PC boots. This was apparently decided last year when Intel proposed a plan to optimise code on its chips for Skype's software.

VoIP conference calls chew up processing power.

Intel's Core Duo chips are said to be ideal for the task. AMD's Athlon dual-core chips are generally said to outperform Intel's Core Duos, but AMD has been shut out of the latest development, at least for the time being.

Still elusive for Australian users is the ability to make Skype calls from a mobile phone. IW Distribution has been working on an Australian version of IPdrum's Mobile Skype Cable that will make this possible for many Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets, and hopes to have a stable version available in the near future.

dfrith@gmail.com

The Australian

IRANIANS TURN ON DANISH PASTRIES IN CARTOON ROW...

Reuters.com

Cakes of the atomic energy types? Wed Feb 15, 2006. TEHRAN (Reuters) - Not content with pelting European embassies with petrol bombs to protest against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, Iranians have decided to rename the "Danish pastries" relished by this nation of cake lovers.

From now on, the sweet, flaky pastries which dominate the shelves in Iran's cake shops will be known as "Roses of the Prophet Mohammad," the official IRNA news agency reported as pressure on Denmark over the cartoons took on a new dimension.

"No one is allowed to make fun of our beloved and respected Prophet," Hassan Nasserzadeh, a cake-shop owner in central Tehran, told Reuters.

The pastries are baked every day and are not imported or subject to any boycott of Danish goods imposed over the cartoons.

The Iranian move had echoes of the verbal food fight set off by restaurants in the U.S. House of Representatives which renamed "French fries" and "French toast" as "Freedom fries" and "Freedom toast" after France refused to back the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

FORGIVE ME, FATHER, FOR I HAVE GUNS...

Reuters.com

Wed Feb 15, 2006. MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - A priest in Germany got more than he bargained for during confession when a man not only declared his sins, but also handed over a machine gun and a hand grenade, police in Bavaria said Tuesday.

"He also gave the priest a cardboard box with a clown's face and the words 'Red Nose Day March 26, 2004' on it containing 34 cartridges of 7.65 mm caliber," police said in a statement.

The priest from the southern town of Pfarrkirchen turned in the weapons to police but told them church rules governing confession prevented him from revealing the man's identity.

"It's unclear as to whether the church has forgiven the sinner, but specialists in Bavaria's regional crime agency who are bound to earthly laws are now investigating the matter in accordance with gun control laws," police said.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Google beta ditches gmail.com: ZDNet Australia: News: Software

ZDNet Australia: News: Software By Dawn Kawamoto

14 February 2006 Google has launched a beta for hosted e-mail accounts that feature the user's domain instead of gmail.com.

The hosted-Gmail beta, which is going head-to-head with a similar beta that Microsoft launched in November, is offering 2GB of storage, e-mail search tools and a control panel to manage user accounts, aliases and mailing lists, as part of its test version.

The beta is open to businesses, organisations and schools, according to Google's blog site. The search giant points to San Jose City College as one school that is testing hosted Gmail, offering its students e-mail accounts with the domain of jaguars.sjcc.edu.

Google's beta follows on the heels of a similar one Microsoft launched in November. The Microsoft Windows Live Custom Domains beta features hosted e-mail and instant messaging.

The Live Custom Domains service, however, was aimed at consumers who wanted up to 20 e-mail accounts, with 250MB per address for an existing domain. Microsoft's hosted beta also included security features such as virus scanning and spam filtering.

The battleground for hosted e-mail accounts appears to be taking shape among the industry titans, but it has yet to be seen whether it will quickly accelerate, as did the offerings for large e-mail storage by Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.

AUSTRALIA'S SADDEST LIVE IN RICHEST CITY, SYDNEY...

Health News Reuters.com

Sun Feb 12, 2006 SYDNEY (Reuters) - Sydney with its golden beaches and harbor is routinely ranked one of the world's most livable cities, but a happiness survey has found it is home to Australia's saddest people.

The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index survey of 23,000 Australians found the country's happiest people live in poor regional towns and the saddest live in cities.

"Money doesn't actually buy happiness and that's what was shown very clearly for the nearly 23,000 people we've interviewed so far," said Liz Eckerman, researcher at the Australian Center on Quality of Life at Deakin University in Melbourne.

"Only at very, very high (income) levels does money actually have any impact to act as a buffer," Eckerman told local radio.

Unlike traditional economic indicators of quality of life such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index is a subjective measure that investigates how Australians feel about their life and life in Australia.

Australia's happiest people live in the small coastal town of Wide Bay, which includes World Heritage-listed Fraser Island and the whale watching Hervey Bay, on the coast of the tropical state of Queensland.

Wide Bay topped the survey on issues such as standard of living, health, personal relationships, sense of safety, community and future security. In contrast, the town is at the bottom of other surveys which measure employment and income.

The survey found eight of the top nine happiest electorates in Australia were poor and isolated rural communities.

"The people in country towns seem to have a high level of connection with one another, they have good relationships, the neighbors know their kids and look out for them," said survey author Bob Cummins from Deakin University.

"All of this tends to make the wellbeing of people in those areas quite high," Cummins told reporters on Monday.

The saddest place to live in Australia was in the heart of the country's richest and most expensive city -- Sydney's inner western suburbs.

Cummins said the city's residents rated a low wellbeing because of the high cost of mortgages, which left them little disposable income.

Australians living in the country's biggest state, Western Australia, which is largely harsh outback, were the most anxious due to their isolation. While those in the small state of Victoria, made up of small towns, were the most contented.

However, the survey found that Australia was still a good place to live, with the difference between the highest and lowest wellbeing rating just 9.1 percentage points. "Australia is indeed a lucky country," said the report's conclusion.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

AUSTRALIA'S SADDEST LIVE IN RICHEST CITY, SYDNEY...

Health News Reuters.com

Sun Feb 12, 2006 SYDNEY (Reuters) - Sydney with its golden beaches and harbor is routinely ranked one of the world's most livable cities, but a happiness survey has found it is home to Australia's saddest people.

The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index survey of 23,000 Australians found the country's happiest people live in poor regional towns and the saddest live in cities.

"Money doesn't actually buy happiness and that's what was shown very clearly for the nearly 23,000 people we've interviewed so far," said Liz Eckerman, researcher at the Australian Center on Quality of Life at Deakin University in Melbourne.

"Only at very, very high (income) levels does money actually have any impact to act as a buffer," Eckerman told local radio.

Unlike traditional economic indicators of quality of life such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index is a subjective measure that investigates how Australians feel about their life and life in Australia.

Australia's happiest people live in the small coastal town of Wide Bay, which includes World Heritage-listed Fraser Island and the whale watching Hervey Bay, on the coast of the tropical state of Queensland.

Wide Bay topped the survey on issues such as standard of living, health, personal relationships, sense of safety, community and future security. In contrast, the town is at the bottom of other surveys which measure employment and income.

The survey found eight of the top nine happiest electorates in Australia were poor and isolated rural communities.

"The people in country towns seem to have a high level of connection with one another, they have good relationships, the neighbors know their kids and look out for them," said survey author Bob Cummins from Deakin University.

"All of this tends to make the wellbeing of people in those areas quite high," Cummins told reporters on Monday.

The saddest place to live in Australia was in the heart of the country's richest and most expensive city -- Sydney's inner western suburbs.

Cummins said the city's residents rated a low wellbeing because of the high cost of mortgages, which left them little disposable income.

Australians living in the country's biggest state, Western Australia, which is largely harsh outback, were the most anxious due to their isolation. While those in the small state of Victoria, made up of small towns, were the most contented.

However, the survey found that Australia was still a good place to live, with the difference between the highest and lowest wellbeing rating just 9.1 percentage points. "Australia is indeed a lucky country," said the report's conclusion.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

MAN SKIPS TAXI FARE, ORDERS CAB FROM VICTIM...

Reuters.com

Mon Feb 13, 2006 BERLIN (Reuters) - After dodging a cab fare, the last thing a man in Germany expected was to be reunited with his victim when he phoned for another taxi, police said Friday.

"The man was too shocked to run off this time," said a spokesman for police in the western city of Bochum. "He took it like a gentleman and admitted the game was up."

Police said that following a series of stop-offs in nearby Herne, the 30-year-old Romanian had ditched his driver without paying and then decided to order fresh transportation from a local taxi firm -- who sent the same man to pick him up.

Recognizing the offender, the driver called police, who arrested the man.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

NEW ORLEANS STARTS TO HEAL WITH MARDI GRAS PARADES...

Reuters.com By Stuart Grudgings

Mon Feb 13, 2006. NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - New Orleans' Mardi Gras season came to life on Saturday as thousands of revelers lined the streets for a parade that eased the pain of Hurricane Katrina with a dose of satirical humor and debauchery.

In the best traditions of the irreverent carnival, the first parade - "C'est Levee" -- skewered politicians and bureaucrats blamed for failing to confront the country's worst natural disaster, which killed 1,300 people after the city's levees buckled and caused massive flooding last August.

Downing "Hurricane" cocktails and swaying to the music, thousands cheered the elaborate floats with themes including "Corpse of Engineers" -- poking fun at the U.S. Corps of Engineers that built the levees -- and "Buy Us Back Chirac" - a nostalgic reference to the days when France ruled Louisiana.

"It feels good," said Jackie Borchgrevink, a 56-year-old legal worker watching the parade with a daiquiri in hand.

"A lot of us have been depressed and we need to feel some normalcy to give us some hope."

The parade was put on by the Krewe du Vieux, one of the most playful of the more than 30 so-called krewes that will strut their stuff over the next two weeks as the weary city shows the world its beautiful side after months dominated by ugly images of poverty, racial tension, mismanagement and devastated neighborhoods.

The main party, shortened this year because of Katrina, begins on February 18 and ends 10 days later on "Fat Tuesday." Calls to cancel the annual splurge, a treasured celebration of New Orleans' culture that cuts across racial and class lines, never got very far.

"We're coming back baby. We've got to bring the city back - we must celebrate our traditions and this is one way to do it," said Joe, one of the parade's torch-bearers.

Blain Kern, whose Kern Studios has been making parade floats for nearly 60 years, said he had initially thought Mardi Gras would have to be canceled.

But the determination to defy the hurricane's appalling legacy was typified by the captain of Rex, a krewe founded in 1872, who called to tell Kern: "We're going to parade even if we have a watermark on the float."

Still, even Mardi Gras has not escaped the harsh reality imposed by Katrina.

Only blocks away from the historic French Quarter, neighborhoods lie in ruins with residents still waiting for a clear recovery plan from local or federal officials.

Many hotels remain full of homeless residents and restaurants are struggling to find staff with two-thirds of the city's population still scattered across the country.

With a lack of corporate sponsors, krewes have kicked in to help the cash-strapped city cover a $1.4 million tab for police overtime.

The color, noise and debauchery of Mardi Gras will only temporarily hide the struggle the city faces in reviving its unique cultural and musical heritage.

With thousands of musicians, chefs and colorful characters among the displaced, a commonly voiced fear is that the city will lose much of its soul.

At a church service earlier on Saturday followed by a traditional jazz funeral for 10 members of the Zulu krewe, there was anger as well as sadness. "It's very difficult to see the end of the tunnel ... where's our help?" asked city council president and Zulu member Oliver Thomas.

"America may have forgotten us and the world may have forgotten us, but you're not going to keep us down."

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Capture the Flag...

New York Times By MARTIN BURCHARTH

February 12, 2006 THERE seems to be some surprise that the Danish people and their government are standing behind the Jyllands-Posten newspaper and its decision to publish drawings of the Prophet Muhammad last fall. Aren't Danes supposed to be unusually tolerant and respectful of others?

Not entirely. Denmark's reputation as a nation with a long tradition of tolerance toward others — one solidified by its rescue of Danish Jews from deportation to Nazi concentration camps in 1943 and by the high levels of humanitarian aid it provides today — is something of a myth.

What foreigners have failed to recognize is that we Danes have grown increasingly xenophobic over the years. To my mind, the publication of the cartoons had little to do with generating a debate about self-censorship and freedom of expression. It can be seen only in the context of a climate of pervasive hostility toward anything Muslim in Denmark.

There are more than 200,000 Muslims in Denmark, a country with a population of 5.4 million. A few decades ago, Denmark had no Muslims at all. Not surprisingly, Islam has come to be viewed by many as a threat to the survival of Danish culture.

For 20 years, Muslims in Denmark have been denied a permit to build mosques in Copenhagen. What's more, there are no Muslim cemeteries in Denmark, which means that the bodies of Muslims who die here have to be flown back to their home countries for proper burial.

Recently the minister for cultural affairs, Brian Mikkelsen of the Conservative People's Party, asked scholars, artists and writers to create a canon of Danish art, music, literature and film. The ostensible purpose was to preserve our homegrown classics.

But before the release of the canon last month, Mr. Mikkelsen revealed what may have been the real purpose of the exercise: To create a last line of defense against the influence of Islam in Denmark. "In Denmark we have seen the appearance of a parallel society in which minorities practice their own medieval values and undemocratic views," he told fellow conservatives at a party conference last summer. "This is the new front in our cultural war."

Were it not that a majority of Danes actually believe in this Islamic threat it would seem to be an outlandish pretext. But they do. When the Danish flag was burned on the streets in Arab countries, the reaction here was outrage and calls for standing even more firmly behind Jyllands-Posten. The center-right government gained support in polls, as did the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party, without which the government would not have a majority in Parliament.

Now, the general view, expressed in the press and among a majority of Danes, is that the Muslim leaders who led the protests in Denmark should have their status as citizens examined because they betrayed their fellow Danes by failing to keep the controversy within the country.

But the real story is that they and their followers ran out of options. They tried to get Jyllands-Posten to recognize its offense. They tried to enlist the support of the government and the opposition. They asked a local prosecutor to file suit under the country's blasphemy law. And they asked ambassadors in Denmark from Muslim countries to meet with Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. They were rebuffed on all counts, though a state prosecutor is currently reviewing the case. But, really, what choice did they have?

This is not the only example of Denmark's new magical thinking. After the flag burnings, the Danish news media began to refer to the white cross on the flag's red background as a Christian symbol.

There was something discordant about this, for we've come to connect the flag less and less to religion. Denmark, after all, is one of the most secular countries in Europe. Only 3 percent of Danes attend church once a week.

Still, the news media were right. Up to a point. Legend has it that the flag fell from heaven during a battle between the Danes and the Estonians nearly 800 years ago. It was a sign from God, and it led the Danes to victory. Now that flag has become a symbol around the world of Denmark's contempt for another world religion.

Martin Burcharth is the United States correspondent for Information, a Danish newspaper.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

THIEVES RAM MAIN DOOR FOR DRIVE-IN BANK HEIST...

Reuters.com

Fri Feb 10, 2006 ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek robbers Thursday drove a car through the front door of an Athens bank, got their cash and drove out as stunned customers and staff looked on, police said.

"The raiders used a stolen Fiat car to smash into a Piraeus Bank branch in the Peristeri region of Athens," a police official told Reuters. "Two men got out of the car, took out guns and robbed the bank."

No one was hurt in the robbery or the crash, police said.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

SEX: WHO'S IS HAPPY, WHO'S NOT...

Reuters.com

Fri Feb 10, 2006 SEOUL (Reuters) - Married South Korean women are the least happy with their sex lives, Japanese men are the most likely to try and dodge a certain sex problem and French men are the most fond of their frolicking, according to a recent survey.

The survey released this week by the pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and Co., one of the makers of the anti-impotence drug Cialis, of 1,200 married men and women in South Korea, Japan, France and the United States also found the French had the best sex lives followed by the Americans.

Lilly Korea said the findings would be released globally next week ahead of Valentine's Day.

Fewer than one in three South Korean women said they were at least "slightly happy" about sex with their husbands, which was the lowest of the four groups of women.

About half the South Korean men, however, said they were satisfied in bed with their wives.

"Not often enough" topped the list of complaints by men in all four countries while the main complaint of wives was not enough romance.

Fewer than one in three Japanese men said they would seek help for erectile dysfunction, which was the lowest among the four groups of men, the survey said.

Fewer than one in 10 French men had any complaints about sex, which was also the lowest.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Friday, February 10, 2006

INTEL, SKYPE MAKING PC's CHATTIER....

eweek.com By John G Spooner

February 8, 2006 Skype Technologies and Intel are making good on a promise to work together to get people talking on their Intel-based computers.

Skype said on Feb. 8 that it will offer a free voice conference calling feature for up to 10 people inside its Skype 2.0 VOIP (voice over IP) software. The feature is designed for computers based on Intel dual-core processors introduced this year. They include Intel Core processor-based notebooks and desktops based on the chip maker's Pentium D chip for desktops for businesses and consumers.

The new feature comes after Intel and Skype announced plans to collaborate with the aim of improving the performance of Skype's VOIP service on Intel hardware. For the chip maker, the partnership aims to help its customers use their Intel hardware in new and different ways.

Read more here about dual-core processor business notebooks.

"We want to make communicating over the Internet simple and accessible," Henry Gomez, general manager of Skype North America, said in a statement. "Through our partnership with Intel we can ensure that Skype performs better than any other Internet calling application and drive widespread business and consumer adoption."

Having seen more than 200 million downloads of its software, Skype has become one of the best-known companies offering freely available VOIP software for turning Internet connections into local, national or international phone lines.

Intel, for its part, has gone to great lengths of late to shift its focus away from churning out faster chips to delivering computer platforms with more useful features. Last year it launched an effort to buff up business boxes with its Professional Business Platform for corporate desktops. The company will update that platform later this year, adding Pentium D chips and, for the first time, extending parts of the platform to notebooks.

BRITONS FACE CHIP-AND-PIN FUTURE FRAUD FIGHT...

Technology News-Reuters.com

What about the old and frail ones?Thu Feb 9, 2006 LONDON (Reuters) - From next week, a signature will not be good enough to buy goods or services across Britain.

The deadline for shoppers to remember their debit and credit card pin numbers is Valentine's Day, next Tuesday. From then on, cardholders are no longer assured the option of signing to verify a purchase and may have their cards refused.

Banks and retailers have introduced chip-and-pin technology in recent years to halt rising card fraud, requiring an increasing number of shoppers to enter their four-digit PIN numbers to verify card purchases.

But until next week they still had the option of signing instead.

British payments association APACS estimated that 127 million chip-and-pin-enabled cards have been issued since a rollout began in 2003, out of about 140 million cards in circulation.

APACS said that, if left unchecked, the level of fraud on UK debit and credit cards could have topped 800 million pounds ($1.4 billion) annually, up from 504 million pounds in 2004, but the use of chip and pin should stem that rise.

But some retailers are not ready for the technology.

They can choose to accept signatures but will take on responsibility for making good on losses from fraud.

APACS estimated more than 80 percent of tills in the UK were upgraded to accept chip-and-pin cards by the end of 2005, but at least one big chain and many small retailers will not be ready.

SPANISH OLYMPIC TEAM STILL WAITING FOR LOST LUGGAGE...

Reuters.com

Where does one go from here? Thu Feb 9, 2006 MADRID (Reuters) - The Spanish Winter Olympic team have got off to an unfortunate start to the Games with several members of the 31-strong squad still waiting for their luggage to turn up after arriving in Turin Monday.

Competitors were left without skis, snowboards and cases after their luggage was lost on departure from the newly opened terminal at Madrid's Barajas airport, Spanish media reported on Thursday.

"Things haven't started well for reasons that have nothing to do with the competition," the head of the Spanish Olympic Committee Alejandro Blanco was quoted as saying by sports daily Marca.

"It's sad that we are arguing about something like this before the Games .... They are looking for the luggage in Madrid."

Spain's only realistic medal hope is skier Maria Jose Rienda, who is competing in the giant slalom event. She is not expected to arrive in Turin until Friday.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

BABY FEEDS ON DOG'S MILK...

Reuters.com

Thu Feb 9, 2006. DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - A Tanzanian mother went into hysterics when she found her six month-old baby suckling dog's milk, a local daily reported Thursday.

The mother left her son on a mat while she went to hang clothes in the yard of her Dar Es Salaam home, Uhuru newspaper said. When she came back to find him suckling on the dog, she screamed and rushed to her brother's house to seek advice.

But the brother managed to convince her dog's milk was harmless. "Since that day the baby is doing well and hasn't had diarrhea or any signs of illness," he was quoted as saying.

Another relative, who witnessed the incident Monday, was also unperturbed. "The baby was satisfied, since his belly was full and his lips had traces of milk," he told Uhuru.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Gmail becomes a Google Talk interface

PC WorldJuan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service

08/02/2006 Google is tightening the link between Gmail and Google Talk by allowing users to conduct instant messaging text chat sessions from within the Webmail service's interface.

To use Google Talk from within Gmail, users don't need to download any additional software nor a separate application. It's a new Gmail feature that Google will start to enable on Tuesday. The rollout, limited to users of the U.S. English-language interface, will be completed in a matter of weeks, said Gmail product manager Keith Coleman.

Users will see a new list of contacts, from which IM sessions can be started. IM windows open up right on the browser, which can be either Microsoft's Internet Explorer, versions 6.0 and up, or Mozilla's Firefox 1.0 and up. Support for other browsers will be added later.

Google developed this feature to address the "arbitrary separation" that exists between e-mail and IM applications, a source of frustration and inconvenience for users, Coleman said.

Users wanting to use Google Talk's voice chat feature will have to use the IM service's own interface, because, at least for now, Gmail will only host text chat IM sessions, he said.

However, it would be an "obvious" move for Google to extend the Google Talk voice chat capabilities to Gmail, although the company isn't committing to doing that at this point, Coleman said.

Google Talk sessions conducted on Gmail will be saved by default along with e-mail messages. Users have the option of turning off this functionality to prevent the system from keeping a record of a text chat.

Although other providers such as Microsoft, Yahoo Inc. and America Online Inc. have built links between their Webmail and IM services, the Google integration is particularly compelling in the way it has been architected, said Allen Weiner, a Gartner analyst.

The move will also boost the usage of Google Talk, which needs all the help it can get as the newest arrival in the consumer IM market dominated by AOL, Yahoo and MSN, Weiner said.

It will be interesting to see how this Google Talk-Gmail integration progresses, particularly if Google adds the voice chat capabilities and pushes it into the area of group collaboration, to rival products such as Microsoft's NetMeeting, Weiner said.

The company launched Google Talk in August of last year and made it a requirement for its users to have a Gmail account. Both services are free and both are in beta, or test, periods.

When Google Talk was launched, it included a set of initial links with Gmail, including identical log-in information and the ability to access the Gmail inbox from within the Google Talk interface and send e-mail messages from there. In addition, Google Talk alerts users when new messages are received in their Gmail account. Moreover, the two services share a single list of contacts.

25 MILLION CONDOMS? WHO IS WATCHING CARNIVAL?

Reuters.com

Tue Feb 7, 2006 SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - The Brazilian government will distribute 25 million free condoms to promote safe sex during the country's Carnival holidays, the Health Ministry said Monday.

The condoms, provided under the government's acclaimed anti-AIDS program, will be given out at health clinics and in sites like public squares and dances.

"It's that time of year when we boost distribution because of the increase in demand," an official from the Health Ministry's anti-AIDS program said.

Carnival kicks off across the nation on February 25, heralding several days of parades, parties, revelry and, for some people, sexual abandon. The Rio de Janeiro carnival is the best known worldwide but every big city has its own celebrations.

The Health Ministry said the purpose of the handout was to prevent the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Last year, it announced a plan to distribute more than 1 billion free condoms nationwide in 2006.

The Roman Catholic Church in Brazil -- the world's largest Catholic country -- routinely denounces such programs as encouraging sex and contravening its stand against contraception.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

WELL, AS LONG AS THEY ARE ACTING MATURE...

Reuters.com

Mon Feb 6, 2006 BERLIN (Reuters) - Hundreds of fans of German soccer club Borussia Dortmund waved huge inflatable penises at local rivals Schalke 04 on Saturday above an abusive message for their hosts.

The pink blow-ups and a huge banner in Dortmund's yellow and black suggesting Schalke fans should procreate with themselves added a splash of color to the dour 0-0 draw between the two Bundesliga sides.

Schalke's stadium in the Ruhr Valley city of Gelsenkirchen will host four group matches and a quarter-final at the World Cup in Germany in June and July.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

"JOINT" VENTURE A SIGN OF THE TIMES...

Reuters.com

Cannabis smoking is NOT wanted here <--- Do not smoke cannabis in this street...

Tue Feb 7, 2006. AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Amsterdam's new street signs banning cannabis smoking in parts of the city have sparked global interest.

The sign shows a red circle around a fat cannabis joint in a cloud of smoke sparked by white marijuana leaves. It has been installed at one square and surrounding streets in Amsterdam where young cannabis smokers are a nuisance (www.baarsjes.amsterdam.nl).

Soon after the installation on February 1, the first signs were stolen after which the Amsterdam council of De Baarsjes decided it would start selling what it believes is the world's first anti-cannabis road sign.

Over 400 consumers have approached the council to buy one of the "no joints" signs for 90 euros ($108), excluding shipping, a spokesman said.

"About 75 percent of the requests come from the United States," he said, adding interest is also coming from Singapore, Australia, Scandinavian countries and Germany.

The profits will be donated to a charitable cause that has yet to be chosen.

It is legal to own and use small quantities of soft drugs in the Netherlands whose relaxed position on the issue has brought it into conflict with other European countries like France which claims the Dutch undermine the global fight against drugs.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

FRENCH FACE TRANSPLANT WOMAN HAPPY WITH NEW LOOK...

Healt-News Reuters.com By Jon Boyle

A very lucky person indeed! Mon Feb 6, 2006 AMIENS, France (Reuters) - The French woman who underwent the world's first partial face transplant said on Monday she was grateful simply to have a face "like everybody else" and hopes to resume a normal life quickly.

Isabelle Dinoire, 38, smiled and laughed awkwardly in her first appearance before reporters since the operation in November and spoke in slurred and laboured tones.

She still has fine scar lines running from her nose down to her jaw, dividing her upper face from the transplanted lower area, and does not seem to be able to close her mouth.

"Since the day of the operation I have had a face like everybody else," Dinoire told a packed news conference at Amiens hospital in northeastern France.

"I am now able to open my mouth and eat. Recently, I have also been able to feel my lips, my nose, my mouth," she said, adding that feeling was returning slowly and she felt no pain.

Dinoire was left disfigured after she was mauled by her own dog last May and surgeons gave her a new nose, lips and chin.

"Every day, when I left my house, I had to face up to people's stares and what they were thinking," she said.

Doctors did not show of a picture of Dinoire before the attack or before the operation, although she said she was happy when she looked in the mirror for the first time after surgery.

She said she was happy with her new face and regarded it as her own. "I can now smile and make faces so I think I have taken over the face," she said.

Asked about her plans for the future, she said: "I want to resume a normal life."

Dinoire will continue treatment and exercises to regain full use of her facial muscles after the 15-hour operation, in which surgeons used tissues, muscles, arteries and veins from a dead woman to rebuild her face.
The transplant has given hope to others disfigured by burns or accidents, but it has also raised psychological and ethical issues for the recipient and the donor family.

"I now understand people with a handicap," Dinoire said, expressing hope that her operation could now help others.

Some newspapers in Britain and France have suggested Dinoire deliberately took an overdose of sleeping pills before being attacked by her dog and that the face donor had committed suicide.

Dinoire did not comment on these reports. Doctors have denied she tried to kill herself, saying she had been drowsy at the time of the dog's attack because she had taken medicine to calm her down following an argument with her daughter.

She said she had been unconscious when the dog bit her, and realised how badly she was injured only when she tried to smoke a cigarette and could not hold it between her lips.

Doctors have criticised media coverage of the case, saying much of it has been sensationalist, and repeated a plea for reporters to respect the patient's privacy.

The surgeons who conducted the operation said they had asked the Health Ministry for permission to carry out five similar transplants, but did not say whether the ministry had responded.

"She is the first but she is not going to remain unique," said Professor Jean-Michel Dubernard, a surgeon from a hospital in Lyon who was also involved in the transplant.

Doctors have said they cannot rule out rejection of Dinoire's transplant in the future but said the use of bone marrow from the donor had helped to reduce such dangers.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Monday, February 06, 2006

COMPUTER WORLD SPARKS NEW TECHNOLOGY...

Computerworld John Blau, IDG News Service

06/02/2006 World Cup soccer tournaments have traditionally been used to help launch new technologies, such as color television and wireless communications. This year's event in Germany is no exception -- even if a couple of promising technologies such as a chip-enabled soccer ball and broadcast mobile TV will miss the kickoff.

"We'll be using a few technologies for the first time at the games, in addition to managing some huge, complex IT systems," said Lothar Pauly, a board member of Deutsche Telekom and chief executive officer (CEO) of the group's IT services subsidiary, T-Systems International. The games start on June 9.

Arguably the technology expected to generate the most interest at the games this year is HDTV (high-definition television). The new TV system, which has taken more than a decade to leave the lab and enter the market, features razor-sharp, high-resolution picture quality in a 16:9 movie-like format.

Each of the 12 stadiums in Germany will be equipped with at least 20 HDTV cameras and connected via dual fiber optic links to a designated fiber backbone capable of transporting data at speeds up to 480G bps (bits per second). Broadband satellite links will be held in reserve to connect the stadiums if anything should happen to the fiber connections.

Data traffic from all stadiums will flow to the International Broadcasting Center in Munich, where technicians will process signals for the various broadcasting systems in the world. The signals will be fed into T-Systems' global broadband network. Some will also be sent via satellite using operators such as SES Astra SA.

More than 3.5 billion people are expected to watch the final game in Berlin, according to Pauly. "Believe me, there's tremendous pressure to ensure that the HDTV and conventional TV feeds work without a glitch," he said. "If there's a problem, I can start looking for another job."

Pauly joined Deutsche Telekom last year after working his way up to CEO of Siemens AG's communications division.

Another technology debuting at the tournament is RFID (radio frequency identification). The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), which is organizing the games, has required that all tickets contain an RFID chip. T-Systems has installed electronic scanners to read the RFID chips in gates at the stadiums in Dortmund and Frankfurt. Siemens AG has deployed similar technology at a number of the other stadiums, including the Allianz Arena in Munich.

Scanning devices are located throughout the stadiums to grant spectators access to authorized seating and refreshment areas. The technology, however, could also be used to track people, especially suspected hooligans, but no tracking is planned, according to Andreas Schwarzkopf, project manager for the World Cup games at T-Systems.

FIFA has made security a top priority. The Allianz Arena, for instance, is equipped with more than 80 surveillance video cameras, which, according to Siemens spokesman Harald Prokosch, are so powerful that police can zoom in and read game programs in spectator's hands. In addition, hundreds of sensors have been installed at the Munich stadium to monitor gates, windows and doors as well as fires.

Police, fire and emergency squads at all 12 stadiums will use tap-proof digital terrestrial trunked radio (TETRA) phones. In addition to airwave security, the phones are able to block background interference, which is an issue at soccer games, so that users can easily understand each other. The handsets will also be equipped with a GPS (Global Positioning System) transceiver so that emergency personnel can be located and directed to wherever they are needed.

T-Systems, which is installing the TETRA networks, will provide capacity for up to 2,000 users per stadium.

Despite promoting the use of several advanced technologies, T-Systems has chosen to play it safe with a few others. Unlike the Asian 2002 World Cup organizers who broke new ground by providing photographers with WLAN (wireless LAN) connectivity to transmit their pictures from the field, the German organizers plan instead to offer Ethernet cables along the sidelines and in the reserved press section inside each stadium .

"We've decided to take no risks," said Schwarzkopf. "We need to guarantee bandwidth to these users and believe cable is the best way to do so."

WLAN connectivity will be available in the press rooms, in addition to Ethernet connections.

Another wireless technology that won't see much play during the games is broadcast mobile TV, which allows mobile phones with special antennas to receive regular TV broadcast signals. The mobile phone industry had hoped use the tournament in Germany to promote the new service, but Pauly said in an interview that "the time axis isn't right."

Pauly said several issues must be resolved before a broadcast mobile TV service can be launched commercially in Germany, and these will require time. "We expect to see some pilot tests during the games, but no commercial service," he said.

Another technology to miss the tournament: the chip-enabled soccer ball. In December, after several months of testing the high-tech ball, FIFA decided that the new chip-enabled soccer ball being developed in Germany would not be used for the tournament games, saying the technology wasn't yet perfect.

Adidas-Salomon, the Fraunhofer Institute and software company Cairos Technologies are jointly developing the chip-enabled ball.

The technology is based on an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) chip with an integrated transmitter to send data. The chip, suspended in the middle of the ball to survive acceleration and hard kicks, sends a radio signal to the referee's watch in less than a second of the ball crossing the goal line. Similar chips, but smaller and flatter, have also been designed to insert into players' shin guards.

The chip-enabled ball system is currently being tested at the Nuremberg stadium, where 12 antennas in light masts and other locations around the arena collect data transmitted from the chips. The antennas are linked to a high-speed fiber optic ring, which routes data to a cluster of Linux-based servers.