Skrufff.com: "Skrufff-E "

The effects of the first stage of a relationship, the lust stage, trigger exactly the same responses in the brain as taking cocaine or speed would. It really is like a natural drug.

UK addiction expert Dr John Marsden says falling in love is just like doing drugs (London Standard)

Hmm, strangely like Pete's dream talks - hashe been reading slashdot???? Methinks not..

Slashdot | Have Your Family Gather 'Round the Virtual Table: "dgelift writes 'A new device is helping families and loved ones feel connected even when they're far apart. Part of the Media Lab's Habitat project, a pair of 'cyber-tables' are equipped with radio tag readers, projectors and computers running on Linux and Macintosh operating systems. 'Habitat's designers say the system can give people a sense of what their loved ones are up to and perhaps even how they are feeling'.'"

The paranoids dream, v big bro!
Slashdot | Laptop Thief Caught via AOL Login: "the FBI has caught the guy who stole computers from Wells Fargo. The interesting part is that 'Investigators traced the computer to Krastof when he logged onto his own America Online account at home through one of the stolen computers.' Makes you wonder what sort of hooks the FBI has into AOL or other ISPs and what hardware identification is being transmitted at login.' "

Saturday again & it has been a long week - Harrys b'day (twice) preceeded by fri on vodka & karaoke the Susie's b'day dinner which also gave me a sore head.

Reckon beer tastes funny cos water should not be left standing in the filter jug.. or maybe its the filter...?????

CM201 Clear Writing: Ten Principles of Clear Statement: "Clear Writing: Ten Principles of Clear Statement"

Wired News: Man Arrested Over 'Spam Rage': "SAN FRANCISCO -- Call it spam rage -- a Silicon Valley computer programmer has been arrested for threatening to torture and kill employees of the company he blames for bombarding his computer with Web ads promising to enlarge his penis.
In one of the first prosecutions of its kind in the state that made 'road rage' famous, Charles Booker, 44, was arrested on Thursday and released on a $75,000 bond for making repeated threats to staff of an unnamed Canadian company between May and July, the U.S. Attorney's office for Northern California said on Friday."

Barefoot Doctor Bit: How Should You Handle a Jealous Rival?
Barefoot WARNING
Barefoot Doctor: "The first thing is not to take it personally, the jealousy is their business, not yours and it's the best they can do, given their current stage of evolution, so view them with compassion.

You should also be flattered that someone admires you so much they're envious. In reality, they would much rather celebrate your good fortune with you but just don't have the right mindset, so the best approach is to educate them by example.

Go on the offensive but in a loving way, telling them what you admire about them. You should always choose something significant- there is always something.

In other words, respond to their negative energy with love, by spending time visualising them basking in your love. Within three days you should notice some sort of positive quantum shift in the dynamic between you both."

Nokia 3650 Phone with T-Mobile service: "NEWSLETTER "The number of countries that truly like the US is sadly dwindling. Our 'best friend' Britain seems fractured between those that vociferously hate us and those that don't. Our second best friend, who also sent troops to the Iraq War, is undoubtedly Australia. And so, what do we do when a 30 year old Australian woman, a frequent business traveler to the US and the editor of a middle class Australian women's magazine, flying to the US to interview Olivia Newton-John for an article on breast cancer, tries to enter the country in Los Angeles? Do we smile and welcome her to the US and hope she has a pleasant stay? No. Instead, she is locked up for fifteen hours, allegedly denied any food or drink, not allowed to make phone calls to lawyers or to family or to anyone, given intrusive personal searches, bullied and embarrassed, then marched in handcuffs back to the gate and placed on a return flight back to Australia.

Was she a suspected terrorist, cleverly disguised as a harmless and friendly Australian? Was she smuggling drugs or explosives? Did she - gasp - make a bad joke about bombs? No, none of these things. She was 'guilty' only of a visa technicality - she was traveling on a 'B' visa instead of an 'I' visa. So, instead of politely explaining the problem and then helping her solve it, she was denied all the human rights which the US goes to war over to insist other countries give to their citizens, and then deported.

This story was front page news in Australia, but, sadly, didn't seem to make the papers at all in the US. Do we condone such treatment of our friends and allies? Do we think this is an appropriate response for an offence no more serious, surely, than driving on an expired licence?

Last time I arrived into Britain, I couldn't help but notice the contrast between passing through British Immigration and Customs and the same experience a few days later in the US. In Britain, neatly dressed immigration officers in civvy suits and ties processed each person. I joked about being a asylum seeker and they laughed back at me. A group of suspected illegal immigrants were seated in a corner of the immigration hall, while a lady immigration officer fussed over them in a motherly fashion and gave them glasses of orange juice. As for Customs, I went through the green lane and didn't see a single Customs officer anywhere.

But a typical entry back home into the US involves first of all being interviewed by a hostile uniformed armed Immigration Officer (why do immigration officers at airports, in secure zones, need guns?), then a repeat performance one, two, or even three times by Customs officers before finally escaping into the freedom outside.

The Register
IRC privacy has always been something of a contradiction. ISPs routinely log IRC chat sessions, and by nature, Microsoft and TimeWarner store chat room archives. It'a tribute to the power of fluffy marketing (think: colored balls) that so far, the reaction has been one of unease and curiosity. How IRC users would react to a bot from microsoft.com is an exercise left to the reader

The Travel Insider - Save Money on Discount Travel and Other Helpful Information: "Travel Tips Traps & Tricks"
From newsletter 7 Nov 03
Did you know that in the UK, over 600,000 cellphones are dropped into toilets each year? This would suggest that probably 2 million phones suffer a similar fate in the US. Normally such events are of small consequence (except to the phone's owner) but unfortunate Edwin Gallart of New York got his arm stuck while trying to retrieve his phone from a toilet on a commuter train in New York last Friday. After a fellow passenger heard his cries for help, the train was stopped, and after two hours, a blow torch was needed to cut the stainless steel toilet away from his arm. Ouch!