Up For Review

Is your accountant up for review?

Is Chance proveable?

There is some rationality mixed in with a lot of nonsense here.

The table limit is used to prevent the results being skewed by a player betting huge amounts. If ten players bet the same amount, the casino is assured of a profit in every 100 plays. If one player is betting $10,000 and the others are betting $10, the casino must hope that the big bettor is not lucky.

BTW: The odds in 100 plays at a dice table are as follows: 40% of the players will win; 8% will break even; 52% will lose. The casino does not want a really big bettor to be one of the 40% who win. That is the reason for the table limit. An oil sheik who wanted to double up after every loss starting with a $1000 bet might be allowed to have no table limit. The casino only risks $1000 per series of bets, and is likely to win a million when the sheik runs out of money or nerve. They know he will hit a losing streak sooner or later.

If a coin, roulette wheel, whatever is not rigged, past behavior just does not influence what happens next. As pointed out by somebody, a casino does not want people sitting at a roulette table not betting while waiting for a run of Black or Red to occur. The casino probably would not have objected if they had made a minimum bet every play and then bet a huge amount on Black after a series of Reds. If their theory had any merit, this strategy would pay in the long run.

BTW: In Las Vegas (and probably in other casino towns), you can purchase roulette monitoring forms. I have seen them in use at Vegas casinos in off hours. The user stands close enough to the table to observe, but does not take a seat. One strategy is to record the results of 380 plays. Each number is expected to come up 10 times. The gambler then sits down and bets on the numbers which have occurred less than ten times, assuming they are now more likely. Oddly enough, some bet on the numbers which have come up more often, assuming that the wheel is unbalanced in favor of those numbers. Either strategy takes a lot of patience. 380 spins is about 30 minutes to an hour. The strategy is used at off hours because there are empty seats, allowing the player an unobstructed view, and also allowing him/her to take a seat when his bookkeeping tells him it is time to bet.

The expected result of a large number of plays is a bit counterintuitive. If you flip coins a huge number of times and count heads and tails, AbsoluteValue(Heads - Tails) is expected to grow without bound, while Heads/Tails is expected to approach ½. Consider the following.

* P(even in 10 flips) = .246 094
* P(even in 100 flips) = .079 589
* P(even in 1000 flips) = .025 225
* In 1024 flips if (Heads - Tails) = one million, Heads/Tails would equal ½ to 18 digits of precision.

The more you flip a coin, the less likely an exact 50-50 match becomes. As you flip it many times, it becomes very likely that Absolute(Heads - Tails) will equal 100 or more.

Somebody made an erroneous post about the half life of a radioactive substance. The half life is the time in which half the atoms are expected to decay. If the half life is one minute, half are expected to decay in one minute; In two minutes 3/4 are expected to decay; In 3 minutes, 7/8; Et cetera. If there is only one atom of the substance, it will last one minute half the time; It will last two minutes 1/4 of the time; It will last 3 minutes 1/8 of the time; et cetera.

How to Get More Done in Less Time by Steve Pavlina

Do it...

1. Write down what you do and how much time you spend doing it
2. Work out the ratio
3. Dont give your self much time to do the work
4. You will notice that scarcity of time will make you do more work in less time

Conclusion
As all university students know.... The less time you have to do something in, the greater the chance of getting it done. IE - Just do it. Stop wasting time doing stuff that is not essential to your task. Remember that ol saying "Whats the best thing that I could be doing right now?". Sometimes this is hard, becuase you are waiting around to make the endless amount of time you have scarce, which in it self takes time.... Anyway. If this makes sense then good.

Mrs Rambo Sues Red Cross for Taking First Blood

A Franklin blood donor, who blames her car crash on post-donation wooziness, is suing the Red Cross, alleging negligence in allowing her to leave too soon after giving blood.

Mae Rambo crashed into a tree about a mile away from a Red Cross bloodmobile. She claims that inattentive practitioners were negligent in allowing her to leave within five minutes of having her blood drawn.

The Red Cross counters that Rambo's blood donation went smoothly, that staffers advised her about what to do if she later felt faint, and that she was instructed to stay at the donation center for at least 10 minutes after giving blood.

The blood donation and the crash occurred Sept. 1, 2003, according to federal court documents.

Rambo contends in her lawsuit that the practitioners who took her blood were distracted:

''They engaged in continuous banter amongst themselves about the upcoming holiday weekend and what they would do during the respite and other matters of a personal nature,'' according to a case-management order that summarizes the status of Rambo's suit.

She got some cookies, a Sprite and a T-shirt. She says that she was told to go home no more than five minutes after her noneventful blood donation.

''The plaintiff left the blood-gathering station, walking into the hot afternoon,'' Rambo's attorney, Norman E. Solomon, wrote in court documents.

About a mile away, she blacked out without warning, Solomon continued.

''Her vehicle, now resultantly 'pilotless,' ran off the roadway and headlong into a tree.'' The car was demolished, and Rambo says she suffered serious injuries to her wrist and knee.

The Red Cross tells a different story:

She was screened before the donation. Her red-blood count was taken, as were her temperature, blood pressure, pulse and weight. Her donation lasted nine minutes.

''Following her donation, the plaintiff was instructed to proceed to the canteen for food and drink and asked to stay there for at least 10 minutes,'' reads the account of Thomas M. Donnell Jr., the Red Cross' attorney in the case. The defendants say there was a bed on the Red Cross bus in case she needed more time to recover.

No one saw any evidence of a bad reaction to the donation or symptoms of lightheadedness, ''and she stated that she felt okay when she departed,'' court records state. The Red Cross says that Rambo was given instructions about what to do if she started feeling faint.

''At some point within the hour after her donation, the plaintiff felt 'woozy' while driving. Rather than immediately pulling over, however, she continued on and at some point 'blacked out,' '' Donnell writes.

The crash was Rambo's fault, the Red Cross maintains.

The agency contends that it did everything it reasonably could to ensure that Rambo left feeling well and capable of driving safely.

The case has been set for trial in December 2005 before U.S. District Judge Robert Echols.

DOYOOOO

A great time to be employed

Gone are the days when you had to pay for your sex slaves. As a part of enterprise barganing and individual workplace agreements. Workers are able to get sexual services and businesses can write it off their tax, not to mention the happier employees.

happy happy joy joy

Warning: Dont climb the killing tree when crying "wolf".

People dont just kill people. Plants do too. Especialy when you eat the posios leafs. Who would of known.............

Be aware. Stay alive

Bad manners can get you killed.

Piss weak Bridge ready to colapse

A LANDMARK bridge on Indonesia's Sumatra island may collapse because too many people are fond of urinating on one of its steel pillars.

The Jakarta Post said experts had found the Ampera bridge in Palembang city, the capital of South Sumatra province, had begun to lean at an angle and rocked slightly when traffic was heavy.

An official at the public works department in Palembang, Azmi Lakoni, was quoted as saying the bridge had deteriorated because people often took a leak on one of its piers, corroding the structure.

"We are concerned that one of its main support piers has been weakened by urine, as it is a popular spot for locals to relieve themselves."

He added that the acidic fluid's corrosive forces could attribute to an eventual collapse of the bridge.

Man. That bridge is piss weak...

Cell Phone Pocket Flask

Is it a phone? Is it a flash? No. Its a Flone.

Car runs on two AA batteries

A new way to destroy the earth had been created by Panasonic. If car smoke etc wont destroy the earth. Dissused batterys will...

Weighing 18.5kg, OxyRide can drive for 1.23km with a 50kg passenger, or travel 65m in 74 seconds on fresh cells, claims Panasonic.

Developed to promote the firm's AA Digital Xtreme Power (DXP) disposable camera batteries, the cells use a modified alkaline chemistry, with nickel hydroxide and other undisclosed 'active elements' added to the standard manganese dioxide electrode.

"A new vacuum pouring technology allows inserting a higher quantity of electrolyte in the battery," said the firm.

Capacity is up. "Testing indicated that in digital cameras, the batteries last about two times longer than alkaline dry cells," said Panasonic, and with "1,000mW continuous discharge, the batteries on average last 1.5 times longer".

DXP cells will be available in Europe early next year, part of a range dubbed OxyRide.

No. Its not supercharged...

IR jammer

More junk from eBay.... This little device will stop the TV remote from working by sending junk IR signals. Basicly jamming the signal from the real remote. Of course you could just go down to Dicksmith and pick up a kit for a few dollars.... But where would be the fun in that.

5538310417

technology from Japan

VisualWare's 3D glasses is another example of technology that will never make the light of day. Thank you Japan for making more uncommercial products. Maybe they secretly wish to be communist.

Heroic dolphins killed

NEW Zealand fishermen may have killed two of the dolphins that recently helped protect swimmers from a great white shark attack.

Two dead dolphins were found on Wednesday in a river in the upper reaches of Whangarei Harbor, on North Island's east coast, said animal protection officer Jim Boyd.

Their tails had been hacked off, and officials believe they may have been mutilated by criminals poaching fish.

Three weeks ago, a pod of seven dolphins saved a group of swimmers from a predatory great white shark at a beach near Whangarei city, 823km north of the capital Wellington.

The protective dolphins have been hailed as the humans' saviours after the incident was reported this week.

Lifeguard Rob Howes and trainee Helen Slade today said they feared the two mammals may have been part of the pod that ganged up to protect them and other swimmers from the circling great white.

An angry Howes called the netting and mutilation of the dolphins "indiscriminate murder".

"This is how we repay them for their help," he said.

But Department of Conservation area manager John Gardiner said there are hundreds of dolphins in the area, and there was no way of knowing if the dead animals were involved in warding off the shark.

Gardiner said it appeared the dolphins had been snagged in illegal fishing nets.

Fishing with illegal nets, failing to report finding a dolphin in a net, and mutilating a marine mammal are all offences carrying a maximum $NZ10,000 ($9073) fine.

href="http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11506873%255E401,00.html">HAHAHAHAAHHAAHAHAHAHAH

40 Schoolgirls in mob brawl over boy

More than 40 girls have been suspended from school after they threatened to kill another girl in a row over a boy.

The gang of year 9 and 10 pupils were caught on CCTV cameras threatening and verbally abusing a year 11 pupil outside Glenmoor School for girls.

Two members of staff attempted to break up the group of 13 to 15-year-olds in Bournemouth, Dorset.

Head teacher Pam Orchard described the episode as "one of the most unpleasant cases of bullying I have ever seen".

Ms Orchard added: "I can only describe it as mob rule taking over.

oh boy

Big Black Hole

The discovery of a 12.7bn light-year distant supermassive black hole has challenged astronomers' understanding of star and galaxy formation. NASA's Chandra X-Ray observatory spotted the object, which is generating energy at the rate of twenty trillion suns, at the heart of a quasar formed less than a billion years after the big bang.

Astronomers Daniel Schwartz and Shanil Virani of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovered the quasar, known as SDSSp J1306. They found that its X-ray spectrum is a near perfect match to nearer, and hence older (or at least longer lived) quasars. Meanwhile, optical measurements suggest the quasar is a billion times more massive than our sun. Their results have been published in The Astrophysical Journal.

That makes me feel much safer...

Rock in your pocket (no. Not that kind)

For the director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's gas turbine laboratory, the fascination has to do with raw power. "The engines on three 747s put out as much power as a nuclear power plant," Epstein says.

These days it isn't the hulking machines that capture Epstein's enthusiasm. Instead, it's a jet engine shrunk to about the size of a coat button that sits on the corner of his desk. It's a Lilliputian version of the multi-tonne jet engines that changed air travel and, he believes, could be the key to powering the 21st century.

Although the turbine's blades span an area smaller than a five-cent piece, they spin at more than a million revolutions a minute and are designed to produce enough electricity to power hand-held electronic equipment.

Epstein expects his tiny turbines will serve as a battery replacement, first for soldiers and then for consumers. But he has an even more ambitious vision: that small clusters of the engines could serve as household generating plants. The technology could be especially useful in remote areas.

Hooray for small turbines.

NEWS.com.au | German maths whiz sets record (November 24, 2004)

A GERMAN computer scientist has broken the world record in mental calculation, needing just 11.80 seconds to work out the 13th root of a 100-digit number, a German mathematics museum said on today.

Gert Mittring, a 38-year old computer scientist, was faster working out the answer than several onlookers using calculators at an event in the western town of Giessen sponsored by the Museum of Mathematics.

A spokesman for the museum said Mr Mittring's time broke a record set in 1988 by Alexis Lemaire of France, who completed a similar calculation in 13.55 seconds.

I wonder what Kinda credit you get for that.

iafrica.com | news | world news Man dies in home-made electric chair

Police in Lithuania's second largest city Kaunas has found the body of a 74-year-old man, who committed suicide in an electric chair he made himself, the daily Respublika reported on Tuesday.

The man worked as an engineer in a Kaunas company, which went bankrupt.

He was found on Monday by the police sitting in the chair, which according to Respublika, was a "state-of-the-art" product.

The man left no letter, but police ruled out foul play.

According to Respublika, the man who lived alone suffered from depression.

Lithuania is one of the leading countries in the world by suicides.

In 2003, 1500 people committed suicide in the former Soviet republic, which has a population of 3.4 million. The suicide rate reached 42 people per 100 000 last year, compared to 26 people per 100 000 in 1990.

I wonder whos gona pay the electrical bill.

Platinum Hello Kitty Sold

TOKYO (Reuters) - A platinum, diamond-studded figurine of Hello Kitty, the hugely popular feline character, has been sold for the equivalent of $102,000 (54,000 pounds) by a department store in the Japanese city of Osaka.

The 4.1 cm (1.6 in.) tall figurine, dressed in a queen's outfit and studded with 250 diamonds, was produced to celebrate the 30th birthday of the famous white cat with no mouth.

'It was sold to a customer from Osaka,' said a spokesman at the Mitsukoshi department store, declining to give details.

The face of Hello Kitty, who has devotees of all ages around the world, is featured on everything from kids lunch boxes to pop-up toasters and bicycles.

Things are not purring for the owner of the Hello Kitty brand, however. Sanrio said last week it would fall into the red this year and is seeking $187 million in financial aid.

Now thats what I call an expensive pussy.

The wired wireless mouse

Here is a wireless mouse that needs no batterys. Cool you might say. No it is not... Why? Because it requires a special mousepad which supplys the power to the mouse. The mouse pad reguires a cable. Whats the point? Its not wireless if it needs wireless.

Click here to read the review of the wired wireless mouse.

London is crap

The proof that london is crap in the form of a train map.

Chainsaw Controller

So your Resident Evil fantasies weren't fully realized in the recent Resident Evil: Apocalypse movie offering and your LARP'r friends just don't have the guts to hack (that pun hurt) a Live Action Roleplay session. But that's ok, because now you can get the Resident Evil Chainsaw Controller and go crazygonuts on your neighborhood zombies.

The controller is officially licensed by Capcom and Nintendo for use on your Game Cube. Obviously it will work best for the upcoming Resident Evil 4 title, but includes all the buttons and control sticks of a standard Game Cube controller. If you really wanted to, you could use your controller to play a round of Mario Kart. As long as you don't have any multiplayer friends in the room, no one should get hurt."

Sweary Fingers

Pictures of people using their fingers to swear.

Beer to replace water...

Man decides to replace life (water) with beer.

The consequences are obvious

ATO 'out' $39.3bn in refunds

THE Australian Taxation Office made a $39.3 billion error in estimating company tax refunds in 2002, prompting cries of double standards from taxpayer groups and the federal Opposition.

The mistake was one of a string of errors made by public service departments in accounting for their use of government funds, which the Australian National Audit Office said exposed "significant shortcomings" in the Government's system of financial management.

The auditors found the tax office had estimated it would make refunds of $11.2 billion when the actual amount was $50.6 billion.

The problem resulted from it mistakenly subtracting company tax refunds from company tax revenue and reporting a net amount.

The law requires all tax refunds, which are drawn from consolidated revenue, to be reported separately. Tax refunds to individuals were reported correctly.

The auditors said the estimates of tax refunds provided by the tax office at budget time were regularly between 20 and 350 per cent out.

"It is just not good enough. We have to demand more of our regulatory authorities who have the powers to impose very draconian penalties on taxpayers who don't do it right," said the national director of the Australian Taxpayers Association, Peter McDonald.

The tax office systems often fell short of requirements, while they did not allow individuals the same leniency, Mr McDonald said.

"As the agency responsible for ensuring companies' and individuals' taxes are in order, it is hard to escape the double standard of the tax office's shortcomings identified by the auditor," Labor Treasury spokesman Wayne Swan said.

A spokeswoman for the ATO denied that the difference between the estimated and the actual refunds amounted to a mistake, and said the tax office had lacked the ability to accurately estimate company tax refunds.

She said the tax office had now agreed present estimates as required by the auditors.

Tax Commissioner Michael Carmody denied that the ATO imposed draconian penalties on people who did not get their returns right.

"People who make a genuine attempt to meet their obligations can expect fair treatment from the tax office," he said.

In a litany of reporting errors across the Government, the auditors found examples of money being spent when legislation approving it had not been passed by parliament, and two examples where unauthorised spending breached the Constitution.

ATSIC was found to have miscalculated an indexation formula, with the result that $18.7 million more than was authorised went into its Land Fund. Of this, $6.8 million went to the Indigenous Land Corporation.

The Department of Veterans Affairs committed a similar breach diverting to administrative costs $1.5 million of funds intended for former prisoners of war in Japan.

Between 2001 and 2003, the Department of Finance claimed that a total of $7.2billion paid to the commonwealth superannuation scheme was authorised under legislation that, in fact, was blocked in the Senate. Fortunately, there was other legislation supporting the payments.

Taxing times at the ATO...

Make a PS2p

Usually I make some sort of Photoshopped "adventure" for the makings of these things (see the infamous SNESp or NOAC NESp stories) but with the PS2p I decided to go for a more step-by-step telling of the actual construction process. I often get questioned as to how I build these things, so I thought I'd make this as informative as possible.

Hopefully my sister wont mind me cutting up her PS2

Mob burns agents to death

A MOB cornered two federal agents who were taking photos of children leaving a Mexico elementary school that was the scene of recent kidnappings and burned them to death on the capital's rural outskirts.

Television images showed a large mob of locals cheering, chanting and yelling obscenities as they kicked and beat the two agents, who were in plain clothes.

Then, as cameras from TV Azteca rolled, locals dowsed both with gasoline and set them ablaze.

It took the mob several hours to kill the agents, but police said heavy traffic and instigators of the violence blocked them from moving in until the two agents were dead.

A third federal agent was badly beaten, but eventually rescued and rushed to a nearby hospital.

During their evening newscasts, Azteca helicopter images as well as shots taken from the air by Mexico's largest television network, Televisa, showed dozens of neighbours milling around the burned, motionless bodies of two men who were lying in a street where they were dumped after being pulled from the flames by police officers.

Trouble began in the San Juan Ixtlayopan neighbourhood about 6pm (local time), when locals collared three men staking-out a local school.

Azteca and Televisa reported that the area's residents had been on edge since two youngsters had disappeared and were feared kidnapped from the school.

Locals apparently thought the federal agents were kidnappers when they found them near the school and took justice in their own hands.

There was no official word on the incident from the country's federal police force, but its director, Jose Luis Figueroa, called newscasts to confirm that three plain clothes agents had headed to San Juan Ixtlayopan in an unmarked car yesterday as part of an operation against drug dealing in the area.

When asked about complaints that authorities had failed to respond to local demands to investigate the previous disappearances of two children in San Juan Ixtlayopan, Mr Figueroa said a full schedule had prohibited federal authorities from concentrating on the abductions.


Theres no justice like mob justice.

Most amazing picture ever

NORTHERN Territory scientists were last night studying what could be the first photograph of a meteorite hitting Earth.

The chances of an impact being captured on film are millions to one.

"If this is true, it's one of the most remarkable pictures ever taken," astronomy tutor Geoff Carr said yesterday.

The photograph was taken by keen amateur photographer Wayne Pryde as he stood near the Darwin Cenotaph on The Esplanade and looked down to Fort Hill Wharf on Monday evening.

The meteorite, which could have been as small as a grain of sand, would have been travelling about 30,000km/h.

Mr Pryde believes a tiny piece of space rock hit the top of a 20m lamp post on the wharf.

He said the explosion on impact could be seen clearly in the photograph.

The "tube" created by the meteorite as it hurtled towards Earth is harder to pick out.

"I was taking a series of time-lapse pictures of the build-up of clouds," Mr Pryde said.

"I did not realise I had snapped the meteorite until later."

The wharf lamp bulb was yesterday found to be blown but the top of the post will not be checked for damage until today.

Experts believe the meteorite may not have hit the lamp post, but metal elsewhere on the wharf.

Mr Pryde, 31, is an IT expert but he denied the photograph had been digitally altered.

Photographic experts also said the shot had not been doctored.

Mr Carr, who teaches at Charles Darwin University, said the picture would create interest among astronomers worldwide.

He said most of the thousands of meteors heading towards Earth burnt up before landing.

"Nobody has ever photographed one hitting Earth," he said.

Mr Carr said the explosion could have been caused by lightning.

"But I doubt this very much - the trajectory is too straight," he said.

Bible belt backlash over 'closet pornographer' film

Conservative groups in the US are outraged over a new film starring Liam Neeson about controversial sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, whom they accuse of being a closet pornographer.

Kinsey, released 50 years after the publication of his books Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male and Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female, has earned critical praise despite the controversy.

Conservative Christians and family groups have picketed cinemas in New York, Los Angeles and other cities since the film, directed by Bill Condon, opened early this month.

Brandi Swindell, national director of Generation Life, a youth group that opposes abortion, is typical of the outspoken opposition.

"Kinsey's legacy is not one of sexual enlightenment, as this movie would lead you to believe, rather Alfred Kinsey is responsible in part for my generation being forced to deal face-to-face with the devastating consequences of deadly sexually transmitted diseases, pornography and abortion," she said.

There had been a "cover-up that continues, even in this movie, that a two-month-old, a five-month-old, even toddlers were sexually molested in the name of science under Kinsey's supervision, she said.

Concerned Women for America, which claims to be the biggest US women's group, has also campaigned against Kinsey.

"The film paints Kinsey as a flawed but sincere cultural hero," said Robert Knight, director of CWA's Culture and Family Institute. "It ignores the massive fraud, Kinsey's sado-masochistic practices, and barely touches on his use of data on children in sex experiments.

"I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Kinsey was the godfather of the homosexual activist movement, the campaign to mainstream pornography, and even the campaign to strike down abortion laws," said Knight, who made a 1995 documentary about Kinsey's research on child sexuality.

He said Kinsey should be compared to the Nazi scientist Josef Mengele.

British actor Neeson said he had no hesitation accepting the role.

"He saw a gap in our human knowledge that he wanted to fill," Neeson told the New York Times in an interview.

"He was a task master, uncomfortable with people, but I don't find him nasty," he added.

Fox Searchlight Pictures, which produced Kinsey has spoken out against the protests.

"In 1948, when Kinsey's work was first published, forces tried to censor the conversation of sex in America through a campaign of misinformation," said Fox.

"Today, in an effort to turn back the hands of time, the mission to repress sex and culture continues."

AFP

Spanish Photo Bloging

Gabriel

cazurro

Vamos Muchachous...

Spoilt Victorian Child

Found this mp3/music blog from just pressing the "next blog" button on the blogger bar at the top of most blogs. Its quite interesting. It tells you what to listen to.

The obvious link

The Mystery of Kates Hoof Toe

A site Dedicated to Kate of Kates Playground and the Mystery of Her Hoof Toe

So you may not know of what I speak. Well it has come into question that Kate of KatesPlaygound.com always mysteriously hides her right foot from the pictures on her site. Well, we had a crack team of internet pr0n specialist investigating this very mystery. Look below for more details. The pictures say it all.

The mystery has been solved. Hoofay!

Does anyone know what county this is

Apperently if you collect pictures from this site, they will appreciate in value. I wonder if its true.

Russia Makes it Funny

Cat rapes woman after performing oral sex on her

Two women attempted to experience sexual pleasure from an intimate contact with a cat. The weird endeavor ended rather sad for one of the women: she was hospitalized with severe genital injuries.

"Life is too short, one has to try everything!"

Old Photos resurface

Paris Hilton may develop a whole new following among lesbians now that photos of the hotel heiress making out with another woman have come back to haunt her.

We've seen the shots. While they aren't as hard-core as her infamous sex tape, Larry Flynt finds them arousing enough to publish in Hustler.

The pictures - believed to have been taken about three years ago, when she was 20 - show the "Simple Life" star looking fetching in a leopard-print halter top and low-slung black pants. Her companion is a very pretty brunette (as yet unidentified) who is also wearing a midriff-baring black halter.

Your Laser Printer is the weakest link

Next time you make a printout from your color laser printer, shine an LED flashlight beam on it and examine it closely with a magnifying glass. You might be able to see the small, scattered yellow dots printer there that could be used to trace the document back to you. According to experts, several printer companies quietly encode the serial number and the manufacturing code of their color laser printers and color copiers on every document those machines produce. Governments, including the United States, already use the hidden markings to track counterfeiters.

Peter Crean, a senior research fellow at Xerox, says his company's laser printers, copiers and multifunction workstations, such as its WorkCentre Pro series, put the "serial number of each machine coded in little yellow dots" in every printout. The millimeter-sized dots appear about every inch on a page, nestled within the printed words and margins.

"It's a trail back to you, like a license plate," Crean says.

The dots' minuscule size, covering less than one-thousandth of the page, along with their color combination of yellow on white, makes them invisible to the naked eye, Crean says. One way to determine if your color laser is applying this tracking process is to shine a blue LED light--say, from a keychain laser flashlight--on your page and use a magnifier.

Crime Fighting vs. Privacy

Laser-printing technology makes it incredibly easy to counterfeit money and documents, and Crean says the dots, in use in some printers for decades, allow law enforcement to identify and track down counterfeiters.

However, they could also be employed to track a document back to any person or business that printed it. Although the technology has existed for a long time, printer companies have not been required to notify customers of the feature.

Lorelei Pagano, a counterfeiting specialist with the U.S. Secret Service, stresses that the government uses the embedded serial numbers only when alerted to a forgery. "The only time any information is gained from these documents is purely in [the case of] a criminal act," she says.

John Morris, a lawyer for The Center for Democracy and Technology , says, "That type of assurance doesn't really assure me at all, unless there's some type of statute." He adds, "At a bare minimum, there needs to be a notice to consumers."

If the practice disturbs you, don't bother trying to disable the encoding mechanism--you'll probably just break your printer.

Crean describes the device as a chip located "way in the machine, right near the laser" that embeds the dots when the document "is about 20 billionths of a second" from printing.

"Standard mischief won't get you around it," Crean adds.

Neither Crean nor Pagano has an estimate of how many laser printers, copiers, and multifunction devices track documents, but they say that the practice is commonplace among major printer companies.

"The industry absolutely has been extraordinarily helpful [to law enforcement]," Pagano says.

According to Pagano, counterfeiting cases are brought to the Secret Service, which checks the documents, determines the brand and serial number of the printer, and contacts the company. Some, like Xerox, have a customer database, and they share the information with the government.

Crean says Xerox and the government have a good relationship. "The U.S. government had been on board all along--they would actually come out to our labs," Crean says.

History

Unlike ink jet printers, laser printers, fax machines, and copiers fire a laser through a mirror and series of lenses to embed the document or image on a page. Such devices range from a little over $100 to more than $1000, and are designed for both home and office.

Crean says Xerox pioneered this technology about 20 years ago, to assuage fears that their color copiers could easily be used to counterfeit bills.

"We developed the first (encoding mechanism) in house because several countries had expressed concern about allowing us to sell the printers in their country," Crean says.

Since then, he says, many other companies have adopted the practice.

The United States is not the only country teaming with private industry to fight counterfeiters. A recent article points to the Dutch government as using similar anticounterfeiting methods, and cites Canon as a company with encoding technology. Canon USA declined to comment.

I am Scared

Beer at the Table

Tired of drinking wine all the time. Well fosters has come to the rescue and made a guide as to what bear to drink with what foods.

Landscapes from Brazil

Brazil has some nice landscapes. While this photo gallery contains no boobies, it is still plesant to look at.

Treasurer denies business tax break

MP Peter Costello has denied business a cut in the coprorate
tax rate.

Gym catches on Fire

Goodlife Gym caught on fire today. The cause, the electrical bored. The cause of the electrical fault is belived to be becuase Dhimesh Patel was working out so hard that it blew a fuse and caught fire.

Dhimesh says "I was bored." Witnesses say it maybe becuase he is hot especialy when he is working out. Thats why he sweats. Doctors have confirmed that Dhimesh sweats when he is hot through a series of tests. Which included sleeping on the swing for 3 hours. The manager of the gym says the gym should be operational in a few hours while the electricain comes down and replaces the broken fuse.

A survey conducted in New Zealand says that 62% of people think Dhimesh should compile a list of things to do during the holidays and not just bum around the house. 37% of the people surved agree with the other 62%. The remaining 1% of people think Dhimesh should go out side and do things before he goes in sane.

Build Your Own XGA Projector

After figuring out that those $20 multimedia projector plans available on eBay are completely bogus (what a shock), Tom’s Hardware decided to just make their own with a used computer LCD monitor and our favorite high-tech school learning device (when we were in school that is): the overhead projector. They took apart a $200 15-inch iiyama LCD, placed it onto a $50 Liesegang overhead projector, and voila, you’ve got a six-foot display on the wall. It’s probably the cheapest way to possible get in on that large screen TV action.

I have wood

Bush and Blair accused of mangling English

LONDON: The English language is being destroyed by a "deadly virus of management speak" which has infected the mouths and minds of politicians like Tony Blair and George W Bush, a leading journalist says.

The Prime Minister and his ally the US President are mangling the language, destroying its meaning by avoiding the use of verbs, twisting nouns into verbs, and endlessly repeating phrases until they become "zombified".

He laments the inclusion of such words as "pertannually" in the proposed EU constitution – and despairs that when concerns were raised, the word was replaced with "insubdurience".

He urges the public, and journalists in particular, to reject meaningless phrases and to demand they are explained.

"When you get enough people pointing it out, the public starts to spot what is going on," he says. "That's why the battle has to be fought."

"We should expect – and should demand – that when people are setting out policies or trying to persuade us of something, they engage in proper debate and don't simply give us a set of unchallengeable propositions."

Beavers weave stolen cash into dam

A bag of bills stolen from a casino was snapped up by beavers who wove thousands of dollars in soggy currency into the sticks and brush of their dam on a creek in eastern Louisiana.

Never trused them damn beavers

69 hamburgers, eight minutes

A skinny japanese man earns a living eating heaps of food really fast.

hmmmm Hamburgers

two-headed tortoise

The unusual case of a Mediterranean spur-thighed tortoise, born two months ago in an incubator, made the headlines in various papers on Friday.

Owner John Jones, from Dorchester, who has 37 tortoises and has kept them for 55 years, said: "I was really surprised - I had never seen anything like it.

"It is perfectly healthy and is running around with all the other tortoises.

"I think each head has its own little brain because they do try to move in different directions."

Oooh! T-Shirts

Funny T-shirts that dont hold back

Man sets himself on fire

Man fire = news

Compy 386??

Funny flash animation from HSR

StrongBad

National BBQ Day

There was a National BBQ Day and no one told me....

The risk to future growth

Looks like the government is actually doing a shit job on the economy...

> Article

The $20,000 Suitcase

Stupidly expensive things are nice. And this now includes suitcases.

The last 2 men alive

The cloud god was feeling bored so he destroyed the earth. Except two men who must now repopulate the earth...

The Straight Dope

This website is basicly about trivia. But usefull trivia, that is more trivial then those oneliner types which are just crap.

Did you know...

Flash CV

Some french dude made a resume in Flash. Which gives me an idea....

Are you getting the best insurance deal?

How much PI do you pay.

Sleep anywhere

The Japanese work so hard that they like to sleep on the train (who doesnt... (but I sleep becuase I'm lazy)), so here are some pictures of these people.

Hassle off, little hitler

David Hasselhoff is evil

Hardcore Morris Dancers

Morris dancers go off in a massive raving street party.

Royal Calendar

This here link will take you to a website with photos of the royals.

[Warning: May contain traces of Photoshop]

Profanity Adventures

"I've been typing swear words into old Spectrum text adventures", boasts Monkeon (32, single), "just to see what happens."

Music that makes you smarter

I always like a quick fix. Especialy when it helps me.

So this idea that special music can make u smarter is tempting.

Kirstie gives possum her publicist's breast milk

Publicists are expected to do anything a star tells them to do -- but does that include breast-feeding a possum?

It does if Kirstie Alley's your boss. Vanity Fair says Alley once brought her pet possum to an event and when it started squeaking because it was hungry, Alley asked her publicist, 'Say, aren't you nursing a baby right now?'

Seeing the possum's teeth, the publicist refused to breast feed it, but she did express her breast milk into a bottle, which Alley fed to her pet.

Are you ready for the war on vampires?

Probably the most sickening thing about the US election result is the way meaningless nonsense won it for Bush. Kerry won every debate, but Bush still managed to scrape overall victory using vague, sometimes unintelligible, emotional waffle.

A typical Bush speech resembled one of those T-shirts you can buy in the Far East, where someone obviously thinks English words are cool but has no idea what they mean, resulting in Thai kids walking around in blissful ignorance with statements like 'Milk accident robot babe' on their chests. Similarly, Bush's speeches were strangely impressionistic, and it's only a slight exaggeration to say a typical speech ran something like this:

'America! Freedom! Security! Family! Freedom world America family! America family trust security freedom God!' etc.

But it worked, appealing to voters who are too lazy, stupid or inward-looking to follow a real argument, and instead preferred to believe in some tough-yet-benign fantasy about Good Ol' America. Vote for a regular guy like George W Bush and he'll keep you safe and kick the bad guys' asses, and probably arrange the wagons in a circle to stop the Apaches raping the apple pie. It was all vague emotional toss, but the strong-yet-kind image couldn't have worked better (except perhaps if Bush had taken Gentle Ben on the campaign trail with him.)

So now it's four more years of the Bush administration, whose mendacity and recklessness have been given the stamp of approval by the voters. God only knows what the future holds, but we can have a reasonable guess...


The War on Vampires

It's possible that the loosely defined threat which is Al Quaeda will sustain Americans' fear of the outside world indefinitely, but we've got a feeling the neo-cons are keeping their eyes open for even scarier bogeymen. And if Al Quaeda has a shortcoming, it's that it's almost too tangible, too physically real. Suicide bombers are scary, but they eat, sleep, shit and snore like the rest of us. Cut them and they bleed, stick a fluorescent strip light up their bums and they'll say 'Ouch'.

What Bush needs is a new threat that altogether less real - maybe micro-terrorists that can run up your nose and lay eggs in your brain that hatch into tiny mad mullahs who make you put your hand in boiling water or believe in scary shit like Allah.

Better still would be vampires. They can turn into mist, enabling them to get at you by seeping under doors, and they tap into a primal fear of being eaten. Perhaps most terrifyingly for American Joe, prolific blood sucking creatures of the night probably carry a high risk of transmitting AIDS. So you'd not only be undead, you'd also get AIDS and people might think you were gay. Which is far, far worse.

In short: expect a War on Vampires quite soon.


God to be placed at the heart of American politics, where he belongs

By an amazing coincidence, God has exactly the same views as right-wing Republicans. Thus it's likely that God will soon manifest Himself via a series of policies designed to appeal to religious nutcases and the sort of morons who think that God is taking a strong interest in their personal well-being, despite the fact that they live in a trailer park, resemble Jabba the Hutt and are so ill-educated they have difficulty concentrating long enough to make it to the end of Peanuts.

The knives are already out for Roe v Wade, and many states have decided to ban gay marriage. But why stop here? There are a hell of a lot of things God probably wants George to do, like kill all heathens. Bush and God have made a start on the Muslims, but they're going to have to raise their game if they're really going to make a big dent in the population. And there are still all those pesky atheists, Buddhists, Jedis, etc. This is going to require some radical action.

In short: expect a two-pronged strategy. Abroad, it's time to kick some I-ranian ass. At home, it's time to print school science textbooks depicting Barney the Dinosaur helping out with the chores on Noah's ark.


Bullshit quotient to be increased

As mentioned, Bush's brand of neo-con politics thrives on vague notions of a firm-but-fair, kindly and ethical USA that is a kind of giant picket-fenced hometown populated by hard-working, decent folks - a kind of Aryan Cosby Show, or Little House on the Prairie 2004. Close your eyes, think 'Aryan Cosby Show', and it's almost as though unsettling things like Abu Ghraib, Marilyn Manson and the Columbine massacre don't exist.

Much has been made of the similarity between Bush's war on terror and the perpetual war instigated by Big Brother to keep the proles in line. But now it's time for the next phase: Bush has to create a newspeak that removes problems and dissent by eliminating the actual vocabulary to express them. Thus words like 'Democrat', 'poverty', 'gays' and 'Michael Moore' will be removed from the American language.

In short: eventually, when an American tries to say 'Belligerent fucking right-wing assholes', all that will come out is: '.'

[Reference]

The Friday Thing

Four More Years: "By an amazing coincidence, God has exactly
the same views as right-wing Republicans. Thus it's likely that
God will soon manifest Himself via a series of policies designed
to appeal to religious nutcases and the sort of morons who think
that God is taking a strong interest in their personal well-
being, despite the fact that they live in a trailer park,
resemble Jabba the Hutt and are so ill-educated they have
difficulty concentrating long enough to make it to the end of
Peanuts.... The knives are already out for Roe v Wade, and many
states have decided to ban gay marriage. But why stop here? There are a hell of a lot of things God probably wants George to do, like kill all heathens. Bush and God have made a start on the
Muslims, but they're going to have to raise their game if they're
really going to make a big dent in the population. And there are
still all those pesky atheists, Buddhists, Jedis, etc. This is
going to require some radical action..."

The Weekly Email Comment Sheet

Word of the week: Fool

This little word definition searchy thingy has no ads.

I just hope it stays that way. Or they will become fools if they put ads up...

DIY: Diwali Pooja

Cant be bothered with getting a Mahraj for Diwali. Why not just do it your self.

Thank you internet

[Note: always have an adult pressent when purchasing fireworks in a carpark...]

What is arial

This simple guide lets the rest of us know what these crazy typo/design people rant on about.

How to spot arial

You're Stupid

If someone tells you to grow a brain. Say "Ok"

Harvard scientists have manipulated stem cells already present in the brains of mice to induce the birth of new neurons, an advance once considered impossible by most scientists.

They induced the birth of new cells by killing nearby neurons in mice, which set off a cascade of events that led to stem cells, also called precursor cells, producing new neurons in the cerebral cortex. If scientists can turn this into a therapy for humans, it would mean that patients could literally heal themselves with stem cells already present in their brains.

read the rest of the article

arial or helvetica?

Once there was a typeface called Helvetica.

It was extremely popular.

Later came a software company called Microsoft.

They “borrowed” Helvetica for their operating system and called it Arial.

This inferior typeface is now on millions of desktops all over the world.

Can you tell the difference between the original and the rip-off
in these ten examples?

MichaelMoore After The election

I think most people were expecting a lot more. But anyway. He has taken all the other stuff off of his site and posted a rant.

McDonalds bans fat people from TV ads

Who cares.... I just like the pictures....(hehhe)

McDONALD’S has been accused of super-sized hypocrisy after banning fat people from new TV ads. In a leaked memo, the casting company providing actors was told to ensure they were all were small fry.

The importance of having no fat people was even outlined in capital letters. It read: “Because this is McDonald’s, it is important that all artists submitted to us are NOT FAT OR OVERWEIGHT in any way.” Capataz Casting yesterday held auditions in Central London for the advert, in which a “dull, regular guy” turns into a superhero. Boss Simon Allen told staff: “He should be skinny and geeky and must not be fat or chubby in any way.”

ep3 Trailer

Linkys

Toland Style

When the 150 year old uber exclusive French luggage maker, Goyard, wanted to do something interesting they comissioned Toland Grinnell. Master of lux and an expert craftsman, Grinnell managed to capture the essence of Goyard, but for a whole new audience. Achieving a new dimension of ghetto fabulous, The Goyard Entertainment Center was installed in the baggage claim section of the momentary Terminal 5.

Description:

A fully functional rolling trunk designed and built by artist Toland Grinnell in his New York studio for Goyard (of France) that unpacks into a portable "block party". The trunk Includes a 1000 watt custom designed sound system with integrated iPod, custom built gas powered mini bike complete with Goyard logo pattered seat and accessories, set of five midget traffic cones, two limited edition skate boards by Toland Grinnell for Goyard, functional cooler for beer, integrated companion trunk containing dual George Foreman Grilles for burgers and dogs, collection of disposable paper plates and eating utensils, custom designed universal power conversion system for easy set up and play anywhere in the world.

Dog charged with chasing cat

I love these kinda stories. But this one has everything. Cats, dogs, Ex sports people, lawyers, local councils, legal bills and the word preposterous.

WITH glowing character references from friends such as swimming star Dawn Fraser, Bob hopes to get off a dangerous dog charge.

Bob, accused of chasing a local cat, will have his case put to the local court this month to clear his reputation and that of his owner, who has been charged with three criminal offences relating to the incident.

Fraser and 21 other residents of the Sydney suburb of Balmain have written Bob character references to counter Leichhardt Council's legal action. It stems from a complaint that Bob chased a neighbour's cat and attacked its owner.

Bob's plight after the 30m pursuit in May, which could cost his owners up to $12,000 in legal fees, has made him a celebrity in the prestigious waterfront suburbs of Birchgrove and Balmain.

But it has also highlighted a growing neighbourhood rift.

Fraser told The Daily Telegraph she was not on speaking terms with the person who made the complaint about happy-go-lucky Bob.

"He is a beautiful dog," the ex-swimming champ said. "I don't think they're very nice people, I've told them not to speak to me.

"I'm a community person, I have lived there all of my life and we now have people coming in that aren't."

Bob's other referees fear the complaint was motivated by a small interest group, which wants all dogs on leashes when they are being walked in the park. His owner Drew Vukelic will face Balmain Local Court next Friday on charges Bob was uncontrolled and attacked a cat and a person on May 7, in an exercise area of Birchgrove Park.

Bob's co-owner Professor John Debenham said he was shocked the council had taken action and branded it a "waste of ratepayers' money".

"Bob is a lovely, normal, harmless dog," Professor Debenham said.

"He chased the cat for 30m, it (the council action)is preposterous."

The UTS academic said he believed the cat and its owner were uninjured.

A council spokesman could not comment on details but confirmed council solicitors were handling the matter.

The spokesman said the charges against Mr Vukelic, which include having an uncontrolled dog, and owning a dog which attacked a person and a cat, were technically criminal but not deemed serious.

It is understood council staff would have sought statements from witnesses, Bob's owner and the victim.

The woman who made the complaint did not return calls. Her partner said the legal action was brought by the council.

While celebrities and neighbours are rallying around him, Bob seems relaxed about his future.

He is still enjoying his food, dining on his favourite chicken wings, and playing with his stuffed cow and a stuffed giraffe called George.

From newscorp

US bombs to be tested in Australia

I always thought they just did that in brown countries...

The United States is reportedly preparing to
test new-generation weapons, including smart bombs, on Australian territory under an agreement currently under negotiation.

Canberra and Washington were currently hammering out a new defence training agreement which included multi-million upgrades to Queensland's Shoalwater Bay facility and the Northern Territory's Bradshaw training area and the Delamere Air Weapons Range, Brisbane's Courier-Mail newspaper today revealed.

According to the report, former ANZUS treaty adviser Ross Babbage, who has just returned from defence briefings in the US, revealed that tactics and cutting-edge communications would also be tested under the proposals, bringing the two nations closer together.

130-year-old Chinese fire put out

A fire that broke out more than 100 years ago at a Chinese coalfield has finally been extinguished, reports say. In the last four years, firefighters have spent $12m in efforts to put out the flames at Liuhuanggou colliery, near Urumqi in Xinjiang province.

While ablaze, the fire burned up an estimated 1.8m tons of coal every year, according to China's official Xinhua news agency. Local historians said the fire first broke out in 1874, Itar-Tass reported. Hou Xuecheng, head of the Xinjiang Coalfield Firefighting Project Office, said the Liuhuanggou fire was the largest among eight major coalfield fire areas in Xinjiang.

The burning coal emitted 100,000 tons of harmful gases - including carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide - and 40,000 tons of ashes every year, Mr Hou told Xinhua. The continuing blaze is also thought to have caused environmental damage to the region.

Xinjiang accounts for 1.8 trillion tons, or 40.6%, of China's total coal reserves.

'Lewd rubbing'

The effigy of 19th Century journalist known as
Victor Noir has long been popular with women visitors.

This is partly due to his reputation as a romantic figure, and partly because of the effigy's design.

Officials concerned about damage to the icon's groin area have erected a fence around the grave, and a sign prohibiting indecent rubbing.

Noir - whose real name was Yvan Salman - was killed by Pierre Bonaparte, a great-nephew of the Emperor Napoleon, after bearing him a challenge to a duel. According to the story, he was due to get married the day after he was killed. The statue shows Noir in a frock coat and trousers lying flat on his back, with a distinct enlargement in the groin.

The effigy has been held as an aid to love or fertility. It is said that a woman who kisses the lips of the prostrate statue and slips a flower into the upturned top hat will find a husband by the end of the year.

Hello Kitty Game

Just as we are only begining to get over the hype of GTA:SA... Along comes a game to possible destroy the world (I think its the second sign..., the first being Bush getting elected AGAIN). Sanrio and Typhoon games, is bringing out the MMORPG

And its origanly titled Hello Kitty Online World.

Peugeot and Citroen to quit rally racing

*snif*

French stables Peugeot and Citroen will end their involvement in the world rally championship circuit at the end of 2005, their parent company PSA announced in Paris Thursday.

The news comes as a shock since Citroen have recently picked up both the constructors' title and, through Frenchman Sebastien Loeb, the drivers' title.

Peugeot came fourth in the constructors standings.

PSA said the state of the market had forced them to put the brakes on their commitment to rallying, although they would be looking for other, less expensive avenues in sport in which to invest.

"Given the current economic climate in the industry PSA Peugeot Citroen has decided not to commit to the world rally championship beyond 2005," said a statement from PSA.

PSA however said the current state of company finances would have to hold sway over the relative success they have enjoyed in the sport.

"We've been involved in world rally for five years in a row and picked up five constructors titles and three drivers titles, both of which are the fruit of the determined and passionate hard work of people from both Citroen and Peugeot," the statement added.

"But at the same time it has also required an important financial commitment."

The full story

MundayWeb

Ever wanted to know how the dinosaurs died? Well this little video tell you how.

Jurassic Fart

A machine that ties a tie

The wonderful contraption pictured above can do it.

562 is a lot fewer than it would take me, since I never learned to tie one.

My tie - I only have one - was tied the day I bought it by the guy who sold it to me.

I then had him take it off by carefully loosening it just enough to slip it over his head without destroying the knot.

I took it home, perfectly tied, and hung it over the top of a hanger.

On those very rare days when, for one reason or another, a tie is required, I loosen the knot and slip it over my head, and I'm good to go.

The three-foot-tall tie-tying machine, called "Why Knot?", was built by retired biomedical engineer Seth Goldstein in his basement in Bethesda, Maryland.

It holds a tie mounted on a stand, surrounded by motor-driven levers, gears, and rollers.

The machine goes through its paces, then unties it, straightens it, and does it again, until you turn it off.

Goldstein built it to illustrate the complicated processes behind daily tasks.

Well, he's sure convinced me.

No wonder I couldn't figure it out when people tried to show me how. But I digress.

Next year, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers is going to put the machine on exhibit at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute.

A can't-miss attraction for moi when the bookofjoe World Tour hits the City of Brotherly Love.

[via Wired Magazine]

ZoomQuilt

This is super cool. Its a flashythingy that zooms in and in and in, eventually it cycles back but its still cool.<

a href="http://public.hbk-bs.de/~baumgarn/zoomquilt/zoom.htm">1.6mb

Another stupid law suit over a patent no one cares about

A US legal firm specialising into corporate law is taking the world's biggest computer games publishers to task over what it claims is the violation of a 1987 3D graphics patent.

The patent, number 4,734,690 is owned one-time printing and graphics specialist Tektronix and covers the display in 2D of a 3D image. It was filed in April 1987 and granted almost a year later.

The technique described is used by almost every game that uses 3D modelling, from the latest titles right back to the likes of Quake and possibly right back to Doom and even Wolfenstein - all products of the 1990s. It covers the use of a 3D space - the UAC HQ on Mars, say - to encompass one or more 3D objects - half a dozen Cacodeamons, say. The patent details how panning across the scene - sidestepping past a plasma bolt, say - can be realistically depicted on a 2D display, such as a computer monitor.

Given its ubiquity, the firm behind the suit, Dallas, Texas-based McKool Smith, has named all the big guns in the gaming industry, including Electronic Arts, Activision, Take Two, Ubisoft, Atari, THQ, Vivendi Universal, Sega, Square Enix, Tecmo, Lucasarts and Namco. Some smaller firms are also in line for action, apparently.

Prior art may yet come to their rescue. Early 3D games, such as The Colony and Spectre, released in the late 1980s, may just come in ahead of the 1987 filing. Early CAD and 3D graphics apps may also utilise the kind of process outlined in the patent, which doesn't explicitly focus on games, though that's clearly where the money is these days. Heck, even Elite, from the BBC Micro days, might well utilise such a techique.

Who said you cant get free music

Tis a remix of the "fwordsong" by dubdentist. (heard it on the radio)

Marty Beckerman

The guy just does not hold back. I presenting Marty Beckerman.

geewhiz.com.au

Sometimes I wish for a little orginality. Like if ur gona copy somehting, copy many things. Mix it up a bit...

This site has a cool domain name and has some hiveish elements to it...

Presenting: elevenxy

Whats so funny about this. Its a design company... HAHAHA

Aussie Huey Pilots in the Shite

AN army chopper crew has been stood down after a crewman issued a very public invitation for women to "show us your tits" at the recent Indy 300 car race on the Gold Coast.

Unfortunately for the crew of Iroquois helicopter No 295, an onlooker in a high-rise flat snapped a photo of the sign displayed by a crewman as the chopper flew along the beachfront on October 23.

The image ended up on the website of the Professional Pilots Rumour Network.

The photo attracted a variety of mostly approving comments on the website's forum, including "Onya boys!!!!" and "Now how about the shots taken from the helicopter please?"

[from the news]

The pictures

Father angry at having no sons stabs his daughters

SOHAG, Egypt (AP) - A man angry with fathering no sons stabbed four of his seven daughters to death as they slept and seriously wounded the other three, police said Monday.

Abdel Nasser Ibrahim, 47, a muezzin, or mosque prayer caller, in the Sohag provincial town of Tima, 345 kilometres south of Cairo, repeatedly stabbed his seven sleeping daughters with two knives in a rampage that lasted several minutes, a police official said on condition of anonymity.

Killed were Samar, 15; Isra, 10; Fatima, 8; and Zeinab, 7. The screams of the three wounded daughters alerted neighbours to the pre-dawn crime and they later contacted police.

Horror flick's $23m

A HORROR film made on a shoestring budget by two Melbourne students has blitzed Hollywood, taking $23 million on its opening weekend.

James Wan and Leigh Whannell's Saw knocked out major studio movies and debuted as the third most watched movie in the United States.

Wan and Whannell scraped together $7000 to make a short version of Saw. They offered a seven-minute viewing of the film across the US and eventually struck gold with a US film company called Evolution.

The company offered up to $1.4 million to turn Saw into a feature film, and the pair accepted on the proviso Wan direct and Whannell star in it.

Evolution agreed and after making an estimated $20 million profit in just one weekend, the two RMIT students are expected to be flooded with offers for work.

Shit Art

This exhibit is a machine replica of the human digestive system, but made into a "robot poo machine".

You can also buy the shit.

War game gets prettier

This is a chess game which shows the thought processes of you opponent. Very cool.

Eight to go

Curiosity nearly killed the kitten when Milo climbed into his owner's washing machine.

Eight-week-old Milo was hoping for a cat-nap at Ginny Troth's house in Redditch, Worcestershire, when he settled down on her laundry.

But Mrs Troth, who had been searching for Milo, unwittingly switched on the machine for a spin wash.

Mrs Troth said it was only then that she realised where he might be.

'I just felt sick,' she said. 'I switched it off immediately and put it on to drain and started to pull out washing.

'He just appeared out of the middle of it and was in a pretty poor state.

'My daughter and I were both hysterical. We wrapped him in a towel and took him to the vet.'

Milo could not open his eyes, had water on his lungs and was hypothermic.

Vets feared the worst - but he had used up only one of his nine lives. "

Painless supervilan is a girl

PATTERSON, Georgia (AP) -- Ashlyn Blocker's parents and kindergarten teachers all describe her the same way: fearless. So they nervously watch her plunge full-tilt into a childhood deprived of natural alarms.

In the school cafeteria, teachers put ice in 5-year-old Ashlyn's chili. If her lunch is scalding hot, she'll gulp it down anyway.

On the playground, a teacher's aide watches Ashlyn from within 15 feet, keeping her off the jungle gym and giving chase when she runs. If she takes a hard fall, Ashlyn won't cry.

Ashlyn is among a tiny number of people in the world known to have congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis, or CIPA -- a rare genetic disorder that makes her unable to feel pain.

Supervilans click here

Super-tough coating for cellphones and discs

The colour LCD screens on cellphones and PDAs can get badly scratched in pockets stuffed with loose change and keys. And CDs and DVDs become unplayable in no time when children use them as indoor frisbees. Now a tough, transparent polymer coating developed by chemists in Japan is set to make scratched phone screens and scuffed discs a thing of the past.

In one of the most convincing technology demonstrations this reporter has witnessed, I was handed a CD, a wire-wool pan scourer and some permanent marker pens, and invited to scratch or mark the discs. Hard as I tried, I could not make a single mark on the disc with the scourer. And the ink simply wiped off.

The only person to have succeeded in damaging the disc had undertaken a determined attack with a Swiss army knife, according to TDK, the company that has developed the coating.

Matrix Online

Give the movie guys credit. The boys from Warner Bros. are doing all they can to send the upcoming Matrix game, The Matrix Online, into the world with some solid legs under it.

In announcing that Lawrence "Morpheus" Fishburne would participate in the game by lending his voice-acting skills, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment senior vice president Jason Hall said, "Since The Matrix Online is the legitimate continuation of The Matrix storyline, we felt that it was imperative to preserve character continuity between this game and the films as much as possible."

To that end, and in the spirit of "capturing the authenticity of the Matrix films," gamers can expect the likenesses and voices of most of the trilogy's cast to surface in the game: Lawrence Fishburne appears as Morpheus, Monica Bellucci as Persephone, Mary Alice as The Oracle, Lambert Wilson as The Merovingian, Harold Perrineau Jr. as Link, Harry Lennix as Locke, Nona Gaye as Zee, Collin Chou as Seraph, and Tanveer Atwal as Sati.