New Record 101, No Lube

I had a great time breaking the World Record Anal Gang Bang record yesterday. In case you haven't heard, the new record is 101 with no lube. Astroglide and AIM were kind enough to donate lube for the event. Everyone that has worked with me knows that I don't care to use lube during an anal scene but I thought I would probably need some for this. Turns out I didn't.

Touching is Good

A new set of ads targeted at young males began airing yesterday with the slogan ‘Touching is Good’. In their attempt to sex up their image, Nintendo somehow forgot to add the sex. The ads feature some static, two blue squares, and a woman’s voice ecouraging you to touch the squares. This is apparently sexy for people with blue square fetish (it’s a real fetish, I promise) and is going to make the rest of us buy the DS.

Delkin Devices - eFilm Digital Camera Media Storage Products & Accessories - Press Releases

Delkin Devices, Inc., manufacturer of quality eFilm memory cards and other innovative products, today introduced the eFilm Archival Gold '300-Year' CD-R. eFilm Archival Gold CD-R's incorporate patented Phthalocyanine (thalo-sy-a-neen) dye and a 24k gold reflective layer into every CD-R. The innovative materials found in eFilm Archival Gold CD-R's make them one of the most reliable storage medium available. Typically CD-R's are known to deteriorate quickly due to Earth's common elements: ultra violet light, heat, and humidity. Using an accelerated aging process to test the longevity of CD-R media, eFilm Archival Gold CD-R's have been shown to safely store your images for more than 300 years.

Pylons double child cancer risk

Children living under high-voltage power lines could run double the risk of getting cancer, new research reportedly suggests.

Those living within 100 metres of the cables are more likely to suffer from leukaemia, the study indicates.

The Childhood Cancer Research Group at Oxford University studied 70,000 children under 15 for the Department of Health report, half of whom had cancer.

The seven-year study is reported in the Times and the Independent newspapers.

The research looked at the prevalence of high-voltage power cables near children's homes.

'Surprising' results

Dog Calls Ambulance and Opens Door for Paramedics

It was like a scene from Lassie. A dog telephoned for an ambulance and then unlocked the door for the police after her owner fell from her wheelchair.

After calling 911, four-year-old Rottweiler, Faith, barked urgently into the receiver to get help for 45-year-old Leana Beasley.

Ms Beasley suffered a seizure at her home in Washington state, in the north west United States.

“I sensed there was a problem on the other end of the 911 call,” said emergency operator Jenny Buchanan.

“The dog was too persistent in barking directly into the phone receiver. I knew she was trying to tell me something.”

Faith has been trained to knock the receiver off the hook and press a speed dial button to call the emergency services.

But that’s not all. The dog is also trained in first aid.

history2

weebl and Bobs adventure continues

New Weebl and Bob

A history lesson by Weebl and is friend bob.

The Eyes Have It

The mobile Internet suffers from scarcities. Wireless bandwidth is too low. Radio spectrum is in short supply. Batteries don't last long enough. Screens are too small. The first three challenges are non-trivial, but solutions are already emerging. Display size is a bit trickier though. New applications for mobile devices have led to a run on screen real estate and there's not much room for expansion inside your pocket. However, in the next five to ten years, virtual retina displays will change the way we look at our mobile devices.

Ice Photos

Cool photos of ice.

H4x0r3z logo

Ridgelift writes "Eric S. Raymond is href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/hacker-emblem/">proposing a new
logo for Hackerdom. 'The Linux folks have their href="http://www.isc.tamu.edu/~lewing/linux/">penguin and the
BSDers their demon.
Perl's got a camel, FSF
fans have their href="http://www.fsf.org/graphics/gnu-head-sm.jpg">gnu and OSI's
got an open-source
logo. What we haven't had, historically, is an emblem that
represents the entire hacker community of which all these groups are
parts. This is a proposal that we adopt one - href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/hacker-emblem/faqs.html">the glider
pattern from the Game of Life.'"

I actually like the hackor logo, its simple, but when u think of
hacking u think of something more sinister not something nicey nice
logo...

Stolen from Slashdot [http://slashdot.org/articles/03/10/29/2317202.shtml]


--
The information contained in this email and any files transmitted with
it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual
or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email
in error please promptly notify the sender by reply email and then
delete the email and destroy any printed or other form of copy.
Additionally, if you have received this email in error, you must not
disclose or use this information in any way.

i'm feeling spendy!

These little pages on the internet search for a random item on amazon given an amount you would like to spendy.

1
2

Its Sexy, Its Scary, Its Bread

Its halloween soon, So why not take some inspiration and make something thats truly gahstly...

And if you thought grandma's pussy was scary check out the Vampire Vagina and Witch's Tit Cookies. Check it out!

http://www.porn-bread.com/halloween.htm

[Thanks Baker Bob]

How Much is Too Much?

Not that this would happen, but just in case...

Actually I was looking for whats the minimum I should be exercising and too see if I was doing too much or too little areobic work. Turns out I'm doing the right amount. Hooray.

The American College of Sports Medicine has issued the following guidelines for physical activity:
AEROBIC
Frequency 3-5 days per week
Intensity

50-85% estimated maximum heart rate, or exercise perceived to be "somewhat hard" or "hard"
Duration 20-60 minutes of continuous exercise
RESISTANCE
Frequency 2-3 days per week
Intensity/Duration 1-3 sets of 8-12 repetitions; 10 -12 total exercises, one for each major muscle group (chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteals, calves and core - abs and low back)

Galumpia

WARNING: THIS SITE CONTAINS IMAGES

Technology Magazine

That promotes making stuff....

MUHWHAHAH

Email Etiquette

Email Etiquette. Its important, esspecialy when applying for jobs and the such.

Why Is It Important?

anti-telemarketing counterscript

Print this out and keep it near the phone. This
script has been designed to help you when conversing with telemarketers.

living computer

A University of Florida scientist has grown a living "brain" that can fly a simulated plane, giving scientists a novel way to observe how brain cells function as a network.

The "brain" -- a collection of 25,000 living neurons, or nerve cells, taken from a rat's brain and cultured inside a glass dish -- gives scientists a unique real-time window into the brain at the cellular level. By watching the brain cells interact, scientists hope to understand what causes neural disorders such as epilepsy and to determine noninvasive ways to intervene. As living computers, they may someday be used to fly small unmanned airplanes or handle tasks that are dangerous for humans, such as search-and-rescue missions or bomb damage assessments.

"We're interested in studying how brains compute," said Thomas DeMarse, the UF professor of biomedical engineering who designed the study. "If you think about your brain, and learning and the memory process, I can ask you questions about when you were 5 years old and you can retrieve information. That's a tremendous capacity for memory. In fact, you perform fairly simple tasks that you would think a computer would easily be able to accomplish, but in fact it can't."

While computers are very fast at processing some kinds of information, they can't approach the flexibility of the human brain, DeMarse said. In particular, brains can easily make certain kinds of computations – such as recognizing an unfamiliar piece of furniture as a table or a lamp – that are very difficult to program into today's computers.

"If we can extract the rules of how these neural networks are doing computations like pattern recognition, we can apply that to create novel computing systems," he said.

link

Make it flat

This middle aged man likes to flatten things.

Depleted Uranium

The recent crash of a Boeing 747 in Halifax, Canada, raises a number of questions about the use of depleted uranium (DU) in airplanes, public health concerns and the 9-11 attacks. When a Boeing 747 crashed and burned on takeoff at Halifax International Airport in Nova Scotia, Canada, on Oct. 14, an official accident investigator said the aircraft probably contained radioactive depleted uranium.

Bill Fowler, an investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said the plane was likely equipped with DU as counterweights in its wings and rudder.

“A 747 may contain as much as 1,500 kilograms [3,300 lbs.] of the material,” the Canadian Press reported. It took 60 firefighters and 20 trucks about three hours to control the fire.

Limozine Bike

Or is just a tandum...

Permanent Big Brother

German Big Brother contestants could stay on a new version of the show until they die.

Hooters Restaurant Opens In China

China. Its a hoot.

Trippy

Like I need anything like this atm... But anyway, this is another optical illusion to disturb the cat with.

Journalist killed in Iraq by US missile

Its the

video.

That'll be two Royals Thanks.

Got any spareKoalas.

[Note: May contain traces of Australs]

Stupid word of the month

Exrament

That concludes the 500th Post

goats

This comic is even more funny.

goats: the comic strip | by jonathan rosenberg | new comics every monday through thursday

Overcompensating: Jeffrey Rowland's True Oklahoma Stories

I like these here comics

Overcompensating: Jeffrey Rowland's True Oklahoma Stories

KFC New Orleans

The new KFC New Orleans burger is horrible. Do not buy it. It tastes like anaseade mixed with chicken, mixed with yuck.

identify fonts and typefaces

Ever saw a cool font and thought, "wow that would look good in wordart..." and then you realised your not a graphic designer and cant identify fonts off the cuff... Well fear not simpletons as the internet is here to help. This little widget asks you a bunch of questions, and then as if by magic it spits out a range offonts.

You can also play a little game and see how many times you can click "not sure"... (my record so far is 37)

Photos of drugs

The US Drug stoping agency has a library of
photos

PEPE DELUXE!

I have had a copy of the pepe deluxe album for a while now, but never listend to it... Whoo! they are from finland and made the music for that levis ad. But the other stuff is better. Anyway, what makes it even cooler is that u can listen to the stuff over the net. For some reason when you like more than 75% of a album you are inclined to buy it. Hopefully I can get through this stage and into the stage where I dont like it as much anymore stage.

PEPE DELUXE!

Interest rate rises

Another article on intrest rate rises. But this one actually looks at other things and doesnt assume too much like the other one (eg home brew economics....)

Enjoy.

Japan Kills 400 Australian Whales

The fucking Japanese are at it again. You would think that one whale would provide enought tissue samples becuase of the size of it.... I was thinking isnt there fines for killing Koalas or Cockatoos etc... Geez Maybe there should be fines for killing Whales that live in Australian water. Not to mention its a SANCTUARY... We're not even allowed to pick up twigs from the bush...

Anyway, I hope the creature they are creating will eat them... ala evangelion...

The possibly, recently ancient and moderately worshipful shrine to THE KNEES OF MICALLEF

An interview with Peter Cellars and other video stuff from Micallef

An Introduction to the Law of Contract

A funny video that establishes the elements of a contract

Just click on "online preview"

More video

C-Mon And Kypski - SHITTY BUM

Funny "Flashy" Video

Brought to you by the UK Independence party.

[Note: Not actual UK independence party]
[Note2: There is penis in this video]

Leave It To Bush!

Another Bush flash. Oh and something about toilets.

ROFL-3000

New keyboard design.

Not so flash now...

Not to be out done by Rob and Dave. Jonti decides to make a live musical extraviganza, that one can only describe as "Why do I frequent this site...".

Sisters Of Merci!

Rob Manuel and Dave (Keytar) sing live. In a hip-hop/gothic mishmash of non-flash (video) groovyness.

Stunts gone Wrong

This is a stunt by some british folk living over in Britan. For some reason it reminds me of Shaun of the dead.

Yelling and vomiting: a crime?

Did you know that it may be a href="http://www.news.qut.edu.au/cgi-bin/WebObjects/News.woa/wa/goNewsPage?newsEventID=3269">crime to yell at your partner, have an argument with your neighbour, or even vomit, in a public place?

A report released today by QUT associate law lecturer Tamara Walsh, suggests that many people are being charged with the new offence of 'public nuisance' for extremely trivial behaviour.

The release of this report, titled From Park Bench to Court Bench, coincides with the tabling today of the Summary Offences Bill in the Queensland Parliament which replaces the Vagrants, Gaming and Other Offences Act.

"My research suggests that there has been a 200 per cent increase in the number of people coming before the court for offensive language and offensive behaviour since the new section was introduced in April this year," Ms Walsh said.

"People are being convicted and punished for trivial things, like arguing with family members or neighbours in the street.

"In fact, people have even been arrested for vomiting in public."

Ms Walsh said the new Summary Offences Bill repealed a number of antiquated offences, including the offence of 'vagrancy'.

However, she said that despite clear evidence that people are being arrested for trivial behaviour under the new 'public nuisance' offence, the government has retained the offence in the new Bill.

"While the repeal of the Vagrants, Gaming and Other Offences Act is welcome, we would have expected the new legislation to bring about reform. By retaining the offence of public nuisance, people can still be arrested for trivial things which the police should instead turn a blind eye to," Ms Walsh said.

Ms Walsh's research also found that more than one third of all arrests for public nuisance are for minor insults directed at police officers. In view of the recent High Court decision of Coleman v Power it seems that the enforcement of 'public nuisance' is often unlawful.

"In Coleman, a majority of the High Court agreed that police should turn a blind eye to minor insults directed at them because they are trained to be 'thick-skinned'. Yet police constantly arrest people for calling them names or telling them to go away," Ms Walsh said.

"While some of the recommendations from my report have been implemented by the government in its new Bill, overall the Bill will not lead to significant reform. People in Queensland are entitled to laws which will not penalise them for trivial behaviour. Police resources should be spent on policing real crimes, rather than arresting people for yelling in the street or vomiting."

Howard on Accounting

The new governments accounting initiatives.

WiKi: CSS

A wiki on CSS.

Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia - 2005 standards now available in bound handbook

Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia - 2005 standards now available in bound handbook

How to take down a website

What's the easiest way to take down a web site? Do you:

a) write your own app to exploit a new vulnerability in the web server, give yourself super user rights to the box, and then just run amok modifying and deleting files?

b) Do you just ping flood the server using a whole bunch of zombie nodes using a tool you downloaded from 1337hax0rsgetse.cx?

No. You sent the host a single email from a Hotmail account telling them that you're a law firm, and the content is in breach of copyright law.

"Bits of Freedom signed up with 10 Dutch ISPs and used the websites to host text by Dutch author Multatuli, dating from 1871. Multatuli died in 1887 and his works are now in the public domain. A notice to that effect was attached to the published content.

The organisation then posed as the copyright holders of the work. A "legal representative" of the fake E.D. Dekkers society sent a "complaint" demanding that "copyright infringing" content be pulled forthwith to the 10 ISPs. The complaint - sent via a Hotmail account - cited notice and takedown provisions in the recent European E-commerce Directive."

How accurate is your bowling?

How accurate is your bowling?

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Or is it a guide to everything

Want to be a spy?

If you ever wanted to be a spy, check out this game.

Foamy the Squirrel

The squirrel that is good at reverse physcology

eBay item 5527883667

this is a unique auction where you can buy my entire collection of conscious memories up till and including my second birthday. I guarantee you that if you win this auction, i will supply you with a certificate of ownership of my memories, detailing any memories of this era which i may have at the time of issue ( which will probably consist of nothing).

If , upon your ownership of my memories, i recall any situation predating my second birthday, i will not share these with anyone unless prior permission is given by yourself.

there is a low reserve on this valuable? item.

happy bidding....

Hardcore Puppets

They are hardcore and they are
Puppets

Troll XP

Funny video from the helpdesk.

No longer will there be Ball boys at tennis matches. Now there will be hot chixors handling the balls.

Matt Damon Comes out

I can imagine growing old with Ben Affleck

Perform or perish

Anna Candler says no good can come of annual reviews

Among my corporate achievements the one I am quietly proudest of has been my ability to avoid my performance reviews. Call me a slow learner – it took three appraisals before I learned that nothing good ever came of partaking in this activity.

The performance review is high on everyone’s list of annualised torment. In theory, it is supposed to be a positive interaction between your “coach” and you, working together to maximise your abilities. In reality it is a way of obtaining a signed confession of your crimes against corporate efficiencies and office productivity. It helps justify your low salary.

Ostensibly, the review process requires you to rate yourself on a scale of one to five on a range of issues. This means you can portray yourself in one of two ways. The first is as a self-effacing nobody dumb enough to list weaknesses that can and will be used against you. The second is as a self-promoting egomaniac who thinks no means yes and insults are a hidden way for your colleagues to convey their affection for you.

AFR BOSS - News and ideas - Corporate Life: Perform or perish

Corporate Blogging

Too much control, too little talking: with corporate-speak in danger of clogging business relationships, the blog could help companies open up the channels

AFR BOSS -

workout without leaving work

* http://www.fitnesszone.co.za/exercise1
If you want to mentally gear up for the new, fitter you, check out this site while you’re at work. Slightly hectoring in tone, it gets you to sit up straight immediately with talk about people’s “personal fitness responsibilities”. Reassurance for time-poor professionals comes in the form of tips (get serious, set goals, get organised… ) and links to a comprehensive list of fitness-related topics, including aerobics; diet and weight loss; injuries; low-fat cooking; stress; strength training and pilates.

Other links offer leads on equipment. There are tips of the day to keep you going, and the fitness links are divided into women’s (PMS, cellulite, abdominal training – even hair removal) and men’s (bodybuilding, strength training, generic viagra). Check out the ads for everything from gym wear to a Paula Abdul video (Get Up and Dance!).


* www.activekarm.com
In “How to get fit at work”, Mateen Khan exhorts busy executives to get over the “no time for exercise” lament and incorporate some physical activity into their day at the office. Her list of suggestions include: have your business discussions during a morning walk or jog; take the stairs; explore the area around your office; and the radical idea that you try walking to deliver a message rather than emailing.

Most importantly, let your boss know about your fitness goals so you can get them onside. It’s not rocket science, but a good reminder of the principle that any activity is better than none.


* www.free-beauty-tips.com/exatwork.html
No, not make-up advice but a list of instructions for short, simple exercises to do while sitting or standing at your desk. And after you’ve done with sweating you can check out the tips on eyebrow and nailcare, or even write a love poem.


* www.cyberparent.com/fitness/work
This site is bursting with motivational messages, such as Exercise Helps You Work Efficiently! Fifteen or 20 minutes of exercise each day will improve your mental productivity, it trumpets. Simple but reinforcing, with links under such headings as: walking is a lifetime exercise; exercise and look younger; stress, that robber of health and fitness; and On the Web’s favourite, sleep for fitness.


* www.lufkindailynews.com/health
An excellent general fitness resource, containing daily health news, informative articles and a fitness video library, designed for the overworked and under-exercised.

Click on “exercise at work” for reports on research into the beneficial effects of more activity at work – more time on your feet, more lifting – for diabetics in particular. You don’t have to wait until you’ve developed diabetes to take note.

AFR BOSS -

Time: cut to the chase

How to fix the damn problem

Financial Review BOSS | Magazine > Time: cut to the chase: "Time: cut to the chase"

By Catherine Fox

There’s only one solution if you find you can’t get through your work, says the time-management expert Brian Stuhlmuller: be realistic and get your priorities right

Tired at the thought of trawling through the email, voicemail and mail before you even get to the day's “must do” list? Still thinking you can get it all under control if you only have enough time, energy or willpower? You don't need a new job, you need to be realistic, according to Brian Stuhlmuller, a US-based expert in productivity.

Most of us are incapable of ever getting through all the work we are given, he says. so it's time to reorganise to keep sane and productive.

The former time-management consultant now runs his own business conducting seminars for clients such as Microsoft and Hilton Hotels around the world. Using the rather cheesy label Mission Control (which should appeal to another client, NASA), Stuhlmuller addresses one of the key issues of modern business life – the stress and panic induced by avalanches of information.

The habits we use for dealing with workloads are firmly rooted in the past, he suggests. “I get 275 emails a day. There's no way I can read that in a day,” he says. The question is why so many of us keep trying in the face of such logistics.

Part of the answer is our conditioning: “When you were in school you had lessons and there were consequences for not doing them, so you trained yourself and there were punishments for not getting work done.”

As technology has dramatically compressed the time taken for basic tasks while flinging more and more data at us, it's little wonder we feel out of control. Our habits are lagging behind the reality of office practices. “In the 1960s you could get it all done and you could catch up,” says Stuhlmuller. “Now it's not going to happen, but people are still organised around the idea they can control it.”

But he is reluctant to blame all our workload woes on modern organisations and the bosses’ demands for greater productivity. Sure, there are more demands, and we are producing more. But some of our dilemmas could be resolved by setting limits and priorities more clearly, giving both manager and employee a true picture of what can be achieved.

In his workshops Stuhlmuller tells participants to say no to more work, because it's the truth and it allows the boss a chance to set priorities.

“Start working on the things that make the biggest difference,” he advises. The first step in the process is to define the most important things you need to do, a task that is yours alone. It's a degree of consciousness we are not encouraged to develop, but it can be learned.

“Then you have to develop a new set of practices to engage with what is coming at you so you can deal with that mass of stuff,” he says.

It helps to map out your work habits, which generally fall into one of a handful of typical profiles. “We keep presenting people with a set of models and cases of typical work habits so they can be aware of them and identify their version. Then they have the incentive to take on new practices designed to handle that level of work. People build their own inventory of how to structure what they need to do – lists and reminders. We give them a system to capture what they need to find and how.”

There are a few simple practices to take the tension out of daily routines, and once they are in place the new regime takes about three months to become like second nature. There's a need for balance between planning well in advance (Stuhlmuller’s diary is planned three months in advance, but with plenty of latitude for the unexpected) and coping with daily demands.

“Never schedule back to back because you need time for last-minute interruptions,” Stuhlumuller says. “I am interrupted all day and you allow for that. Then you track the pattern. People aren't conscious of the pattern in their life and they don't schedule. But confronting the reality of their schedule means discovering they can't get it all done. You feel guilty and stressed and overwhelmed, and that's part of the habit. It's easier to feel guilty than change the habit.”

Email is an excellent case in point. Stuhlmuller recommends learning about the pattern of your emails, what percentage is information, who they are from, and who you need to respond to.

“I look at and respond to maybe 40 within half an hour. I process all my emails, and then allocate some time to respond in more detail, and I put those in a folder. That enables me to keep up with the volume. We use email in the way we used to use office memos or office gossip, but it's a slow medium for communicating some thoughts.”

Stuhlmuller says we are 30 per cent more productive than we were five years ago, thanks largely to technology. But research has found that in the past 15 years there has been no improvement in an individual's ability to deal with the technology they are given. Most people don't learn what technology does because it is more comfortable to stay with what they know. Don't beat yourself up about this, but take time to embrace change. Stuhlmuller suggests spending 30 minutes three times a week learning the technology. “Play with it without being under the gun,” he says. “That may be the most productive thing you can do.”

You should also take as much down time as you need. Recognise there are times you can't do certain tasks and use those periods differently, Stuhlmuller suggests. Understanding the best way to work is a skill for our entire lives.

“I've got one life and this notion of having a work life and a personal life disappeared once I started Mission Control. The organisations don't recognise it, and that's because we don't tell them. If you put up with too much work and not enough flexibility, it will keep happening.''


Time it right
1. Make a record of your daily and weekly work practices.

2. Record tasks you have to do as they occur to you (Stuhlmuller uses a small voice recorder) then put them out of your mind until they go into your daily schedule/diary.

3. Scan emails and sort them into those requiring immediate responses, non-urgent responses, and no response but needed for reference. Put the last two groups into folders. Set aside 45 minutes twice a week to produce the detailed responses.

4. Don't use email when a quick conversation or memo will do.

5. Plan well ahead but always allow plenty of time for the unexpected.

It's about time

Normaly I wouldnt blog such a big article but I Think its a good read

So which one are you? A pre-emptive or a procrastinator? Either way, you’re abusing time

Managers categorise their employees in many ways. Some like to distinguish between extroverts and introverts. Others prefer to look at how willing or unwilling their employees are to take risks. Only rarely do top managers group their people according to their use or abuse of time.

Time abuse is very different from the common and well-covered problem of time management. While the vast majority of us can benefit from practical insights on how to organise our lives better, lessons in time management will have little impact on time abusers. That’s because real time abuse results from psychological conflict that neither a workshop nor a manager’s cajoling can easily cure. Indeed, the time abuser’s quarrel isn’t even with time, but rather with a brittle self-esteem and an unconscious fear of being evaluated and found wanting.

As a clinical psychologist and executive coach, I have observed hundreds of time abusers and have worked one-on-one with more than a dozen in their battle with the clock. Over the years, I’ve come across four main kinds of time abusers.

Financial Review BOSS | Magazine > It's about time

Contd...
The pre-emptive
The rarest of time abusers are people who compulsively beat the clock. They finish assignments weeks ahead of schedule and always seem to be in control. So what’s the problem?

Often there is none. In fact, pre-emptives can thrive for long periods in organisations without ever drawing negative attention, precisely because managers delight in having what appear to be low-maintenance workers. Over time, however, pre-emptives can cause morale problems because they ignore the way their behaviour affects others. They are seldom team players. While their work is often first-rate, they are typically asocial individuals who, while not actively hostile, fail to take their group’s needs into account. For instance, their obsession with beating deadlines makes them move on to other assignments just when they should be accessible to colleagues on the previous one. If their attempts to stay in control are viewed by colleagues as manoeuvres to curry favour or to overshadow the efforts of others, serious dissension can erupt.

Why do people become obsessed with beating the clock? Although a small percentage become pre-emptives as a result of traumatic experiences in adulthood – say, severe illness or the sudden loss of a job – it is largely a response to being raised in a highly disruptive environment.

Far from demanding punctuality – which would provide a sense of predictability and orderliness that, while usually resented, does not produce fear – parents of future pre-emptives are always changing the rules. A future pre-emptive may be cleaning their room (as ordered) then find themselves chastised for not doing their homework. As a result of this arbitrariness, pre-emptives believe that if they don’t comply immediately with a directive the request may be changed at a moment’s notice and they will be open to criticism. By minimising the extent to which anything but their own behaviour determines their fate, these early birds seek to make a pre-emptive strike against that feeling.

So how do you manage the pre-emptives? In my experience the only way to get them to confront their fear of disorder is to put them in a position where they think they are getting more control when in fact they are being forced to interact with their peers. One way to do this is to promote your pre-emptive to a position such as unit head or director of a sub-department. Through socialising and accepting responsibility for others, the pre-emptive will gradually learn to accept unpredictable demands while becoming more flexible. Another approach is to get this person to mentor others. Mentoring is a way for them to get the kudos they crave. Ultimately, this role will lead them to develop greater social awareness and interpersonal skills.




The people pleaser
While the vast majority of us want to be helpful, saying yes all the time is highly dysfunctional. When a person chronically takes on more and more responsibilities out of a fear of confronting authority, he will inevitably commit too much of his time to unproductive projects – he will sit on a project that he should have passed on to someone else much earlier.

Like pre-emptives, people pleasers develop problems with time because of difficult interactions with authority figures. In their early environment their feelings were not sufficiently valued. People pleasers are taught to subordinate their desires for the good of others, notably their parents. The covert message that they should subordinate their needs not only breeds resentment of being controlled but can also evoke feelings of rage.

In the workplace, people pleasers often resort to time abuse to vent their anger. For example, they agree to take on a task they don’t want and then devote obsessive attention to its minutest details. Although this form of over-compliance can win approval, unchecked it can lead to conflicts with the very authority figures they are endeavouring to please.

People pleasers often nurse deep anger, so if you have a direct report who is an inveterate people pleaser, you should consider getting them some form of assertiveness training. Your people pleaser needs to learn better how to set limits and, ultimately, how to handle their anger.

Managing lateness, however, is more complicated. The clear message you have to send is: “If you don’t hear it as a direct request from me, don’t do it.” You can institute regular meetings to monitor what your people pleaser is doing for whom. So if you hear that they are preparing materials for another department, calmly assign some of their assignments to another employee. A simple “I need you here with me” also addresses the people pleaser’s chronic need for appreciation.




The perfectionist
Perfectionists are time abusers who can hold people hostage for indefinite periods of time. But they do it out of anguish rather than rage. They take more time than allotted to satisfy extremely unrealistic but deeply internalised standards of excellence. And they get away with it because they do first-rate work.

For a perfectionist, performance is all or nothing; good enough will never suffice. To achieve such high ideals, the perfectionist posts psychological Do Not Disturb signs all around him as he works. Emotionally isolated, they frequently appear arrogant and dismissive. They require absolute control over the quality of their product.

People often assume perfectionists suffer from obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. Both perfectionists and those with OCD worry incessantly, are over-scrupulous and extremely preoccupied with exerting control over people, places and things. But a hallmark of OCD is an obsession with rituals and rules, which helps allay anxiety. Perfectionists don’t let rules get in the way: in their pursuit of excellence, they ignore all the regulations.

So what makes perfectionists tick? While there is no single theory, if a child is shamed for failing to meet impossible standards while his self-image is forming, he will later develop a keen sense of humiliation. Harsh demands made on a child can be traumatic. According to the psychoanalyst Erik Erikson, in early childhood a person either learns to feel autonomous or starts to distrust himself. If parents do not help the child build inner confidence at this stage, he will be haunted by a chronic sense of inferiority for which he will constantly overcompensate. A perfectionist is too vulnerable to feeling ashamed of his productions ever to give anyone less than the best.

A cardinal law of psychiatry is that parents must respond to a child with respect and empathy if he is to acquire a healthy sense of self-worth. Otherwise, the child will develop so-called narcissistic vulnerabilities that drive the person to seek escape through grandiose fantasies and a sense of entitlement. In this view, perfectionism is an inevitable by-product of a narcissistic disorder. The perfectionist copes with their vulnerability by doing all they can to prevent criticism: “If my work is beyond reproach, then no one can find me wanting.”

Perfectionists feel they must demonstrate extraordinary proficiency to succeed or be accepted in organisations. Unfortunately, their perfectionism also makes them very uncompromising colleagues. And a perfectionist’s strategy for winning acceptance is precisely what makes it hard for them to gain acceptance.

In my experience, the technique that behavioural psychologists call flooding offers the only possibility of succeeding with perfectionists. Flooding is typically used to treat people who suffer from a morbid fear of contracting contagious diseases from normal daily interactions. They are forced to deal with potentially contaminated substances – like shaking hands and then eating a sandwich – and learn they can survive. Similarly, you can encourage your perfectionist to get as many colleagues as possible to evaluate his work prior to his submitting the perfect version for your final approval. This inoculates the perfectionist against a dread of evaluations by exposing them to low doses of what they most fear – criticism.

The procrastinator The most common type of time abuser, procrastinators leave assignments until the 11th hour and then throw themselves (and others) into a panic, working around the clock in a vain attempt to meet a deadline. While a perfectionist is sweating to achieve an A+ because that’s the only grade that’s acceptable, a procrastinator postpones doing any work out of fear that they cannot produce an A+.

Parents who praise the child too early and too often in the mistaken belief this is good for self-esteem is known to give rise to such chronic self-doubt. Typically, parents of future procrastinators do not respond to average performance with corrective feedback or disappointment. Instead they say: “You must not have been yourself when you did that, because the real you is perfect.” When a child is raised this way they develop an exalted self-opinion that they fear losing. Unless a child knows the praise is real, they become doubly disillusioned. On one hand, they resent being trapped by unrealistic expectations. On the other, because they come to suspect their parents’ admiration as false, they unconsciously distrust praise from others.

Common to both perfectionists and procrastinators is that their symptoms often grow worse after public acclaim. The situation is particularly acute for the procrastinator, who essentially fears that a promotion will increase the likelihood of failure; even well-earned praise serves only to exacerbate their need to finesse another deadline.

The only way to rescue a procrastinator is to strike at the heart of what they most fear: failure. One helpful technique involves helping them feel more comfortable imagining all the bad things that might happen if they were to turn in work on time but not up to par. Helping a procrastinator air their anxieties can help them understand that they can do remarkable work even if they are not always the superhero.

You can also help a procrastinator lower absurdly high expectations by telling them a project is like a pre-season game – that they should be looking for flaws that can be removed over time. By saying you expect glitches to occur, you give them licence to report problems and lower their anxiety about less-than-ideal performance.

Time abuse is a symptom of a problem, not the problem itself. It is impossible to cure a person of time abuse by managing their time. Instead, you must understand their need for control and fear of evaluation. Helping the time abuser change their ways will be a slow process – many will be in a state of deep denial that only long-term therapy will ever completely cure.

Yet the rewards of that kind of investment in your people can be great. The motivations that cause time abuse are often the same ones that drive people to perform well, so it is very likely that your company’s worst time abusers will also be its top performers.

Steven Berglas spent 25 years in the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and is now a researcher at UCLA’s school of management. © Harvard Business Review/New York Times Special Features..

Genuine Bull Organ Canes

The most unusual canes. A Bull Penis made into a walking cane and a walking stick. This is a legendary cane that represents power and stamina. Professionally cured by a taxidermy. 100% steralized.

"Bull Penis Walking Stick with brass knob."

Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer?

Test more of your leet or physcotic abilities with this little test

Parking

A little game to see who is better at parking

Men or women.

Jew "Preferential Treatment" indicator launced by US

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Jewish organizations have hailed final congressional approval of a bill that compels the State Department to create a special office to monitor anti-Semitic abuses around the world and compile annual reports rating countries on their treatment of Jews.

The bill, known as the Global Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, was introduced by Democratic Representative Tom Lantos (news, bio, voting record), the only Holocaust survivor in the US Congress, in response to recent acts of anti-Semitism in Europe and the Middle East.

The measure quietly cleared both the Senate and the House of Representatives by agreement and voice vote late last week -- over objections by the State Department.

The department has opposed the bill because it felt it would be seen as giving preferential treatment to Jews over other religious or ethnic groups in human rights reporting.

But last month, it received an angry letter from more than 100 prominent Americans, including former Republican vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp and ex-UN ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, saying that US diplomats were "wrong."

"It is the anti-Semites who are singling out Jews, and that is why the fight against anti-Semitism deserves specific, focused attention," the letter said.

Under the legislation, the State Department will have to produce an annual report on anti-Semitism around the world and publish it as part of its annual review of human rights.

Moreover, the bill creates a specific office within the department that would document anti-Semitic abuses and design strategies to combat them. It would be headed by a special envoy to spearhead the worldwide fight against anti-Semitism.

"Considering that anti-Semitism plagues all regions of the world, this special office will ensure that the United States resolutely denounces acts of anti-Semitism across the board, including state-sponsored anti-Semitism in Syria and elsewhere," said Republican Congressman Chris Smith, a co-sponsor of the legislation.

Rafael Medoff, director of the Pennsylvania-based David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, praised members of Congress on Monday for their "vision, courage and determination in overcoming the State Department's obstacles and achieving this crucial step in the battle against anti-Semitism."

Joel Schindler, president of the National Council of Soviet Jewry, said Congress "has now provided new avenues" for combating anti-Semitism around the world.

Barbara Balser, national chairwoman of the Anti-Defamation League, and Abraham Foxman, its national director, said acts of anti-Semitism witnessed over the last two years have underscored the need for greater monitoring of such crimes.

"As more governments take on this responsibility, strong US reporting on anti-Semitism as a human rights and religious freedom issue is vitally important," Balser and Foxman said.

The measure, which is largely expected to be signed by President George W. Bush (news - web sites), requires that the State Department document acts of physical violence against Jews, their property, cemeteries and places of worship abroad, as well as local governments' responses to them.

The report will also take note of instances of anti-Jewish propaganda and governments' readiness to promote unbiased school curricula emphasizing tolerance.

Among the attacks that prompted passage of the bill, the sponsors mentioned the burning of a Jewish synagogue in Toulon, France, last March, the desecration of about 50 Jewish gravestones in St. Petersburg, Russia, in February, and the recent claim by former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad that Jews "rule the world by proxy."

Firemen sacked for using fire engines to meet women

Nineteen
firefighters in Sacramento, California have been disciplined for using city fire engines to meet women, including at a local event in which people dressed as porn stars, an official said today.

Six firefighters have been fired and 13 others have been suspended or reprimanded following the largest internal probe ever by the Sacramento Fire Department, said Captain Niko King, the department's spokesman.

The misconduct investigation began in early July after reports of firefighters using city vehicles to cruise bars in the often sleepy state capital.

Later six firefighters were caught taking three city vehicles to a "Porn Star Costume Ball".

A woman at the event accused one of the firefighters of sexual assault aboard a fire engine.

Prosecutors dropped the charges after determining the sexual encounter was consensual, King said.

"It's an inappropriate use of city equipment, obviously," King said.

Creative unveils new smaller knock-off

After copying the iPod, Creative have decided to copy the iPod mini as well. Not only does it look similar but comes in about 20 different colours. Also they have [copyed] "ingeniously" the wheel navigation thingy by making it square looking... The only thing different is the battery life...

They call is the Zen Micro

Icon War

This is a funny flash animation where the icons on the desktop go nuts and kill each other.

Milk and Cereal

Its a song.

Thursday at 10:50

SBS supplys with more cool animationy goodness.

The Happy Tree Friends are cute, cuddly animals whose daily adventures always end up going horribly wrong. No matter how innocently their day begins, it always ends in mayhem. The ensemble cast includes Cuddles, the cutest darn rabbit you’ll ever meet, and Petunia, a sweet girl skunk always mindful to wear air freshener. Travelling through picturesque settings and speaking in a kooky language all their own, the Happy Tree Friends never know what chaos lingers just around the bend.

From Aardman Animations, home of Wallace and Gromit and one of Britain’s biggest film production companies, comes the anarchic, irreverent, and frequently stubborn Angry Kid. A mixture of live action and animation, this youth is definitely NOT suitable for family viewing. Angry Kid will target his parents, school and other typical adolescent gripes in his 60-second rants.

I would of got away with it if it wasnt for those damn medeling kids...

WASHINGTON is pressing the Howard Government to revisit laws governing the free trade agreement, warning the deal could otherwise be delayed indefinitely.

US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick has echoed the concerns of the powerful pharmaceuticals sector, which claims amendments forced by Labor in the Senate to protect the supply of generic drugs are in breach of international trading rules.

As observers suggest the US presidential election is a factor in the hardening of America's position, the Howard Government is standing firm and remains confident the breakthrough deal will still come into force from January 1.

A US trade official said US copyright and pharmaceutical industries had "raised concerns about certain aspects of Australia's enabling legislation". "And we share some of those concerns," the official, from Mr Zoellick's office, said.

The US had not decided yet how far to dig in over the issue, which was prompted by changes required by Labor in the Senate to legislation that will enable the FTA to proceed.

"We are not prepared at this point to take a position on its consistency with Australia's international obligations," the US official said, of the amendments forced by Mark Latham.

In short: Now that Howard has full control of both houses, we can say good buy to the PBS and Local content.

Stealing just not cricket

SIX members of the Fanatics supporters group were the subject of a police investigation yesterday after a drink-stealing incident that has disgusted Australian cricket management.

Victemless Leather

Humans, the naked/nude apes, have been covering their fragile bodies/skins to protect themselves from the external environment. This humble act for survival has developed into a complex social ritual which transformed the concept of a “Garment” into an evocative object that cannot be taken on its face value.

Garment became an expressive tool to project one's identity, social class, political stand and so on. Garments are humans' fabrication and can be explored as a tangible example of humans' treatment of the Other.

By growing Victimless Leather, the Tissue Culture & Art (TC&A) Project is further problematising the concept of garment by making it Semi-Living.

The Victimless Leather is grown out of immortalised cell lines which cultured and form a living layer of tissue supported by a biodegradable polymer matrix in a form of miniature stich-less coat like shape. The Victimless Leather project concerns with growing living tissue into a leather like material.


Wired

Note: check out the crazy images....

Driver Calls Police For Help When Cruise Control Gets Stuck At 120 MPH

PARIS -- A motorist in France went a little faster than he wanted when he claimed his cruise control got stuck, leaving him barreling down a busy highway at 120 mph and forcing police to help clear a route.

The Le Parisien newspaper quoted Hicham Dequiedt saying he was overtaking a truck when his Renault Vel Satis started to accelerate with a life of its own. He couldn't cut the ignition, he said, because his car has a magnetic card instead of a key.

STUFF : TECHNOLOGY - STORY : New Zealand's leading news and information website

They're a race apart - mysterious people who rarely talk, except in a language that few understand. Ask them about food, football and the meaning of life and you won't get much of a conversation. They might not even know what the company they work for does.

They're geeks and nerds: brilliant at what they do but hopeless at articulating it. Yet they cast envious glances at the people they report to - IT's non-nerds earning perhaps double their pay because they can walk the walk and speak the geek.

Concept Centaur

New Segway quadbike thingy to copy.

Ananova - Father wanted to name son '@'

A father in central China has been refused permission to
name his son '@'.

The dad wanted to name his son after keyboard character that appears in every email address, arguing it was now in common usage.

But officials in Zhengzhou, Henan province, refused to register the name on a legal technicality, the Beijing Morning Post reported.

Under Chinese law, all names must be capable of being translated into Mandarin.

eBay item 7927433876

Bike helmet for sale

Pirate Alert

A pirate has been spoted plundering the Gold Coast of its Booty.

The police report "The man is described as caucasian, between 50 and 60 years of age, of solid build with grey hair and a beard.

He was wearing a black T-shirt and black pants." And missing an eye patch.

Open Mouth Operations

If interest rates move out of line with those required by the monetary authority, a statement (an open mouth operation) is all that is needed to restore them. We argue the current implementation of monetary policy in New Zealand works in this way. Using announcement data from New Zealand, we find that open mouth operations lead to large changes in interest rates across all maturities, and these changes cannot be explained by open market operations. Implications are drawn for research in other areas, in particular the news approach to exchange rate modeling, the expectations theory of the term structure of interest rates and measuring the liquidity effect.

IOL: South Park creators get poison Penn letter

President Bush isn’t the only one upset with South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone over their new puppet film, ">Team America: World Police.

Oscar winner Sean Penn apparently wrote an angry letter to the comedy duo after they made fun of Sean ‘P Diddy’ Combs’ Vote Or Die campaign to persuade US youngsters to vote in next month’s presidential election.

He was infuriated at Stone’s theory that America might elect better leaders if lazy, apathetic voters stayed at home and didn’t bother to vote.

Small is good

Check this out for a small amount of fun (hehhe).... This site contains little thingys that are only 256 bytes. Thats bytes not kb.... Which means about 500 can fit on a floppy....

There are also much larger king size packets of fun to be had at 4k.

Bears dont kill people, guns kill people

A Bulgarian hunter who managed to fight off an attack by a 320kg bear then almost killed himself when he tripped over his gun.

Marin Cogev, 55, was hunting in woods near Milkovica when he was attacked by the bear from behind.

The massive bear tried to crush him with its arms, but he managed to hit the animal on the head with the butt of his shotgun and fire a shot in the air.

The bear released his grip and ran away.

But when Cogev turned to go after the bear he slipped, tripped and fell and his gun went off. The bullet grazed his head and he passed out.

A fellow hunter who found him after the attack said: "If the bullet had gone a few millimetres the other way he would be dead.

"It's amazing he managed to fight off such a huge bear and then tripped over and nearly killed himself."

Man of the year

When a man loves a women he shows it in many ways. These fine gentlemen have proven that its not that hard, and a little thought goes a long way.

People Are Human-Bacteria Hybrid

Most of the cells in your body are not your own, nor are they even human. They are bacterial. From the invisible strands of fungi waiting to sprout between our toes, to the kilogram of bacterial matter in our guts, we are best viewed as walking "superorganisms," highly complex conglomerations of human, fungal, bacterial and viral cells.

That's the view of scientists at Imperial College London who published a paper in Nature Biotechnology Oct. 6 describing how these microbes interact with the body. Understanding the workings of the superorganism, they say, is crucial to the development of personalized medicine and health care in the future because individuals can have very different responses to drugs, depending on their microbial fauna.

The scientists concentrated on bacteria. More than 500 different species of bacteria exist in our bodies, making up more than 100 trillion cells. Because our bodies are made of only some several trillion human cells, we are somewhat outnumbered by the aliens. It follows that most of the genes in our bodies are from bacteria, too.

Linky

Election anger continues

In the aftermath of the election some people are still unsure of how to deal with it. One man has come up with a solution. NSLV (Not safe for Liberal Voters).

Two player mode?

Internet play is gone... too bad. But there is a posiblity that two player mode might be available.

Honest John

A picture of John Howard by Montalbetti Campbell (see astronaut postcard...).

On the subject of polictics. Did you know that 21% of americans think they are in the top 1% of income earners. And a further 19% think they can make it into the top 1%. And thats why they voted liberal. I fear a similar thing may have happend over the weekend...

[note: sorry about the grammar]

Dear John . . .

Ever written a letter to your local member?

For four years in London, Richard Berry didn't have one, so he wrote weekly to the Prime Minister, John Howard, instead.

His letters ended up being published in the travellers' rag TNT and became its best-read column.

Now Berry is coming home and TNT has published a best-of book called Dear John: The unrequited correspondence of Richard Berry.

"Dear John," begins one. "How's being boss of Australia going? Things are pretty good here at the moment. My girlfriend and I went through a bit of a rough patch for a couple of weeks, but everything is tops again now. I was going to tell you about it, but I didn't want to worry you, especially as you were in South Korea talking to very important people about nuclear bombs and stuff.

"Do you and Janette have rough patches as well? What type of things do you argue about? Does she get annoyed because you're on the phone to George Bush all the time?"

And so on. There were 212 altogether, and not all were unrequited. One of the three replies Berry received, dated 17 May, 2000, says: "I suggest, to save you time and money, that you stop writing to the Australian Prime Minister as it is not possible for him to be your pen pal."

Berry is home now but he still has no intention of stopping.

Welcome To Donkey Does F1

Bored waiting for the delayed qualifying to start? amuse yourself with

Apparently the donkey was kidnapped from the staff canteen at jag... and found itself in places you and i can only dream of getting access to

Racist coffee

THE world is going mad in its abuse of political correctness. Staff at the coffee shop in the coffee shop in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow last week allegedly refused to serve a customer who had ordered a 'black coffee', claiming that it was a racist phrase - he would only get his cuppa if he used the terminology 'coffee without milk'. I wonder how he managed to ask for white sugar?"

Build your own RamJet

This project is super cool, it uses two travel mugs to make a small ramjet propulsion system that you would then attach to a small vehicle (model car)

More election ranting

A strong show of support for Family First was an important factor in the Howard victory, with preferences from the Christian-values party boosting the Coalition vote.

Late last night figures suggested the socially conservative party, which is affiliated with the Assemblies of God Church, had attracted more than 2 per cent of the vote, the majority of which flowed on to the Government.

Under a deal brokered before the election, preferences in all but three of the 126 seats the group contested went to the Coalition.

One exception was the seat of Leichhardt, where the party refused to preference Liberal MP Warren Entsch because he supports gay marriages.

Family First burst into the federal political arena this election, aiming to push socially conservative policies and counter the rise of Greens candidates.

Founded in 2002, the party's initial purpose was to help Assemblies of God pastor Andrew Evans win a seat in the South Australian Parliament.

Despite the benefit of Family First preferences, not all Coalition members were happy with the arrangement. Nationals Senate candidate Barnaby Joyce last week described the party as the 'lunatic right'.

In the seat of Brisbane, Family First directed its preferences to the Nationals because the Liberal candidate Ingrid Tall is a lesbian.

Election Rant by Alan Ramsey

A small book turned up last week entitled How to Kill a Country. It was written by three Sydney academics about our "free trade" deal with the United States. They could as easily have been writing about what, spare us, happened on Saturday.

How on earth could we have put this scheming, mendacious little man and his miserable claque back in office for another three years? Worse, how could we have brought them to the very brink of absolute control of the nation's entire parliamentary process and authority?

Very easily, as things turned out, to the cost of the rest of us and our national self-respect.

For almost nine years this Government, incompetent in most everything except mediocrity, debauched its word and the people's trust, along with voters' gullibility, their ignorance, their taxes and, in the end, their greedy self-interest.

It deceived and dissembled about joining us with Washington's military adventurism in Iraq, and it went on deceiving and dissembling, irrespective of the heightened threat to our national interest, to keep our minuscule presence there purely for the political pleasure of George Bush and his cronies.

Then when we reached the one time every three years of a people's audit, 4.6 in every 10 of us turned round and said, thank you, gimme the money and flog us for another three years. Most times, despite the thick and the avaricious and those who feel it's just all beyond them, we get it right as a nation.

Not this time. This time we've really buggered things. A politically immoral man who, by any civilised measure, disqualified himself from public life, has been given a pat on the back and even more power. This time the people's will has got it dreadfully wrong.

Now we all have to pay for the comfortable idiocy of the manipulated minority. And it is a minority: the 46 per cent who voted for the Coalition, or 4.6 in every 10. The other 5.4, in the main, wanted something better, and were denied by a lowest common denominator system in which all the spoils go to a degraded 50 per cent plus one.

I thought we had more brains, more self-respect. I was wrong in thinking enough voters "just might" see through the confidence trickery of John Howard, master illusionist and toad of a human being. I apologise for nothing.

However, don't get snowed by the spin merchants about the size of the Government's win. Howard's real achievement is the Coalition's Senate victory. In the House of Representatives, Labor went into the election with 63 seats, the Government 83, with three independents and one Green MHR.

By midday yesterday, with a bit over 10 million votes counted in an electorate of 13 million, the most likely result, after the doubtfuls are finally sorted, is that Labor will have a net loss of between one and three seats, no more.

Labor's loss was great in votes, not seats. It's primary vote (38.3 per cent) is only marginally better than under Kim Beazley's losing leadership three years ago (37.8 per cent). What is different this time is the Liberal Party (40.3 per cent) out-polling Labor in primary votes (as distinct from a joint Coalition vote of 46 per cent).

That happens rarely: twice only in the Liberals' 60-year history, the last time, ironically, in the Fraser victory of 1975 that buried the government of Latham's political father figure, Gough Whitlam.

Still, Latham's time will come. Believe it.

Scientists Define Murphy's Law

"A mathematician, a psychologist and an economist commissioned by British Gas have finally put into mathematical terms what we all knew: that things don't just go wrong, they do so at the most annoying moment.

The formula, ((U+C+I) x (10-S))/20 x A x 1/(1-sin(F/10)), indicates that to beat Murphy's Law (a.k.a. Sod's Law) you need to change one of the parameter: U for urgency, C for complexity, I for importance, S for skill, F for frequency and A for aggravation.

Or in the researchers' own words: "If you haven't got the skill to do something important, leave it alone. If something is urgent or complex, find a simple way to do it. If something going wrong will particularly aggravate you, make certain you know how to do it." Don't you like it when maths back up common sense ?"

Aussie John wins

Whist still being slightly political this cartoon describes the election in an easy to read format

Howard Lies

He only won the election yesterday and today the fresh lies have already started coming out. Apparently all that scaryness about Labour = high intrest rates, May also be true for Howard...

"Home lending rose in August for the second month in a row, new figures showed today, confirming the central bank may still have another interest rate rise up its sleeve.

The coalition government promised during the election campaign it would keep rates lower than Labor."

Shove that up your ass liberal voters.

Careful What You Wish For

We all want to be rich, we all want to be famous, and we all want to be powerful. Most of you spend your entire lives striving to be those things. Sounds like a great life, doesn't it? Who wouldn't want to be adored, have a seven-figure bank account, drive a Ferrari, and have a penthouse on 5th Avenue and a summer home in Capri, while banging Heidi Klum?

It sounds wonderful, but it isn't. Sure, being rich and powerful isn't exactly scrubbing toilets, but it doesn't come without its downside. Because when you're on top, you become a bigger target for all those who want to see you fall.

More money, more problems? Absolutely. So the next time you wish to be in the other guy's shoes, don't just look at the nice crocodile leather and wish his shoes were yours -- look inside his shoes to see what's making his feet stink so bad.

After all, we always want what we can't have.

This is not to say you shouldn't be ambitious. Quite the opposite. What I want to warn you about is the fact that having money and power isn't all roses. People don't know what to do with large amounts of money and power (though your local Mercedes car salesman will be more than happy to tell you what to do with that disposable income of yours).

[more]

GenieCorp (TM)

Some dude quit his job to write a book. He then made some wicked flash animation to promote it.

Join the dark side

Another SW parody

SAAB

Small and Animated Boobs.

Note: I think the site is down....

Fresh and Hot

Ever thought porn and food dont mix. Well now it does with porn bread

Old stuff

Stuff is good. But stuff is better when the stuff is funny and old and you think how did this get past "the man".

More links....
http://users.rcn.com/xcentrik/maindrag.html
http://www.bookjunkie.org/bj_pulps.html
http://www.retrocrush.com/archive2003/bookcovers/index.html
http://www.pulpcards.com/index.html

Worst Porn Movie Titles

Someone that knows a lot about porn has put together a list of the worst ever actual titles for your non-viewing delight. Moulin Splooge, Anal Chiropractor, it's all there.

The Gematriculator

Everyone's talking about Kabbalah, the bible-analysing trend that's perplexing deep thinkers like Britney Spears and David Beckham. Now you can give it a try yourself - or something a bit similar. This page analyses the patterns of words and letters on a site and tells you whether the result is good or evil.

The Gematriculator is a service that uses the infallible methods of Gematria developed by Mr. Ivan Panin to determine how good or evil a web site or a text passage is.

Join The Sect of Homokaasu

Carl Lewis the runner

Remeber Carl Lewis the runner? Well he made a musicvideo

The Ultimate David Hasselhoff Site

David Hasselhoff has a fan site with one of the best intros ever.

Shipping Information

Just in case you ever need to ship your brain across country, columbia University has provided rather helpful instructions.

You Are Either With Frank Or You Are With The Terrorists!

Frank Sinatra sings aboutterrorists.

Cursor Game

Its a small game where you have to avoid the cute monster from getting your cursor.

Blokesworld

"Blokesworld is a snappy mix of feel-good segments that rediscover the joys of a roaring V8 engine, a good BBQ, a punt on the dogs and a bit of a perve along the way."

This program used to be on Briz31 but now it gets the coverage it deserves on channel 10.

Teflon's sticky situation

If Teflon is non stick, how do they get it stick to the pan?

It's on saucepans, clothing, even buildings, but now Teflon - the famed non-stick chemical - is at the centre of a slippery controversy about cancer and birth defects.

Since its invention in the 1930s, amateur and professional cooks alike will acknowledge their debt of gratitude to Teflon. Over the years, the non-stick coating on pots and pans has helped turn out countless perfect fried eggs and cheese soufflés.

But for how much longer? Environmentalists have called for the withdrawal of a chemical which is a key ingredient in the manufacture of Teflon because of growing health fears.

Perfluorooctanoic Acid, PFOA for short, is a synthetic chemical used in the manufacture of advanced plastics including Teflon.

Today, all new man-made chemicals must undergo rigorous testing to be marketed in Europe. But PFOA is one of 100,000 or so chemicals which avoided the test because they were invented before 1981.

Teflon was invented in the 1930s by DuPont, the US firm which uses it today to make non-stick cookware, and also markets it as a coating for clothes and carpets.

"We want to make very clear that settling this lawsuit in no way implies any admission of liability on DuPont's part," says DuPont lawyer Stacey J Mobley.

At the same time, DuPont is facing another multi-million dollar lawsuit from the US environmental watchdog for allegedly failing to disclose the results of secret water tests in 1984.

It faces being fined $27,000 for every day since 1984.

"PFOA accumulates in the body and in the environment and studies on animals suggest a link to birth defects. We are very concerned about it,"

Dr Tim Kropp, a toxicologist working for environmental activists in the US says tests carried out by the US firm 3M suggested high doses of PFOA led to various forms of cancer in rats.

"DuPont have some brilliant scientists and I don't believe that they couldn't find an alternative if they put their minds to it," says Dr Kropp.

Last year the British government called for a related chemical, perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS), to be withdrawn. It followed 3M's decision to abolish the chemical from its well-known Scotchgard products after health concerns were raised.

"PFOA is related to it but nowhere near as much research has been done into it and we are awaiting the outcome of the EPA's research," says a spokesman for Defra.

Others are seeking a more restrained response. Professor Scott Mabury, head of environmental chemistry at the University of Toronto, says a ban on PFOA would be "Draconian" and the answer was to go back to the factory and make sure residual levels of the polluting chemicals were removed in the production process.

"It's an engineering problem," he says. "It's not impossible.

GST MAN

GST Man is at it again.

Q&A: Will I be sued for music-swapping?

The industry is targeting uploaders - those who make available tracks in their collection for other people to download - whether it is one song or a million. If you are an uploader, you are infringing copyright and run the risk of being sued.

Could I be sued for swapping just a few songs?

Theoretically, you could. But the BPI says the problem stems from a small hardcore of 'serial uploaders' who offer hundreds or thousands of music files over the internet.

The RIAA took action against a college student in Michigan who ran a network offering more than 650,000 files - the equivalent of more than 43,000 albums. They have chased other users who have again uploaded thousands of files.

The BPI says 15% of file-sharers are responsible for 75% of all songs swapped illegally.

Girl 'bleeds' stones from eyes and ears

Stones have been oozing out of the ears, eyes and nose of a schoolgirl in this Jharkhand capital, puzzling doctors who say they have never seen anything like it before.

Savitri, a Class 7 student from Hazaribagh district, first complained of stones coming out of her nose in April this year. But things have worsened dramatically since September 30 and stones have started coming out from her ears, nose and eyes.

Stones are formed due to the high level of calcium in the body. But they are generally found in the gall bladder and kidney," he explained.

Blue tins...

I have spent the better part of this evening searching for this website. Its an electronics store that sells heaphones and other portable audio type stuffs (CD, minidisc etc...). Anyway the reason I was looking for it was because I lost it. Makes sense...

After replacing the padding on my current headphones for $1.99 I have found this new kinda "foam" to be quite rough and is actually thicker the the originals which mean the phones sit further away from the ear. This is bad for 4 reasons....

1. You have to crank it up to listen
2. It lets in more outside noise
3. By cranking it up you go deaf
4. The sound dynamics have obviously change because of this and now they sound horrible.

So I went down the JB HiFi which is the cheapest electronics place around these parts and found that the all singing and dancing Sennheiser PX100 going for $100. Now I have always had headphone types and I began thinking of changing to in-earphones because then I don't have to carry them around etc. I used to have a pair of panasonic semi-in earphones (they only had a semi circle to stick in your ear) and they were super. But I left them in the same pocket as a few starburst and in the sun.... In fact they are still stuck to my bag... The bass on them was nice but they didn't relay isolate very well.

So while at JB I found some sonys (MDR-EX51SP and MDR-EX71SL) The 71's are the most expensive at 100 while the 51's are $75 odd. And when you see them in real life they are extremely small. Which is what I need because normal earphones don't even fit in my ears.

While doing a little research on the fitting of the sonys I stumbled across this site which has a lot of headphones. But most importantly prices are quoted in $AU and they are cheap...

MDR-EX51SP = $48.1
MDR-EX71SL = $64.6
MDR-EX71SL-J = $72 (the ipoop ones)

Sennheiser PX100 = $75
Sennheiser PX200 = $94 ($110 @JB HiFi)

As you can see its quite a lot cheaper, by about $20.

....But what about the problem faced by all online retailers? Shipping? Fear not at its only $6 for postage. Express and FedEx (TNT/DHL/Mayne in aus) are much more expensive at $26 and $35 respectively.

I guess there's the trust issue, especial with overseas stores so maybe it might be worth just buying it from JB instead of trying to route the system and save $10-$20 which can blow out spectacularly as we all know...

A guide to defending yourself against Fundamentalist Christians

I thought this might come in handy during those neverending fights with the religious nuts, if not it's still a good read. It takes many topics that a relgious argument might arise over and takes quotes from the Bible to back up the secular side.

Career Change

Looking for a new job? Well seek no more because another internet job searchy site has the best job. In fact its the only one of its kind. And its a matter of national importance.

[Note: this is not job at ASIO...]

P2P Traffic Analysis

"P2P traffic volumes are at least double that of HTTP during peak evening periods and as much as tenfold other times"

Kenya Promotional Video

Maybe they should use this to get more tourists or hunters...

Badgerphone

Badgers sing a song about a banaphone

Jet Powered Kitchen Dragsters

"The kitchen dragster was developed as a way to test air/fuel mixtures. It was a spin-off from research done on spud gun propellant. We have a lot of fun running it in the kitchen. Everyone who sees it go wants to do it again. There is a twin engine version almost ready to test. It will need a bigger kitchen. I call this engine a manual cycle pulse jet engine."

At least now you can say you're a jet pilot.

The best paper airplane in the world!

Build one today.

How to build a hovercraft

from an old CD.

The only kite store in brisbane

Surprising it took this long to find the damn place.

Kite links

so many links for no apparent reason.

Tissue Ring

Its a metal ring that is a tissue dispenser that is amazingly simple.

Pirates vs Ninjas

Pirates, they cuss and they drink, plunder ships, are usually missing an eye or a limb, and would cut your throat rather than say a kind word. Ninjas, they are dark, stealthy assassins who are notorious for flipping out and killing people at the drop of a spoon. So which one is the baddest of the bad? Both have fans, and neither side can come to an agreement. The battle over this issue has raged for centuries, with cutlass clashing against katana and much blood being spilled. Farshot.com has decided to end this debate once and for all! We used rigorous testing methods and came up with three scenarios that should end this feud forever: Sea, land, and air.

Pirates vs Ninjas

Pirates, they cuss and they drink, plunder ships, are usually missing an eye or a limb, and would cut your throat rather than say a kind word. Ninjas, they are dark, stealthy assassins who are notorious for flipping out and killing people at the drop of a spoon. So which one is the baddest of the bad? Both have fans, and neither side can come to an agreement. The battle over this issue has raged for centuries, with cutlass clashing against katana and much blood being spilled. Farshot.com has decided to end this debate once and for all! We used rigorous testing methods and came up with three scenarios that should end this feud forever: Sea, land, and air.

Simpsons to end in 2009

SIMPSON'S fans will have to farewell TV's favourite yellow family in 2009 when the last series of the cult cartoon will be broadcast.

Creator Matt Groening says it is increasingly difficult to develop new storylines and wants to axe the show before it becomes boring.

The actors behind the voices of Bart, Homer, Marge, Lisa have signed a deal taking them up to a 19th series in 2008 with Groening hoping to make one more series the following year.

'The show gets harder and harder every year because we are trying to keep surprising the audience, and trying to surprise ourselves', the 50-year-old told British tabloid The Sun.

'I'd love to get to 365 episodes, so there's one for every day of the year with no repeats', he said.

He also hinted some lesser-known characters, such as Bart's mate Milhouse, will get more prominent roles in the future.

'I think we'll see more and more stories about the other characters of Springfield,' he said.

Power of Artistic Thinking

In an economy where most goods and services are commoditised and there the battleground in the marketplace is about differentiation in the hearts and minds of the consumer, US corporations are demanding a new breed of executive: one with an understanding and knowledge of skills in excess of technical or even business systems thinking.

It calls for concepts in systems, design, affective response and human factors: the domain of creative thinking, a field developed during the past seven decades. The Harvard Business Review's Breakthough Ideas for 2004 February issue presents the Creativity Index, an indicator of a country's ability to achieve growth through the use of technology, talent and tolerance. The index did not place Australia even among the top 15...

Research carried out by IBM with 456 chief executive officers revealed that during the next five years revenue raising rather than cost cutting will be the main goal of business. Asked how they intended to accomplish this, two-thirds said through innovation.

During the past 12 months, creativity and innovation within Australian business has become a hot topic. As a result, Australian corporations are rushing to employ people with the word "innovation" in their titles. What is important here is that innovation is recognised as a new necessity for business. Yet few leaders have the background to recognise or support it as an operational goal.

Doomsday Device

Its actually a cannal digger.

Massive saw

Ghastly's Ghastly Comic

Not safe anywhere. As its a comic about peaodiphiles