Tempting Hubby

The things that have to be done to stop husbands doing silly stuff:

A German man who spent 10 days in a self-made box atop a 72-foot-tall pole to protest a looming jail term was lured off his perch by his wife -- who sent up a topless picture of herself in his lunch box.

Fred Gregor, 45, was bidding to have his 15-month conviction for fraud overturned by squatting in his tiny cubicle atop a converted television mast. He told Reuters in a telephone interview last week that he wanted a new trial.

His wife Susanne, 25, backed his protest until the former stripper and mother of their five children decided she had had enough.

Russian Brides

So, are you thinking of following in Tim N's footsteps and hitching up with one of the Russian Women out there looking to meet up with and marry a western man?

The problem of coursewould be that you're not in Dubai where there are a number that you can indeed meet. A solution to that would be to take a look at Lover's Planet, a service aiming to help Russian Women who want to get married hook up with those men who want to marry  Russian Women.

Having had a look at the site (simply click through one of the links to do so) it seems just like any other form of online dating. The difference is not in the form, but in the contents of the database. These are women who are looking to marry, not simply to date., As someone who has lived in Russia I have to tell you that yes, there really are significant cultural differences. Almost all ofthem are in favour of the potential husband as well.

Could well be worth checking out.

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Antonella Barba

You may or may not have heard about the little scandal over some photos of the American Idol contestant, Antonella Barba. There's a series of professionally posed cheesecake shots showing the young woman deshabille, but that's not the big scandal, there's another set of full on sex with someone who may or may not be her. The net has been abuzz asking whether these mean that Antonella Barba will be trown off American Idol: apparently warbling badly isn't a problem, but having sex is. Still, as this report shows, she's not been kicked out yet:

Fans of "American Idol," U.S. TV's most popular program, on Thursday gave their backing to a female contestant purportedly shown in some X-rated Internet photos, voting to keep her on the show.

"Idol" fans have flooded online chat rooms and blogs in recent days buzzing over whether the photos really are of Antonella Barba and whether she'll get kicked off Fox network's singing contest because of them.

"Idol" producers have shrugged off the controversy and no mention of the scandal was made during Thursday's show, when four of 20 remaining contestants were sent home.

But it was not until the end of the show that the fate of Barba was revealed, when the host called three women to the front of the stage to announce which one was out.

Barba, a 20-year-old former college student from New Jersey, was one of 20 competitors who last week advanced to the latest round, but some expected her to be voted off because of her mediocre singing and criticism from the judges.

But others said her lack of talent may not be that important at this stage of the show.

"If a sex tape of Antonella makes the Internet she could win this competition ... now that would be rather humorous," said entertainment news blog Bumpshack following the show.

Now that would indeed be funny.

 

Technorati tags: antonella barba

Rainbow Sandals

Spring is sprung, de grass is riz....yes, we've turned the corner of the year again and it's time for us all to think about what we're going to wear for the summer. Rainbow sandals are always a favourite but this year, don't try wandering through the shops to find them. Rather, you'll want to go over online to Active Sandals where you can see their range of rainbow sandals. As they're online they can carry a far greater range than any one store, more sizes, more colours, and of course the lack of huge rental costs means they can offer great prices: combined with their reliable shipping this makes for some excellent offers.

Summer's coming, so start getting dressed for the beach now!

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You Just Can't Change the Germans

Unthinking adherence to the rules? Excessive strictness? No, that's all gone now, isn't it?  

Exam supervisors at a German university stuck to rules so rigidly that a man with a bladder dysfunction had to urinate in a bottle in front of 120 fellow students because they would not let him go to the toilet.

Overseers at the University of Freiburg in southwestern Germany told the 27-year-old, whose bladder control was impaired in an accident that left him on crutches, that he would be failed if he left the room during the exam.

None of the three supervisors would accompany the man to the toilet despite other students' protests.

Eventually one female student emptied her water bottle so the man could go to a corner of the room and relieve himself.

In a letter written on Wednesday and seen by Reuters, university deputy head Karl-Reinhard Volz apologized to the student, saying the supervisors' behavior was completely unjustified and "lacking in any normal human sensitivity."

Apparently cultures change only slowly.

Box Widget

There are times when this new technology stuff seriously confuses me. Take this description:

Its a flash player that streams podcasts, music, photos, videos, and any other type of file.

I think I actually get all of the words individually, but I'm scratching my head as to what they mean all put together. Is this something like You Tube?

Anyway, it's called the Box.net Widget and is something the makers are very proud of indeed. No doubt some kind reader will tell me what this is all about?

I'm told that they'll offer 1 GB of storage on their site and unlimited bandwidth as well. So it's something that allows me to play these videos, show the pictures on my site is it?

Perhaps those of my age (what I like to call the years of enjoying maturity) shouldn't be trying to deal with these new technologies?

Here's one in action:


Get your own Box.net widget and share anywhere!

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The Food Police

Now they're taking aim at restaurant meals:

Many U.S. chain restaurants are promoting "extreme eating" with dishes that pack at least a day's worth of calories and fat, without giving customers facts about their orders, a consumer group said on Monday.

Displaying restaurant offerings including a cheese-laden chicken-and-pasta dish they dubbed "Angioplasta," officials at the Center for Science in the Public Interest said such dishes help fuel national epidemics of obesity and heart disease.

They urged local, state and national governments to make restaurants list nutritional data on their menus.

Michael Jacobson, the group's executive director, took aim at "table-service" chain restaurants like Ruby Tuesday's and Uno Chicago Grill. Such places increasingly stuff their dishes with extra unhealthy ingredients, he said.

"What we're finding is that table-service restaurants have launched into a whole new era of extreme eating," Jacobson said. "If we're going to deal with the epidemic of obesity and the tremendous prevalence of heart attacks and strokes, we're going to have to do something about restaurant foods."

Look, it's terribly simple. People own their own bodies and if they want to die well fed and fat, then so be it. What they stuff into their mouths is no business of anyone else's.

But then, it's tough to raise money for the CSPI with that sort of attitude.

Forex Trading

I've found a fascinating site talking about Forex Trading.
There's a huge amount of information there, how to actually do it, what the rewards can be and so on. It's true that vast amounts of money can indeed be made in playing in this market, as George Soros has proven.
I've been asked to give my views on hte site and as far as it is laid out I think it's great. It quickly goes from hte basics to hte nuts and blots of what it is actually necessary to do and then into the techniques that one might use for trading.

However, there's one little bit that I think should be emphasised a little more. That Forex Trading
is in fact a zero sum game. Whatever is made by one participant in the market is lost by another. I think it's important that people should be told that before they pit their wits and skills against the other participants in the market.

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The Priest and His Girlfriend

I know this is an old story but I've only just come across this blog.

A bogus priest and his girlfriend tricked an Austrian pensioner out of $200 after promising him a naked bathtub session with the woman.

"The bogus priest and his girlfriend ran a bath for the pensioner, who undressed and got in straight away," a police spokeswoman in the northern Austrian town of Linz said on Wednesday.

The pensioner waited in the tub for about 10 minutes, but when he heard cupboards being opened and closed in the living room, he emerged from the bathroom and chased the pair out of his flat, she said.

Now leave aside the bit about a priest offering his girlfriend to you for a backrub and think instead about the much more basic point. How many priests actually have girlfriends anyway?

Personal Finance

One of the problems we all have with personal finance is that it is all so complicated. The basic idea, that lower charges and lower interest rates are better

is imsple enough, but there are hundreds, if not thousands, or people out there willing to lend us money on a dizzyingly large variety of terms.

So what we actually want is a way to compare loans, to find out what it is that everyone is offering and then be able to decide which is the best deal for us. Fortunately, click through and you'll find a site that does just that. For example, on credit cards, on car insurance, saving accounts and mortgages.

With so many different offers out there, different interest rates, different requirements, ages, proof of incomes or not, all the hundreds and even thousands of variations that are possible, you really do need a guide to help you through the different possibilities. Well worth checking out.

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California Driver Education

Certainly things have changed since I was there: driver education in California now requires that you take a state approved test before you can get your learner's permit. I am glad that wasn't in place when I took my California driver's test: I would never have managed to do what I did, arrive in the country and rent a condo, buy a car, get a licence, get the house furnished and everything insured in just 8 days.

However, don't despair, there are simple ways to deal with the problem. One option is to get this program dealing with driver education in California. It's a state approved course, so it meets the rules, but the difference is that you can do most of the work at home. Once you've studied this, you can get your learner's permit. Now what is the value of being able to do this at home? Well, you can do it in your own time, at your own speed. There's no need for parents to ferry you off to classes at a particular time and that all just makes life so much easier.

The second option for California driver education is to look at that program, the virtual one. This is computer based and allows you to learn safe and effective driving techniques from your own room! You can simply log on when you want to and take parts of the course. Again, the value is that you can do this when you have time to, not working to the rigid timetable of organised classes. It's also true that we all learn more when we are the only student, not being distracted by those around us.

Either or both programs will teach you in the way the law insists you must be, so that you can complete your California driver education and get your learner's permit.

After that, it's driving on the real roads to gain experience, and no one has quite worked out yet a simpler way to do that.

The Love Caravan

There are certainly areas of the UK (like the Forest of Dean) where this idea of a Love Caravan would be of great benefit to the gene pool of the local population:

HOYOCASERO, Spain (Reuters) - Cupid can always use a little encouragement, especially in a remote Spanish village.

With that in mind, about 150 women traveled by bus to Hoyocasero on Saturday in response to an Internet plea from men tired of being alone.

Commonly known as "una caravana de mujeres" (a caravan of women), the travelers were met with flowers by cheering men eager for a love match -- or at least a good party.

For the 400 residents of the isolated mountain village of Hoyocasero, a mass invite seemed like a good idea in the face of a declining population. The "caravan" appeal was first tried 20 years ago by a similarly love-lorn Spanish village and has since been used in dozens of places across the country.

"Meeting someone this way, it's more rustic and authentic ... it's easier to get to know someone face to face," said 32-year-old farmer Cesar del Rio, whose family has lived in Hoyocasero for centuries.

Maybe someone would like to pass this idea on to that Norfolk MP who claimed that all of his constituents were inbred?

 

Technorati tags: love caravan

Lemon Free

I've always found it amusing the way that certain words can move from slang, to academia and back out into slang again. Take the word "lemon" for example. It started out meaning a junk car, one that had so many faults with it that no rational person would actually want to buy it.

It then moved into academia when the paper " The Market for Lemons" explored the wilds of asymmetrical information and won its author the Nobel.

Now it's back out in the general language, in the name of this site: Lemon Free Car Classifieds. Meaning, of course, that the second hand cars on that site are entirely free from lemons.

It's free to list your car and it covers the nation. For example, here's their listings for the Ford Mustang and here's the Toyota Camry .

You can search by model, by location, work out which is more important to you: absolutely the right car but far away, or something close but closer? Up to you but if you're in the market for a used car it's a site that's well worth checking out.

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The Road to a Long Life

It would appear that the road to a long life is not to have sex:

A 107-year-old Hong Kong villager, who still enjoys an occasional smoke, has attributed his longevity in part to decades of sexual abstinence, a newspaper said on Sunday.

"I don't know why I have lived this long," Chan Chi -- one of Hong Kong's oldest people -- was quoted as saying in the South China Morning Post during an annual feast for the city's elders.

"Maybe it has to do with the fact that I have lived a sex-less life for many years -- since I was 30," said Chan, a widower whose youthful bride perished during the Japanese invasion in World War Two.

Chan, from Hong Kong's less built-up New Territories hinterland, was pictured looking sprightly and eating heartily at the banquet.

Cue the old joke about a life without sex not actually making you live longer, it just seems that way. Perhaps he's only actually 40 after all?

HID and Xenon

Have you heard about how HID lights can improve the driver's view of the road ahead and any obstacles or curves that might be coming?

Sure you have, but the thing is, you've been put off by the thought of having to intall them, haven't you? So, good news then, you can go here to read all about the HID Kit & Xenon Headlights. The ease of installation, why you want the kit as well as the headlights.

Increase your vision upon the road, why not? It makes both you and your passengers safer: not to mention all the other people on the road as well.

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The Departed: Best Movie Oscar

Looks like Martin Scorcese has finally won his Oscar for Best Director: and the movie, The Departed, also got Best Picture:

On a night when Hollywood seemed unsure of what it liked, "The Departed" became the first crime story since 1991's "The Silence of the Lambs" to win an Academy Award as best picture. Its five nominations yielded four prizes, making it the top winner on an evening when the love of Oscar voters was spread widely but not particularly deep.

Each of the other four best picture nominees -- "Babel," "Letters From Iwo Jima," "Little Miss Sunshine" and "The Queen" -- took home at least one prize, and the dark fantasy "Pan's Labyrinth" won three prizes of the six for which it was in contention.

Despite all that largesse, the night was surely sweetest for Martin Scorsese, who won his first directing Oscar for "The Departed" after failing in five previous nominations. His prize redressed a long-standing wrong that saw the most revered American director of the past three-plus decades Oscar-less while such part-time directors as Mel Gibson and Kevin Costner had beaten him head-to-head.

The best part of the report though is the final para:

In addition, Jerry Seinfeld performed a brief bit of stand-up, there were weird little unexplained dance pieces, and a comic song of sorts was performed by the troika of Will Ferrell, Jack Black and John C. Reilly. The resulting tedium gave new life to the perennial Oscar night conundrum: How does a business full of entertainers come together every year to produce such a lifeless evening?

 

Technorati tags: oscars, martin scorcese, the departed

Outdoor Lighting

As regular readers will know we've just bought a new (to us) house down here and are in the process of getting it fixed up. In fact, the builders come in next Monday. Also arriving is the electricion to rewire the place. This means that we need to find the actual light fittings we want him to install. Like the Bathroom Lights and the outdoor lighting, in fact a huge range of home and garden lighting.

So I'm glad I've found that site under those links. A huge range of just what we need at excellent prices. Excuse me while I go and browse, will you?

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Anna Nicole Smith: Still Not Buried

The fighting over the corpse of Anna Nicole Smith goes on. All of this is because of the possible inheritance, of course, and the end result of that will be as in Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, that the lawers get all the money.

Anna Nicole Smith has to wait a little bit longer before she can rest in peace.

Richard Milstein, the court-appointed guardian of Smith's daughter, Dannielynn, and de facto custodian of Smith's remains, announced Saturday that, despite last week's announcement that the former Playmate's burial would happen as quickly as possible and the chief medical examiner's urge for her immediate interment, her funeral would not take place before Tuesday.

In a written statement, Milstein said he nevertheless was working hard on a timely burial and was already finalizing details of the memorial.

The reason for the delay is Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur.

On Thursday, Arthur seemed in harmony with Milstein, Howard K. Stern and Larry Birkhead during a joint appearance following a Florida judge's decision to have Milstein arrange the burial. The group announced they had agreed to bury Smith in the Bahamas next to her late son, Daniel. But Arthur reversed course soon after and filed a motion late Friday calling for an emergency order to stop the release of Smith's remains.

In her petition to block the body's transfer to the Bahamas, Arthur claimed that as the "natural mother and next of kin" to her late daughter, she, not Milstein, should have been "entitled to make the decision regarding where her child is buried."

I'm surprised that anyone thinks it shouldn't be the mother who decides: but then when this much money is at stake very few are going to be rational.

 

Technorati tags: anna nicole smith

Some Go There On Holiday..

...you know.

However, being stuck there for 16 years does seem a little extreme:

A retired British soldier who said he was "falsely imprisoned" in Malaysia for 16 years after authorities seized his passport has won about $860,000 in damages, newspapers said Friday.

Ronald Beadle had sued Malaysia's tax office after it confiscated his passport in December 1981 to recover outstanding taxes, a move that barred him from leaving the country. The authorities finally stopped impounding his passport in 1998, though Beadle had settled in Malaysia and remained.

"His mind and self-esteem has been injured for more than 16 years," the Star newspaper quoted a High Court judge as saying when she ruled in favor of the 69-year-old from Derbyshire.

The judge said the tax office had acted arbitrarily and unreasonably in seizing the passport. But she did not think that Beadle had been "falsely imprisoned" as he had claimed.

I admit, I like the place but I do think that if I was stuck there for 16 years that I would demand compensation as well.

HIPs

With the new law that every house sold must include  home information packs there is the problem of how as an independent estate agent you can compete against the larger chains with their much greater resources.

The solution is probably to sign up to this new service for home information packs where you work with your chosen conveyancer and are able to build the pack online. There's an SMS messaging system to keep you and your clients up to date on where each and every component is.

Perhaps best of all there's an option whereby the pack can be assembled at no upfront cost: that's got to be a benefit when competing with the larger chains who will be using their greater financial resources to do the same thing.

Well worth checking out.

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