| Speeding up love at first site
If a match is found, you get an e-mail with a very brief physical description of your date, and a suggested location chosen from a standing list of bars and coffee shops. Once you accept, there's no going back. I had never tried online dating, with the exception of a few quasi-dates way back in the age of Friendster. On the other hand, I have been on plenty of blind dates before. To ease the pressure, I follow this advice: Treat your date like an interview for a job you don't want. With that in mind I usually enjoy myself. .
Chief: Officer abused power
Despite not having any official business related to the arrest, Jasso accessed police computer records to find the truck's registered owners and the owners' backgrounds. Also while on duty, Jasso contacted one of the truck's owners and arranged to buy it for $5,000, even though it was worth more than $15,000, Smith said. Jasso then met with a second owner of the truck who was in the Nueces County Jail, saying he was there on police business. Smith said in the letter that when the co-owner was released from jail, Jasso, while on duty, picked up the man and drove him to a credit union where he paid the owner $1,500 -- meant to be the man's share of the $5,000. The department's Criminal Investigation Division started to look into the incident in May 2007 after an assistant district attorney told Smith about the truck's sale.
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David Cameron's fudge on faith school 'fakes'
Parents who pretend that they have Christian beliefs in order to win places in church schools are doing the best for their children, David Cameron believes. The Tory leader refuses to criticise the "middle-class parents with sharp elbows". Asked for his views on the families accused of playing the system, he says: "I think it’s good for parents who want the best for their kids. I don’t blame anyone who tries to get their children into a good school. Most people are doing so because it has an ethos and culture. I believe in active citizens." Mr Cameron will learn this year whether his own daughter has won a place at a state-funded Church of England school in Kensington, West London. This month The Times reported a surge in late baptisms into the Catholic Church, further evidence that some parents may be finding religion at a convenient moment in their children’s education.
US Supreme Court Throws Out Wire-Tapping Case
The conversation turned to politics, and people started really saying what they thought. I hesitated, and literally caught myself looking over my shoulder before I spoke to make sure I knew who was listening. I didn't even realize I had that habit until I was in a place where making such a check was ludicrous because no one could possibly be listening. I've heard people from other totalitarian countries talk about doing that. I never realized I did it myself until then. Says an awful lot about what America is really like these days. .
Viewers turned off by Hollywood writers strike 'may never switch TV on ...
I watch football occasionally and sometimes the nightly news. Period. And I'm tempted to give up on the news because of all the "medical" commercials -- sleep aids, mucus products, and, of course, the ever-present expensive anti-cholesterol drugs. Besides, the network "news" talks about things covered on the Internet 2 days earlier! Use your computer. Read your current events. And let the unionized "entertainment" industry follow the lead of the Titanic... .
Dude, where's my G-spot?
The latest research, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, was carried out (by) the Dr. Emmanuele Jannini at the University of L'Aquila, and involved just 20 women. Ultrasound was used to measure the size and shape of the tissue beyond the 'front' wall of the vagina, often suggested as the location of the G-spot. In the nine women who reported being able to achieve vaginal orgasm, the tissues between the vagina and the urethra — which carries urine out of the body — were on average thicker than in the 11 women who could not reach orgasm this way." Reading this reminded me of the good old days of Plato's wandering uterus. Remember those? Good times. Mine always wanders back, like a raccoon in the Haight that remembers where you used to set out the cat food. I love rehashed myths — especially about the existence of the G-spot — but the piece about Jannini's study in New Scientist distorts the accuracy of anatomical fact even further: "For the first time it is possible to determine by a simple, rapid and inexpensive method if a woman has a G-spot or not," says Emmanuele Jannini ...
Young networkers turn off TV and log on to the web
Social networking has taken off, with 42% of internet users regularly visiting sites such as Bebo and Facebook compared with 23% last year. Two years ago the number was so small it did not register as a separate category in the annual survey by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA). An increase in usage of instant messaging and the message functions of social networks has led to a decrease in email. The EIAA's Mediascope Europe survey shows 81% of surfers say they have sent an email at least once a month over the past year, down from 85% in the 2006 survey. The survey of more than 7,000 specially selected people across 10 European countries, shows users are spending an average of nearly 12 hours a week on the internet. The Italians are the heaviest users, with an average 13.6 hours, followed by the Swedes on 13 hours and the French on 12.7 hours.
Arcadia zooms onto the Net
Arcadia Group, which owns several UK retail chains including Top Shop, Burtons and Dorothy Perkins, is to launch an ecommerce portal and Internet service provider (ISP). The service, called Zoom, will offer news from Associated Newspapers, online dating and a job search facility. It will also include a loyalty card and a credit card. Zoom MD, Eva Pascoe, said: "We are an online shopping centre and a portal, too. Apart from Arcadia brands, we are signing up other partners such as Red or Dead." Pascoe added that she chose Easynet to provide ISP services because it has a good presence in France and Germany - the next two countries to be targeted by Zoom. Zoom will also offer some product lines not available anywhere else - first of which will be a special range of Wonderbras.
Food Prices Climbing, With No End in Sight
It is scary that when China's president says he wants more chinese to drink milk and overnight the price of milk goes up. But I dont think things will change unless you get violent protests from poorer countries. A Diet for a Small Planet advocated eating less meat so the water and food could go to people instead of livestock(another reason the amazon is being cut down). But rich countries wont give it up easily. I read a story once in a Vegan Magazine called the Hunger for Knowledge about people sending up rockets to find life on other planets. But they ran out of fuel so they started growing crops to fuel the rockets. By the time they found an alien and it visited earth, the first and only question they had for the alien was, "are you edible?" It was a joke.
happy in the city
Food courts selling essential festival fare such as candy floss and fast food will be located around the site, along with bars, traditional games and an artesania festival involving face painting, mascaradas, music, dancing and theater that runs until Jan. 1.
La Guácima in Alajuela will also have bull event this year, starting earlier on Dec. 22 and finishing Jan. 2, with an entrance fee of 3,000 colons ($6).
Bull fighting will be at 3 p.m. on Dec. 25, 29, 30, and Jan. 1, and at 9 p.m. everyday except Dec. 26 and 28, with live music and many other events going on each day from midday until midnight.
Smaller local versions will take place around the country, continuing well into 2008.
The park of Margarita, Talamanca, will host an event on the weekends of Dec.
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