Wednesday, July 8, 2009
What Women Want….. - Tech News
What Women Want….
What women want in a man at age 22:
1. Handsome
2. Charming
3. Financially successful
4. A caring listener
5. Witty
6. In good shape
7. Dresses with style
8. Appreciates finer things
9. Full of thoughtful surprises
10. An imaginative, romantic lover
What women want in a man at age 32:
1. Nice looking (preferably with hair)
2. Opens car doors, holds chairs
3. Has enough money for a nice dinner
4. Listens more than talks
5. Laughs at my jokes
6. Carries bags of groceries with ease
7. Owns at least one tie
8. Appreciates a good home-cooked meal
9. Remembers birthdays and anniversaries
10. Seeks romance at least once a week
What women want in a man at age 42:
1. Not too ugly (bald head is fine)
2. Doesn’t drive off until I’m in the car
3. Works steady – splurges on dinner out occasionally
4. Nods head when I’m talking
5. Usually remembers punch lines of jokes
6. Is in good enough shape to rearrange the furniture
7. Wears a shirt that covers his stomach
8. Knows not to buy champagne with screw-top lids
9. Remembers to put the toilet seat down
10. Shaves most weekends
10:48 PM 0
Monday, July 6, 2009
Taliban Web site says group has captured a US soldier in Afghanistan
The U.S. military had said that a soldier was noticed missing last week. The soldier was described as possibly being in enemy hands. Details of such incidents are routinely held tightly by the military, as it works to retrieve a missing or captured soldier without giving away any information to captors.
At the end of an otherwise routine list of activities on the Taliban's Web site, the group says "a drunken American soldier who had come out of his garrison" was captured five days ago and "is still with mujahedeen." The short message does not elaborate on the soldier's whereabouts or the Taliban's plans for him. It also does not provide any proof of its claim.
Two U.S. defense sources say the soldier "just walked off" post with three Afghans after he finished working. They said they had no explanation for why he left the base
11:08 AM 0
Patrick Cudahy fire 'devastating,' exec says - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:
Firefighters continued to battle a stubborn blaze at the Patrick Cudahy Inc. plant in Cudahy Monday morning, which forced a shutdown of the massive meat processing plant and led to a mandatory evacuation of portions of the city.
Smoke from the blaze could be seen for several miles and was easily visible in downtown Milwaukee Monday morning, more than 12 hours after the fire first was reported on Sunday night. No injuries were reported.
“It’s a devastating day for us,” said an obviously shaken Bill Otis, chief operating officer at Patrick Cudahy, which is owned by Smithfield Foods Inc., of Smithfield, Va. “I’m sure this is going to set us back.”
Otis said the company was working to contact its 1,800 employees, as well as various customers. Patrick Cudahy management also has been in contact with Smithfield to determine if some meat processing operations could be temporarily shifted to other Smithfield plants.
The building affected by the fire is used for microwave bacon processing and also is used for dry storage, Otis said.
The lower level of the building is used for ham processing, he said.
Not all areas of the Patrick Cudahy complex have been affected by the fire, Otis said.
Only a small number of maintenance employees were at the plant the fire broke out. Production at the plant had been shut down since the end of the day on July 3 for the holiday weekend.
“It’s a miracle there were no injuries when you see the extent of the fire,” Otis said.
Production at the Patrick Cudahy complex has been shut down for all three shifts on Monday.
“We have no clue what this will mean for our operations,” said Dan Habighorst, vice president of human resources at Patrick Cudahy. “We’ve got to put the fire out first.”
The city of Cudahy issued a mandatory evacuation order for anyone residing within one mile of the plant at One Sweet Apple-Wood Lane. Evacuees were being asked to report to either Mitchell Elementary School, 5950 S. Illinois Ave., or South Milwaukee High School, 801 15th Ave.
At issue is whether the blaze will breach a fire wall and cause ammonia stored on the site to explode, Cudahy fire chief Dan Mayer said.
“It’s very dangerous at this time,” he said.
The ammonia is used for refrigeration at the plant.
Mayer said the blaze, which was reported at about 9:45 p.m. July 5, has been difficult to fight because it began in a confined space near the roof of the building and above the sprinkler system.
At one point early on, Mayer said, it appeared as though firefighters had the blaze under control, but the sprinkler system and roof began to collapse.
Adding to the challenge of fighting the fire is the fact that the building is an old, wooden structure.
10:52 AM 0
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Students use net to cheat: study - A Report From LAtest Survey
Slightly more than half of teens surveyed for a Common Sense Media poll on Thursday admitted to using the internet to cheat and more than a third of students with mobile telephones said they had used them to cheat.
Approximately 65 per cent of all teens surveyed said they had heard or seen other students using mobile telephones to cheat at school.
"This poll shows the unintended consequence of these versatile technologies is that they've made cheating easier," the study concluded.
"Digital life, by its nature, is distant, hard to track, and often anonymous, which can diminish the impact of action and consequences."
Cheating tactics include storing notes on mobile telephones for reference during exams and exchanging text messages about answers while taking tests.
Teens also told of using smart phones to search the internet for answers during exams and of using the devices to send pictures of tests to friends scheduled to take the same class later in a day.
Some 36 per cent of students said that plagiarising from the internet for school assignments was not a serious offence, and a fifth of teens polled did not consider it cheating.
Only half of the students surveyed considered mobile telephone or internet cheating "serious offences," and a significant number of teens didn't deem those tactics cheating at all.
One in four students said it wasn't cheating to store notes on mobile telephones and peek at the information during exams.
"Though it's debatable whether or not it's truly cheating, nearly half (48 per cent) of teens with mobile phones call or text friends to warn them about pop quizzes," authors of the study observed.
"And there's little debate among teens; just 16 per cent say this is cheating and a serious offence and 46 per cent say it's just helping out a friend."
Parents appear to believe that gadgets are being used for cheating, but that other people's children are doing it and certainly not their offspring, according to the survey.
"Parents are shockingly ready to believe that mobile phone cheating is even more widespread than teens believe," study authors noted.
"But, perhaps not surprisingly, almost no one is willing to believe their child is the culprit."
Teens with mobile telephones typically send 440 text messages weekly, with 110 of those digitised missives being shot off during classes, according to the study. Students said they routinely ignored bans on mobile phone use at school.
"Perhaps because they don't realise just how widespread mobile phone use in schools is, parents aren't clamouring for stricter mobile phone policies in school," the study surmised9:59 AM 0
Obamageddon – 2012
Empire America is on the verge of collapse. Its social, economic and political systems are failed and failing, observes Trends Research Institute Director, Gerald Celente, in the Summer Trends Journal®.
“The measures taken by successive governments to save the politically corrupt, morally bankrupt, physically decrepit giant from collapse have served to only hasten its demise. While the decline has been decades in the making, the acceleration of ruinous policies under the current Administration is leading the United States — and much of the world — to the point of no return,” says Celente.
The “green shoots” sighted by Field Marshall Bernanke this past Spring were a mirage. The 2010 economic “recovery” predicted by the same experts, authorities and financial boy scouts and cheerleaders who didn’t see the economic crisis coming is pure delusion.
By 2012, even those in denial and still clinging to hope will be forced to face the truth. It will be called “Obamageddon” in America. The rest of the world will call it “The Greatest Depression.”
We provide the hard data and indisputable facts that support our forecast for an unsettling future. There will be opportunities to seize and measures to take to withstand, and even profit in the increasingly turbulent times.
Obamageddon – 2012 Video
9:56 AM 0
Matthew DeBord: Wimbledon Tennis: In Final, Roger Federer Has No Chance, Grabbed by BadLuck
Andy Roddick will win the 2009 Wimbledon final 7-6 6-7 7-6 6-7 9-7, defeating Roger Federer in his bid to reclaim his All England Club crown and surpass Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam titles. You heard it here first!
Actually, my predicted score line is the only chance Roddick has of taking Federer down this year. Fed is playing very, very well on the vaunted grass courts of England. His serve has been stupendous: When Roger Federer gets his first serve percentage into the low 80s, he's virtually impossible to beat--or even take sets off of.
But Roddick is no slouch in the serve department, either. Among active pros, he owns one of the biggest first and second serves in the game, a deadly combination of terrifying velocity and insane spin. Since losing two Wimbledon finals to Federer, he's modified his game and started to play up to his abilities on grass.
Still, he'll struggle tomorrow to break Federer's serve, as Fed will struggle to break his. So an effective strategy for Roddick would be to guard his own serve fanatically, ignore Federer's, and save his best returns for tiebreakers. Tiebreakers are unpredictable, but Roddick is on a good tiebreak run. If he manages 3-4 aces and focuses on going after 2-3 returns, he can sprint to a quick lead and then try to hold on, edging out tiebreaks by scores of 8-6, 9-7, 10-8. With luck, he'll then be able to eek out a single service break late on the tiebreaker-less fifth set.
Federer isn't ultimately that worried about Roddick because he long ago cracked the American's game. They've met three times in Slam finals (Fed also defeated Roddick to win the 2006 U.S. Open), and in each case, the Swiss has neutralized Roddick's main weapon. This has typically frustrated Roddick, who's accustomed to holding serve easily against most players. Roddick is intelligent and competitive, but against Federer he needs more metal toughness than usual.
He showed this in his semifinal victory against Andy Murray, the Scottish player who had become the best chance for a British Wimbledon champ since Fred Perry in 1936. When he needed the big serves, he came up with them. And when the match became a battle of who could overcome the tightness that a pressure-filled match induces, Roddick demonstrated that he could hit through the anxiety.
9:51 AM 0
One Cast Member Dead in Disney Monorail Crash
One cast member has been confirmed dead in a collision between two Monorails at Walt Disney World. The crash occurred on the EPCOT line near the TTA station around 2AM as operations were winding down following 4th of July fireworks. The pilot of the second monorail was transported to the hospital with minor injuries. No guest injuries are reported.
Click Orlando has the story and a video of the aftermath as guests and cast rush to reach the monorail pilot who is trapped in the pilot cone of the monorail train. The video appears to have been taken after the trains were pushed or pulled into the nearby TTA loading area. One family is shown being evacuated from the purple monorail and everyone looks okay.
Disney has said the monorail system is shut down for inspection and alternate transportation will be provided for today’s guests.
While the monorail is piloted by a cast member, each monorail is supposed to automatically apply its brakes if it closes within two “hold points” of another monorail. However the operator is allowed to override that system in some circumstances. This is the first fatal accident in the 38 year history of the monorail system at Walt Disney World.
I want to stress that this is not a regular occurrence on the monorail lines at Walt Disney World. Since the new trains were added in 1989 there have been no train to train collisions during normal operation. There have been a series of incidents where the nose cone windshield glass popped out during operation, plus many were so badly scratched you could barely see the track in front of you, but Disney had been replacing all the windsheilds on the trails.
9:49 AM 0
Friday, July 3, 2009
PC makers Now offer China Internet filter by AFP
Several PC makers said Friday they were voluntarily including China's controversial Internet filter software in new shipments despite Beijing's decision to postpone making it mandatory.
The government had been set to introduce the Chinese-made "Green Dam Youth Escort" programme but announced the delay hours before its implementation on July 1.
Customer service staff at PC makers including Taiwan's Acer Inc and China's Haier Group said they were nevertheless installing or packaging the software with all new PCs -- but added it was easy to uninstall.
"You will find it with our PCs, as the state has requested. But ... you can easily find a patch on the Internet to uninstall it," one of Acer's service staff told AFP on the phone, asking not to be named.
Beijing has said the software was aimed at filtering out pornography, but computer experts found it was also programmed to suppress politically sensitive material, prompting criticism at home and abroad.
Lenovo, China's biggest computer maker, did not immediately reply to questions on Green Dam, but the official English-language China Daily newspaper said the software was included with the firm's PCs.
A Tokyo-based Sony spokeswoman told AFP the programme is on its China-made computers and customers can install it if they so choose.
"We have distributed it with our personal computers as a set-up file in the hard drive software," she said.
"The users can choose whether to activate the software or not. So it's up to the customers to choose whether to install it or not. But it's already on the hard disk."
She declined to speculate on how much longer Sony would keep installing the software, saying: "We cannot really comment on the future."
An official with China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which licensed the technology from two local software developers, told the newspaper Thursday that the delay of the directive was only temporary.
"The government will definitely carry out the directive on Green Dam. It's just a matter of time," the unnamed official was quoted as saying.
But Mao Shoulong, a professor of public administration at People's University in Beijing, said the issue was likely not yet resolved.
"I believe there is some dispute on the matter within the government and we will continue to see some indecision (by authorities)," Mao told AFP.
The unprecedented nature of the matter made it difficult to predict, he said, but added the government may abandon the software plan "if the backlash is very strong."
Some other PC makers said they are still discussing the matter with the government and are not installing the software without Beijing's final word.
US personal computer giant Dell said in a statement: "We continue our discussions with the Chinese government and are not shipping Green Dam software."
10:19 PM 0
Headlines Of Rail Budget - 2009 By Mamata Banarjee
No increase in freight rates No increase in passenger fares Tatkal charges go down to Rs 100, booking time reduced from 5 days to 2 days Unreserved ticketing systems to be expanded from 5,000 to 8,000 terminals Janta khana (peoples' food) to be provided in railway stations Develop 50 stations with world class amenities 12 new non-stop point to point trains introduced ATMs on 200 mid and small sized stations Aim for 1300 km gauge conversion by 2010 AC double decker trains for inter-city travel Railway Finance Corp to borrow Rs 9000 crore in FY 2010 Madrasa students included in concession scheme To set-up North Eastern development funds Ladies special trains to be introduced in Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi Kolkata Metro to be expanded Increased Budgetary support by Rs 5000 crores AC 'Yuva' trains at Rs 299 and Rs 399 to be introduced Press correspondents to get 50% concession To launch 57 new trains Non-stop AC 'Turant' trains to connect major metros Rs 25 ticket for those with monthly salary under Rs 1000 under the 'Izzat scheme' Ladies special trains during peak hours A new scheme called 'Izzat' to be introduced To use Railway Land Bank for industrial development To set up a new coach factory in Kanchrapara Computerised tickets from post offices 3000 more unreserved ticketing terminals At least one doctor on long distance train Railways to set up cold storage cargoes Mega logistics hubs in Eastern and Western corridor Launch of premium faster parcel services in three routes Aim to fulfill SC/ST backlog in jobs 18,000 wagons to be acquired by FY 2010 Railway hospitals to be upgraded Commando battalion to be raised for security purposes Integrated security schemes for 130 vulnerable stations Railway recruitment board to be reviewed shortly 7 nursing colleges to be set up on railway land Environmental friendly toilets on trains 49 stations of religious importance to be upgraded Automatic vending machines to be set up at stations Women commandos to employed for the security of women passengers High-capacity double decker AC coaches on the cards Automatic vending vans to be set up to make ticketing easy Computerised ticketing from post offices SMS update on waitlisted tickets Tickets can be bought from Post Offices Automatic train information systems on major cities Specially designed coaches, escalators and elevators for the physically challenged Depute doctors on long distance trains Book stores, PCOs to be set up across stations Infotainment services on Rajhandi and Shatabdi trains To take the Private-Public partnership route to develop stations Priority for food and water on trains Developing multi-functional complexes at stations Priority to passenger amenities Rail projects shouldn't be gauged by economic viability but governed by social viability: Mamata To set up panel for financing unavailable rail projects Improvement of trains amenities Railways is trying to keep up with change Committed to the cause of the underpreviliged. Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee begins her speech in Parliament. Shares of engineering and wagon manufacturing firms surged by up to 4 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange in early trade today ahead of the Railway Budget 2009-10 Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML) gained 2.15 per cent at Rs 1,105, Hind Rectifiers, the manufacturer of rectifier equipment and semi-conductor devices, rose by 5.27 per cent to Rs 64.95 Budget is of the people, by the people and for the people: Mamata Banerjee More trains for West Bengal Budget hotels at railway stations More Garib Rath trains to be introduced Measures to improve catering and on-board decoration Special announcement for security on railways Mamata is expected to announce 25 new trains Amid expectations of improvement in railway amenities and food served in trains, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee would present a 'pro-people' budget in Parliament Business leaders and commoners in West Bengal are expecting a series of sops for the state when she presents her budget in parliament In her two budgets earlier, Banerjee introduced a new biweekly New Delhi-Kolkata Rajdhani Express, besides starting several express trains connecting various portions of West Bengal She might also announce changes in the Tatkal scheme to make it more passenger friendly Among the legacies of conflict that Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has inherited from her predecessor Lalu Prasad is the much-hyped budget hotels scheme - involving the construction of 100 hotels on vacant railway land in the public-private partnership mode Mumbai, which accounts for more than 50 per cent of country's train passengers, expects three of its major projects to be approved in the railway budget Mamata's predecessor Lalu Prasad Yadav had promised to introduce GO Mumbai card on Central and Western Railway and on BEST 4:56 AM 0
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