RYANAIR - A EURO TO TAKE A LEAK!

RYANAIR is plumbing new depths with its latest passenger charge — the company wants to introduce a €1 toilet charge on its flights.

In a BBC interview, airline chief executive Michael O’Leary said: "One thing we have looked at in the past and are looking at again is the possibility of maybe putting a coin slot on the door so that people may have to spend a pound to spend a penny."
Asked what someone would do if they were caught short — of money — O’Leary responded: "I don’t think there is anybody in history who has got onboard a Ryanair aircraft with less then a pound."

Yesterday Ryanair’s publicity team were unconvincing in their attempts to wash their hands of Mr O’Leary’s comments.
"Michael makes a lot of this stuff up as he goes along and while this has been discussed internally, there are no immediate plans to introduce it."

The spokesperson said O’Leary’s comments highlight Ryanair’s obsession with lowering costs and passing these savings on in the form of lower fares.
"Passengers using train and bus stations are already accustomed to paying to use the toilet, so why not on airplanes?"

Then again, maybe O’Leary was just taking the p*ss.

INVEST IN TOYS!!!!!!!!!

Now when did you ever think you'd hear someone say INVEST IN TOYS? In a recent report by Reuters:

"With stocks and shares no longer a safe bet, some see toy collecting as a solid investment.Toys are no longer seen as collectables for eccentrics. Today, they are becoming the choice for serious investors.

Something that may have seemed worthless a few decades ago may now be in real demand.But experts warn the toy collectable market can be a risky business."

Friendship, Belief, Spirituality

If any of the above are important in your life or if your looking for another blog to view to learn something, enjoy a quiz, pass some time head over to www.markvernon.com. Check out his Friendship and Spirituality Quiz.

"A true friend stabs you in the front" Oscar Wilde

"The darkest place is always underneath the lamp." Chinese proverb

Microsoft on to a Winner!

Today, Microsoft researchers will demonstrate software that can, in real time, superimpose computer-generated information on top of a digitized view of the real world.

Adding additional visual data to a video display is a technique known as augmented reality. Michael Cohen, principal researcher at Microsoft Research, in Redmond, WA, says that the approach could add another dimension to future smart phones. "You could be out on the street, hold the device up, and it could recognize a restaurant and deliver ratings and the menu," he says. A smart phone featuring an augmented-reality display could also overlay a bus route and an estimate of when the next bus is due on top of a particular street. "It essentially becomes your portal to information," Cohen says.

Cohen and his colleagues will demo the augmented-reality technology at TechFest, an annual showcase of Microsoft's research projects, in Redmond. Their software, which runs on a small portable computer, analyzes scenes from a camera, matches to those stored in a database, and overlays supplementary information on the display. The researchers note that a smart phone with augmented reality could help allow engineers to "see" the pipes or electrical cables below a street. In the demonstration given at TechFest, the software will be used to lead people on a treasure hunt to a hidden prize of a (virtual) pot of gold.

People at Work

Although times are tough and many of Us have lost out jobs some people are actually working. Their jobs may not be glamorous, exciting or fun but there is a beauty in them as these wonderful photographs show! Beauty at Work

I love Mickey Rourke!

Maybe this speech is why he didn't win the Oscar but it sure beats a boring Thank you Monologue!

For the one you love on VALENTINES DAY!

Sorry this is a bit late - but just in case you're gushing with love for your nearest and dearest here's a company that makes personalized DVD's of your LURVE for each other!

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

The 50 Coolest Song Parts

Here's a link to "The 50 Coolest Song Parts" as described by retrocrush.buzznet.com. You will Love or Hate some of his selection but its an interesting mix of great, classic pieces and some hammy numbers! Enjoy

What Obama's Stimulus Package could buy?

President Obama signed the $787 billion economic stimulus bill into law today. About $281 billion of the stimulus will go to new tax cuts with the remainder being spent on infrastructure investments, expanded unemployment benefits, and other programs.

But what else could this stimulus package purchase? Here's a few examples:

1.Romney's Utah ski home - more than 149,000 times over

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's Utah ski home was just recently put on the market with an asking price of $5,250,000. You could purchase this estate about 149,904 times over with the stimulus package.

2.Cover money lost in Madoff's Ponzi sheme - 16 times over

Bernard Madoff, a prominent money manager and former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market, was accused of a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. The stimulus costs could cover the total money lost in this enormous scam 16 times over.

3.More than 222 billion Big Macs

Since many look to the Bic Mac index to understand exchange rates, it might help put the stimulus package in perspective. With the Big Mac currently worth about $3.54, the stimulus could purchase over 222 billion of the beloved burgers.

Risk of Depression 50 Times lower in Japan

IRISH people are 50 times more likely to develop depression than the Japanese because we don’t eat enough fish, a conference was told in Dublin yesterday.

Professor Michael Crawford, director of the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition, at London Metropolitan University, suggested that dependence on a meat and wheat-based diet is resulting in a significant rise in brain ill-health in the Western world.

"Currently, just over 50% of the Irish population eats fish at least once a week," said Prof Crawford, a Bord Iascaigh Mhara-sponsored keynote speaker at the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute conference.

His key message to the Irish is to eat more fish and substantially lessen their risk of developing mental health problems.

Do we need a New Internet

Two decades ago a 23-year-old Cornell University graduate student brought the Internet to its knees with a simple software program that skipped from computer to computer at blinding speed, thoroughly clogging the then-tiny network in the space of a few hours.

The program was intended to be a digital “Kilroy Was Here.” Just a bit of cybernetic fungus that would unobtrusively wander the net. However, a programming error turned it into a harbinger heralding the arrival of a darker cyberspace, more of a mirror for all of the chaos and conflict of the physical world than a utopian refuge from it.

Since then things have gotten much, much worse.

Bad enough that there is a growing belief among engineers and security experts that Internet security and privacy have become so maddeningly elusive that the only way to fix the problem is to start over.

What a new Internet might look like is still widely debated, but one alternative would, in effect, create a “gated community” where users would give up their anonymity and certain freedoms in return for safety. Today that is already the case for many corporate and government Internet users. As a new and more secure network becomes widely adopted, the current Internet might end up as the bad neighborhood of cyberspace. You would enter at your own risk and keep an eye over your shoulder while you were there.

“Unless we’re willing to rethink today’s Internet,” says Nick McKeown, a Stanford engineer involved in building a new Internet, “we’re just waiting for a series of public catastrophes.”

The Internet’s original designers never foresaw that the academic and military research network they created would one day bear the burden of carrying all the world’s communications and commerce. There was no one central control point and its designers wanted to make it possible for every network to exchange data with every other network. Little attention was given to security. Since then, there have been immense efforts to bolt on security, to little effect.

“In many respects we are probably worse off than we were 20 years ago,” said Eugene Spafford, the executive director of the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security at Purdue University and a pioneering Internet security researcher, “because all of the money has been devoted to patching the current problem rather than investing in the redesign of our infrastructure.”

In fact, many computer security researchers view the nearly two decades of efforts to patch the existing network as a Maginot Line approach to defense, a reference to France’s series of fortifications that proved ineffective during World War II. The shortcoming in focusing on such sturdy digital walls is that once they are evaded, the attacker has access to all the protected data behind them. “Hard on the outside, with a soft chewy center,” is the way many veteran computer security researchers think of such strategies.

Despite a thriving global computer security industry that is projected to reach $79 billion in revenues next year, and the fact that in 2002 Microsoft itself began an intense corporatewide effort to improve the security of its software, Internet security has continued to deteriorate globally.

LL Cool J tells Obama how to run the U.S.

And you thought LL had retired from dishing out his words of wisdom!Rapper LL Cool J has penned an open letter to new US President Barack Obama, offering him words of advice about how best to serve his country.

The hip-hop star was an outspoken supporter of the Democrat on the campaign trail, and he is delighted to have played a part in such an important election.

LL, real name James Todd Smith, has urged Obama to stick to his principles as he embarks upon an historic journey.

"The next chapter of your life has begun," he wrote. "The toughest decisions you will ever have to make lie in front of you. Decisions that will require you to choose between integrity and necessity to enact the promises made to millions of people, and recognise a change in perspective that will sometimes make those promises impossible to keep.

"Only you will be able to make those choices.

"You have shifted the cultural paradigm of America, but now you have to live up to the ideal that fostered the shift and ensure that the paradigm doesn't shift back. You must deliver."

Gene Therapy Cures Fatal Bubble Boy Disease

Gene therapy marked another successful milestone last week when it was used to completely cure eight of 10 children who had potentially fatal “bubble boy disease,” according to a study that followed their progress for an average of four years after treatment. Formally known as severe combined immunodeficiency, or SCID, the genetic disease causes its carriers to develop non-functional immune systems, typically resulting in death from infection within the first year of life without advanced treatment.

The patients in the study suffered from the second most common form of SCID, arising from a single malfunctioning gene that results in a defective enzyme, adenosine deaminase (ADA). To cure the patients, a sample of marrow cells was removed from their bodies, a virus was used to “upgrade” the cells with working copies of the gene, and then the cells were injected back into the patients’ bodies. After taking residence in the body these enhanced marrow cells were able to proliferate within the patients and supplant the original malfunctioning immune system with a functioning one.

SCID acquired the name “bubble boy disease” as a result of the famous story of David Vetter, a boy in the 70’s who literally lived in a sterilized vessel, or bubble, for 12 years in an effort to protect him from infectious encounters. Vetter eventually died in 1984 when an attempt to cure him with a bone marrow transplant failed. This disease, diagnosed in roughly 40-100 children in the United States each year, is particularly heart wrenching because it necessarily afflicts children.

Tom's the Man!

Meant to post this last week after watching a clip on Jon Ross on Friday nite. You gotta say Tom is the Man! Little Richard ain't bad neither!

George Bush is DEAD!?

A South African TV station mistakenly broadcast that former US President George Bush had died during one of its news bulletins.

For three seconds ETV News ran a moving banner headline across the screen saying "George Bush is dead".

The "misbroadcast" happened when a technician pressed the "broadcast live for transmission" button instead of the one for a test-run.

The station said test banners would now be done in "gobbledegook".

The mistake happened when a senior staff member wanted to see how a rolling banner headline looked.

'Wrong button'

"The technical director pressed the wrong button, it took a second for the words to appear and then the words were on screen for only three seconds before they were taken off," said spokesman Vasili Vass.

He said he could not comment on whether the person responsible would face disciplinary action.

"We've learned from it, all test banners will now be done in gobbledegook," he added.

The mistake was first reported on by the Afrikaans language newspaper Beeld, and on the media group's website, News24.com.

"Its unfortunate, because we never comment on their mistakes," said Mr Vass.

The Evolution of Microsoft Windows

I'm sure that you all remember different versions of Microsofts Operating systems but here's

A look back at nearly 20 years of Microsoft operating systems.

The Mac Evolution

Considering that this month marks the 25th anniversary of the Macintosh, it's a good time to take a look at this computer's past. From the first Apple to the MacBook Air, Macs have been regarded as technologically innovative, beautiful in product design and, over time, become just plain cool.

View a slideshow of how the Mac evolution led to the Apple revolution.

Chancellor Barbie

Toy company Mattel debuted the Chancellor Angela Merkel Barbie last week at an international toy fair in the southern city of Nuremberg. It sports Merkel's signature strawberry-blond bob, an elegant black pantsuit and low-heeled shoes.

"She's a role model for other women worldwide," said Mattel spokeswoman Stephanie Wegener. "She represents what we can achieve."

Merkel attended the fair's opening Wednesday and Wegener said she approved of her miniature doppelganger - even though Barbie's familiar face and figure do not exactly replicate her real-life appearance.

"Creating a copy of someone is not the intention - we're not Madame Tussauds," Wegener said. "It's just a lookalike doll created to honor her."

The special-edition Barbie, part of Mattel's celebrations of the ubiquitous doll's 50th birthday, is not for sale and will not go into production. The company said it has not yet decided what to do with it after the trade fair closes on Tuesday.

MIT Students turn Internet into a sixth human sense

LONG BEACH, California -- Students at the MIT Media Lab have developed a wearable computing system that turns any surface into an interactive display screen. The wearer can summon virtual gadgets and internet data at will, then dispel them like smoke when they're done.

Pattie Maes of the lab's Fluid Interfaces group said the research is aimed at creating a new digital "sixth sense" for humans. Maes' MIT group, which includes seven graduate students, were thinking about how a person could be more integrated into the world around them and access information without having to do something like take out a phone.

The prototype was built from an ordinary webcam and a battery-powered 3M projector, with an attached mirror -- all connected to an internet-enabled mobile phone. The setup, which costs less than $350, allows the user to project information from the phone onto any surface -- walls, the body of another person or even your hand.

Sarah Palin Remixed

Crazy Christian Bale!

Think Christian has finally crossed over to THE DARK SIDE!

India's $10 laptop too good to be true!

India's much-hyped plan to build a $10 laptop has been exposed as a massive exaggeration.

Several media outlets, including The Industry Standard, cited a Times of India article that last week stated India would be unveiling the laptop as an educational tool for children across the country.

The Times article quoted a government official -- Secretary of Higher Education R. P. Agarwal - which seemed to provide more legitimacy to the claim. Indian offficials had said it was to be an answer to Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child project.

Now it turns out that the project actually centers around a 2GB hard drive with wireless capabilities.

Fast Company reports that the device "appears to be nothing much more sophisticated than a specialized digital storage hub/net access point for educational media."

How to knit

For those of you suffering from the cold and boredom why not try the new extremely useful but fashionable hobby KNITTING! Check out the purple suit - Inspiring!

Bruce Killing It!

India's $10 Laptop to be revealed Feb. 3

On February 3, the Indian government will display a prototype of the Rs 500, a $10 laptop that will hopefully give more young people the opportunity to learn and help increase the country's school enrollment.

The $10 laptop project is the product of a collaboration among institutions including the Vellore Institute of Technology, the Indian Institute of Science, and IIT-Madras. The project began about three years ago in response to the proposed $100 laptop (the "One Laptop Per Child" project), an idea from MIT's Nicholas Negroponte, which was going to cost $200. Currently, the $10 laptop is projected to cost $20, but India's secretary of higher education R. P. Agarwal hopes that price will come down with mass production.

The $10 laptop will be equipped with 2 GB of memory, WiFi, fixed Ethernet, expandable memory, and consume just 2 watts of power.

The unveiling of the laptop will occur at the government's launch of the National Mission on Education through Information and Technology, held next Tuesday in Tirupati. The Indian government is working with publishers to provide e-content on educational subjects which will be available free of cost. The government is also considering a plan to subsidize internet connections for schools.

Currently, the government is consulting with different production agencies, and hopes to make the computers commercially available in the next six months

SuperBowl XLIII

First year in seven I can actually watch the whole show! Here's what Pepsi Max has to offer in the intervals!