Entrpreneurial skills

Anthony Stancl, 19, of Wisconsin, has been sentenced to 15 years in jail after his blackmail scheme was exposed. Posing as a girl on Facebook, he tricked male classmates into sending him naked photos of themselves - and then he used the photos to blackmail them. What were they thinking? And would the reaction have been different if he had been blackmailing them for money rather than sexual favours?

No comment

Disturbed by the calibre of comments on their site, Engadget has turned off that capability to allow time for the more nasty, threatening commenters - definitely not the majority of their readers - to fall by the wayside or under the "banhammer". This is a breath of fresh air - just when you thought technology was just another avenue for bad behaviour you find that someone is taking some responsibility. Well done Engadget!

Words you don't expect to hear

"Soy milk - thanks Mum." Overheard at the Coles Supermarket, Broadway
NSW yesterday as it was excitedly spoken by a young child.
On the subject of soy milk, it seems one brand was recalled late last
year because of high levels of iodine - but because it tastes better
than other brands, especially in coffee, there's reportedly been a
"black market" trade of it out of a cafe in Sydney.

A matter of perception

There's an old Jewish story about a woman who complains to the Rabbi about her worries - and she appears to not be the only one - so he tells the townfolk to put their worries in a bag and bring them to the town well. He then instructs them to leave theirs and take someone else's. At the end of the week, everyone is clamouring to get their own worries back. I would do well to remember that the next time I complain about the woman at the bus stop chewing my ear off (not literally of course) about all manner of things - because it could always get worse! Yes, yes, there's no direct correlation between the story and the observation - it's sometimes just nice to share stories.

Please explain

What does a goat with a green frog sitting on its head have to do with the Trading Post? I must be right out of step with the modern advertising psyche but for the life of me I can't work it out what the banner poster us about - just attracting attention or does it hold some other, deeper message?

Sweet ...

It's not one of the easiest building materials, but chocolatiers in China are doing what they can to have chocolate more widely accepted there by erecting a smaller version of The Great Wall, and the famous TerraCotta Warriors, in chocolate. Up to 80 tons of chocolate have been used for displays to be shown in the World Chocolaye Wonderland
exhibition and trade show being held in Beijing this month. Hopefully this will give the Chinese market a real taste for chocolate.

High cost of hope

Following the devastatIng earthquake in Haiti last week, with the country's infrastructure in ruins, humanitarians are hard-pressed to get aid to the country and distribute it. One of the main problems is landing aid in the country especially as the airport is reduced to one airport and the country's main port has been damaged. The airport has been taken over by the US which said over the weekend that priority for the 400 flights a day would be in the order of: search and rescue, military and then humanitarian aircraft. It's an incredibly hard call to make - whether to look for injured and dying - especially when the country's medical and aid facilities are already stretched beyond capacity - military troops to keep order in a country where it is quickly disintegrating because people are hurt, hungry and overwhelmed by their situation, or to land food and other aid. It's a call even Solomon could find difficult to make.

Exceptional results

If you do a search of books formatted for Kindle from Amazon, you'll find more exceptional than mundane results - literally. There were only 2 of the latter - one about end of life communications, the other about physics. There are loads of "exceptional" results - from customer service to IT training to making the most of "you" and your life.

Taking a load off

A study released today reports that the weight of a woman's handbag has dropped dramatically over the last 2 years with the introduction and adoption of "new-generation multi-purpose gadgets". I have to agree - these days I've been known to take just the iPhone and leave the camera, mini laptop, Palm, and Bluetooth keyboard at home. This has got to be good news for my backpack which used to weigh in at over 5 kg. Of course, there are some things you still have to carry - like pen and paper for those times when you just have to "write" something (and I'm talking A4 size here - not "nana notebook").

Developing story

US military helps develop internet. China and the US develop trading relations. Google becomes key internet player. China censors internet. Google threatens to withdraw from China. The White House holds talks with Google. Who else thinks there's more to come with this story?

Secret (not any more) plan to save Earth from asteroid

It's like a blockbuster disaster movie
description: 350-metre wide asteroid Apophis could strike Earth in 26 years and could kill "hundreds of thousands" but is actually from today's news. The Russians are said to be preparing to meet to work out ways to prevent a collision when the asteroid passes within 30,000 km of the planet. Meanwhile, the US space agency NASA said in an October statement that updated computational techniques and newly available data indicate the probability of an Earth encounter on April 13, 2036, for Apophis has dropped from one-in-45,000 to about four-in-a-million. It's uncertain whether they wil join with the Russian to discuss the possibility of impact, or if they are making plans for April 14.

Holy apparitions

Not sure if this is something you would want or not - in today's paper there is a story of a woman who saw the face of Jesus on a banana peel - and she is no stranger to this type of thing ... apparentlly a friend of hers saw an apparition of Mary in the mould of their shower floor. Now what was that about godliness and cleanliness?

Way too easy

Hmm - Kindle for the iPhone and iPod Touch is now available in Australia and I downloaded it on the way to work this morning ... and "The Lost Symbol" and a sample of "Flashforward" and ... well, that was it so far but it is way too easy to buy books this way especially with the 1-click option! It will be interesting to see if Amazon (owners of Kindle) have eliminated the pesky geography issues that plague some other online ebook sellers. Now if only the Kindl application was more customisable and/or provided a plainer typeface.

Word of the day ...

"paywall" - like a firewall on your computer that keeps bugs and other unfriendlies out - but in reverse - you can't get access unless you pay. Expect to see more of these - especially from the publishers who are keen to have us pay fir content.

Peaceful words

In accepting the Nobel Peace Prize last week, US President Barack Obama reportedly defended the right of his country to wage "just wars" in the name of peace. Somehow doesn't seem quite in keeping with the occasion - although given that the Nobel prize was established by the man who invented dynamite, maybe it's not that far off the mark.

Home for the holidays

It just makes me want to rush out and buy his new book (which I would have already if they weren't holding up the e-version because thy were afraid it would hurt hard-cover sales) ... Author Stephen King and his wife are donating money so 150 soldiers from the Maine Army National Guard can come home for the holidays.

In the news

Seems you can't look at a newspaper or magazine (or blog) these days without reading something about Tiger Woods. I was surprised to find, in one edited transcript of SMS exchanges between the Tiger and one of his "friends", that he referred to himself as "blasian". I'd not heard the term before. Nor the phrase, in the same report, "beyond PR redemption". So does this mean that the saying "no publicity is bad publicity" may need revisiting?

EPublishing

It's kind of odd that there's so much yet so little happening about electronic publishing. On one hand there's the US magazine publishers who are looking to provide a delivery mechanism for use on all manner of devices; and on the other there's the move by publishers to delay release of ebooks so they don't interfere with hardcover sales. I guess it's all about maximizing profits ... but who knew ebook readers would be worse off the more popular electronic material became?

Holler for a ...

A "to do" list can be a helpful thing: place to hold up - check; hand gun - check; getaway car ... oops. Police yesterday caught a man who had allegedly tried to hold up a hotel in Alexandria, Sydney, as he tried to hail a cab to make his getaway. Whi said there's never a cab around when you need one?

One of a kind?

How do you personalize your wedding? The latest craze seems to be to take part in a "drown the gown" ceremony which is reportedly ((The Daily Telegraph) being adopted by newlyweds looking for more extreme ways to make their wedding their own/memorable. I guess it's different from going out in your wedding best and having a paint ball skirmish. Not sure what it says about the venerated institution of marriage ... or if it affects the resale value ...