News Articles
Therapy for the price of a postage-stamp
Hello World.
Yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald has an interesting article about PostSecret, a website (and now a series of books) which displays reader-submitted secrets written on home-made postcards.
FRANK WARREN HAS been called many things. The most trusted stranger in America. A unique global guru. Today’s Media “It” Boy. Father confessor of the world wide web.
…
His website - http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com - is now one of America’s favourite blogs, with 3 million visitors a month. Every Sunday, fans log on to see the 20 new confessions he has posted from the 150 he receives through the mail in an average week.
…
Whether it is art, therapy or a vehicle for voyeurs - and the secret of its success is probably that it is a heady combination of all three - PostSecret has obviously filled a void.
I have been a fan of PostSecret for some time, and I have been linking to it in the blogroll for a few years now. It’s good to see it get some well-deserved media attention.
If you’ve never checked it out, do so. It makes for some very interesting reading.
Ebay want their Big Day (Out)
Hello World.
Apparently the people at Ebay have gone completely mad. From the Triple J website:
In a strange turn of events Ebay is taking action to stop organisers of the Big Day Out selling their tickets - unless they stop threatening to cancel scalped tickets. Sorry – run that by me again ebay wanna stop the bdo selling tickets because the bdo won’t let ebay sell their tickets.
Basically, Ebay don’t like being told they can’t illegally sell tickets, and are adopting an “if we can’t do it no-one can” stance.
As a person who has both bought and sold tickets using third-parties such as Ebay I feel they should all just leave it be. There will always be scalpers, and there will always be people who will buy third-party tickets - Ebay or no.
Ricky’s all upset
Hello World.
It would seem that Ricky Gervais is annoyed the training videos he and Stephen Merchant made for Microsoft have been released to the public. Apparently the duo were paid “a six figure sum” to produce the videos, and only agreed to do them under the condition they were never released.
From The Times Online:
IT SEEMS that Ricky Gervais may not always see the funny side. Microsoft has started an investigation after two supposedly private training videos made for the software company by the comedian appeared on the internet.
Gervais and Stephen Merchant, his writing partner, agreed to make the films in 2003, said to be for a six-figure sum, on the condition that they were never made public.
…
In January 2004, when the existence of the videos was revealed, a spokesperson for Gervais, who won multiple Baftas and Golden Globes for The Office, said: “The idea was to show ‘how not to do it’.”
…
A spokeswoman for Gervais said: “We don’t want people to think that David Brent is coming back.”
The full article can be found here.
The article talks of the videos being removed from YouTube, however at the time of this writing they appear to still be active on Google Video.
(found via Newsvine)
Hee hee, "diphallus"…
Hello World.
An Indian businessman born with two penises wants one of them removed surgically as he wants to marry and lead a normal sexual life, a newspaper report said Saturday.
The 24-year-old man from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh admitted himself to a New Delhi hospital this week with an extremely rare medical condition called penile duplication or diphallus, the Times of India said.
“Two fully functional penes is unheard of even in medical literature. In the more common form of diphallus, one organ is rudimentary,” the newspaper quoted a surgeon as saying.
The surgery was expected to be challenging as both organs were well-formed and full blood supply to the retained penis had to be ensured to allow it to function normally, he added.
The newspaper did not disclose the identity of the man or the hospital to protect the patient’s privacy.
There are about 100 such reported cases of diphallus around the world and it is known to occur among one in 5.5 million men, the newspaper said.
It is caused by the failure of the mesodermal bands in the embryo to fuse properly. The mesodermal bands are one of three primary layers of the embryo from which several body parts are formed.
I’m not saying anything other than, if he has two, why in hell does he want to get rid of one of them?
Note, my spell-checker tripped up on “penes”. 
Andy Millman is coming.
Hello World.
Just a heads up to all those Australian Ricky Gervais fans out there, his new series Extras begins next Wednesday on the ABC at 9pm (the same time slot the great Absolute Power has been in recently).
New Messenger
Hello World.
It's not the usual type of stuff I do here, but I thought I'd just give all of you a little heads up regarding a new (beta) version of MSN Messenger.
It has changed its name to Windows Live Messenger, but in reality it is just MSN Messenger 8.
I've been playing with it for a little while and it seems to be almost exactly like the current MSN Messenger (7.5?), except for a few aesthetic changes. The best improvement I've seen is the ability to remove some of the more annoying elements via the options menu (such as those stupid tabs down the side). There are a few other things also such as Folder Sharing and offline messages (messages that will be received the next time the recipient logs on).
Anyway, just thought I'd let you know, because I know many of you use it.
Related links:
Web Service Spotlight - Newsvine
Hello World.
Each Wednesday Whenever I have a chance, I will be featuring a different “Web 2.0” website and providing a sort of mini-review. These may include new services that are better than their competitors, sites that are unique and do things differently, or simply sites that stand out as being useful.
—
This week, I am featuring the recently released news website, Newsvine.
Scorpion Queen finds King
Scorpion Queen finds King
January 26, 2006 - 12:24PM
Thailand’s “Scorpion Queen” and “Centipede King” will tie the knot on Valentine’s Day and then consummate their nuptials in a coffin, organisers of the wedding said.
Kanjana Kaetkeow, 36, who entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2002 for spending 32 days in a glass cube with 3,400 scorpions, has agreed to marry Montri Siangwong, 29, a 2003 Guinness record holder for spending 28 days with 1,000 centipedes, said Somporn Naksuetrong, general manager of Ripley’s World of Entertainment in Pattaya.
“The couple met and fell in love when they were touring together after winning their Guinness records,” Somporn said.
The couple will marry in Pattaya, 90km east of Bangkok, on February 14. Eight other “special couples” have been selected to participate in the necronuptials, pursuing the theme Till Death Do Us Part.
Kanajan and Montri, at least, have spent creepier nights with less attractive bed partners, organisers noted.
Original article here.
See now that’s just wrong.
Hello World.
A US man is suing his ex-girlfriend in for more than $40,600 for supergluing his genitals to his abdomen.
Kenneth Slaby of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, broke up with Gail O’Toole in 1999, after dating for 10 months.
Slaby then began dating someone else but, according to the lawsuit, O’Toole invited him over to her home on May 7, 2000, where he fell asleep.
When he woke up, Slaby found that O’Toole had glued his genitals to his abdomen, glued his buttocks together and spelled out a profanity on his back in nail polish.
Let me repeat that.
When he woke up, Slaby found that O’Toole had glued his genitals to his abdomen, glued his buttocks together and spelled out a profanity on his back in nail polish.
The worst part is, he then had to
walk almost 2 kilometres to a petrol station to call for help.
Full article here.
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