Nokia 8860

Good news on drug and alcohol addictions

2009-11-19T07:42:00.000-08:00

I know, we look around at the modern world and see that there's the news all around us that we're in the grip of a virulent epidemic of addiction. To booze, to drugs, to sex, to self-harming behaviors of every kind. So it might be difficult to espy good news in this field but good news there is. We're getting much better at drug treatment, much better indeed.

The traditional method was pretty simple really: drug treatment meant getting the addict off their drug of choice and then hoping that they would stay off it. While there's a certain robust simplicity to such an approach it's not actually all that effective. For example, we now know that it may not be the addiction that's the root problem: sure, it's a problem, but there's something else under there which is leading to the addictive and damaging behaviour, not just the desire for a certain drug. So we've developed dual diagnosis treatment which looks for that underlying cause and treats it as well.

And we also realise now that different people will react better to different drug treatments. It might be best medically managed (heroin treatment can be greatly aided by methadone for example) or perhaps entirely therapeutically. We do know that taking the addict out of their day to day environment is extremely helpful and we also know that what works for one type of addiction can work well with others. So we now also know that integrated and holistic centers do better than others: for there is that continual cross fertilization of ideas and techniques which drives our knowledge and thus success rate forwards.

Click through any of the links for more information on one of those very integrated centers.

New York Yankees Parade

2009-11-04T23:42:00.001-08:00

The New York Yankees Parade will be on Friday at 11 am.

As is traditional when one of the home teams wins the World Series, there will be a parage through central Manhattan in their honour. As it was the Yankees who won this time then it will be the New York Yankees parade.

It all starts at 11 am at Battery Place, then up Broadway and ending at City Hall. This route os sometimes referred to as the Canyon of Heroes for this is where all of the returning heroes have traditionally been welcomed by the City.

The New York Yankees parade will also likely be the last appearance of Hideki Matsui in a Yankees uniform as the World Series 2009 MVP becomes a free agent in the winter and so is unlikely to stay with the team. And of course, being the World Series MVP isn't a bad way to start a career as a free agent now, is it?

Katie and Tom News

2007-06-25T07:32:00.001-07:00

Are you fascinated by hte train wreck that seems to be the marriage between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes?

If so then you'll want to check out the blog dedicated to news of the couple. Is it Katie Holmes' marriage that fascinates?

Or the scientology, her husband, the baby Suri, or what?

Whatever it is, check out the link for all your Katie Holmes news needs.

Far Eastern Food

2007-06-15T07:52:00.001-07:00

Whatever will they think of next?

Look, I know that there's all sorts of things that go into Chinese food, sea slugs and the like, but do we really have to have black chicken as well?

Yes, it's pretty much a regular chicken, just that the bones and flesh are black. It's just that the colour is more likely to turn me off than make me think "yummy"!

Sophia Loren Strips!

2007-05-16T10:18:00.000-07:00

Well, she might:

A striptease by 72-year-old actress Sofia Loren could be one of the more outrageous ways that Napoli fans will celebrate if the team are promoted to the Italian top flight this season.

Loren, a movie sex siren from the 1950s and 1960s, is a big fan of the Naples club who have fallen on hard times since winning their first Italian championship 20 years ago.

"I hope that Napoli win these last few games. You watch if we go up I will do a striptease," she told Gazzetta dello Sport in an interview Tuesday. "The fans have a total passion, the city deserves promotion."

Napoli are third in Serie B, Italy's second division, and have five games left to force their way into the top two or face a promotion playoff.

Weird fact: Benito Mussolini's son, Romano, married her sister.

Ringtones Links

2007-04-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

"Everybody loves ringtones. So i decided to have a search for the best ringtones sites. Maybe everyone knows Ringophone.com or Ultrasonic-ringtones.com but to tell the truth the best site for free ringtones to download is GoldRingtone.com. Download the best Ringtones for free! Doesn't it sound attractive? The site has a weekly update (as they inform me with their press release) so you can continuously find the best new free ringtones.

The site is simple. The users can download free mp3 ringtones from any carrier. Besides, there are sections for all carriers. You can get free Sprint Ringtones, or free Cingular Ringtones.

Red Hat and RHEL 5

2007-03-18T08:42:00.001-07:00

A new release of linux for the geeks:

Red Hat, one of the most well-known names in Linux today, has announced a new version of RHE (Red Hat Enterprise) Linux. RHEL 5 was created with a close and strong working relationship with customers unlike other versions that used very few suggestions if any. Red Hat is taking the open source collaborative principles that customers are using today and applying them to other parts of the business, including services, systems management and partnerships.

"We have been developing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 for two years with our customers and partners driving the agenda. Their pain points were clear: they were unable to consume all of the technology being sold to them, and it was not solving their business problems effectively. Our resolve has been and will always be that we will deliver software that solves real business needs," said Paul Cormier, Executive Vice President of Engineering, Red Hat.

I can't remember who said it but someone did: Linux was invented so that geeks could get laid.

Predicting Earthquakes

2007-03-18T08:40:00.001-07:00

Scientists believe they have some encouraging news about how and when to predict earthquakes:

Paris - Geophysicists poring over an earthquake hotspot beneath southern Japan believe massive temblors may be preceded by slow, barely perceptible quakes that can last for days or weeks.

In a new paper published in the British journal Nature, the scientists say the warning signs are buried in tiny seismic signals caused by a slip deep within a fault.

Their focus is on phenomena that lie far below the threshold of human sensation called low-frequency earthquakes (LFEs) and non-volcanic tremor.

Seismologists have until now mainly viewed non-volcanic tremor as a weak shaking of the Earth, and LFEs as a swarm of small temblors, with a magnitude of just one or two, that can last for weeks or even months at a time.

These low rumblings are typically found in subduction zones - the regions on the Pacific's "Ring of Fire" that have unleashed the mightiest quakes on record, say the US-Japanese team, led by David Shelly of Stanford University, California.

As someone who has lived in two earthquake prone areas, I say this can only be good news (although, oddly, the only one I've ever felt was in hte UK).

PS3: Not Backwardly Compatible in Europe!

2007-02-25T09:44:00.001-08:00

Sony has just quietly released the news that the PS 3 being sold in Europe will not be backwardly compatible with the PS 2:

There hasn't been any great news concerning the upcoming launch of the PlayStation 3 in Europe for as long as I can remember, and this one is no different. As if the late launch and high price point weren't bad enough, Sony's latest press release brings even more bad news! Today, while announcing the PS3's hardware specification for Europe, they subtly hinted that the PlayStation 3 will only be compatible with a "limited range" of PlayStation 2 titles:

"The European PS3 will feature the Cell Broadband Engine, 60 GB hard disc drive, Blu-ray Disc player, built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, SIXAXIS wireless controller. It also embodies a new combination of hardware and software emulation which will enable PS3 to be compatible with a broad range of original PlayStation (PS) titles and a limited range of PlayStation 2 (PS2) titles."

Just how limited are we talking about? Well, a Sony spokesperson was already quoted by Reuters as saying that "the backwards compatibility is not going to be as good as in the US and Japanese models", so prepare for the worst. SCE Europe president, David Reeves basically says so himself, as well, in the communique:

"Rather than concentrate on PS2 backwards compatibility, in the future, company resources will be increasingly focused on developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, truly taking advantage of this exciting technology."

As a "brilliant" measure to cut production costs, it appears that Sony is removing the Emotion Engine (PS2) chip from the European units. So, instead of using hardware emulation for running PS2 games, the European PS3 will use software emulation - hence the lower compatibility rate (PCSX2 comes to mind...).

Be careful out there when you spend your money folks. All those old games you've got might not run.

IPCC Report

2007-02-05T03:57:00.001-08:00

As we all know the IPCC report has now been published:

In the first of a series of four reports to be published this year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has fingered humans as the culprits in global warming, with a probability of more than 90 per cent.

Climate Change 2007: the Physical Science Basis warns that by the end of this century we can expect sea levels to rise by between 28cm and 43cm, that increased temperatures (between 1.4°C and 4°C globally) would lead to more frequent and powerful tropical storms.

Co-author Kevin Trenberth, director of climate analysis for the National Centre for Atmospheric Research said the warming of the planet "is not something you can just stop", and that in 100 years time the planet will have a very different climate.

Actually, as the more intelligent commentators have pointed out, this isn't the report at all. It's the policymaker's summary. The real report is still three months away.

Technorati tags: IPCC, AR4

070 Numbers: Beware

2007-01-18T07:58:00.001-08:00

The latest twist in hte lottery scam emails is the use of 070 numbers to make people think the scammer is in the UK.

Crooks running email lottery scams are exploiting 070 personal numbers in a bid to trick users into thinking they are dealing with people in the UK.

Lottery scams, a low-rent variant of advanced fee frauds made notorious by Nigerian email fraudsters, typically promise a recipient is in line to receive a large cash prize, in a bid to either trick people into disclosing private bank details or handing over fees to secure non-existent rewards. The latest scam emails, detected by net security firm Sophos, contain a contact phone number.

British 070 numbers are the second most commonly used telephone numbers in these scams, behind US-based telephone numbers. These 070 numbers appear like mobile phone numbers but are easily redirected to any number anywhere in the world. In addition, 070 numbers can be acquired for free, as higher charges are paid by the caller to use them.

The easiest way to deal with these is to rem~ember the simple truth. No one has ever won a lottery without paying to enter it in the first place.

Technorati tags: lottery, scams, fraud, 419, email

Apple iPod Vibrator

2006-12-16T09:29:00.001-08:00

Err, really, a vibrator for the Apple iPod?

Apple has set the lawyers on the makers of the iBuzz iPod-driven vibrator. The company claims the UK website established to promote the stimulatory accessory violates its copyright.

Specifically, what LoveLabs describes as an "animation showing silhouettes of girls diddling themselves silly" is, in the words of Apple legal enforcer Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP "may have been copied or substantially copied from those in which our client own the copyright, without our client's consent..."

Err, see the site here.ibuzz.co.uk.

Technorati tags: iPod, vibrator, Apple, iBuzz

Nokia 8860

2005-06-12T10:26:00.000-07:00

The Nokia 8860 is a monbile phone for the US market.

Specifications are as follows:

	Sliding keypad cover
	Precision mechanics, elegant and smart
	Phonebook / calendar / calculator
	Up to 2 hours 40 minutes digital talk time
	Alarm clock
	Currency converter
	One-way messaging ¹
	Profile settings
	Internal antenna
	Vibrating alert

Service
	1900MHz TDMA / 800MHz TDMA / Analog
	Seamless transfer between analog and digital service

For further details and specifications please visit the Nokia 8860 web page.