> Condom lubricant = acne cure

A Cambodian woman holds a wrapper from Number One Plus condom in Phnom Penh. The water-based lubricant used by Number One Plus has reportedly become a popular acne cure among female Cambodians. (AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy)

Condom lubricant popular acne cure for Cambodian women

Thu Aug 28, 12:16 PM ET

A condom lubricant designed for sex workers and gay men has become a popular acne cure among female Cambodians, women in the capital and local media said Thursday.

Number One Plus, a water-based lubricant produced by health organisation Population Services International (PSI), is an excellent cure for acne, 29-year-old vendor Tep Kemyoeurn told AFP.

“After I used it for three days, all of my acne dried up and went away,” she said. “Many people believe in it,” she added.

Khen Vanny, 29, from Phnom Penh, told AFP that women of all ages have taken to using the lubricant to get rid of spots.

“It is very effective. Some people don’t believe in it but people who do really get a good result,” she said, adding: “My youngest sister and my aunt use it too.”

Another woman told Khmer-language Kampuchea Thmey newspaper that she had used many kinds of medicine to treat acne but none had worked.

“After that my friends, who work at garment factories in Phnom Penh, advised me to apply the lubricant from Number One Plus condoms on my face every night,” she told the paper.

“And just within three to four nights, the acne on my face gradually and then totally disappeared,” she added.

A vendor near a factory in the coastal city of Sihanoukville told the newspaper that she sold packets of Number One Plus lubricant for 500 riels (12 cents) to many women every day.

The paper urged experts to conduct research about the phenomenon.

PSI were not immediately available for comment on the apparent cosmetic benefits of their product.

> 6 firefighters 1 ring 1 penis

Six firefighters, one ring, one silly sex act

29 August 2008

WHAT began as a private act reached a very public conclusion in a Malaysian hospital on Monday.

A man in his twenties decided to slip a ring around his penis , reported Guang Ming Daily.

To his horror, he discovered he could not take the ring off.

He ended up making a trip to the emergency room at the University Malaya Medical Centre.

Doctor stumped

The doctor was also stumped by this unusual problem – the ring was too tight for him to remove with his surgical tools.

To make things worse, the patient was in terrible pain and had to be anaesthesised.

Shortly after, a team of six firefighters arrived at the hospital to deal with the ‘emergency’.

By this time, a group of doctors had gathered around the patient, but none of them could figure out how to get the ring off.

One of the firefighters came forward and used a large pair of cutters – normally used at the scene of a fire or car crash – and delicately snipped the ring off.

It was over in less than a minute.

> Music faked at Sydney Olympics opening ceremony: orchestra

Music faked at Sydney Olympics opening ceremony: orchestra
AFP – August 28, 2008, 9:21 pm

Eight years after it hosted an Olympics that were famously hailed as the “best games ever,” Sydney has had to confess that it faked one of the key musical performances at the opening ceremony in 2000.

The revelation came after it emerged that nine-year-old Lin Miaoke was just lip-synching when she “sang” a patriotic song before 91,000 people and a global television audience during the August 8 opening ceremony at the Beijing Games.

Orchestra bosses have admitted that the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) mimed its entire performance at the ceremony, and that some of the real music was in fact recorded by rival musicians in Melbourne.

“It was all pre-recorded and the MSO (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra) did record a minority of the music that was performed,” SSO managing director Libby Christie told Australia’s Fairfax newspapers earlier this week.

“It’s correct that we were basically miming to a pre-recording,” she said.

The respected orchestra gave the fake performance because Olympics organisers “wanted to leave nothing to chance” and a second orchestra was found to record the backing tape because of a “mountainous workload” in Sydney, Christie said.

The admission has columnists in Melbourne — which has a longstanding rivalry with glitzier Sydney — crowing over the fact that its musicians ghosted a crucial performance by their arch-rivals.

The head of the MSO confirmed the performance had been pre-recorded but defended the move, saying it was “purely a workload issue” and in no way reflected on the relative quality of either orchestra.

“It’s nothing to do with priorities or which orchestra is better. It was decided to split (the work) between the two orchestras,” he said.

“It’s quite a normal practice and if the Olympics had been in Melbourne, the Sydney Symphony would have been involved — I’m sure of that.”

Christie said the Sydney orchestra had very rarely mimed performances but had done so at the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Sydney, while the MSO said it had used a backing tape at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Beijing Olympic officials went on the defensive two weeks ago when it was revealed that pigtailed Lin Miaoke, who became a celebrity in China after her performance, had not actually done the singing.

It later emerged the real voice belonged to chubby seven-year-old Yang Peiyi, who was deemed not attractive enough to go on stage, and that the switch was ordered by a politburo member of China’s ruling Communist party.

> US woman attempts to kidnap online ‘boyfriend’US woman attempts to kidnap online ‘boyfriend’

US woman attempts to kidnap online ‘boyfriend’

28 August 2008

PLAYING the Internet game – Second Life – may have led her to face another kind of life – in prison.

Kimberly Jernigan, 33, started a virtual relationship with a man on Second Life. There, she played as a female avatar and he a lion.

And when the relationship failed, she allegedly tried to kidnap him twice, reported ABC news. Jernigan, 33, who is separated from her husband, met the man a few months ago.

A US news station reported she was distressed when her Second Life relationship with the 52-year-old man from Delaware ended when the pair met face-to-face.

‘She started this virtual relationship and she wasn’t ready to break it off,’ said police spokesman Mr Trinidad Navarro.

‘She had difficulty distinguishing between the virtual relationship and a real-life relationship,’ he said.

Her first attempt was several weeks ago, said police.

According to police, Jernigan’s virtual ex claims that she tried to kidnap him s outside his office in Pennsylvania.

‘She encountered him in the parking lot and pointed a gun at him and told him to get in the car,’ said Mr Navarro. ‘He went off running.’

It was unclear if Jernigan was ever charged in connection with that incident. In her second attempt, she returned to Delaware disguised as a postal worker to try and find his home address – which, after four days of searching, she did.

She made her second attempt last week.

The ex-boyfriend called the police and said he escaped from his apartment because a person who he believed was Jernigan was inside with what appeared to be a Taser.

Police said they found Jernigan’s dog – bound with duct tape – locked inside the apartment bathroom. They found a pair of handcuffs outside his bedroom window.

Online addiction

Jernigan faces charges of attempted kidnapping, burglary and aggravated menacing and is being held on a US$65,000 ($92,000) bond.

Her husband, Mr Michael Jernigan, said both he and his wife had become involved in online relationships through Second Life.

‘We had an agreement to have a somewhat open relationship and actually being involved in a game online was a very safe way to do that,’ said Mr Jernigan.

But, he said, Jernigan soon spent all her free time playing the game. ‘I always knew that she could be obsessive, and that type of thing, but I never thought it would go as far as this,’ he said.

Mental health experts say Internet use can progress into a form of addiction, at times leading to destructive consequences.

Dr Bankole Johnson, chair of the department of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the University of Virginia, said people who become so wrapped up in online worlds that they have difficulty distinguishing fantasy and reality, often have pre-existing mental illnesses. ‘What people develop is a delusional idea that the (virtual) person is real,’ he said.

> Hunt for illegal downloaders widens

Hunt for illegal downloaders widens
More Japanese anime companies to take action
By Liew Hanqing
28 August 2008

THE hunt for those who illegally download Japanese animation looks likely to get even more widespread.

A California-based company, which tracks copyrighted digital content, expects even more Japanese anime companies to engage its service, in their bid to crack down on illegal downloaders – and Singapore is one of the targets.

Mr Mark Ishikawa, chief executive officer and founder of BayTSP, the company which is tracking the illegal downloads, told The New Paper that it is working with several anime companies and ‘talking with several more’.

He declined to name the companies, citing a contractual agreement on confidentiality.

Copyright infringements

‘Typically, clients direct us to monitor for copyright infringements worldwide, which includes Singapore,’ he said.

Local anime distributor Odex engaged BayTSP’s tracking services last year when it began its crackdown on illegal anime downloaders.

This year, it appears the Japanese companies – which include Geneon Entertainment Japan and Showgate Inc – are taking matters into their own hands.

On whether the anime downloading situation here has worsened over the last year, Mr Ishikawa said: ‘Because we are working with more companies than we were a year ago, we’re seeing more piracy of anime content, so there is no reliable way to compare a year ago with what we’re seeing today.’

The New Paper asked Rajah & Tann, the law firm representing the anime companies, how many alleged illegal downloaders it had identified and sent letters to, but the firm declined to comment.

The New Paper understands that some netizens have been asked to pay settlements of up to $6,000 each for their illegal downloads.

One netizen, who declined to be named, described the amount as ‘unreasonable’.

He received a letter from Rajah & Tann on 18 Aug which alleged that his StarHub Internet account was linked to illegal downloads of Showgate’s anime.

He was asked to pay a settlement of more than $5,000.

But the account linked to the downloads had already been terminated in April this year, he said.

He asked: ‘Why am I paying their legal fee when it is an out-of-court settlement? It feels like I’ve already been to court and lost the case by paying them the full sum.

‘It would probably be more reasonable to ask us to purchase their original box set instead.’

The netizen added that he had posted on several online forums, a call for those who had also received letters to seek collective legal advice on the matter.

‘I have had people willing to donate small sums to ‘take up the case and fight it’ as well.’

Furore

The latest series of letters sent on behalf of the Japanese companies, who own the copyrights to the downloaded anime, have caused an online furore among other netizens who claim to have stopped downloading anime since the Odex crackdown last year.

The netizen The New Paper spoke to said the date of his alleged downloads were as far back as last September. He added: ‘Even after this case ends, it would not promote original anime in any way. It would only increase our detest of these copyrighted anime.’

> Best Western details hack of German hotel

Best Western details hack of German hotel
By Tom Espiner, ZDNet UK
Friday, August 29, 2008 11:28 AM

The Best Western hotel chain has given details of a hack involving one of its hotels, but downplayed reports that 8 million customers have been affected.

In response to an article published in Scotland’s Sunday Herald, Best Western rejected claims that it had suffered a massive compromise of customer details.

Best Western confirmed on Tuesday that it had suffered a breach at one of its German hotels, but denied Sunday Herald claims that every customer using Best Western European hotels since 2007 had had their booking details compromised.

“We can confirm that on 21 August, 2008, three separate attempts were made via a single logon ID to access the same data from a single hotel,” said Best Western in a statement. “The hotel in question is the 107-room Best Western Hotel am Schloss Kopenick in Berlin, Germany, where a Trojan horse virus was detected by the hotel’s antivirus software.”

Best Western insisted that the compromised log-in ID only permitted access to reservations data for the Berlin hotel. Moreover, Best Western said the log-in ID was immediately terminated, and the computer in question had been removed from use.

While the Sunday Herald estimated that 8 million people had been affected by the hack, Best Western claimed that only 10 customers had been affected.

“We can also confirm that we have been able to narrow down the number of customers affected by this breach to 10,” said Best Western. “We are currently contacting those customers and offering assistance as needed.”

Moreover, Best Western said that it “purges reservations data within seven days of guest departure, thereby limiting potential data exposure”. The company added that it is working with the FBI and international authorities to investigate the incident further.

Speaking to ZDNet Asia’s sister site ZDNet UK on Thursday, Bernhard Viets, manager of Best Western Hotel am Schloss Kopenick, said his staff had first been alerted to the presence of the Trojan through an alert from the hotel’s Symantec antivirus software.

“We got the warning from the antivirus software and, after that, we turned off the systems and changed the systems,” said Viets. “We cut off our Internet connection, informed IT, and turned everything off immediately. I don’t know the details of the virus. It was only 10 people who were affected. The clients who were hacked have been informed.”

One of the sources for the Sunday Herald story was Jacques Erasmus, a security professional at Prevx, a malware behavioral-monitoring company. Erasmus told ZDNet UK on Thursday that he had found out about the hack by monitoring an online credit card detail-trading forum, which he declined to name.

According to Erasmus, the forum is a trading network for Russian Business Network (RBN) users. The RBN is an alleged malware-hosting gang.

“What I found was on one of the top underground forums for the RBN trading network,” said Erasmus. “There was an Indian hacker selling a log-in to [Best Western's] systems, with a screenshot, saying the log-in can get access to credit card numbers and card-verification codes.”

Erasmus said it was unlikely that the hacker would have sold a log-in that would only have gained access to 10 people’s details, as this would affect his standing in the criminal community.

“I’ve seen the kinds of deals this guy does; he’s high-profile on the forum,” said Erasmus. “The deals [he does] are for more than US$10,000. I really don’t know whether he would stake his reputation on the forum for 10 [customer's details].”

> Microsoft patents ‘Page Up’ and ‘Page Down’

Microsoft patents ‘Page Up’ and ‘Page Down’
By David Meyer, ZDNet UK
Friday, August 29, 2008 07:03 AM

Microsoft has been granted a patent on ‘Page Up’ and ‘Page Down’ keystrokes.

The software giant applied for the patent in 2005, and was granted it on Aug. 19. U.S. patent number 7,415,666 describes “a method and system in a document viewer for scrolling a substantially exact increment in a document, such as one page, regardless of whether the zoom is such that some, all or one page is currently being viewed”.

The patent’s listed ‘inventors’ are Timothy Sellers, Heather Grantham and Joshua Dersch. However, Page Up and Page Down keyboard buttons have been in existence for at least quarter of a century, as evidenced by this image of a 1981 IBM PC keyboard.

“In one implementation, pressing a Page Down or Page Up keyboard key/button allows a user to begin at any starting vertical location within a page, and navigate to that same location on the next or previous page,” reads the patent’s summary.

“For example, if a user is viewing a page starting in a viewing area from the middle of that page and ending at the bottom, a Page Down command will cause the next page to be shown in the viewing area starting at the middle of the next page and ending at the bottom of the next page. Similar behavior occurs when there is more than one column of pages being displayed in a row,” states the summary.

Microsoft has a long history of applying for, and being granted patents for, inventions that many argue–and can sometimes demonstrate–were based on earlier work carried out by others, or based on a common, self-evident idea.

One example is the company’s patent on a mouse wheel that can scroll up and down; another is its patent on double-clicking buttons. The company received its 5,000th patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in March 2006, and is currently approaching the 10,000 mark.

> Pirated Windows XP? Blackouts coming your way!

Wednesday August 27, 2008

Curtains for pirated Windows

By STEVEN PATRICK

PETALING JAYA: From today, those with pirated copies of the Windows XP Professional operating system in their computers that are Internet-capable could find their screens going black and the icons vanishing as Microsoft Corp gets tough.

There are 8.6 million users of Windows XP Pro in Malaysia and about three million are expected to suffer the “blackouts”, according to Microsoft Malaysia.

To continue working, users will need to reset the machine’s desktop background. All will return to normal, but only for 60 minutes before another blackout occurs.

The only “cure” is to get a licensed copy of the operating system from a Microsoft reseller or going online at www.microsoft. com/malaysia/genuine. Each licence costs RM580.

The initiative is part of Microsoft’s anti-piracy campaign, dubbed Windows Genuine Advantage, aimed at educating users on the benefits of using genuine software, Microsoft Malaysia client business group director K.T. Ng told The Star yesterday.

> Man sleeps near train door

Sleeps on floor

STOMPer drangonz123 was on a train yesterday when he saw this man sleeping on the floor by the train door.

In an email to STOMP yesterday (24 Aug), the STOMPer says:

“This man was seen sleeping on the train floor despite there being plenty of seats available. The train was not crowded.

“I just wonder whether is it all right to sit and sleep on the floor when the train is not crowded.

“Seats have been removed so that more commuters can board the train, yet some people abuse this for their own selfish use.

“This man was being so inconsiderate. Commuters could have tripped over him.”

Everything also complain.

Sit on seats -> Pregnant people complain
Sleep on seats -> Fake sleeping complain
Sit on floor at door -> Blocking door complain
Sleep on floor in 1 corner -> Complain!

BTW. The freaking seats were removed for wheelchair accessibility. NOT for more commuters to board.

> Woman makes bus stop her bed

More good years ahead

Pay rise for elites. ERP to own cars. FT to keep your job. Eat frozen meat. GST for needy. More good years.