If the seasonal food binge has you worried about your size here’s some more weighty information to depress you further. This article about the obesity “epidemic” in America reveals that while in theory diets and exercise can reduce your weight, statistically people are unable to get a lasting benefit from them. The authors believe that in the face of heavily advertised and ubiquitous junk food the populace is almost powerless to resist and suggests tobacco-style regulation including a “twinkie tax”.
I can’t help thinking that if the Segway (or “Ginger”) were to get popular (which I strongly doubt) it would probably be wise to try to ban it to encourage walking… Sadly, many of the problems being faced in the US are common here in the UK as well.

A review I wrote of Design for Communities by Derek Powazek (a book for virtual community builders like myself) is now available online.

The Economist has an interesting article about the economics of gift giving. Apparently, if the average person went to buy the gifts they received they would only have paid 90% of their purchase price – in other words, 10% of your gift giving dollar/pound/euro is wasted. Actually, this is probably an underestimate in my view… But it turns out there is a silver lining (you can probably guess what it is…)free nokia ringtone 6255ringtone put 2 sidekick24 ringtone ctu sprintfree 3586i ringtone cellular usnokia ringtone free 6225a ringtone fool actringtone act foolcent 50 best friend nextel ringtone Maphow do cent 50 ringtone we50 how cent we ringtones doin accomodation warringtonalcatel ringtone para3105 ringtonesringtone 3210 free3410 free ringtoneringtones million 90 Map

An set of entertaining disclaimers to read before entering a website…
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By chance I have just finished reading a chilling account of the American government response to the massacres in Rwanda in 1994. Roughly speaking it went:

• We’re not sure what is going on
• We’ll ask them to stop
• There’s nothing to be done
• Even if we did something it wouldn’t work
• It is too late to do anything anyway

The worst of it is that America did its best to ensure nobody else did anything either (for fear that a successful mission by others would make it look bad).
Here’s an example:

A discussion paper on Rwanda, prepared by an official in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and dated May 1, testifies to the nature of official thinking. Regarding issues that might be brought up at the next interagency working group, it stated,
1. Genocide Investigation: Language that calls for an international investigation of human rights abuses and possible violations of the genocide convention. Be Careful. Legal at State was worried about this yesterday—Genocide finding could commit [the U.S. government] to actually “do something.” [Emphasis added.]

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Everything you always wanted to know about mucous but were afraid to ask…

The This American Life radio show (which I listen to via the Internet) was more than usually interesting in the most recently Internet broadcast segment, “Them“. All three of the “acts” in the hour-long show were equally excellent in different ways.

In Act One, Jon Ronson, a British journalist/humourist talks of his experiences hanging out with a whacky Muslim extremist in London (who says, among other things, “be careful from homosexuality – it is not good for your tummy”). In Act Two David Sedaris talks about the bizarre (but true!) Christmas customs of the Dutch, and in Act Three there is a touching real life story of how a black man’s life was touched by the kindness of the Newfoundlanders who saved his life during WWII (more on his story is available here).

This moderately amusing piece from Satirewire skewers those naive enough to get infected by email viruses…

Digital technology penetration in the UK is higher than I thought. According to a new Government survey (summarised by the BBC) almost half of UK households had PCs last year compared with a third in 1998, and satellite/cable/terrestrial digital TV was available in 40% of homes in 2000 compared with 29% in 1998. It’s interesting to compare today’s figures with those further back as well – it is hard to believe that as late as 1972 when the survey started only 37% of households had central heating (92% now) and only 42% had phones while the figure now is 98%.teen lesbian moviessex anal free movieslesbian moviesxxx moviesmovies pussyporn movies sample freeampland moviesfree movies pornomovies free fuckingmovie clips job handloan auto bad alaska credit$550 loansmilitary loan payday 10 advances 15only 16 canadian payday 11 loanmortgage loan colorado 125loan 1500 installment cash advancequick 2500 loan1000 loans payday day 30 Map

Bah humbug! egreetings.com and bluemountain have imposed charging to send electronic postcards (and the former is one I used to use a lot – I guess they are the same company underneath?) but Hallmark is still free for similar mainstream cards, Corbis has a lot of plain photo cards free and you may find something useful if a little alternative at Pulp Fiction Cards or The Tacky Postcard Archive.wife movies homemade sexhorror movie quizzesspot hot moviemovie hot teenporn illegal moviesgadget inspector movieinteracial sample moviesmovies gay sex interracial Map