19 hidden Windows XP Secrets

19 hidden Windows XP Secrets

Uncover some of Windows XP’s secrets.

1.
It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows
were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud
of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from
the All Programs start button option, and then type
’systeminfo’. The computer

will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to
keep these, type ’systeminfo > info.txt’. This creates a
file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional
Edition only).

2. You can
delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin
first. Go to the Start menu, select Run… and type
‘gpedit.msc’; then select User Configuration,
Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find
the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it.
Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system
options, but take care — some may stop your computer behaving as
you wish. (Professional Edition only).

3.
You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a
new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter
‘rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation’ in the location
field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That’s it — just
double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if
that’s not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.

Learn Basic Sign Language

By Jason Fitzpatrick,



1:00 PM on Sun Dec 28 2008,




5,046 views

If
you're interested in learning American Sign Language or want to brush
up on some courses you took in college, there is an enormous amount of
information available at LifePrint.

Assembled by American Sign Language teacher and evangelist Dr. Bill
Vicars, LifePrint has dozens of ways for you to hone your Sign Language
skills. There are basic word guides, Sign Language dictionaries,
information on deaf culture and a plethora of links to other ASL
resources. For other ways to learn Sign Language, check out the ASL Video Browser at Michigan State University or look up British Sign Language on the go with a mobile-friendly database of signs.

This Week's Top Downloads

• FilePhile Transfers Any Size File Between Any Two Systems (Windows/Mac/Linux)
  "FilePhile
  is a peer-to-peer, multi-platform app for getting files of unlimited
  size between yourself and anyone else willing to give it a try."
• OpenOffice.org Portable 3.0 Ready for Your Thumb Drive (Windows)
  "OpenOffice.org
  3, the latest version of the free, open-source office suite, has gotten
  a full thumb drive packaging by the PortableApps.com team."
• Mint.com Brings Balance Management to the iPhone (iPhone)
  "Free
  money management webapp Mint rolls out an iPhone app that puts most of
  its basic data-mining, alerts, and money-watching tools in a few simple
  screens."
• TrayProdder Adds Vista-Style Checkboxes and Selection to XP (Windows XP)
  "Free
  system utility TrayProdder adds of Windows Vista's handier
  file-handling tools, checkbox selection and full-row highlighting, to
  Windows XP."

Bush Winks at Israel’s Slaughter in Gaza, While Obama and Clinton Are Silent

Bush Winks at Israel’s Slaughter in Gaza, While Obama and Clinton Are Silent

Bush Winks at Israel’s Slaughter in Gaza, While Obama and Clinton Are Silent
By Matthew Rothschild, December 27, 2008

Israel recklessly bombed Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 205 Palestinians and wounding at least 350 more, according to Palestinian health officials.

This wholly disproportionate response to Hamas’s immoral but largely ineffective rocket attacks on Israel is guaranteed to further enflame the Middle East.

Not lost on anyone there will be the Bush Administration’s winking at Israel’s attacks.

White Houses spokesman Gordon Johndroe laid all the blame on Hamas.

"Hamas's continued rocket attacks into Israel must cease if the violence is to stop," Johndroe said.

Then even as he gave a perfunctory nod toward safeguarding civilians, he showed no displeasure with Israel going after Hamas: "The United States urges Israel to avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas in Gaza," Johndroe said.

Meanwhile, President-elect Barack Obama and Secretary of State-to-be Hillary Clinton were shamefully silent in the first hours after the attack.

Bush’s reaction, and the non-reaction by Obama and Clinton, underscores the point that Hanan Ashrawi made on Saturday. “Israel has gotten used to not being held accountable and to being a country that is above the law,” said the Palestinian legislator and human rights activist. She called the bombings a “massacre.”

Time Management: Limit Your Input to Increase Productivity

Time Management: Limit Your Input to Increase Productivity

Chris over at the productivity blog The Art of Non-Comformity wants
you to say no. Frequently. So frequently in fact that the quality of
the things you say yes to rises exponentially.
Chris advocates radical exclusion as a solution for overwhelming
demands and new inputs. Rather than stretch yourself thin saying yes to
everything and ultimately failing to deliver you should focus on the
commitments and projects you really want to make something of:

Gaza Morgue Overflows With Bodies

Gaza Morgue Overflows With Bodies

Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- The refrigerated compartments at Shifa Hospital's morgue in Gaza City were filled three bodies to a drawer.

Dozens more corpses wrapped in sheets lay on stretchers in the white-walled morgue yesterday as grieving parents identified sons who were killed in Israel's most punishing aerial assault on the Gaza Strip in more than 40 years. Hospital corridors were jammed with wounded, many screaming as they waited for a doctor.

Chemical drug by Botox makers could spell the end of mascara

Mascara could be a thing of the past following the creation of a new drug by the makes of Botox.
Photo: ANDREW CROWLEY

The new chemical for eyelashes has been created by Allergan, the company behind the anti-wrinkle drug Botox.

Allergan has won approval in the US to sell a prescription medication that promises to enhance dull or thinning lashes.

Latisse,
which is designed to treat a condition known as hypotrichosis of the
eyelashes, which means a person does not have enough eyelashes, has
been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

When
applied once daily to the eyelid with a disposable applicator, the drug
Latisse apparently improves the length, thickness and colour of hairs.

Continued
use is necessary to maintain the thicker lashes, and side effects can
include eye redness and itchiness, a darkening of the eyelid skin and a
permanent darkening of the whites of the eyes.

The primary
ingredient in Latisse is a chemical called a prostaglandin, which is
present in hair and is thought to help in the development and regrowth
of hair follicles.

The same chemical is used to treat glaucoma, and it was a glaucoma specialist who first discovered the eyelash effect.

Latisse be available early next year and and a 30-day supply is expected to cost $120 (£82), according to reports.

Latisse
is the first prescription product for lengthening eyelashes and the
company said it estimates that global sales could top £300million
a year.

Vertor - No Fakes.

Vertor - No Fakes.



Torrent Checker....

As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.

MOSCOW -- For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been
predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he
admits, few took his argument -- that an economic and moral collapse
will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. -- very
seriously. Now he's found an eager audience: Russian state media.

In recent
weeks, he's been interviewed as much as twice a day about his
predictions. "It's a record," says Prof. Panarin. "But I think the
attention is going to grow even stronger."

Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB
analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for
future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures
students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on
U.S.-Russia relations.

But it's his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears
of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for
everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial
crisis. Mr. Panarin's views also fit neatly with the Kremlin's
narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world
stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the
country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into
separate territories.

Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2008

Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2008

2008
is nearing its end, time to make a list of the top 10 BitTorrent sites
that got the most traffic this year. The Pirate Bay is out in the lead
followed by Mininova and isoHunt. TorrentSpy shut down earlier this
year and is the most notable absentee.

15 Useful Tools for WordPress Bloggers

15 Useful Tools for WordPress Bloggers

If you use WordPress as your publishing platform, you’ll find
a ton of useful tools you can grab off the web that’ll help you
improve your productivity and make sure your WordPress site is running
smoothly.

In this collection, you’ll find a few convenient applications, plugins, and browser extensions
that will help you accomplish a variety of blogging tasks that range
from easier screen captures to making sure your WordPress site is
secure.

1. ScribeFire turns Firefox into a fully-featured blog editor.

White House Puts Onus on Hamas to End Violence - NYTimes.com

White House Puts Onus on Hamas to End Violence - NYTimes.com

An aide to President-elect Barack Obama, who is on vacation in Hawaii, said he had discussed events in Gaza with Ms. Rice in an eight-minute telephone call initiated by Mr. Obama.

Brooke Anderson, a spokeswoman for Mr. Obama, said that while Mr. Obama was monitoring global events, “There is one president at a time.”

In the campaign, Mr. Obama made statements that sounded similar to those issued by the Bush administration on Saturday.

“If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that,” Mr. Obama said in July. “And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.”

Mr. Johndroe said that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia called Mr. Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., on Saturday, and they discussed the situation.

The £4billion Airfix Kit: Behind-the-scenes at Britain's biggest warships

It may look like the ultimate
boy's toy but this scale model  -  pictured here for the
first time  -  represents the future of the Royal Navy. As
work begins on two 65,000-ton aircraft carriers, Live gains exclusive access to the top secret plans for Britain's biggest and most ambitious warships

5 Things You Didn't Know About Breasts

1- Women with breast implants are more likely to suicide

A 15-year study carried out chiefly at Laval University in Quebec, Canada, and published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found a 73% higher rate of suicide among women with breast implants over a control group.


Of course, the breast implants themselves aren’t leading to
suicidal tendencies; rather, the desire to get augmentation may be
symptomatic of an underlying mental condition, such as low self-esteem,
depression or body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Women may opt for
implants if they regard larger breasts as a means of gaining confidence
or overcoming other personal issues. Unfortunately for these women,
another study, this one out of the Department of Psychology at
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, concluded that people with
issues like BDD “typically do not benefit from cosmetic
procedures.”

95 Old School Games You Can Play Online

95 Old School Games You Can Play Online

Remember the classic video games? The 8-bit masterpieces of our sweaty-palmed youth. Inviting some friends over for a Maniac Mansion
all-nighter, huffing asthmatically into a cartridge to clear out the
dust, or the thrill and crushing disappointment of rescuing a princess,
only to discover you’ve really just saved a fungus.

Hotels to Stay in Before You Die

Hôtel Plaza Athénée, Paris

It seems as if good hotels were invented just for the sake of Paris. The French capital lays claim to some of the most glamorous palace hotels in the world — the George V, the Ritz, and the Crillon,
among others —with an easy élan that few other cities can
emulate. But often these Old World properties can veer toward the
fusty, which is why the Plaza Athénée finds its way onto
this must-stay list. Renovations a few years back reinvented the
stalwart as the freshest property in the city, while still preserving
its terrific sense of place and style. Trust us: You never forget that
you are in Paris. We love the hip glass bar designed by Patrick Jouin,
the unofficial office for fashion week insiders; the over-the-top Alain
Ducasse outpost, with its gorgeous "exploded" crystal chandeliers; and
the secret garden of La Cour Jardin, which is perfect for a quiet drink
or tea on sunny spring days. Add in the great location on the Avenue
Montaigne, close to some of the city's best shopping and the Champs
Elysées, and the large rooms divided into classic and Deco decor
(all come with sumptuous marble bathrooms). If possible, book a suite
with a view of the Eiffel Tower — these include 868 (which also
has a view from the bathroom), 878, and 888. Even the most jaded
travelers are made a little giddy by that backdrop when they open the
drapes in the morning.

Top 100 Products of 2008

Over December we've published ten top 10 lists of the top products of 2008.
We intend to open these lists up for public voting in 2009, to tap into
the wisdom of the intelligent crowd that reads our site. But for now,
you'll have to make do with the choices of us here at ReadWriteWeb. In
this post we've done a megalist, the top 100 products of 2008. Come join us on RWW Live - our live podcast show - at 3pm PST today, as we discuss these products and the big trends of 2008.

Of course there are far more than 100 great Web
products out there, so there are some excellent ones not included in
our megalist. Please leave a comment here and tell us what we've missed!

British Invent Orgasmatron

British Invent Orgasmatron

Forget vibrators, women will soon be able to reach orgasm by stimulating their brains. In Britain, scientists are working on an electronic chip that stimulates the pleasure sections of the brain and delivers the big O. The device has been nicknamed the Orgasmatron, a reference to Woody Allen’s 1973 film Sleeper.

The implanted chip works by delivering tiny shocks to the orbitofrontal cortex, the part of the brain behind the eyes. This area of the brain is “associated with feelings of pleasure derived from eating and sex.” The technology was created to help treat Parkinson’s disease.

According to Professor Tipu Aziz of Oxford University, a sex chip has already been created and tested. He says “a few years ago a scientist implanted such a device into the brain of a woman with a low sex drive and turned her into a very sexually active woman. She didn’t like the sudden change, so the wiring in her head was removed.” Aziz says a viable, non-intrusive sex chip is about 10 years away.

In the meantime, it’s probably best to try the old-fashioned way.

50 Things We Know Now (We Didn't Know This Time Last Year): 2008 Edition

50 Things We Know Now (We Didn't Know This Time Last Year): 2008 Edition

19. People in a position to hire are biased against
applicants with limp or wet handshakes, and interviewers often rate
women who don't shake hands as firmly as men lower than their
qualifications warrant.

Read About It

* * * * *

20. Searching online is better than reading books for increasing the brainpower of middle-aged and older adults.

Read About It

27. Delaying fatherhood can substantially increase the risk of fertility problems, with the chance of impregnation decreasing once the man is older than 35.

10 Status Symbols We Hope Disappear in the Recession

10 Status Symbols We Hope Disappear in the Recession

If the financial crisis has a silver lining it is the decline and fall of the overpriced, over-hyped status economy.

Getty Images

You know, the one built on bling and Hummers and Louis Vuitton for the masses. The past decade may have had its excesses, but none were as stupefying as the $300,000 watch that doesn’t tell time.

So I have come up with a list of 10 symbols of conspicuous
consumption that I hope will disappear in the coming Age of Thrift.
Call them the Relics of Richistan.

We welcome your additional suggestions. (Inspiration thanks to my colleagues at Deal Journal).

1. Live birthday performances by Christina Aguilera.



2. Shadow Yachts

3. Homes with 26 toilets

4. Oligarchs

5. The $100 million, diamond-encrusted skull

6. Paris Hilton

7. The Hermes helicopter

8. Personal arborists

9. “Million dollar” cocktails with edible gold leaf

10. The word “luxury.”

What other tarnished symbols of Gilded Age 2.0 could we add to the list?

Blind, Yet Seeing: The Brain’s Subconscious Visual Sense

The man, a doctor left blind by two successive strokes, refused to
take part in the experiment. He could not see anything, he said, and
had no interest in navigating an obstacle course — a cluttered
hallway — for the benefit of science. Why bother?

Related

Video: Seeing Without Sight
Times Health Guide: Blindness

When he finally tried it,
though, something remarkable happened. He zigzagged down the hall,
sidestepping a garbage can, a tripod, a stack of paper and several
boxes as if he could see everything clearly. A researcher shadowed him
in case he stumbled.

“You just had to see it to believe it,” said Beatrice de Gelder, a neuroscientist at Harvard
and Tilburg University in the Netherlands, who with an international
team of brain researchers reported on the patient on Monday in the
journal Current Biology. A video is online at www.beatricedegelder.com/books.html.

The
study, which included extensive brain imaging, is the most dramatic
demonstration to date of so-called blindsight, the native ability to
sense things using the brain’s primitive, subcortical — and
entirely subconscious — visual system.

Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation

#1. Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation

in Top 25 Censored Stories for 2009

Sources:


After Downing Street, July 6, 2007


Title: “Is the United States Killing 10,000 Iraqis Every Month? Or Is It More?”


Author: Michael Schwartz

AlterNet, September 17, 2007


Title: “Iraq death toll rivals Rwanda genocide, Cambodian killing fields”


Author: Joshua Holland

Reuters (via AlterNet), January 7, 2008


Title: “Iraq conflict has killed a million, says survey”


Author: Luke Baker

Inter Press Service, March 3, 2008


Title: “Iraq: Not our country to Return to”


Authors: Maki al-Nazzal and Dahr Jamail

Student Researchers: Danielle Stanton, Tim LeDonne, and Kat Pat Crespán


Faculty Evaluator: Heidi LaMoreaux, PhD

Over one million Iraqis have met violent deaths as a result of the 2003
invasion, according to a study conducted by the prestigious British
polling group, Opinion Research Business (ORB). These numbers suggest
that the invasion and occupation of Iraq rivals the mass killings of
the last century—the human toll exceeds the 800,000 to 900,000
believed killed in the Rwandan genocide in 1994, and is approaching the
number (1.7 million) who died in Cambodia’s infamous
“Killing Fields” during the Khmer Rouge era of the 1970s.

ORB’s research covered fifteen of Iraq’s eighteen
provinces. Those not covered include two of Iraq’s more volatile
regions—Kerbala and Anbar—and the northern province of
Arbil, where local authorities refused them a permit to work. In
face-to-face interviews with 2,414 adults, the poll found that more
than one in five respondents had had at least one death in their
household as a result of the conflict, as opposed to natural cause.

Top 75 Best Design Resources of 2008

Top 75 Best Design Resources of 2008

The Best Logo Design Resources [Just Creative Design]

- 105+ Logo Design Tuts And Resources [Elite By Design]

- 35 Stunning Black and White Logos [Siah Design]

- 50+ Kick Ass Logos for Inspiration [Fuel Your Creativity]

- 33 Exceptional Logo Rebrandings In 2008 [Smashing Apps]

- 30 Brilliant Vector Logo Designs, Deconstructed [VECTORTUTS]

- 10 Successful Logo Redesigns

Modern and Creative Fireplace Designs

Modern and Creative Fireplace Designs

The Best DVDs of 2008: TV

by Leah Weathersby
on December 21, 2008

As
readers of this blog know by now, Amazon Movies & TV editors
recently gathered to vote for our Best of the Year DVDs. Everyone
weighed the options, researched the contenders, and looked deep within
their hearts to pick the funniest, smartest, and most insightful
entertainment of 2008. Then I moved Mad Men to the top anyway. (Jon Hamm can sell me anything.)

Anyhoo, here are my (with lots of input from my friends) top 10 TV DVDs of 2008.
But you shouldn’t take our word for it--TV is a populist art
form, after all. Here's what our customers have to say:

5. 30 Rock: Season 2 (available on DVD):
Average customer rating: 4.5 stars
Customer quote: “Watching 30 Rock
during its second season was a completely exhilarating experience. It
had in its rookie year quickly established itself as the funniest show
on TV, but during its sophomore campaign the writing and acting got
sharper and sharper with each episode. Next to Arrested Development, I honestly believe that this is the funniest American comedy series ever.” –Robert Moore

6. The Office: Season 4 (available on DVD as a single season or in a four-season set)
Average customer rating: 4 stars
Customer quote:
”If the writers’ strike had not cut [this] season in half
then I'm sure it would have ranked up there with Season 2 and 3. Season
4 offered the usual story of the complex relationship between Jim and
Pam and also the odd and disturbing at times relationship between
Michael and Jan.” –-Jason Orzello

Our unconscious brain makes the best decisions possible

Our unconscious brain makes the best decisions possible

December 24th, 2008

in Medicine & Health / Research

Researchers
at the University of Rochester have shown that the human brain—once
thought to be a seriously flawed decision maker—is actually hard-wired
to allow us to make the best decisions possible with the information we
are given. The findings are published in today's issue of the journal
Neuron.

Neuroscientists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky received a 2002
Nobel Prize for their 1979 research that argued humans rarely make
rational decisions. Since then, this has become conventional wisdom
among cognition researchers

Contrary to Kahnneman and Tversky's research, Alex Pouget, associate
professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of
Rochester, has shown that people do indeed make optimal decisions—but
only when their unconscious brain makes the choice.

"A lot of the early work in this field was on conscious decision
making, but most of the decisions you make aren't based on conscious
reasoning," says Pouget. "You don't consciously decide to stop at a red
light or steer around an obstacle in the road. Once we started looking
at the decisions our brains make without our knowledge, we found that
they almost always reach the right decision, given the information they
had to work with."

Krunchd: Another URL Shortener... with an Interesting Twist

Krunchd: Another URL Shortener... with an Interesting Twist - ReadWriteWeb

Here at ReadWriteWeb, we're no strangers to URL shortening services. We use them all of the time - and we're proponents of using something other than TinyURL. But with the vast array of URL shortening services out there, it generally takes something interesting to turn our heads. Now, a new URL shortener called Krunchd has done just that, by providing a feature that has less to do with shortening URLs and more to do with how we communicate with URLs on a regular basis.

Boy, 9, Recovers After Decapitation Separates Skull From Neck

FOXNews.com - Boy, 9, Recovers After Decapitation Separates Skull From Neck - Health News | Current Health News | Medical News

A 9-year-old Texas boy has almost fully recovered after suffering an orthopedic decapitation in a car accident 3 months ago, CBSNews.com reported Monday.

Jordan Taylor had a 1-2 percent chance of surviving this type of injury, which occurred when his skull separated from his neck. His spinal cord remained intact, however.

“I just kept screaming,” Jordan’s mom, Stacey Perez told CBSNews.com. “I just wanted him to wake up.”

Scientists extract images directly from brain

Scientists extract images directly from brain ::: Pink Tentacle


Researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience
Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can
reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on
a computer monitor, it was announced on December 11. According to the
researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it
possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep.

[Source: Chunichi]

Round trip with Endeavour- NASA Photos

Round trip with Endeavour - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Top 10 Things You Forgot Gmail Can Do

1. Do much, much more with Gmail Labs experimental features.

It
started out as a modest set of tweaks and small Oh Neat items, but
Gmail's Labs section has become a powerhouse of email features. From
Labs' increasingly-long list of tools, you can set up canned responses for standard replies, stop yourself from forgetting attachments, get your Google Calendar agenda and Remember the Milk tasks, get at all your various attachment types with Quick Links,
and many, many more tweaks. Labs isn't particularly hidden away or
obscure, but if you haven't taken the time to scroll down the list of
options, you're almost certainly missing out on something that makes
your webmail home a bit more comfortable.

Academic elites fill Obama's roster

Academic elites fill Obama's roster

Critics worry about insularity as Ivy League graduates crowd cabinet posts

Barack Obama's chief economic adviser was one
of the youngest people to be tenured at Harvard and later became its
president. His budget director went to Princeton and the London School
of Economics, his choice for ambassador to the United Nations was a
Rhodes scholar, and his White House counsel hit the trifecta: Harvard,
Cambridge and Yale Law.

All
told, of Obama's top 35 appointments so far, 22 have degrees from an
Ivy League school, MIT, Stanford, the University of Chicago or one of
the top British universities. For the other slots, the president-elect
made do with graduates of Georgetown and the Universities of Michigan,
Virginia and North Carolina.

Obama warns economy will get even worse

U.S. ‘fragility’ tied to worldwide financial crisis, president-elect says

CHICAGO - The economic recession will get
significantly worse before it starts to improve, President-elect Barack
Obama said, seeking in an interview broadcast Sunday to tamp down
expectations as he prepares to assume the presidency in 44 days.

“If you look at
the unemployment numbers ... the fragility of the financial system and
the fact that it’s an international system,” the recession “is a big
problem, and it’s going to get worse,” Obama told NBC News’ Tom Brokaw
on Saturday. The interview aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

50 Excellent Digital Photography Photoshop Tutorials

Survey: Gas prices near 5-year low

Average gasoline price has dropped 22 cents in the last weeks.

(CNN) -- The U.S. average for gas prices dipped to $1.75 a gallon, a near five-year low, a national survey said Sunday.

The
average price of self-serve gasoline dropped 22 cents in the past two
weeks, said Trilby Lundberg, publisher of the Lundberg Survey.

The average, tallied on Friday, was the lowest since the $1.74 average on March 12, 2004, Lundberg said.

Lundberg
attributed the price reductions to a drop in crude prices and demand.
Prices could drop more if the global economic crisis continues to
affect demand for crude oil.

The all-time high average was $4.11, set on July 11, according to Lundberg.

23 Awesome Photos That Look Like They’re Photoshopped But Are Not

Academics invent a mathematical equation for why people procrastinate

The psychologist, from the University of Calgary, has subsequently
formed an equation for why people procrastinate, which began by
studying 250 college students.

The equation is U=EV/ID.

The
'U' stands for utility, or the desire to complete a given task. It is
equal to the product of E, the expectation of success, and V the value
of completion, divided by the product of I, the immediacy of the task,
and D, the personal sensitivity to delay.

Prof Steel says
procrastination is becoming a bigger issue because many more jobs are
"self-structured", with people setting their own schedules.

This means that people tend to postpone things with delayed rewards in favour of activities that offer immediate rewards.

"Procastinators tend to live fro today rather than tomorrow. for short term gain for long term pain" he writes.

The Essential Time-Saving Guide for Busy People

Your
lives are always busy, I’m sure, but the holidays always seem to
add even more craziness to everyone’s schedule. Christmas parties
with family, friends and co-workers, gift shopping, decorating,
Christmas pageants, caroling, bell-ringing, snow shoveling (unless you
live on Guam like I do), making cookies, baking turkeys, and all the
rest.

It’s enough to make you want to give up!

But it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. If you’re a busy
person (and who isn’t these days?), I’ve compiled some of
my favorite time-saving tips — things I use in my daily life that
I’ve found to work wonders for freeing up the schedule.

Atheists hot? You better believe it

Why in heaven's name were atheists sponsoring a road-race water station?

"Because we like that people are running on a Sunday instead of
going to church?" said Wendy Britton, 43, a financial consultant from
Bellevue and lifelong God-denier.

Joking aside, the atheist presence at the marathon isn't the half of it. Suddenly atheists are hot.

And everywhere. Wearing Santa hats while wrapping gifts for charity.
Giving blood in groups of 15. Manning pledge-drive phones at Seattle
public radio station KUOW.

Membership in the five-year-old Seattle Atheists has soared — to 122 dues-paying members plus 600 more on the event list.

It has a budget surplus. It's planning ads in Metro buses. It has
its own line of "atheist activewear" — T-shirts to mark the wearer as
out and proud in their disbelief.

HOW TO: Use Google Reader Like A Rockstar

HOW TO: Use Google Reader Like A Rockstar
Google Reader recently got a facelift; with a fresh look and features, a lot of people are buzzing about the service.  

Knowing that new users are signing up and veterans are looking for
some ideas to make their experience even better, we have put together a
quick how-to that should offer something for everyone.  

Tell us in the comments about what you do to get the most out of Google Reader!

http://blog.audiojungle.net/resources/10-things-songbird-does-that-itunes-cant/

10 Things Songbird Does That iTunes Can’t

Songbird
turned 1.0 this week, and aims to do to iTunes what Firefox did to
Internet Explorer. That is, it aims to take the basic design of
something closed and proprietary, and turn it into something open and
extensible and fun. Songbird aims to give the power back to the people.

Appearing in February 2006, Songbird is five years younger than
Apple’s iTunes, and does not yet match it feature for feature.
iPod support, album artwork, podcast support and stability are
considered beta features and need improving. CD ripping, watching
folders for changes and video support are all still coming.

However, Songbird’s unique features make it a great media
player in the Web 2.0 world. It is a flexible tool that belongs in the
toolkit of any musician who explores new music online. In particular,
the way it works with music-related websites and blogs greatly
interests me. Songbird has completely changed the way I think about
discovering and playing music online.

Cartoon porn kids are people, judge says in Simpsons porn case

CARTOON characters are people too, a judge has ruled in the case of a man convicted over cartoons based on The Simpsons, in which children are shown having sex.

In the New South Wales Supreme Court today, Justice Michael Adams
ruled that a fictional cartoon character was a "person" within the
meaning of the relevant state and commonwealth laws.

Alan John McEwan was appealing his February conviction for
possessing child pornography and using his computer to access child
pornography.

10 year old charged with sexual assault for rubbing up against an 8 year old while they both were in their underwear!

http://cfcamerica.org/

At 10, J. G., diagnosed as educable mentally retarded, was found
rubbing himself against a girl, 8, in his mother's care at his home in
Mercer County. Both children were wearing only underwear.

The
boy, whose primary language was Spanish, had some trouble with
investigators' questions; his lawyers say he equated the term sex with
kissing, although prosecutors say that he understood what investigators
were asking.

In juvenile court, J. G. pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault. A doctor's examination of the girl found no evidence of penetration, but it is not clear what other evidence was presented. 10 year old charged with sexual assault for rubbing up against an 8 year old while they both were in their underwear.

The
boy's lawyers, Craig J. Hubert and James M. Graziano, contend that a
10-year-old should not be subject to the sex-offender law at all -- an
argument that becomes especially important if the Legislature allows
any Internet access to the names of moderate-risk offenders.

Return to $1 gas? Energy prices evaporate

Return to $1 gas? Energy prices evaporate
Friday December 5, 8:25 pm ET

By Mark Williams, AP Energy Writer

Collapsing oil prices bring back the unthinkable: Could gas fall below a $1 a gallon?
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Oil prices hit
four-year lows Friday as employers cut the highest number of jobs in 34
years. The continuing decline in prices is so dramatic and so sudden
that it is raising the prospect that gas prices could soon fall below
$1 a gallon.

The
worst jobs data in 34 years on Friday just added more fuel to the
deepening global recession as U.S. employers slashed a far
worse-than-expected 533,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate
rose to a 15-year high of 6.7 percent.

Fascinating Facts About Successful Single Men

Fascinating Facts About Successful Single Men

Here's the scoop on where they hang, what they do for a living, and the kind of mates they make.

Dating
a loaded guy has long been a fantasy for some single
women. In fact, your own mother may have even quipped that it's just as
easy to fall for a wealthy man as it is a poor one. And high-income,
single
men (those earning $104,000 and up, as defined by the Tax
Foundation Group in Washington, DC) are on our radar even more thanks
to such shows as "The Hills", "Gossip Girl," and "The Millionaire
Matchmaker."

More Dating Articles from Cosmopolitan:

He
Cheated: Do You Take Him Back or Keep Him?

#1
Trick to Deepen His Love for
You

Plus,
statistically, affluent men are on the rise. According to the 2007
Wealth Report, there are more richies in the world than ever:

9.5 million people
are earning at least $1 million annually

9.5 million people
are earning at least $1 million annually, and 94,970
are pulling in at least $30 million each year. Here's the lowdown on
dudes with mad bank.

Four Guys You Think You Should Date... but Shouldn't!

Four Guys You Think You Should Date... but Shouldn't!

Saturday Night Live's hilarious Will Forte brings to life
good-on-paper dudes who are really just chumps in disguise. Don't say
we didn't warn you.

Chump #1: The Workaholic Hotshot

This
guy is always dressed to the nines, because he's
loaded. Simmer down -- the cash flow comes at a price. He toils until
the wee hours, then loosens his tie and parties like there's no
tomorrow. Unfortunately, there is a tomorrow, and it starts in like
three hours. What little time he has for you will be shared with his
BlackBerry. The ugly truth: Money is the love of his life, and you come
in second -- or third, since he's probably crunching more than numbers
with his secretary.

Dating Secret: What Makes Men Fall in Love

Dating Secret: What Makes Men Fall in Love

There's into you, and then there's head-over-heels gaga. These little things tip single men over that edge.

By Cosmopolitan

Photo: Tamara Schlesinger


Updated: Sep 4, 2008

It's
a baffling dating question: Is there some specific
moment or event that makes a guy suddenly decide "Yes, I think I love
her"? Well, the answer isn't clear-cut, but there are some general
dating principles. "Men have certain innate needs that must be met
before they truly feel connected to you," says Paul Dobransky, MD,
author of "The
Secret Psychology of How We Fall in Love." When a guy
realizes, consciously or not, that you're ideal on all these levels,
that's when he'll commit."