Blog Marco

I remember this being reported some time ago: about scanning machines which can "see" underneath clothing. And now, they've been installed at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York (JFK). "For now, the scans will also be voluntary. Flyers selected for a secondary screening after passing through the metal detectors will have the option of stepping into the wave scanner, rather than undergoing a physical pat-down." I would rather get the pat down instead of having to step into this machine. Who knows what the long term effects are of having been exposed to these waves? Also what about people's privacy? Personally I've been used to pat-downs. While traveling in the Philippines, for years they have already been patting down everyone at the airport (I remember being searched at least four times before I stepped into the aircraft) and they also pat down people when you enter in any of their shopping centres or their public trains (Yep, you get patted down and your belongings looked at before you enter a train station.

Even successful people failed on their way to the top... The video uses famous American people such as Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison and Ulysses S. Grant. Life = Risk. Failure is a part of life and success.

I'm a bit of a bicycle enthusiast. I enjoy riding my bike for exercise and leisure. I did the Spring Cycle in Sydney in 2006 and again last year. The Spring Cycle is a 50km public cycling event in Sydney held annually in October riding from North Sydney to Sydney Olympic Park. It's been a while since I gave the bike a clean: especially the most important part of the bicycle: the gears and the chain. So now I have to learn how to lubricate my bicycle chain. And from my research and asking around (thanks to the helpful guys at the bicycle shop Cheeky Transport.)

So what grease do you use to lube a bike chain?

I've got a silversish problem. I need to get rid of the silverfish! They're simply eating up my paper: my notes and my books. It's annoying. So I'm doing a bit research as to how to get rid of these household pests! Of course the first stop is the Wikipedia page for silverfish. Geez, these guys have been around for 300 million years?!

Did you know that between 3 to 13 minutes is the best length of time for sex? How could there be an optimal time for sex? Hang on... there's a "Journal of Sexual Medicine"? "Dr Irwin Goldstein, editor of the Journal of Sexual Medicine, cited a four-week study of 1,500 couples in 2005 that found the median time for sexual intercourse was 7.3 minutes." I wonder if there were any correlations with their ages or eating so called "aphrodisiacs" before having sex...

A survey of sex therapists has concluded the optimal amount of time for sexual intercourse was 3 to 13 minutes.

The findings, to be published in the May issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine, strike at the notion that endurance is the key to a great sex life.

Life is about pleasures. Without them, life will be a bore. We all want to live long, but dying is inevitable. There is a new scientific report which says that eating a sausage each day will increase your risk of cancer by 20 percent. That will certainly keep your doctor at bay!

One sausage a day can significantly raise the risk of bowel cancer, one of the deadliest forms of the disease, experts have warned. Eating 1.8oz (50g) of processed meat a day - the equivalent of one sausage or three rashers of bacon - raises the likelihood of the cancer by a fifth, research shows.

The sobering statistic adds to growing evidence that too much meat in the diet can be deadly. Bowel cancer claims 16,000 lives a year in Britain, with lung cancer the only form of the disease which kills more.

Humans are vain... from Greek Mythology in Narcissus to more recent times with the Vanessa Hudgens scandal... to yourselves! In Greek mythology, Narcissus was a handsome youth who rejected the desperate advances of the nymph Echo. As punishment, he was doomed to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. It is from this story that the word narcissism is derived from, which is the excessive love or admiration of oneself and is a psychological condition characterized by self-preoccupation, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem in the extreme state - but can also be used to describe the attribute of the human psyche that everyone has which is charactised by admiration of oneself. You own a mirror? Well you've got some level of narcissism in yourself. It's just normal. With Narcissus he ignored a girl who was pining for him (Echo) since he fell in love with his own image...

Humans are vain no matter where they are in the world. How does Vanessa Hudgens step into the picture? Well first of all she took photos of herself nude. Who knows the real reason for taking the photos but one reason may have been to just "have a look". She also has a tonne of other naughty candid photos, which is normal nowadays, especially with the proliferation of cheap digital cameras.

I was going through some old Seinfeld episodes when I caught this quote - perhaps the best and most comedic way to end a conversation with Telemarketers:

[Jerry Answers the Phone]
Telemarketer: "Hi, would you be interested in switching over to TMI long distance service?"
Jerry: "Oh Gee, I can't talk right now..why don't you give me your home number and I'll call you later."
Telemarketer: "Uh Well I'm sorry were not allowed to do that"
Jerry: "Oh I guess you don't want people calling you at home"
Telemarket: "..no"
Jerry: "Well you know how I feel"
[Jerry hangs up the phone]

As the web expands with ever more content and information everyday, more and more people are getting addicted to the internet. The majority of US adults feel that they cannot go for a week without going online and one in three giving up friends and sex for the web. A survey asked 1,011 American adults how long they would feel OK without going on the web, to which 15 per cent said a just a day or less, 21 per cent said a couple of days and another 19 per cent said a few days. Only a fifth of those who took part in an online survey conducted by advertising agency JWT between September 7 and 11 said they could go for a week. "People told us how anxious, isolated and bored they felt when they are forced off line," said Ann Mack, director of trend spotting at JWT, which conducted the survey to see how technology was changing people's behaviour. They felt disconnected from the world, from their friends and family." The found the use of mobile phones and the internet were becoming more and more an essential part of life with 48 per cent of respondents agreeing they felt something important was missing without internet access. More than a quarter of respondents - or 28 per cent - admitted spending less time socialising face-to-face with peers because of the amount of time they spend online. It also found that 20 per cent said they spend less time having sex because they are online. We're turning into a world of Internet Addicts.

Women can lose their hair. Of course, you say - that's natural. But what if women are actually speeding up the process and actually contributing to the cause? When girls and young women use ceramic hair curlers especially when they overuse these devices they are actually burning their scalps and maybe causing irreparable and permanent hair damage. The newest trend in current fashion is this "ironed" hair look. There has been medical research showing that hospital emergency departments have had an increase in women coming in with severe burns from the hair irons, which can reach up to 200 degrees. Ceramic hair straighteners have become increasingly popular in recent years, with top-end brands, such as GHD, costing up to $300. in the Emergency Medicine Journal.

We are the lucky ones. I've just read a news story from China about this story of a kid going to uni. It's a special story that moved me when I read it. From poverty to succeeding in university, have a read:

LAST week was the start of the Chinese academic year. Thousands of poor peasant children have triumphed over the world's most competitive high school system and taken their places at university. It can be a proud and bewildering experience. For a young man in Liaoning province called Sun Dapeng, it is time for an annual visit to his father's grave. Dapeng's father left this note three years ago before swallowing a can of pesticide: "My son, when you read this letter I will no longer be in this world, because I cannot provide for your education. Please accept my death as my apology." Dapeng's mother had died when he was young. His father was a landless peasant who slaved his guts out to earn five or 10 yuan on a good day, nothing on a bad one, hauling heavy loads despite a lapsed disc in his lumbar spine. His father had covered the school fees and protected Dapeng from manual work so he could concentrate completely on his study. But when Dapeng was offered a place at a teaching college the first year tuition fee was 5308 yuan ($851) - 100 times the old man's life savings of 52 yuan. This year the national censors have ensured there is no coverage of the student and parent suicides that greet the start of every academic year.

In Liaoning province, Sun Dapeng has just returned from his father's grave. He has just graduated from university with a teaching degree and a major in geography. Last week he started teaching at a privately owned primary school. It is hard work - he has to prepare and teach 24 lesson every week - but he earns between 700 and 800 yuan a month.

It is enough for him to soon repay the 6000 yuan student loan he eventually received from the local city government and the money he borrowed from his sister. His sister was cleaning chicken yards at the time for 200 yuan a month. Visiting his father's grave, Dapeng whispered "ku jing gan lai" (the suffering is over, I promise a better future). But the suffering will never be over. "If I had not gone to university my father would not have killed himself," he says quietly. "He was the perfect father."

We are lucky.

I was reading an article about Shannon Noll's move into the US market and I found an interesting quote by Shannon. Here it is:

What I've found is the people in the middle of the road are the ones with attitude and that sort of thing. But when you get to work with people at the top of the pile you realise there is hope; there are some decent people out there. They're not out to prove themselves to anyone.

Of course the quote is within the context of the article, which is talking about Noll's work experiences with notable songwriters in USA. But I've heard this quote a few times before, from different people about different careers, from business people to photographers. I've observed the same thing. Hmmm... something to ponder about...

Goal setting. How do you setyour goals? I thought I had it all down pat... but I guess I haven't been specific enough with my goals. Self help books keep repeating it over and over. The three key things for a successful goal. Goals need to be specific, their results quantifiable and they must have a time frame. But before you go ahead and set your goals you need to know what you really want. Once you know that you can determine where you want to be in the long term, then working backwards you set milestones - smaller goals to meet along the way. Easier said than done.

Ok So What that Family Guy plagiarises off Simpsons... It's still funny. In this installment watch the behind the scene footage of a recording of the voices behind Family Guy, a Video about Family guy and a compilation of clips about Christianity and finally another compilation trying to attach some morals to clips of the Family Guy.

The Making of the Family Guy

Family Guy vs Christianity (Blasphemous?)

Do you want to get a job in the defence forces? Want to join the RAAF? The Australian defence force has released a new job recruiting method. They imitated the US defence force by giving away free army/naval/air force games on their website. So even if you don't want to join the forces yet, maybe after playing a few shoot 'em ups or battleships and a bit of subliminal programming they can convince you to sign up.