Blog Marco

This symbol used in the medical profession actually has a name - call it "Word for the Day" or "Random facts" but this medical symbol with the winged staff and two serpents (snakes) wrapped around the staff has a name: It's a caduceus. Or caducei if there are more than one. In Greek methology such a staff was carried by Hermes. Hermes is the is the Olympian god of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures, of invention, of commerce in general, and of the cunning of thieves and liars. Hermes was usually portrayed wearing a broad-brimmed traveler's hat or a winged cap (petasus), wearing winged sandals (talaria), and carrying his Near Eastern herald's staff -either a caduceus entwined by copulating serpents, or a kerykeion topped with a symbol similar to the astrological symbol of Taurus the bull. Hermes wore the garments of a traveler, worker, or shepherd. Useless but inter

Gmail has released a collaborative video of people passing the envelope around the world, doing various activities. Nothing funny, just an interesting video to watch. Yet another time waster.

There's a civil construction boom in Sydney at the moment - a few years ago the M7 was opened, and more recently the Lane Cove Tunnel was opened. There are plans for another rail link in Sydney. The NSW Government is to consider an east-west underground railway dubbed the Anzac Line, and a radical plan for a western Sydney fast train. Officials from the Ministry of Transport, led by the acting director of public transport planning, Rod Staples, are expected to set out a vastly different picture of the city's transport future. Mr Staples's plan advocates an east-west underground metro-style line using single-deck carriages and running between Malabar and West Ryde, under Anzac Parade and Victoria Road. It would ease congestion along Victoria Road, with stations at the University of NSW, Moore Park, Drummoyne, Gladesville and Ryde, all expected to attract large numbers of commuters. Public transport travel time from Drummoyne and Maroubra into the city would be cut by one-third. There are plans to be unveiled of privately-funded fast rail service between Penrith and the city. Backed by private investors, the Western FastRail trains would travel at up to 160kmh through 26-kilometre tunnels between Parramatta and Wynyard, and cut travel times between Penrith and the city to less than 30 minutes.

There could be a disturbing law precedent that could be set for Australian website owners, especially those from an online community. 2Clix is suing a popular Australian website Whirlpool which has around 180,000 users, over comments published on their message board. The owner of the website, Simon Wright is being sued for "injurious falsehood", and asking for $150,000 in damages and an injunction requiring Whirlpool to remove forum threads highly critical of 2Clix's accounting software. Dale Clapperton, chairman of the online users lobby group Electronic Frontiers Australia, said 2Clix was using the law to silence its critics. He said if Wright lost "it might mean the end of criticising companies' products and services online", as "any company will be able to demand that people's criticisms of them be deleted off websites, and if they don't comply they'll sue". Amanda Stickley, a senior law lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology, said if 2Clix won there would be severe consequences for website operators as they would have to be "very vigilant in checking material on the website and remove anything that could cause injury to someone's business reputation". In a statement of claim filed with the Supreme Court of Queensland, 2Clix said the comments, published in two threads between between late last year and July this year, led it to sustain "a severe downturn in monthly sales". But Stickley said it would be very difficult for 2Clix to successfully sue Wright for injurious falsehood over comments made by Whirlpool users. It would have to prove the statements were false, that they were made in malice, that 2Clix actually suffered damage in the form of monetary loss and, critically, that Wright had intended to cause 2Clix monetary loss by allowing the material to remain on the website. "I don't think you could actually prove that for a web operator, that they personally intended the damage because of their malicious intention, especially when it's posted by a third party that they've got no relationship to," Stickley said. But Whirlpool isn't taking any chances, asking its users in a statement published on the website to "refrain from doing anything that might expose Simon to contempt of court such as making statements that prejudge the outcome of the case".

Freedon of Speech Rules! We consumers have the right to complain. All the best to Simon and Whirlpool and don't let them set this precedent.

Sexy Adriana Lima photos. Adriana Francesca Lima was born on June 12, 1981 at the northeastern coastal town of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Adriana Lima is best known for her modeling work with Victoria's Secret and Maybelline. She is of African, Indian and Swiss descent. Lima was discovered while shopping at a local mall at the age of 13. When Lima was 15 years old, she entered and finished in first place in Brazil's Ford Supermodel of the World Search. She subsequently entered the 1996 Ford Supermodel of the World contest and finished second place. Three years later, she moved to New York City, and signed with Elite Model Management. Lima’s modeling portfolio began to expand exponentially, appearing in numerous international editions of Vogue and Marie Claire. Lima is fluent in three languages—Portuguese, Spanish and English. She got her first kiss at 17 years old. In an interview with GQ April 2006 issue, Lima told the magazine that she is a virgin. "Sex is for after marriage," she says. "They have to respect that this is my choice. If there's no respect, that means they don't want me." Enjoy Sexy Adrianna Lima in a bikini photos below.

I'm surprised that I haven't written about Jennifer Hawkins yet. She's an Australian and was the winner of Miss Universe for 2004. She is considering going nude for black+white "a classy mag" as she puts it. Hawkins was a former cheerleader for the Newcastle Knights rugby league team, and the Hunter Pirates basketball team and also worked as a model. It was as a model that she was cast as Miss Australia for the Miss Universe competition. She is a presenter for a travel show in Australia called The Great Outdoors - and just for ratings, Channel 7 often has her swimming around in a bikini in some tropical country. Hawkins began dating international model and former carpenter Jake Wall just prior to winning the Miss Universe pageant, and the two continued their relationship following Hawkins' return to Australia after her year based in New York. Enjoy these sexy non nude photos of Jennifer Hawkins in a bikini for Stuff magazine.

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.

Shu Qi has an interesting story... from Rags to Riches from being born into a poor family on April 16, 1976 in Taiwan through to softcore porn in Hong Kong to mainstream movies in Hollywood. Shu Qi is a Taiwanese actress whose stage name is occasionally romanized as Hsu Chi (Wade-Giles) or Shu Kei (Cantonese). Her name is sometimes seen in the Western order as Qi Shu. Shu Qi moved to Hong Kong at the age of 17 where she became a model for adult magazines and softcore movie shorts. She eventually came under the management of Hong Kong producer Manfred Wong, who signed her on to several softcore porn Hong Kong films such as Sex & Zen II. The Hollywood movie that I remember her starring in was The Transporter in 2002. Her most recent movie is Blood Brothers released this year. The photos below (after the click) are from a premiere of the movie in Venice. Enjoy.