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        <title>Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by Im_beside_yoU</title>
        <description></description>
        <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/</link>
        <lastBuildDate>Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:29:02 +0800</lastBuildDate>
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            <title>Late passenger arrested for India plane bomb hoax</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1134647</link>
            <description>&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;&lt;b&gt;Late passenger arrested for India plane bomb hoax&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style='color:black'&gt; A BUSINESSMAN running behind schedule triggered a bomb scare on a plane in a desperate attempt to catch his flight, Indian police said today.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Vijay Khandelwal, 35, was stuck in a traffic jam on the way to New Delhi airport last week when he realised he would miss the IndiGo plane to Kolkata unless it was held up, senior police officer Satyendra Garg said..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Khandelwal was arrested after he confessed to making a hoax call on his mobile phone.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;Just to delay the flight&amp;#39;s departure, he telephoned the call centre of the airline and announced there was a bomb in the aircraft,&amp;quot; Garg said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Security officials at the airport were alerted, and launched an major emergency operation to search passengers and luggage.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Police arrested Khandelwal by tracing his mobile number and taking a statement from his taxi driver, who had overheard him making the hoax call and refused to drop him at the airport.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Authorities declared the emergency over after 90 minutes and the plane took off four hours late. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25947924-23109,00.html' target='_blank'&gt;newsAu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;HA HA</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:35:34 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>DNA Evidence Can Be Fabricated</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1134494</link>
            <description>&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;Scientists: DNA Evidence Can Be Fabricated&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style='color:black'&gt;(CBS)&amp;nbsp; Scientists in Israel have successfully fabricated blood and saliva samples containing DNA, potentially undercutting what has been considered key evidence in the conviction or exoneration in crime cases, the New York Times reported.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;According to the newspaper, the scientists also demonstrated that if they had access to a DNA profile in a database, they could construct a sample of DNA to match that profile without obtaining any tissue from that person.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;Any biology undergraduate could perform this,” said Dr. Dan Frumkin, lead author of the paper, which is published online in the journal Genetics.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The paper asserts that while DNA analysis has become a centerpiece of law enforcement, the possibility that such evidence can be faked has not been considered.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;This is potentially huge news in the world of criminal justice, which hasn’t yet even fully had the time to embrace DNA for all of its uses,&amp;quot; said CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen. &amp;quot;And I suspect it won’t be long before defense attorneys are using this study to undercut DNA analysis and conclusions in cases all over the country.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;This is potentially terrible news for prosecutors and police and the military and all sorts of industries that use DNA testing to confirm or find information,&amp;quot; Cohen adds. &amp;quot;As the paper’s author says, &amp;#39;You can now just engineer a crime scene.&amp;#39; Good news for crime dramas on television but not so much to the criminal justice system.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;It’ll be interesting to see how the legal world reacts to it and whether this study will be embraced or scorned by DNA experts here in the States,&amp;quot; Cohen said. &amp;quot;But you can be sure that before too long DNA evidence in criminal cases all over will be challenged based upon these findings.&amp;quot; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/17/tech/main5248133.shtml' target='_blank'&gt;cbsnews&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:12:03 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>Anthropomimetic Robot Copies Inner Structures</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1134199</link>
            <description>[YOUTUBEwide]&amp;lt;object width=&amp;quot;425&amp;quot; height=&amp;quot;344&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;param name=&amp;quot;movie&amp;quot; value=&amp;quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/cI9H4FoA0b4&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;fs=1&amp;amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;amp;color2=0x999999&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/param&amp;gt;&amp;lt;param name=&amp;quot;allowFullScreen&amp;quot; value=&amp;quot;true&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/param&amp;gt;&amp;lt;param name=&amp;quot;allowscriptaccess&amp;quot; value=&amp;quot;always&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/param&amp;gt;&amp;lt;embed src=&amp;quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/cI9H4FoA0b4&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;fs=1&amp;amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;amp;color2=0x999999&amp;quot; type=&amp;quot;application/x-shockwave-flash&amp;quot; allowscriptaccess=&amp;quot;always&amp;quot; allowfullscreen=&amp;quot;true&amp;quot; width=&amp;quot;425&amp;quot; height=&amp;quot;344&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/embed&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/object&amp;gt;[/YOUTUBEwide]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;A consortium of European robotics labs is developing a humanoid robot by copying not only the overall form of the human body but also its inner structures: bones, joints, muscles, and tendons. The goal of the ECCEROBOT project is to create an anthropomimetic robot whose body moves and interacts with the physical world in the same way our flesh bodies do. The researchers used thermoplastic polymer, elastic cords, and other soft, flexible materials to build the torso, arms, and hands.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One potential advantage, according to the researchers: shake hands with ECCE and it won&amp;#39;t crush your bones.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The result is fascinating, if a bit creepy. The robot looks eerily organic, with parts that look like bone and muscle. The researchers say that humanoids built with metal parts and electric motors and actuators have limitations in the kinds of interactions they can have with humans and the environment. Indeed, they say, these limitations may affect their ability to perceive and &amp;quot;internalize&amp;quot; the world around them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The big challenge now is devising methods for controlling such flexible (the technical term is compliant) robots. The researchers say there&amp;#39;s a lot of work to do in terms of understanding intrinsic movement patterns and being able to model and control these movements. Once they make progress in that direction, their ultimate goal is to use the robot&amp;#39;s human-like characteristics to explore human-like cognitive features.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The consortium, led by the University of Sussex (UK), includes Technische Universität München (Germany), Universität Zürich (Switzerland), Elektrotehnicki Fakultet Universitet u Beogradu (Serbia), and the Robot Studio (France).&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;Anthropomimetic Robot Copies Inner Structures of Human Body &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://spectrum.ieee.org/blog/robotics/robotics-software/automaton/eccerobot-anthropomimetic-humanoid-robot' target='_blank'&gt;spectrum.ieee&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:25:22 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>Screenagers</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1133441</link>
            <description>&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;&lt;b&gt;Official: teens are addicted to their screens&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;Forget teenagers, the UK&amp;#39;s now full of &amp;#39;screenagers&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;The UK&amp;#39;s children are addicted to watching screens, a new study suggests, with as much as 10 hours a day spent staring at TVs, laptops and the like.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The revelation that the nation&amp;#39;s kids are constantly watching something screen-based has come about after a study by npower showed that on average children spend 9 hours 54 minutes watching screens – with 2 hours 43 minutes spent watching TV.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In more important news, the study means that tabloids have a lovely new portmanteau to label the young with: &amp;#39;screenagers&amp;#39;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Lure of technology&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;The summer holidays are traditionally a time when you expect children to be outdoors playing with their friends,&amp;quot; said Clare McDougall, Education Programme Director from npower.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;But the lure of technology has made it harder to get young people to switch off. We found three-quarters of children aged seven have a television in their room.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Alongside spending a few hours watching TV, teens today also spend 54 minutes looking at playlists on iPods and other PMPs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;McDougall offers this bit of sage advice to those who are addicted to the screen: &amp;quot;They should make the most of their break and try something different, even for just an hour a day.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So, are your tweens turning into screenagers? Are these word-blends annoying you as much as they annoy TechRadar? Answers on a digital postcard please.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://www.techradar.com/news/television/official-teens-are-addicted-to-their-screens-626704' target='_blank'&gt;techradar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:17:07 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>Top 10 workplace time wasters</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1133326</link>
            <description>&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:15pt;line-height:100%'&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;Top 10 workplace time wasters&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Daytime indulgences every boss fears.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let&amp;#39;s face it, work isn&amp;#39;t supposed to be lots of fun. As my grandfather used to say, they call it &amp;#39;work&amp;#39; for a reason.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That&amp;#39;s why everyone needs to blow off a little steam during the day, and some research suggests doing so actually makes us more productive. To keep from going crazy, we need to take a little break here or there. For those of us stuck behind a computer all day, this often takes the form of software and web sites.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are going to be some people reading this who think “ah ha, I&amp;#39;ve just been given a list of sites to block at the firewall so my people will work harder&amp;#33;” Not a bit of it, plenty of the names on this list are very useful and blocking them is counter-productive, as well as making the IT manager look like the Grinch.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This week, we count down some of our favourite wastes of time. At least, we will count them down at some point... right after I check this one last site…&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER BEGIN--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilertop&quot; onClick=&quot;openClose('7ae458051bc7c65f09facbb3f866c765')&quot; style=&quot;font-weight: bold&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;&amp;raquo; Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... &amp;laquo;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilermain&quot; id=&quot;7ae458051bc7c65f09facbb3f866c765&quot; style=&quot;display:none&quot;&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER END--&gt;Honourable Mention: Instant messaging&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Iain Thomson: Fair&amp;#39;s fair, there is a strong business case for instant messaging. It&amp;#39;s an invaluable tool for non-physical meetings and I use it daily to get in contact with the UK office without running up huge phone bills.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But that said it&amp;#39;s also a time sink in other ways. How often are you sitting at your desk working on something when some slacker who you have no interest in hearing from suddenly IMs because they are at a loose end. Unfortunately politeness requires that you answer and before you know it you&amp;#39;ve spend ten minutes in useless chatter and your train of thought has been hopelessly derailed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But, I hear you say, isn&amp;#39;t that just the same as an unwanted phone call? Not at all, thanks to the wonders of technology. If you don&amp;#39;t want to be disturbed you can always shut the phone off and pretend you&amp;#39;re out. With IM they know you are there and there&amp;#39;s no escape. This is why I only turn the IM system on when contract would be welcomed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Shaun Nichols: Yes Iain, if only there were some sort of message you could put up to tell people that you&amp;#39;re away from the desk or busy with work at the moment...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Even with away messages there&amp;#39;s a problem, however. Perhaps you&amp;#39;re not busy talking to someone else via IM with legitimate business, but that one friend who just seems to have way to much free time sees you and sends the &amp;quot;hello&amp;quot; message, followed a few minutes later by the dreaded &amp;quot;are you there?&amp;quot; and then &amp;quot;hellooooo?&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Aside from the time-wasting dangers, there are other worries with instant messaging. Perhaps you have a conversation with your girlfriend in one window, a quick chat with a co-worker or boss in another window, and yet another containing a back-and-forth with your best friend. We&amp;#39;ve all been there, and we all know full well the dangers which arise when you&amp;#39;re not paying very close attention to which window you&amp;#39;re typing in. Even if you get along really well with your boss he&amp;#39;s not going to want sweet nothings appearing in his IM box by mistake.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Honourable Mention: SMS messaging&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Shaun Nichols: Like our other honourable mention, text messages are a very useful technology that can easily become a distraction.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The big risk about text messaging is that it is almost completely silent and easy to conceal. This can make it very easy to sneak in a text message or five while sitting at your desk. Helpful if you&amp;#39;re setting up a dinner date, but hazardous if you&amp;#39;re whittling away the minutes filling a friend in on last night&amp;#39;s date.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This becomes an even bigger problem for those of us that have friends on the dole. Getting through that 3:00-4:00pm stretch is hard enough as it is, but it&amp;#39;s nearly impossible when your out-of-work buddy is texting you from the couch with his theories about the connections between Greek mythology and Everybody Loves Raymond.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Iain Thomson: With friends like that Shaun...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;SMS does have valuable uses, and it&amp;#39;s of enormous value to the phone companies who make billions a year out of it. SMS, despite being very old technology, is still the most profitable data service on mobile phones today.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But we&amp;#39;re all seen the effects of SMS on some people, particularly the youth of today. The next generation is going to get a crick in its neck from constantly being bent over a mobile phone and scientists are already noting that extreme texters have begun using their thumbs to point at things rather than the traditional index finger. Humanity will only be saved because these people will get run over trying to cross roads while typing LMAO one more time.&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;10. B3TA&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER BEGIN--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilertop&quot; onClick=&quot;openClose('4ccc689794c783f088e7c8b8e8078d26')&quot; style=&quot;font-weight: bold&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;&amp;raquo; Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... &amp;laquo;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilermain&quot; id=&quot;4ccc689794c783f088e7c8b8e8078d26&quot; style=&quot;display:none&quot;&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER END--&gt;Iain Thomson: In 2001 three highly talented British basket-cases set up B3TA (pronounced Beta) to showcase and create the weirdest stuff online and the rest is,as they say, history. I suspect Shaun rues the day I sent him his first link to the site.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The site is more addictive than crack, and much more fun. The Friday newsletter is a thing of joy to read and the forums are full of both unusual links and some of the best Photoshopping and computer animation this side of Hollywood. There&amp;#39;s a weekly Photoshop challenge and a Question of the Week contest too, all voted on exclusively by the membership.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It has spawned some of the internet&amp;#39;s most enduring memes, including the infamous Badger, Badger, Badger animation which is the most persistent earworm I&amp;#39;ve ever encountered. Several of my friends want to kill me for passing it on to them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As a timewaster it is excellent. At CES this year I introduced an American journalist to the site&amp;#39;s sick joke wiki and he spent the next two days lambasting me for ruining his productivity and supplying him with enough jokes to get him tarred and feathered in his home state.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The membership could best be described as &amp;#39;quirky&amp;#39;, but the quality of submissions is so high you can spend hours clicking and laughing. My days would be poorer indeed without the stories of SpankyHanky, Legless, Grandmasterfluffles et al, the skilled animation of the other members and the knowledge that crackhouseceilidhband has taken flashmobbing to unusual new areas.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Shaun Nichols: For my fellow Americans who are not quite familiar with the site, B3TA is sort of like 4Chan, minus the shock porn.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Iain turned me on to B3TA shortly after his arrival in the US office, and because of that I have an excuse I can try whenever I spend a bit too much time on the site and nearly miss a deadline. It doesn&amp;#39;t work but hey, it&amp;#39;s worth a shot if I&amp;#39;m desperate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyone who thinks that British humour is a completely dry, sophisticated affair need look no further than B3TA. Though the jokes are often very clever, there&amp;#39;s also a fair amount of goofy, silly humour. I would recommend to everyone here in the States that we pull an &amp;quot;Office&amp;quot; and embrace B3TA. Maybe we can send back Simon Cowell as compensation.&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;9. Wikipedia&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER BEGIN--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilertop&quot; onClick=&quot;openClose('cc9b868c7c8a4541cfe4a5319177522a')&quot; style=&quot;font-weight: bold&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;&amp;raquo; Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... &amp;laquo;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilermain&quot; id=&quot;cc9b868c7c8a4541cfe4a5319177522a&quot; style=&quot;display:none&quot;&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER END--&gt;Shaun Nichols: When you need to look up a quick fact or double-check some stats, Wikipedia can be a very useful tool. When you need to buckle down and get work done, however, it can be a terrible vice.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We&amp;#39;ve all been there; you pop on for a quick look-up to verify a date in history or maybe settle a break-room argument. Then a link on that page looks interesting, so you check it out. Then another link catches your eye. Before you know it you&amp;#39;ve spent 45 minutes reading up on Soviet freight aircraft of the late Cold War-era.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So it’s not just questionable sources that one needs to be wary of when searching Wikipedia, there&amp;#39;s also the lure of soaking up useless facts while you&amp;#39;re supposed to be getting work done.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Iain Thomson: It&amp;#39;s the random article button on the Wikipedia page that has been my downfall in the past.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Picture the scene; it&amp;#39;s lunchtime, the sandwich is laid out before you and Wikipedia is open. A few trial clicks and before you know it you&amp;#39;re hooked. It&amp;#39;s a deadly trap that&amp;#39;s difficult to wean yourself off.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That&amp;#39;s not to say there aren&amp;#39;t benefits. I now know more than any man should about rotary vane air compression, the debate over the correct plural for octopus and US Airforce experimental aircraft post World War Two. This may at some point be of use, but I&amp;#39;m betting it won&amp;#39;t be at the next industry press conference I attend, unless things get really weird.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;8. Fark&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER BEGIN--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilertop&quot; onClick=&quot;openClose('b180ff9270771a6bc333cedfeca576da')&quot; style=&quot;font-weight: bold&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;&amp;raquo; Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... &amp;laquo;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilermain&quot; id=&quot;b180ff9270771a6bc333cedfeca576da&quot; style=&quot;display:none&quot;&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER END--&gt;Iain Thomson: In days of yore we used to use the term Slashdotted to describe the effect of having something posted on the popular tech news site and then having your servers fall over when the rush of traffic hit. Nowadays we use the term Farked.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Fark collects the news from around the world and posts it on a continually updated board. What makes it special is that the submitters of links are volunteers and supply their own headlines. Most of these are so good you shouldn&amp;#39;t view the site while drinking a cup of tea in case the keyboard and monitor get an unexpected bath from reading something too funny.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nevertheless the site does serve a purpose. It breaks news early, both serious and weird, and is useful for keeping up with what&amp;#39;s going on in the world. On the other hand it&amp;#39;s an enormous time sink because, however way you spin it, learning about lunacy in Florida or oddballs in other parts of the world is seldom useful for work.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Shaun Nichols: How I ever lived before Fark, I&amp;#39;ll never know. It&amp;#39;s like a news aggregator that goes ahead and makes all of the snarky comments for you. And to think there was a day when people had to actually hold up a newspaper and make the sarcastic comments about the stupidity of it all on their own&amp;#33;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What&amp;#39;s even more dangerous about Fark is that if you read it long enough, you too begin to talk like a &amp;quot;Farker.&amp;quot; While this can be quite satisfying at times, it also can get you in a bit of trouble when around others who have yet to become jaded by the site&amp;#39;s cutting and merciless approach to news analysis. My grandmother still hasn&amp;#39;t forgiven me for referring to her beloved kitten Troubles as &amp;quot;the ugliest thing you&amp;#39;ll see all day.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;7. Boards/Forums/k/opitiam&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER BEGIN--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilertop&quot; onClick=&quot;openClose('02848cdc1e0410d64d5734a949fe56af')&quot; style=&quot;font-weight: bold&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;&amp;raquo; Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... &amp;laquo;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilermain&quot; id=&quot;02848cdc1e0410d64d5734a949fe56af&quot; style=&quot;display:none&quot;&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER END--&gt;Shaun Nichols: One of the great things about the internet is that it allows pretty much anyone with any sort of interest to find a community of like-minded individuals. Often the best way to connect with others around the world is through a message board or forum.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Just as phone conversations with friends can carry on far too long, an internet conversation with a web friend can run late and get you into trouble at work. If you sit behind a desk, however, this can be even more of a danger than talking on the telephone.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While the boss can see and hear you yapping on the phone and shoot you a dirty look, someone has to be standing behind you looking over your shoulder to see the activity on your screen. How do you tell if someone is typing up a report or debating with a guy in Miami about which 1980s Bill Murray film was the best?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Iain Thomson: I&amp;#39;d say Shaun&amp;#39;s initial point cuts both ways; like-minded individuals joining together is fine, so long as their interests are benign.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But when it comes to forums he raises the most meaningful point. At work, so long as people can&amp;#39;t see your screen, you could be doing pretty much anything online and it would take monitoring software to tell the difference.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Unluckily for Shaun I sit right behind him so can see his screen, but luckily for him I don&amp;#39;t worry too much if he pops onto the boards occasionally - so long as the work gets done on time and to the highest standards.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One of the finest explanations of the downfalls of forums came in, of all things, the West Wing. You can see an explanation here but I&amp;#39;d advise getting the full episode to appreciate the full danger of forums.&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;6. I Can Has Cheezburger network&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER BEGIN--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilertop&quot; onClick=&quot;openClose('ea5e9dbe5a0ea3143785c36ca36f37d8')&quot; style=&quot;font-weight: bold&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;&amp;raquo; Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... &amp;laquo;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilermain&quot; id=&quot;ea5e9dbe5a0ea3143785c36ca36f37d8&quot; style=&quot;display:none&quot;&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER END--&gt;Iain Thomson: This network has spawned such enormous and fun time wasters as LOLCats, the Fail blog and This is Photobomb among others.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It&amp;#39;s all user-generated content, mostly wickedly funny and has become firmly established as one of the key time wasters of the modern internet, so much so that Randall Munroe, unofficial online Court Jester, was forced to speculate on the extreme measures needed if the service went down.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I hate to think what proportion of a network&amp;#39;s time is spent forwarding some of the pictures these sites contain, and how much business productivity has been lost. But mankind cannot live on work alone and letting loose once in a while is no bad thing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Shaun Nichols: 400 years from now our descendants will stumble across the crumbled remnants of our society.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Eventually they will be able to access our records, and they will come across the phenomenon of LOLCats. And then they will feel very, very good about the progress mankind has made since the 21st century.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Cheezburger Network is without a doubt extremely popular, in no small part because it appeals to some very basic humorous qualities that we all enjoy. Anthropomorphic cats are funny. People falling over is funny. Someone messing about in a serious photograph is funny. Like it or not, we all get a chuckle out of it.&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;5. Fantasy Sports&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER BEGIN--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilertop&quot; onClick=&quot;openClose('e686d00fe4af5fc9a13326e29bc28e9d')&quot; style=&quot;font-weight: bold&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;&amp;raquo; Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... &amp;laquo;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilermain&quot; id=&quot;e686d00fe4af5fc9a13326e29bc28e9d&quot; style=&quot;display:none&quot;&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER END--&gt;Shaun Nichols: Perhaps the best part about being a sports fan is that no matter how good or bad your club is performing, you know that if given the chance you would be a far better manager than the guy currently calling the shots.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Fantasy sports lets fans live that role. The idea is that fans form leagues and each person gets to pick a full squad of real world players who score &amp;quot; points&amp;quot; for the team by way of their real-world statistics.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the US, Fantasy NFL Football has become a huge industry, a sort of video game for adults who normally wouldn&amp;#39;t touch a computer. Not only are there countless sites and services designed to help fans organize and manage leagues, but there are also hundreds of books and newsletters devoted to strategy and predictions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As with any passion, fantasy sports can take up a large chunk of time if not properly managed. It is very easy to lose a good chunk of your day reading up on the top halfbacks or checking the waiver wire for a new receiver.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Iain Thomson: I was a little sceptical about this pick. I thought it was like trainspotting – I mean, people do it but surely not very many.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A bit of research later and I&amp;#39;m a little shocked at the amount of stuff out there for the fantasy sports fan. There&amp;#39;s reams of the stuff, with millions of people living out their fantasies of control over the internet. It&amp;#39;s been an eye opener.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Lest you think I&amp;#39;m being snooty about the thing I did find some fields that could suck me in too. As a Formula One nut there were loads of interesting fantasy F1 teams out there and, as I scanned the choices, I found myself thinking “oh come on, no-one&amp;#39;s picked Sutil in a Red Bull chassis using the McLaren engine – they must be mad&amp;#33;”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It took a concious effort to back off. That way madness lies, but good call Shaun.&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;4. Minesweeper&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER BEGIN--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilertop&quot; onClick=&quot;openClose('01d63b76982d3a1f162692a5e10e4ec9')&quot; style=&quot;font-weight: bold&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;&amp;raquo; Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... &amp;laquo;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilermain&quot; id=&quot;01d63b76982d3a1f162692a5e10e4ec9&quot; style=&quot;display:none&quot;&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER END--&gt;Iain Thomson: Microsoft may have increased the productivity of millions of companies but the inclusion of the Minesweeper game in versions of Windows from 3.11 has taken the edge of those productivity gains somewhat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Minesweeper is a deceptively simple game that you can pick up the rules to in seconds and master the simple version in minutes. But move onto the largest sizes and you&amp;#39;re looking at a lot of time and some agonising clicks, which usually end up in teeth-gnashing failure.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Because the game was bundled into the Windows operating system most IT administrators couldn&amp;#39;t be bothered to go through the hassle of removing it and bored staff quickly discovered its addictive qualities. The game has changed little over the years – the true sign of a classic – although on Vista you can replace the mines with flowers as a mark of respect to mine victims around the world.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Shaun Nichols: As a small child I can remember going to visit my dad in his office, and having to spend a couple of hours sitting quietly while he attended to an emergency meeting. It was there that I discovered Minesweeper.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You don&amp;#39;t think that the game is much at first, particularly when you&amp;#39;re used to computer games that involve hacking up mutants with a chainsaw, but Minesweeper very quietly sucks you in. As with many of the best puzzle games, the presentation is very basic and the game is easy to learn. From there however you get involved with a substance only slightly less addictive than caffeine and not nearly as good for productivity.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As Iain noted, Minesweeper still ships with Vista, marking a decades-long run as a mainstay in the operating system. Along with the likes of Tetris and Solitaire, Minesweeper is one of the enduring workplace game titles.&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;3. YouTube&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER BEGIN--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilertop&quot; onClick=&quot;openClose('95764ade767f3120e14f734651a5aa44')&quot; style=&quot;font-weight: bold&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;&amp;raquo; Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... &amp;laquo;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilermain&quot; id=&quot;95764ade767f3120e14f734651a5aa44&quot; style=&quot;display:none&quot;&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER END--&gt;Shaun Nichols: Now we&amp;#39;re getting into the really hard stuff. YouTube seems pretty harmless at first. A news blooper here, a skateboard crash there. But those seemingly brief videos add up.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That&amp;#39;s how YouTube works. You check one quick clip, perhaps you follow a link from another page. But 2-minute clip links to a 4-minute clip, which links to a 3-minute clip. It can lead to a huge waste of time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sure, you just go to check a funny clip of a chimp or relive Joe Montana&amp;#39;s epic touchdown pass to Dwight Clark, and the next thing you know you&amp;#39;re waist deep in the complete collection of &amp;quot;Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat&amp;quot; videos.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Iain Thomson: YouTube suffers from the same problems as Wikipedia – once you start clicking it&amp;#39;s difficult to stop.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While YouTube is great for finding clips of TV shows you haven&amp;#39;t seen since you were a young sprog, and rehashed highlights of news events throughout the last few decades it has a serious business purpose as well. V3 posts some of its videos from the site as a way of reaching a wider audience and so do many others, but the same problem remains with that devilish box in the right hand corner of the page covering Related Videos.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A case in point. I&amp;#39;d never seen Montana&amp;#39;s pass, so popped over to YouTube to check it out. That then led to watching three more clips and oh, would you look at the time. Great pass mind you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Whether or not YouTube will stay as used in years to come remains to be seen. The system is already creaking under the strain of funny cat videos and poorly made rants about everything under the sun. I suspect a clean out is in order, and it won&amp;#39;t be a moment too soon.&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;2. Twitter&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER BEGIN--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilertop&quot; onClick=&quot;openClose('81ee0db803096ce6bf026e2c3e683792')&quot; style=&quot;font-weight: bold&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;&amp;raquo; Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... &amp;laquo;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilermain&quot; id=&quot;81ee0db803096ce6bf026e2c3e683792&quot; style=&quot;display:none&quot;&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER END--&gt;Iain Thomson: Oh, we fought long and hard over the top two spots for this list. I wanted Twitter for the number one spot but after a long and impassioned argument Shaun won me round.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I was, and to a lesser extent remain, a Twitter sceptic. While I can see it&amp;#39;s usefulness in some respects, and now use it regularly, there&amp;#39;s a very clear line between useful tweets and the useless ones. In practice about 90 per cent of what you see on there is rubbish, and I have much sympathy with the Twitter Cops and their slogan “No-one cares&amp;#33;”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It also can be highly annoying. A friend of mine in the UK sent out a tweet every two or three minutes for the length of one episode of &amp;#39;The Apprentice&amp;#39; and by the end of it I was ready to hop on a plane and head over to cut his fingers off. But to stop following his tweets would have been an insult. It&amp;#39;s a whole new area of netiquette where the rules have to be worked out.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So while I&amp;#39;ll carry on tweeting I&amp;#39;ll limit it to important or amusing stuff only. Life&amp;#39;s too short for that kind of time sink.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Shaun Nichols: Twitter starts out with the seemingly harmless question of &amp;quot;what are you doing right now.&amp;quot; Seems like a simple idea, but a trip to the local pub will show you just how ingenious of a concept Twitter is.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Go to the pub and ask everyone you see &amp;quot;how are you doing right now?&amp;quot; Some people will respond with a short grunt. Others may threaten you with violence, but a portion of the people will launch into an extended rant about their day and what they are going to do later and what they think of so-and-so.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Twitter was designed for that third group of people. And on the internet there are enough of them to drive a ton of traffic to the site. Even worse, many of those chatterbox types are in the media, meaning that Twitter gets even more hype as the &amp;quot;next big thing&amp;quot; because its addicts are all the ones presenting things. Just look at the coverage when Twitter went down – if you believed some news outlets you&amp;#39;d have thought the world was falling apart.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Okay, so the company may not have much of a business model, but it&amp;#39;s hard to criticize the underlying concept behind the site and its effect on a very large portion of the internet population.&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;1. Facebook&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER BEGIN--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilertop&quot; onClick=&quot;openClose('58fc49d66386b6d9f48c63809c232c55')&quot; style=&quot;font-weight: bold&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;&amp;raquo; Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... &amp;laquo;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilermain&quot; id=&quot;58fc49d66386b6d9f48c63809c232c55&quot; style=&quot;display:none&quot;&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER END--&gt;Shaun Nichols: We really went back and forth on this one, neither Iain or myself could decide between Twitter and Facebook. Eventually Facebook won out, but only by an eyelash.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the end Facebook took the top spot because it offered more ways to waste time. In addition to sharing links and posting your latest thoughts, the social networking site also allows you to post picture galleries and now supports the creation of quizzes and mini-games.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In other words, Facebook is a one-stop shop for just about every possible method for wasting time. By the time one gets done with the daily Facebook ritual it&amp;#39;s usually time for lunch.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Even after checking up on your friends photo galleries and oversharing the events of the past week via the status box, you still have to check for wall comments and take the &amp;quot;which 18th century Eastern European playwright is your love match?&amp;quot; quiz. It just never ends.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Iain Thomson: It was Shaun&amp;#39;s argument about the many ways that Facebook invites us to waste time that won over the day and I think now it was the right decision.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Facebook is marvellous in lots of ways. It has reconnected me with old friends I haven&amp;#39;t seen in years, it&amp;#39;s used by businesses to get across their messages and keeps friends and family up to date.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But in other ways it&amp;#39;s an enormous waste of time. Shaun&amp;#39;s mentioned the quizzes but they are just the tip of the iceberg. There&amp;#39;s online poker, 25 things you never knew about me exposes and the endless rounds of pokes and presents to be given. Call me a cynic but if you&amp;#39;re going to buy me a drink don&amp;#39;t do it virtually. I want a frosty glass on the bar beside me or bottle of good Scotch in person please. And if you really want help with pirates call the British navy, not me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Facebook is a victim of its own success. As more and more people pile into the system application developers are following them, the average person&amp;#39;s profile is becoming stuffed with add-ons and the amount of time needed to service them grows. Here&amp;#39;s a hint. Once a month go through your profile and delete every application you haven&amp;#39;t used – it makes life a lot more simple and efficient.&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://www.crn.com.au/News/153125,top-10-workplace-time-wasters.aspx' target='_blank'&gt;crn.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:41:04 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>The Invention of Lying</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1133317</link>
            <description>[YOUTUBEwide]&amp;lt;object width=&amp;quot;560&amp;quot; height=&amp;quot;340&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;param name=&amp;quot;movie&amp;quot; value=&amp;quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/ZLwDJejG4wo&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;fs=1&amp;amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;amp;color2=0x999999&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/param&amp;gt;&amp;lt;param name=&amp;quot;allowFullScreen&amp;quot; value=&amp;quot;true&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/param&amp;gt;&amp;lt;param name=&amp;quot;allowscriptaccess&amp;quot; value=&amp;quot;always&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/param&amp;gt;&amp;lt;embed src=&amp;quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/ZLwDJejG4wo&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;fs=1&amp;amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;amp;color2=0x999999&amp;quot; type=&amp;quot;application/x-shockwave-flash&amp;quot; allowscriptaccess=&amp;quot;always&amp;quot; allowfullscreen=&amp;quot;true&amp;quot; width=&amp;quot;560&amp;quot; height=&amp;quot;340&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/embed&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/object&amp;gt;[/YOUTUBEwide]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;The Invention of Lying (formerly known as This Side Of The Truth) is an upcoming 2009 comedy film, written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson. The film was originally being produced under the title This Side Of The Truth, but Gervais announced on his blog in April 2009 that the title had indeed been changed, reversing a previous assertion he had made to the contrary several weeks earlier. The film will be released in the United States on September 25, 2009.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The film is set on an alternate Earth, where no one has ever lied, and stars Gervais as a performer, who tells the world&amp;#39;s first lie, coming to wield its power for personal gain.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Gervais describes his character as someone who &amp;quot;works in the film industry, where actors are really readers who tell completely factual stories &amp;quot;[...] he&amp;#39;s lumbering through the 1300s. All he&amp;#39;s got to work with is the Black Death. But once he lies and pretends he&amp;#39;s found lost stories, he becomes the greatest storyteller in the world.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Invention of Lying&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:33:46 +0800</pubDate>
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        <item>
            <title>No Robot Dance(?)</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1132367</link>
            <description>&lt;img src='http://img2.pict.com/9c/a3/a8/1473623/0/signunexpl.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://www.japantoday.com/category/picture-of-the-day/view/mystery-sign' target='_blank'&gt;j2day&lt;/a&gt;</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:23:59 +0800</pubDate>
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        <item>
            <title>49y/o man kills mother for hiding TV remote contrl</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1132313</link>
            <description>&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;&lt;b&gt;49-year-old Okinawa man kills mother for hiding TV remote control&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;NAHA — A 49-year-old man has been arrested for beating his mother to death because she hid the TV remote control from him, police said Friday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nanji City resident Yo Onaga is suspected of beating his mother Fumi, 76, in the head repeatedly some time after 10 p.m. on Wednesday night. According to police, Onaga showed up at a local police box on Thursday to report that his mother had collapsed and that she was bleeding from the mouth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When officers arrived at the residence, they found Fumi dead in her bedroom. After questioning, Onaga admitted that he had hit his mother. He was quoted as saying: “When she hid the TV remote control from me, I just snapped and punched her.”&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/49-year-old-okinawa-man-kills-mother-for-hiding-tv-remote-control' target='_blank'&gt;j2day&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:27:49 +0800</pubDate>
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        <item>
            <title>/k/eyboardwarriors trawl web for extremis threats</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1132283</link>
            <description>&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;&lt;b&gt;Cyber warriors trawl web for extremist threats&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt; SINGAPORE (AFP) - Nur Azlin Mohamed Yasin spends several hours a day trawling the Internet, but she is not your typical young surfer, descending into a world of bomb-making, militancy and extremism.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;From her computer, she enters a world where young Muslims openly volunteer to fight against US-led coalition troops in Afghanistan or learn how to make explosives out of everyday materials.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The 24-year-old Singaporean research analyst is constantly on the lookout for attack manuals, video clips of Islamist militants in training and fiery extremist chatter that could hint at an imminent assault somewhere.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is a place where Al-Qaeda terror network chief Osama bin Laden is venerated and the three Indonesian men executed for their role in the Bali bombings of 2002 are held up as poster boys for would-be recruits.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;This whole thing is worrying,&amp;quot; she told AFP in an interview, referring to a growing trend of individuals imbibing radical ideas online.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nur Azlin is one of five research analysts at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies who monitor extremist websites daily to get a sense of an emerging battleground in the fight against terrorism.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All of them happen to be women and their collective skills include knowledge of Arabic, Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Indonesia -- and geopolitical issues.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER BEGIN--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilertop&quot; onClick=&quot;openClose('0c850e7e6bb34f8e6a54b6b9176d3fa9')&quot; style=&quot;font-weight: bold&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;&amp;raquo; Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... &amp;laquo;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilermain&quot; id=&quot;0c850e7e6bb34f8e6a54b6b9176d3fa9&quot; style=&quot;display:none&quot;&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER END--&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;After you sit down, think about it and do a trend analysis, you say &amp;#39;Oh my God&amp;#33; this is really happening,&amp;#39;&amp;quot; said Nur Azlin, who works for the school&amp;#39;s International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;You can see the radicalisation process unfold online.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are an estimated 5,500-6,000 websites worldwide peddling extremist ideas, according to the researchers, who work from a spartan office in a suburban university campus.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nur Azlin is tasked to monitor and analyse websites in Southeast Asia, a region that hosts notorious organisations such as the Jemaah Islamiyah movement and the Abu Sayyaf group operating in the southern Philippines.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;She estimates that there are around 192 extremist websites in the region, many of them individual blogs which have mushroomed since early 2008 when Internet blogging became popular.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Singapore, a staunch US ally and international finance centre, considers itself a prime target for terrorist attacks like last month&amp;#39;s deadly hotel bombings in Jakarta aimed at symbols of Western influence.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng has warned that &amp;quot;self-radicalised&amp;quot; individuals have emerged as a new security threat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In 2007, Singapore announced the arrest of five suspected Islamic militants, among them local law lecturer Abdul Basheer Abdul Kader, who allegedly planned to pursue &amp;quot;jihad&amp;quot; in Afghanistan after getting radical ideas from the Internet.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When analyst Nur Azlin started monitoring the websites in early 2007, most of the content was in the form of articles urging Muslims to fight back against perceived oppression, she recalled.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They were usually accompanied by photos like a child allegedly maimed during an attack by coalition forces in Afghanistan or by Israeli troops in Palestine.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In late 2007, computer hacking manuals started to appear on Southeast Asian websites, uploaded by individuals in online forums, she said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Forum participants, some of whom identified themselves as undergraduate students from Indonesia and Malaysia, urged each other to hack websites they considered to be promoting liberal Muslim views.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;By early 2008, we started to see bomb-making manuals and bomb-making videos,&amp;quot; Nur Azlin recalled.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With the appearance of these manuals -- taken from Arabic websites -- the reaction from forum participants got more virulent, as they goaded each other to take action rather than stay passive supporters or sympathisers, she said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In one of the exhanges, participants tried to organise arms training but some said they did not have money to buy AK-47 assault rifles, Nur Azlin said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A group called &amp;quot;Indonesian Airsoft Mujahideen&amp;quot; stepped in and offered to facilitate their training using air rifles and paintball machines, which are widely used for play sessions at corporate training seminars in Asia.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;They would rent the place much like a team-building activity,&amp;quot; Nur Azlin said. &amp;quot;They used this training in the meantime that they don&amp;#39;t have their AK-47s.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jolene Jerard, 26, a manager at the centre, said the analysts compile a monthly report about their findings.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The extremist videos they download -- now in high definition and professionally taken compared with the grainy amateurish clips of the past -- are put into a database, one of the biggest collections in Southeast Asia.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The centre shares its findings and analyses with the relevant government authorities and foreign diplomats visit the school for briefings.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;The cyberdomain is an area where governments have been gradually moving into,&amp;quot; Jerard said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;It&amp;#39;s a changing threat landscape. I think it is increasingly becoming important and governments are definitely enthusiastic about countering it and putting enough resources in place.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/20090816/tc_afp/singaporesecuritytechnologyinternet' target='_blank'&gt;yyyyahoo&lt;/a&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:01:11 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>First death from swine flu</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1131409</link>
            <description>&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;&lt;b&gt;Japan records first death from swine flu&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;TOKYO (AFP) – A 57-year-old Japanese man, who suffered from a chronic ailment, has died from swine flu in the country&amp;#39;s first death from the virus, a local government official said Saturday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The man, a resident of Ginowan city in Japan&amp;#39;s southern Okinawa prefecture, died of the A(H1N1) virus Saturday morning after developing complications, the official said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The man, 57, who was hospitalised on Wednesday, had a chronic kidney condition and had previously experienced both kidney failure and cardiac arrest, another local official said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;He was receiving dialysis treatment for his kidney condition and had no recent records of travelling abroad, he added.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;The new flu is spreading quickly in Okinawa prefecture,&amp;quot; the official said. &amp;quot;When the man was hospitalised, it was already suspected that he was infected with the virus.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The number of swine flu cases in Japan topped 5,000 late last month, stoking concern that transmission of the virus is accelerating.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It hit Japan in early May and quickly spread to high schools in the western cities of Kobe and Osaka before infecting the wider population.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090815/wl_asia_afp/healthflujapan' target='_blank'&gt;yaho&lt;/a&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;superiority showed &lt;!--emo&amp;-_---&gt;&lt;img src='http://static.lowyat.net/style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sleep.gif' /&gt;&lt;!--endemo--&gt;</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:29:26 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>Oldest 90y/o pupil dies</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1131159</link>
            <description>&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;School pupil, 90, dies in Kenya&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src='http://img2.pict.com/de/aa/51/1467809/0/90pupil21223.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;Kenya&amp;#39;s oldest pupil, Kimani Nganga Maruge, has died in Nairobi aged 90.&lt;br /&gt;The great-grandfather held the Guinness World Record for being the oldest person to start primary school, at the age of 84.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER BEGIN--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilertop&quot; onClick=&quot;openClose('0fc5a1de5d940f72c5dd5068eeeda73a')&quot; style=&quot;font-weight: bold&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;&amp;raquo; Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... &amp;laquo;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilermain&quot; id=&quot;0fc5a1de5d940f72c5dd5068eeeda73a&quot; style=&quot;display:none&quot;&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER END--&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;His house in the Rift Valley was burnt down in post-election violence last year and he was later moved from a camp to an old people&amp;#39;s home in the capital.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Despite the disruption, Mr Maruge kept hard at his studies and had two years left to finish his primary education.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Mr Maruge, a veteran of the Mau Mau independence movement, never had the opportunity to go to school when he was younger.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The father-of-five said he wanted to learn how to read the Bible for himself and he was also suspicious that he might not have been getting his full pension so he was also keen to study maths.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In 2004 he enrolled at Kapkenduywa primary school, in Eldoret, a year after the Kenyan government introduced free primary schooling.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With one of the best attendance records he was made a prefect in the school.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Two of his 30 grandchildren, who had been at the same school, said he had eventually wanted to complete a veterinary diploma.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;#39;Courageous&amp;#39;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Mumbi Kamuri, head of Cheshire Homes in Kenya where Mr Maruge spent the last year of his life, told the BBC he was dedicated to his studies right to the end.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Even after he was diagnosed with cancer in February he asked for teachers to teach him at home, she said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;He was a very courageous man,&amp;quot; she said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;Even if you don&amp;#39;t see it through to the end, you will still have achieved something.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In 2005, he travelled to the United States where he called on world leaders attending a summit to make education for the poor a priority.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The BBC&amp;#39;s Will Ross in Nairobi says he will be remembered by many people as an inspirational figure who brought new meaning to the phrase, &amp;quot;it&amp;#39;s never too late&amp;quot;.&lt;/span&gt; &lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8202378.stm' target='_blank'&gt;bbbccc&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:55:03 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>Gaza; hamas, al qaeda clash</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1130953</link>
            <description>&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;&lt;b&gt;Deadly gun battle in Gaza mosque&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;At least 13 people have been killed and at least 85 injured in a fierce gun battle in Gaza, emergency services say.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Eyewitnesses say hundreds of Hamas fighters and policemen surrounded a mosque where followers of a radical Islamist cleric were holed up.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hamas fired rocket-propelled grenades at the mosque and stormed the leader&amp;#39;s house in Rafah, near the Egypt border.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is thought that at least 100 supporters of the al-Qaeda-linked group, Jund Ansar Allah, were inside.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At least one Hamas fighter was killed by a grenade fired from the mosque but most of those killed were supporters of the cleric. One child was also killed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The entire neighbourhood was sealed off as the shooting continued after dark - in what was one of the most violent incidents in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip since an Israeli offensive in December and January.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was not immediately clear if the mosque&amp;#39;s imam, Abdul-Latif Moussa, was captured during the fighting.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER BEGIN--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilertop&quot; onClick=&quot;openClose('940fe954572adc43262e2d124689c502')&quot; style=&quot;font-weight: bold&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;&amp;raquo; Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... &amp;laquo;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilermain&quot; id=&quot;940fe954572adc43262e2d124689c502&quot; style=&quot;display:none&quot;&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER END--&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;&lt;b&gt;Fighting pledge&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Earlier, during Friday prayers, hundreds of worshippers at Ibn-Taymiyah mosque declared Gaza an &amp;quot;Islamic emirate&amp;quot;. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Abdul-Latif Moussa and armed supporters swore to fight to the death rather than hand over authority of the mosque to Hamas.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;During his own Friday sermon, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, dismissed Mr Moussa&amp;#39;s comments.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;These declarations [of an Islamic emirate] are aimed towards incitement against the Gaza Strip and an attempt at recruiting an international alliance against the Gaza Strip.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;And we warn those who are behind these Israeli Zionist declarations: the Gaza Strip only contains its people.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jund Ansar Allah (Army of the Helpers of God) gained some prominence two months ago when it staged a failed attack on a border crossing between Gaza and Israel.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The group is very critical of Hamas, which seized Gaza in 2007, accusing the Islamist group of not being Islamist enough.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hamas has cracked down on al-Qaeda-inspired groups in the past, the BBC&amp;#39;s Middle East correspondent Katya Adler says.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hamas is concerned they may attract more extremist members, and has forbidden anyone except what it describes as Hamas security personnel from carrying weapons in Gaza, our correspondent says.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8202553.stm' target='_blank'&gt;bbc&lt;/a&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:01:41 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>Sony PS3 Slim heralds new round in console war</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1130159</link>
            <description>&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;&lt;b&gt;Sony PS3 Slim heralds new round in console war&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;There is growing speculation that a price cut and a new, slimline version of the machine are imminent&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Microsoft and Sony look set for another bruising round in their console war, with both companies rumoured to be readying price cuts of their gaming machines.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sony will make an announcement in Cologne at the Gamescom conference on Tuesday, but has dismissed talk of an imminent reduction in the price of its PlayStation 3 console as mere rumour and speculation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, industry watchers noted that retailers have been struggling to replenish their stocks of the console, sparking speculation that not only is a price cut imminent but that a slimline version of the machine is set to be released.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With the console priced at just under £300, a price cut could tempt more cash-strapped consumers into buying a PS3. Since its launch, Sony has sold almost 24 million of the consoles but still trails Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii in terms of units shipped. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Retailers in the UK say that sales of consoles have eased over recent months in line with a seasonal slowdown. The constraint in supply of new PS3 units does not appear to be related to demand, suggesting that the shelves are being emptied to make room for the new, cheaper PS3 Slim’s launch.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Yet Sony’s hopes of stealing a march on its archrival appear to have been stymied. Not to be outdone, Microsoft is thought to be lowering the price of the Xbox 360 after US technology sites revealed a shake-up of the company’s pricing structure. Rumours suggest that the software giant is preparing to cut the price of its Xbox 360 Elite console, which includes a 120GB hard drive, by £60 to £170. That is likely to spell the end of the more basic Xbox 360 Pro model that was previously sold in that price bracket.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As is the case with Sony, the rumoured price cuts are expected to come into effect at the end of the month. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src='http://img2.pict.com/e8/2a/8d/1463176/0/sonyps3slim.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6794958.ece' target='_blank'&gt;P#*~Station 3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;europe, price cut[update]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;&lt;b&gt;European retailer hacks €100 from PlayStation 3 in run-up to gamescom&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;If you know anything about European retailer Fnac, you know it&amp;#39;s not the go-to place for bargains. However, it&amp;#39;s this very outlet that&amp;#39;s now selling an 80GB PlayStation 3 bundle (which includes the console, a single controller and inFamous) for €100 less than its &amp;quot;everyday low price&amp;quot; as of yesterday. Of course, one major French retailer slashing the price on a system that&amp;#39;s long overdue for a break isn&amp;#39;t reason in and of itself reason to believe anything&amp;#39;s on the horizon, but pair this up with everything else we&amp;#39;ve heard over the past few weeks, and we&amp;#39;d say all the vague omens are pointing to a leaner, cheaper and altogether more dashing PS3 on August 18th. In our magical fantasy land, anyway.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Update: Our friends at Engadget Spanish just let us know that there&amp;#39;s been a price drop in Spain as well. Getting warmer...&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/14/european-retailer-hacks-100-from-playstation-3-in-run-up-to-gam/' target='_blank'&gt;engadget&lt;/a&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:10:42 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>Man brings officers apology coffees, gets arrested</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1129699</link>
            <description>&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;&lt;b&gt;Man brings officers apology coffees, gets arrested next day &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;SALISBURY — William Thomson came into the police station with an unusual gesture — coffees to apologize for the wild behavior he exhibited 12 years ago when he was arrested. But police said within a day he was under arrest again, and he unleashed the same kind of ruckus on the police station that he had apologized for.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thomson, 55, of Everett, is being charged with driving while under the influence (third offense), marked lanes violation, resisting arrest, threatening to commit a crime and driving with an open container of alcohol. Yesterday he unsuccessfully appealed Newburyport District Court Judge Allen Swan&amp;#39;s decision to hold him without bail prior to his pretrial hearing scheduled for Sept. 4.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER BEGIN--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilertop&quot; onClick=&quot;openClose('38d1413eaee7a472dc4298f0b5fac02d')&quot; style=&quot;font-weight: bold&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;&amp;raquo; Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... &amp;laquo;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilermain&quot; id=&quot;38d1413eaee7a472dc4298f0b5fac02d&quot; style=&quot;display:none&quot;&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER END--&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thomson was arrested shortly after 1 a.m. on July 14 after Salisbury police found his car, a 1994 green Buick sedan, with the motor running, along the side of Lafayette Road with Thomson passed out in the front seat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;I thought the vehicle was empty and dispatched Simmie&amp;#39;s Garage,&amp;quot; officer Timothy Hunter wrote in his police report. &amp;quot;As I approached the vehicle, I saw a male slumped over, his head near the passenger seat with an open can of Budweiser beer between his legs.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hunter was able to gain access to the locked vehicle through an open window.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;I yelled in an attempt to get his attention,&amp;quot; the report said. &amp;quot;With this not working, I began to shake his left arm. After doing this for five seconds, he opened his eyes and sat up yelling, &amp;#39;Hey, what are you doing?&amp;#39;&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hunter grabbed the beer can as well as another open can on the driver&amp;#39;s side floorboard, at which Thomson yelled, &amp;quot;Hey, that&amp;#39;s not fair.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thomson smelled of alcohol, and his speech was slurred. When asked where he was, Thomson stated he was on Revere Beach, according to reports.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;He began to rumble how he was in the Marine Corps and was a former jail guard and wondered why I was doing this to him,&amp;quot; the report states. &amp;quot;He attempted to get back in his vehicle, and I then grabbed him and pinned him between the driver side doors.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After resisting arrest and swinging wildly at police, Thomson was placed under arrest and forcefully placed into the police cruiser, according to police.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As police searched Thomson&amp;#39;s vehicle, they found a large clear trash bag being used as a cooler with ice and approximately 10 cans of cold beer inside. The backseat had clothing and more boxes of empty and full beer cans, the report stated.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Once police began the booking process at the station, Thomson became increasingly angry and volatile, swearing and screaming nonstop at police, according to the report.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;He stated he has friends in the Irish mob who would find out where I live and &amp;#39;take care of me,&amp;#39;&amp;quot; the report said. &amp;quot;He stated his friends will break our knees if we&amp;#39;re lucky, and he stated he was in the Marine Corps combat fighting school and was also a brown belt. He rambled on how he served the country and wanted to know what branch I served in, the Salvation Army?&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When it was time for Thomson to take a Breathalyzer test, police uncuffed him from the rail. According to reports, he lunged at the Breathalyzer machine and punched it full force and knocked the breath test printer cover off.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;William was noncompliant and needed to be placed into an arm bar and escorted into the holding cell,&amp;quot; the report said. &amp;quot;Upon being placed there, William began to attempt to flood the cell by flushing the toilet nonstop and running the sink.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Police shut off the water supply to the cell, and Thomson eventually passed out, according to reports.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As Salisbury police were investigating the incident, they realized Thomson was the same man who had come into the station a day earlier and brought three large coffees for officers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;He told dispatcher Monica Carnes he wanted to apologize for what happened 12 years ago,&amp;quot; the report stated. &amp;quot;Records show he was charged by Salisbury police in 1997 for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and malicious destruction of property over &amp;#036;250 and spent five days in jail. William exhibited the same behavior then and needed to be pepper sprayed. He destroyed the toilet apparatus while being held.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;According to Thomson&amp;#39;s Registry of Motor Vehicles driving record, he has a history of violations dating back to 1987. Violations range from reckless driving to two other charges of drunken driving, one in 2005 out of Malden District Court and another in Chelsea in 1987. Thomson failed to pay fines associated with those charges and had his license suspended several times. He has also been charged with driving after license suspension and seat belt violations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thomson&amp;#39;s criminal record shows prior charges of domestic assault and battery, assault, breaking and entering in the nighttime, vehicle thefts, possession of class A drugs and weapons charges.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;His prior criminal offenses took place in Massachusetts, Florida and North Carolina.&lt;/span&gt; &lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://www.newburyportnews.com/punews/local_story_224225729.html' target='_blank'&gt;phail&lt;/a&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:04:26 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>Children will be flu vaccine guinea pigs</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1129684</link>
            <description>&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;&lt;b&gt;CHILDREN WILL BE FLU VACCINE GUINEA PIGS &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;Children and babies with under­lying health conditions will get the new swine flu vaccine before it has even passed clinical trials, it emerged last night.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Fears were raised the drug is being rushed through before it has been properly tested on vulnerable groups such as babies, putting lives at risk.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Department of Health confirmed last night that none of the 900 children taking part in safety tests are believed to be under three but babies with health problems will be among the first to get the vaccine.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER BEGIN--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilertop&quot; onClick=&quot;openClose('93f0fa01fc7e97e4d32c31dd00bc66bf')&quot; style=&quot;font-weight: bold&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;&amp;raquo; Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... &amp;laquo;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilermain&quot; id=&quot;93f0fa01fc7e97e4d32c31dd00bc66bf&quot; style=&quot;display:none&quot;&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER END--&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;A spokeswoman said: “The vaccine is being fast-tracked through clinical trials but it is not going to be used before it is licensed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“The clinical trials will be conducted as swiftly as possible but priority groups will start to receive the vaccine after it is licensed but before the end of the trials.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“There are 900 children in the Health Protection Agency trials in Bristol, Southampton and Hertfordshire and 300 adults are volunteering in Leicester.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The concerns follow reports that youngsters prescribed anti-viral drug Tamiflu have suffered side effects worse than swine flu itself. Dr Richard Halvorsen, a children’s immunisation expert, said: “The testing is being rushed through faster than any vaccine testing programme in history, yet it’s not long enough to really see whether it’s safe and effective.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“Do we really need a mass vaccination programme for an illness which is relatively mild in most people and has caused fewer deaths than seasonal flu?”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Government announced yesterday that in October people aged six months to 65 in conventional at-risk groups for normal seasonal flu, such as those with diabetes or heart disease, will be given the vaccine.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They will be followed by all pregnant women. Those over 65 in conventional at-risk groups will also be eligible. Heroin addicts on methodone, who suffer from weakened immune systems, will also be at the front of the queue for the jabs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Some 54.6 million doses of vaccine are planned to be delivered by December. Those eligible will need to have two doses.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said the immunisation was going through similar safety testing as seasonal flu vaccine.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/120512/Children-will-be-flu-vaccine-guinea-pigs/' target='_blank'&gt;dailyexpress&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:26:24 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>Epic fail and stupidity</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1129677</link>
            <description>&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;Girl tries to convert her Indian friend to Christianity, epic fail and stupidity ensue [Stupid]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;Caution: From the very beginning, the stupidity in this video is so incredibly epically stupid it will make your brain explode into tiny molten chunks of stupid. Just writing this I can feel the pieces of my brain start to separate and start to seep out of my ears. This brick-f***ing-stupid blonde girl videotapes her attempt to convert her Hindu Indian friend to Christianity.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://www.iheartchaos.com/content/girl-tries-convert-her-indian-friend-christianity-epic-fail-and-stupidity-ensue-stupid' target='_blank'&gt;www&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;[YOUTUBEwide]&amp;lt;object width=&amp;quot;425&amp;quot; height=&amp;quot;344&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;param name=&amp;quot;movie&amp;quot; value=&amp;quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/JvVAV09-dQ8&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;fs=1&amp;amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;amp;color2=0x999999&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/param&amp;gt;&amp;lt;param name=&amp;quot;allowFullScreen&amp;quot; value=&amp;quot;true&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/param&amp;gt;&amp;lt;param name=&amp;quot;allowscriptaccess&amp;quot; value=&amp;quot;always&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/param&amp;gt;&amp;lt;embed src=&amp;quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/JvVAV09-dQ8&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;fs=1&amp;amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;amp;color2=0x999999&amp;quot; type=&amp;quot;application/x-shockwave-flash&amp;quot; allowscriptaccess=&amp;quot;always&amp;quot; allowfullscreen=&amp;quot;true&amp;quot; width=&amp;quot;425&amp;quot; height=&amp;quot;344&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/embed&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/object&amp;gt;[/YOUTUBEwide]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:06:12 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>Do you fly the flag</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1128138</link>
            <description>&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;img src='http://img2.pict.com/a7/96/4c/1452635/0/125202520shm0363.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;Putrajaya, 12 August 2009 :&amp;nbsp;  Datuk Seri Najib Razak wants the people to expand their patriotism to encompass having good values, good character, diligence and respect for the counry&amp;#39;s laws and regulations, and maintaining harmony in the country. The prime minister said as citizens, these aspects were necessary apart from patriotism. &amp;quot;The patriotic spirit is important because overall, their is no land that is better and more fortunate than Malaysia,&amp;quot; he said here today when launching the &amp;#39;Fly the Jalur Gemilang&amp;#39; campaign in conjunction with the 52nd independence celebration. He also placed a Jalur Gemilang on several vehicles each, including taxis and on his official car. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href='http://sun2surf.com' target='_blank'&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;sun2surf&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--emo&amp;:)--&gt;&lt;img src='http://static.lowyat.net/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /&gt;&lt;!--endemo--&gt;</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:01:02 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>Man discovers wife&amp;#39;s six other husbands</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1127892</link>
            <description>&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;&lt;b&gt;Man discovers wife&amp;#39;s six other husbands in six weeks&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;Cairo, Aug 12 (RIA Novosti) The police in the Egyptian resort city of Hurghada have arrested a woman on charges of polygamy, a media report said. The 25-year-old waitress was married to seven different men. Then her seventh husband found out.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;She met all of them in a cafe where she was employed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;According to the police, she married her men once every six days. After the weddings, she would lose interest in them and would begin a hunt for another husband. Once she was remarried, she would take all her belongings to her new husband&amp;#39;s home.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The woman claims all her husbands were happy with her, even if their family bliss lasted for a week, the Almasry Alyoum newspaper reported Monday.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:29:12 +0800</pubDate>
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        <item>
            <title>Why Do Some People Never Get Fat?</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1127882</link>
            <description>&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;&lt;b&gt;Why Do Some People Never Get Fat? Scientists May Have the Answer&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;Remember the guy from Super Size Me who ate about 23,000 Bic Macs and never got fat? Ever wonder how he did it? Turns out he may have been born without the “fat enzyme.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The enzyme MGAT2 is found in the intestines and determines the fate of our food by regulating how it is metabolized: It either makes fat go straight to your waistline, or converts it into energy. Scientists in California have discovered that when mice are missing the gene for MGAT2, they can eat whatever they want and never have to worry about getting fat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The University of California at San Francisco knocked out the gene in experimental mice to see how their bodies grew after feeding them different diets. When the normal and experimental mice were fed a diet low in fat, both sets of mice grew the same way. But when the mice were eating a 60 percent fat diet (i.e., a typical American diet), the experimental mice weighed 40 percent less and had 50 percent less fat than the normal mice.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Not only does decreasing MGAT activity in mice reduce their chances of packing on the pounds, it also prevents them from developing other obesity-related problems such as fatty livers and glucose intolerance. While the researchers are unsure of precisely how the experimental mice kept the weight off, they think that when the mice are missing the MGAT2 enzyme, their body ultimately doesn’t store or use the fat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Still, don’t go on a Big Mac binge just yet: Until scientist can figure out how to manipulate this gene to create the magic skinny pill, we will continue to metabolize food like we did when we were hunters and gathers.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2009/03/17/why-do-some-people-never-get-fat-scientists-may-have-the-answer/' target='_blank'&gt;orly??&amp;#33;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:18:40 +0800</pubDate>
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        <item>
            <title>China admitted its pharma companies were making</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1126933</link>
            <description>&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;&lt;span style='color:green'&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'&gt;&lt;b&gt;Fake &amp;#39;Made In India&amp;#39; drugs: China admits its cos&amp;#39; involvement&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style='color:#4d4d4d'&gt;NEW DELHI: China has admitted that its pharmaceutical companies were involved in shipping fake drugs labeled &amp;#39;Made In India&amp;#39; to Nigeria.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;The Chinese authorities have accepted this position (that its firms were involved in the case),&amp;quot; an official said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;The Indian government took up the matter with the Nigerian authorities and on further probe, it was found that the drugs had actually originated in China and not in India,&amp;quot; he added.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In June, Nigeria&amp;#39;s drug regulatory authority National Agency for Food and Drug Administration And Control (NAFDAC) had reported about the detention of a large consignment of fake anti-malarial generic pharmaceuticals labeled &amp;#39;Made in India&amp;#39; which were actually produced in China.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Following the incident, India took up the issue with China fearing that this could damage the reputation of the 12-billion-dollar Indian pharmaceutical industry in the global market.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Though, China had assured of investigations in the matter, Indian authorities were not given any time frame.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;India has asked its missions in the region to step up vigil for protecting the nation&amp;#39;s image and market.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href='http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/Fake-Made-In-India-drugs-China-admits-its-cos-involvement/articleshow/4881726.cms' target='_blank'&gt;timesofindia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;china did it again&amp;#33;&amp;#33;111&amp;#33;1  &lt;!--emo&amp;:lol:--&gt;&lt;img src='http://static.lowyat.net/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /&gt;&lt;!--endemo--&gt;</description>
            <author>Im_beside_yoU</author>
            <category>Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:54:45 +0800</pubDate>
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