Dead tired in Vienna

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Today we walked around Vienna, had a beer at a cafe and took lots of pictures. By mid-afternoon we were both exhausted. Our travelling had caught up with us. We headed back to the hotel, got some beer and stayed in and watched BBC Entertainment and rested. And as the CBC news loves to say; "There was a Canadian Connection". I watched my first ever episode of 'Casualty' and was tickled to hear a reference to the iconic Canadian CTV show "The Littlest Hobo". 

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Universal Cell Phone Charger Approved

This is what I consider to be a victory for anyone who has cursed the mobile industry, and the wasteful and greedy manufacturing of more than 50,000 tonnes of redundant phone adapters each year.

A new charger, that will work with any handset has been approved by the International Telecommunication Union, which is a body of the United Nations.

It has also been estimated that greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by 13.6m tonnes each year.

Read the full story at the BBC.

Phishing attack targets Hotmail

Thousands of accounts on web-based e-mail system Hotmail have been compromised in a phishing attack, software giant Microsoft has confirmed.

BBC News has seen a list of more than 10,000 e-mail accounts, predominantly originating from Europe, and passwords which were posted online.

Microsoft said it had launched an investigation.

Phishing involves using fake websites to lure people into revealing details such as bank accounts or login names.

It's a good idea to change your password periodically, if you have a hotmail account, I suggest now would be a good time.

Run Away By Sam Taylor

Click here for a cool interview and pictures of Sam at ElectroQueer.

Sam Taylor Myspace Page

Sam Taylor Website

Doodling 'may help memory recall'

As a 'doodler' who was reprimanded for it for years, I found this story from BBC News interesting.

Doodling may look messy, but it could in fact be a sign of an alert mind, a study suggests.

Plymouth University researchers carried out memory tests on 40 volunteers, asking them to listen to a phone call and recall names and places.

Doodlers performed 29% better than non-doodlers, the team found.

Experts said doodling stopped people from daydreaming, which was a more taxing diversion, and so was good at helping people focus on mundane tasks.

During the study, half of the volunteers were asked to colour in shapes on a piece of paper while they listened to a 2.5 minute telephone message.

Full Story

Coming in 2008 from BBC: Oceans

EarthEcho International president Philippe Cousteau is proud to be a host for Oceans, a BBC/Discovery co-production.
We know more about the surface of Mars than we do about the depths of Earth's oceans. Hidden there are amazing stories that will reveal new truths about our past, our planet, and the life within it. These incredible unseen stories will be told in the eight episodes comprising the Oceans series.
Each hour-long program, filmed in a different sea or ocean, will feature explorer Paul Rose, environmentalist Philippe Cousteau, maritime archaeologist Dr. Lucy Blue, and marine biologist Tooni Mahto as they brave the dangers of the deep, engage with the local people whose lives and livelihood depend on the sea, reflect on humankind's impact on the oceans, and attempt to inspire people to consider their changing relationship with the oceans.

Visit Cousteau's site here.

Blackmail At The Palace?

My money is on Prince Harry. Click the title for the BBC story.

Social lending gains net interest

Pouring your cash into the far reaches of the world wide web may sound like a crazy idea.
After all, the internet has seen its fair share of nasties from phishing e-mails posing as a bank to key logging software pinching our passwords and personal information, all in an effort to steal our identity and cash.
But now there is a wave of sites trying to convince people that the web is the place for their money.
The concept is called social lending and the idea is to introduce people who need money to people who want to lend some - cutting out the middlemen like banks and mortgage companies.

Click the link for the full article from BBC Click.

Arctic ice is melting faster than computer models of climate calculate, according to a group of US researchers. Click here for the full story from the BBC.

1981: Mystery disease kills homosexuals

A mysterious epidemic, which has been discovered in homosexual men, is causing increasing concern in the United States.
The unknown condition, which consists of two separate diseases - a form of pneumonia and skin cancer, has been found in 180 patients in 15 states since last July.
It has claimed around 75 lives so far in the US and up to 92% of the victims are homosexual men.
One death has been reported from the virus in London.
Although doctors have identified what appears to be a new disease, they have yet to devise a cure.
The epidemic is being investigated by the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta.
The specialist unit has already discovered the causes of two other diseases, the toxic shock syndrome and Legionnaires' disease.

From the BBC ON THIS DAY. CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL STORY.

It seems surreal to read a report of 75 deaths in the United States, when now an estimated 28 million people around the world have died and millions are infected with HIV.