Racing with inflatable sex dolls

Some Russian men and women apparently have more than enough imagination to spare — 400 of them recently used inflatable sex dolls as flotation devices to raft down the wildwater Vuoksa river. The Fifth Bubble Baba Challenge (in Russian, baba stands for 'woman,' only unlike the other word for woman, zhenschina, conveys not a ounce of respect) took place outside the village of Losevo, about 110km from St Petersburg.The unusual sporting event was dreamed up by mastermind and organiser Dmitry Bulawinov. He said the idea of floating down the river in the embraces of a rubber woman was conceived as a joke at a party where the men got drunk and the women didn't show up.While considering the possible uses for a rubber woman on a camping trip, someone suggested that a sex doll would make a handy flotation device. Thus the 'Bubble Baba Challenge' was born.Although hugely outnumbered by enthusiastic males - thrilled to be floating down the river atop a rubber chick - women did compete in the contest, finding nothing strange about clinging to such an unusual 'lifesaver'.

Brisbane shows its sheer genius

Some might say Brisbane is behind the times when it comes to fashion, but if its up-and-coming designers are anything to go by then the city is a real contender to be the new fashion capital. Photo gallery
An increasing number of local designers are challenging the status-quo and turning heads. They're young, edgy and talented.
This week they've been gearing up for the Mercedes Benz Fashion Festival, which kicks off this week at Brisbane's Hilton Hotel.
brisbanetimes.com.au sat down with four exciting visionaries to talk about their inspiration, goals, achievements and the week ahead.
George WuThis man is a genius. There's little more to sum up George Wu's ability to dress women.
Since launching his label in May 2005, he has made a lot of noise within the international scene, and it's only getting louder.
It all began in 2005 when Wu packed up his graduation collection and walked around the streets of Brisbane to see if he could spark interest from stores.
Spark is an understatement. Within minutes he had scored his first stock agreement.
In the time since, stores from around Australia have snapped up Wu's simple but elegant wares.
The department stores are very interested, and will no doubt watch closely as he unveils his latest collection.
But interest isn't limited to Australia an offer to showcase in New York at the G'Day USA week celebrations last year opened up a whole new avenue of expansion.
Neiman Marcus loved him, and so did a high-profile sales representative. Her enthusiasm prompted stockists who deal with the likes of Stella McCartney and Jean Paul Gaultier to get on board.
"Every piece is like an art piece to keep, rather than a mass-produced garment," Wu said.
"Everything is pretty much hand-made; hand-cut in the studio. All of our silks and laces come from Japan."
His keen eye for trends and perfectionist attitude is no doubt behind his whirlwind career.
His inspiration for these latest designs was drawn from the Jetsons cartoon and the style and poise of flight attendants.
"These two elements combine to form a really clean, fresh take on what the George Wu look is all about.
"The fabric has a metallic finish we sourced the silver trim from Japan. It gives a fresh, bling-bling look."
The pieces are leggy, with simple silhouettes and subtle waste lines. Wu said the colours are deliberately strong and contrasting.
"It's kind of monotone, but you can still feel that really sharp edge."
Josh ScacheriAs a former professional soccer player in Europe, Josh Scacheri is used to attracting attention.
But it's after hanging up his football boots that he's created the most buzz in Australia.
He launched his label, Subfusco, while completing his second year of TAFE. The ride since has been a "rollercoaster of emotion, heartache, joy and sweat."
Scacheri was named the Designer of the Year at the Fashion Enterprise Awards, and his designs have been on the runways of some of Australia's biggest events.
He describes his clothes as unique, wearable and sophisticated. More importantly, it's stuff guys will actually wear.
"There are some great labels that have beautiful stuff, and the construction is great, but only a handful of people can wear it," Scacheri said.
"My clothes have a little edge to them if you think of a circle, Subfusco is penetrating the edge. It's sticking its head out, but it's not fully out."
Mix it up, play it down, experiment it's a kind of philosophy.
His perception of fashion and personal style completely changed when he went to Europe, he said.
While getting ready to go out with family, his aunt told him he was dressing incorrectly. She threw him a copy of Vogue, and he began his exploration.
In addition, a job working for a shoe manufacturer in Italy saw him handling Gucci and Prada on a daily basis.
"It was a manual job, but I got a taste for production and fashion and how it all works."
When his new collection is unveiled, he said there won't be over-the-top theatrics and fan-fare.
Instead, he wants to let the clothes "say it all", with the help of lively and fun backing music.
"We were going to do an out-there show, but we thought we'd let the clothes do the talking instead."
Andrzej PytelAfter a successful career in architecture, Andrzej Pytel found himself craving more creative freedom.
His outlet? Men's fashion.
He began designing t-shirts, but still wanted more. From here, Size Design was born.
Call it "streety", but not street wear. Call it A-list party with a casual feel. Call it shit his new collection is literally named Le Shit.
"It's inspired by consumerist culture, and it's just sort of looking at how seasons are changing so dramatically and quickly," Pytel said.
"Before we have time to get meaning out of the new season, the now, we're ready to discard it for something new it becomes very disposable."
Pytel says his creative inspiration constantly changes, which has led to a change in direction each season.
"It's now probably the most comprehensive range since I've started."
His designs have been applauded by industry powerhouses. He was a finalist at the NRA Fashion Awards last year, and celebrities can't seem to get enough.
Now as he prepares for MBFF, he's making last minute adjustments and preperations.
Pytel grew up in Poland before moving to Canberra with his family when he was 10-years-old. In 2002 he made his way to Brisbane, and has never looked back.
"I'm a strong believer in Brisbane we have an edge. It's very vibrant here.
"There's this perception that we're behind Sydney and Melbourne, but I would actually argue against that to an extent."
People in Brisbane are more willing to experiment with something new, and go with something that's a little out there, he said.
"Melbourne in Sydney is that very black sort of thing, very clean, whereas here we're seeing a lot more colour and uniqueness."
Sacha DrakeMost 14-year-old girls are gossiping with their friends or idolising pop icons, but for Sacha Drake her days were occupied with sewing classes.
Her teacher was a 70-year-old tailoress, and her guidance no doubt planted a seed in Drake's mind.
She went on to study fashion in Brisbane, costume design in London and filmmaking in Rome.
After working abroad in a variety of industries, Drake returned to Brisbane in 2002 and launched her own fashion label.
Five years later, she employs 12 fulltime staff and sees her designs stocked in more than 150 boutiques around the country.
"The most genuine highlight of my career is when I am approached by a customer and they say, `I have heaps of your dresses. I love them.'"
And it's her consumers she credits with inspiring her latest collection.
"My aim is always to create stylish frocks that exude a fresh femininity, dresses that make women look elegant and feel amazing."
She says the women who wear Sacha Drake are stylish and aware of the trends, but not a slave to them.
Her trademark style is clean, elegant silhouettes in timeless fabrics. Her frocks are reminiscent of vintage glamour.
In the lead up to MBFF, Drake says she is excited for a number of reasons. A big part of it is the chance to catch up with her industry peers. "We like to get together and have a good chin wag."
In addition to MBFF, Drake is providing pieces for Kylie Ryan's parade so the pressure is double.
"(It's) a lot of organising and deep breaths to stay calm."
This week she has been busy with fittings, alterations, accessorising and finalising music for the fashion festival.
While the festival will be a chance to unveil her latest collection, it also acts as an accolade for Drake.
"This year I am opening the festival, so it's very daunting and exciting. I can assure you the audience will not be disappointed.
"The line up at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival is very impressive and looks to be a full-on week of fabulous fashion."

Unlocking the iPhone Without the Soldering Iron?

By Brad Stone

George Hotz, a New Jersey teenager, got most of the attention last week for hacking the iPhone, but at least one other group claims to have come up with a way of liberating Apple’s popular gadget from AT&T’s wireless network. A group calling itself iPhoneSimFree, which first demonstrated its technique to Engadget’s editor, Ryan Block, said it could unlock the iPhone without any changes to the iPhone hardware itself. If it works, the solution could potentially be more broadly accessible to people who want to use their iPhones on GSM networks other than AT&T’s.
On Friday, a member of iPhoneSimFree, who gave his name as Jim, answered some of our questions over e-mail:
Q: Why do you want to be able to unlock the iPhone from AT&T? A: A lot of our staff are foreign to the USA, and obviously “techies.” The iphone is something that we all wanted and had our hearts set on from the minute is was announced. However, owning a neat, over-priced, video ipod with inadequate memory capacity that could run Safari was not exactly our definition of what a phone should be. Further to that, there have been many articles about the problems associated with provider-locked phones, such as ridiculous roaming charges, poor coverage issues, limited contract options as well as forcing people to switch from existing contracts they may have.
Q: How do you think Apple will react?A: We have been debating this question and our answer is that we don’t know.
Q: Why maintain your anonymity? A: We chose to remain anonymous from early on, simply as a way to protect our individual privacy.
Q: How did you work together on this? A: Working across continents and time zones is always difficult, especially when dealing with individual skills. There were times when we had hardware on one side of the world with coders working on it through the net on the other side. The internet helps to facilitate a global virtual workshop. It was difficult, but through persistence and teamwork we managed to achieve a pretty remarkable goal.
Q: Is your solution superior to others that are out there — like George Hotz’ hardware hack and the TurboSIM card?A: George Hotz’s work was amazing, especially all his well-documented findings. We can also say that it aided with our work and we would like to give him credit for that. However, his solution is limited due to its complicated hardware requirements. The turbo sim solution is not really an unlock solution. Its an expensive alternative which involves cutting a sim card as well as using software on your phone to get it working.
Q: Can regular people use the SimFree technique? A: Our goal is to provide an end product as simple and effortless to use as the Iphone itself. It is our experience that most consumers appreciate a quick and easy way to use their products and we worked hard to make this happen.
Q: How broadly can this be used?A: We believe that there is a real need and immense demand for this solution globally.
Q: How much do you plan to charge for the use of your unlocking software?A: Currently we are working hard to structure the end retail price as low as possible while leaving enough margin for distributors and wholesalers. If we find this formula unsuitable we will simply work backwards and peg the retail price as low as possible to ensure that it is a viable and affordable option for anybody wanting to free their Iphone.
NYTimes c 2007

World record tuna landed off West Coast

A Pacific blue fin tuna believed to be a world record was caught off the West Coast yesterday.

About 6am, angler Steve McCowan knew he had a big one on the line.

"I certainly knew it was a big one 2½ hours later," he said.

Having sailed out of Westport, the fishing boat Jewel was off the coast not far from Karamea when the big fish bit.

Standing on the back deck, McCowan fought with, and reeled in, the 325kg Pacific blue fin tuna. McCowan said he'd been fishing for about 20 years and this fish was the big catch.

Jewel skipper Ian Bain said finding the right spot had been the hardest task that morning.

"We followed the Korean boats for a while and just nothing. It was behind the Russian boats we found the tuna".

The tuna are attracted to the hoki fishing boats to eat the cut-offs cast overboard.

McCowan said the crew had caught two other Pacific blue fins that morning, but had released them.

A 325kg tuna can fetch very high prices in Japan, but that is not the fate for this fish.

"It'll probably be going on a wall somewhere." McCowan said that when going for a world record attempt the fish were not bled and not gutted so as to retain their full weight.

This morning, McCowan was making sure all the paper work was filled out correctly for his catch to be officially recorded and entered as the world record.

Original post

Diamond studded tennis ball

Gitanjali group on Monday unveiled a new collection called the 'Wimbledon Jewellery', which includes a diamond studded tennis ball, which will be presented to winner of the men's Wimbledon champion of 2007--Roger Federer. The ball from the Tesoro range of the group is a fine blend of 24-carat gold, studded with 4300 diamonds and valued at approximately $85,000.

Link & Image: DNA
Previously: Diamond studded cricket ball

Advice for Students: Use a Wiki for Better Note-Taking

It’s back to school time, and it’s time to make good on the promises you made yourself last year to be more organized this time around! One of the stumbling blocks I see most often in my students is taking — and keeping — good notes for their classes. Ideally, you’d like to have notes on all your reading, as well as notes from lectures, and you’d like to have both available when you need the to study for an exam or write a paper.

Enter the wiki. While wikis are generally seen as part of the trendy “Web 2.0″ phenomenon, they are actually one of the older technologies on the Web. Named after a Hawaiian phrase meaning “quick”, wikis are easily-edited, automatically interlinked sets of documents. Pages can be created and edited on the fly, and most track changes and additions, allowing for effective collaboration between multiple writers.

Wikis have been especially popular with students, and a number of specialized wikis have been developed specifically with students’ needs in mind, including NoteMesh, stud.icio.us, and PBwiki. Wikis are a great way to keep, organize, and instantly access class notes and other school-related information. Wikis offer students:

• Legibility: No more squinting over class notes taken while half-asleep, bored stiff, or hung over!
• Durability: Wikis can be developed over the entire 4 (or 5, or 6, or…) years of a student’s education, allowing him or her to access notes taken years earlier if necessary.
• Searching: Wikis can be searched, in the page and across the entire collection of pages, allowing immediate access to their contents.
• Links: Students can link to other pages within their wikis as well as to other sites on the Web, bringing new bodies of information together in one place.
• Collaboration: Several people can collaborate on the same wiki, allowing you to benefit from the strengths of your classmates.
• Affordability: Wikis are still closely tied to the open-source movement, so many wiki programs and services are free.

Some suggestions for your wiki

The collaboration features of wikis make organizing study groups easy and very effective. Gather up a few students in your class and divide your topic up into pieces for each person. As you work, you can link to your co-students’ pages, and vice versa. As new material is covered, you can go back and edit each other’s pages or correct each other’s mistakes.

Whether you create your wiki with a group of on your own, the ability to link topics and ideas creates a very effective review tool. Before a test or while preparing a paper, browse through your wiki, following links from page to page to refresh your memory of how things fit together.

Wikis are also useful for making connections between topics in different classes. While this might not be relevant for every class you take, for classes in your major be especially diligent in creating links to existing pages. At the end of your studies, you will have a rich repository of ideas and work in your discipline to call on as a reference.

Wikis are incredibly flexible, and these are just a few ways to apply them to your studies. If you are already using wikis as a study tool, let us know your tips for getting the most out of them!

original post

Nokia to Include Windows Live Services

Under the deal, Nokia will start offering Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger on its most powerful Series 60 handsets this year. Later in the year or early next year, the services will be made available on Series 40 phones. The services will initially be free, though the two companies may later charge for them, splitting the revenue.

"We look at where the market is," said Steve Berkowitz, senior vice president of Microsoft's online services business. "Nokia is the largest handset maker."

It's not the first sign of detente between the two companies. Nokia has for some time licensed Microsoft's ActiveSync technology for connecting to an Exchange e-mail server. Earlier this month, Nokia also said it had licensed Microsoft's PlayReady mobile digital rights management technology. The handset maker also includes Microsoft's Live Search in its mobile search service.

Berkowitz said Microsoft will continue to develop versions of Windows Live services for its own Windows Mobile operating systems as well as slimmed-down WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) versions that can run on a wide array of phones.

As for whether it would develop any sites tailored for Apple's iPhone, Berkowitz quipped, "If the iPhone were ever to get any distribution, maybe."

He added that the company will go where the marketplace and its customers demand. "Our best place to invest is where the reach is," he said. "Nokia is a great example of that."

The latest deal has been in the works for more than a year, the companies said.

"It's taken a bit of time and a bit of learning on both sides," said Nigel Rundström, Nokia's vice president of multimedia experiences.

Welcome, YouTube. Seriously

When YouTube pitched its new ad format, it described to me the semi-transparent overlay ads as “something that has not been available before.” It probably should have added: “on YouTube.”

As I noted
in my story, VideoEgg has been using overlays for nearly a year. Yahoo and others have been testing the format too.

Maybe Google pushed the novelty angle too much with some reporters, but coverage of the news set off a tempest in the in the tech-blogosphere.

It all ended with a perfect marketing opportunity for VideoEgg, which quickly plastered the words “Welcome, YouTube. Seriously” on its site. They were followed by: “We invented the video overlay ad about a year ago. We are delighted that the market is finally catching on to a vital new approach to video advertising.”

The message will ring familiar to veterans of the tech industry. That’s because Apple used the same words to parody I.B.M.’s late entry into the PC market. (Thanks to NewTeeVee for the link.)

I checked with a Google spokesman who said the company never intended to claim it had invented the overlay ads. “The important thing is that we offer access to the world’s largest online video community,” the spokesman said. Hard to argue with that.

NY times 2007