China women use donkeys to spice up sex life!

Feral Australian donkeys are usually given a wide berth but now their skins are to be used as an aphrodisiac for Chinese women.

A Hong Kong company that specialises in traditional medicines is trying to locate up to a million donkey skins every year. Usually it gets them from South America but now it's seeking the fertile skins of some of the 300,000 wild donkeys ranging the Northern Territory.

Sydney-based exporter John Fleming is applying to hunt feral donkeys in the Northern Territory to sell overseas.

"They want the skins, but not for leather. Apparently there is a certain extract in the skin they can use for traditional medicine," he said.

Chinese traditional healers use donkey skins to extract Ejiao, which is used to make Nu Bao, a traditional Chinese medicine that supposedly improves vitality, increases a woman's libido and help with period pain.

"They're after a lot of donkey skins. As much as they can get their hands on," Mr Fleming said.

"It seems there are a lot of feral donkeys out there and people are basically shooting them for sport."

-- The Metro

Singapore will study kidney trading

Singapore is considering legalizing kidney trading to help meet demand for kidney transplants, the city-state's health minister said Monday.

The Health Ministry will examine the feasibility of providing payments to unrelated donors to augment the supply of kidneys, Khaw Boon Wan said in Parliament, acknowledging that the suggestion has stirred controversy.

''We should not reject any idea just because it is radical or controversial,'' Khaw said. ''We may be able to find an acceptable way to allow a meaningful compensation for some living, unrelated kidney donors, without breaching ethical principles or hurting the sensitivities of others.''

Khaw said the ministry would review possible changes to current legislation to allow payments for donations from third parties such as those from the charity and religious sectors. Under the proposal, which would need to be approved by Parliament to become law, patients would also get help in finding donors.

''There are desperate patients out there wishing to live and desperately poor people willing to exchange a kidney for a hopefully improved life,'' he said.

Khaw also said the Health Ministry would push to amend existing laws on organ transplants to remove an age limit on deceased donors, currently set at 60 years, because ''the suitability of the organ depends on its condition rather than the age of the donor.''

The two initiatives should enable Singapore to carry out 70 percent of the kidney transplants needed every year -- up from 50 percent currently, the minister said.

The two initiatives should raise Singapore's sufficiency in kidney transplants from 50 percent to 70 percent, the minister said. He said about 1,000 new cases of kidney failure are diagnosed every year, with nearly 40 percent unable to survive the first year.

Khaw's comments follow the cases of two Indonesian men who were jailed and fined by a Singapore court earlier this month after being convicted of agreeing to sell their kidneys to two patients in the city-state.

Selling or buying organs or blood is illegal in Singapore and carries a penalty of up to 12 months' jail, or a fine of up to $7,405 or both.

--Associated Press

Batman Breaks Spiderman Record At Box Office!

KAPOW! The new Batman movie "The Dark Knight" smashed the weekend record set by "Spider-Man 3" last year, selling an estimated $155.3 million worth of tickets during its first three days of release across the United States and Canada, distributor Warner Bros. Pictures said on Sunday.

The hotly anticipated film, co-starring late actor Heath Ledger as the anarchic Joker, surpassed the $151.1 million haul for "Spider-Man 3" during its first weekend in May 2007.

Going into the weekend, pundits had forecast an opening in the $100 million range, evidently underestimating the Batmania infecting movie fans across the world.

The Caped Crusader also generated $40 million from 20 foreign markets, highlighted by No. 1 bows in Ledger's native Australia ($13.1 million) and Mexico ($6.6 million), the Time Warner Inc-owned studio said.

With a little help from another new release "Mamma Mia!" which opened at No. 2 with $27.6 million, "The Dark Knight" propelled overall North American ticket sales to a record $253 million, according to tracking firm Media By Numbers. The old mark of $218 million was set two years ago, the company said.

"The Dark Knight" stars Welsh actor Christian Bale as Batman, and was directed by English filmmaker Christopher Nolan. They previously collaborated on "Batman Begins," which earned $48.7 million during its first weekend in 2005, and finished up with $205 million.

"Dark Knight" should hit that level by midweek, Warner Bros. said.

The new film reportedly cost about $180 million to make, thanks in part to the pioneering use of heavy Imax cameras to shoot 30 minutes of the 152-minute film for giant-screen theaters. The filmmakers also blew up bits of Chicago, which doubles for the fictional Gotham City.

-- Reuters

My Prediction Came True!

Picture from today's Sunday Times

Remember my previous posting on "Do you think there'll come a day when local papers report about bloggers entangled in cat fights?"

Well, it was a slow news day and The Straits Times published an article on Xiaxue's and Dawn cat fight! And they made it to the front page. (quite sad, really)

The Straits Times is quite slow. The incident took place quite a long time ago ; seeing as how news spread like wild fire in the blogosphere.

(now, we shall see about my predictions for the Beijing Olympics)

CSI helped police solve murder

US police solved a mysterious death after discovering uncanny similarities to an episode of TV's CSI.

When Thomas Hickman was found dead in a remote part of New Mexico, with a gunshot wound to the back of his head and duct tape covering his mouth, it looked like an execution-style murder.

But then police found a bunch of balloons tangled in a nearby cactus with a gun tied to the ribbons, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Fans of CSI recalled a similar scenario from a 2003 episode of the series in which balloons were used to make a gun float away after a suicide and urged the police to take a look.

"We weren't aware of the CSI episode," said Lt. Rick Anglada, of New Mexico state police.

"But the lead investigator continually heard stories that there was an episode similar to that and about a month later he actually rented the episode and viewed it."

It led officers to suspect that Mr Hickman had committed suicide but tried to make it look like murder by letting the gun float away.

"However, it was very windy that night so we believe the wind kept the balloons down, dragging across the ground and they began popping and eventually the ribbons became tangled up in a cactus," added Lt Anglada.

There were other signals the 55-year-old has taken his own life. Police spotted no signs of struggle in the field where he was found and his car remained untouched.

At his home in Texas they found metal shavings in his garage where he had used a hack saw to remove the gun's trigger guard, presumably to make it lighter.

Police were able to verify he had bought the balloons and the gun and they found notes left for his family telling them what to do in case anything happened to him.

They also found a life insurance policy that would pay his wife around $400,000 dollars or double that if his death was accidental. Investigators this week officially ruled the death a suicide and closed the case.

-- Ananova.com

Whats the one piece of advice Internet Marketing blogs won't give you?

Why are Internet Marketing blogs so popular? Its simple. The same reasons why "get rich" books are so popular. "Rich dad, poor dad" etc, you name it, they're usually always on the bestsellers list. Everyone wants to make money and get rich. There will always be a demand for it. The only difference is that its just in a different platform, but the jist of it, remains the same.

Internet Marketing bloggers are excellent marketers, no doubt on that. By giving people advice, they are in turn getting tons of visitors which equates to generating lots of moolah from advertisments.

So, moving on, the one piece of advice that they most probably wouldn't give you would be : Create a "How to make money via the Internet/blogging" blog aka do the exact same thing like me!

Just like how Paris Hilton wouldn't say, "Ya know, if ya wanna be famous, ya gotta have a sex tape!"

-- Starwish

Sheep Sex is not an urban legend

Believe it or not, there are people who have actually done the deed. According to The Metro, a man was arrested by police after investigating a series of violent sex attacks on sheep and has been banned from visiting farmland. Now if you're from Australia, you're probably no stranger when it comes to hearing sheep jokes as sheep outnumber people to the ratio of 4 :1.

But, this incident took place in south-east London. Their neighbour Scotland, must be laughing at them. (Scotland is well known for its sheep population)

"The arrest followed several complaints made to police about a man molesting sheep on grassland off Botany Bay Lane, Chislehurst, in May and June.

Witnesses reported a tall black man sexually assaulting sheep before running off, often leaving clothing at the scene.

Two joggers became suspicious when the man was spotted pulling up his trousers as he stood near a sheep that was lying on the ground.

A young stable girl who came face to face with the man during a similar incident also contacted detectives.

It is understood that the man was traced after forensic scientists identified DNA recovered from a pair of jogging bottoms found at the scene.

Two sheep were found dead in the field during the period of the attacks but it is not known if their deaths were linked.

Police are also investigating reports that the suspect also took photographs of the animals."

Good Lord, this man is sick!

If you're sexy, you may sound better than your not-so-sexy counterparts!

People with voices deemed sexy and attractive tend to have greater body symmetry upon close inspection, suggesting that what we hear in a person can greatly affect what we see in them.

"The sound of a person's voice reveals a considerable amount of biological information," said Susan Hughes, an evolutionary psychologist from Albright College in Reading, Pa. "It can reflect the mate value of a person."

Hughes, whose new study is detailed in the June 2008 edition of the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, cautions that an attractive voice does not necessarily indicate that this person has an attractive face.

A symmetric body is genetically sound, scientists say, and in evolutionary terms, in the wild, it can be an important factor when selecting a mate. But sometimes changes during prenatal development can slightly skew this balance. For instance, the length ratio between index and ring fingers, known as the digit ratio, is fixed by the first trimester, a time that corresponds with vocal cord and larynx development. If the hormone surge that affects vocal development also affects finger growth, there should be a connection between an individual's voice and digit ratio.

Hughes could not demonstrate a connection between voice attractiveness and digit ratio in her previous work, possibly due to vocal changes that occur during puberty. So in the new study, about 100 individuals listened to previously recorded voices and independently rated them on nine traits important during mate selection: approachability, dominance, healthiness, honesty, intelligence, likelihood to get dates, maturity, sexiness and warmth.

Study participants generally agreed on what made a voice attractive. But when Hughes used a spectrogram to analyze these voice ratings according to different acoustic properties such as pitch, intensity, jitter and shimmer, she could not find a common feature that made these voices seem attractive.

This indicates our perceptual system may be more advanced than expected.

"We can agree on what's an attractive voice yet I can't capture it with a computer," Hughes told LiveScience.

Investigating if a combination of these properties can define an attractive voice may shed light on a connection, she said.

-- livescience.com

Ever thought of using your baby as a mop?

Trust the Japanese to come up with something as creative as this!

Baby: no longer useless

With global financial markets in turmoil parents looking in to firing their cleaners and using their babies as human mops.

Parents fed up of the take, take, take attitude of babies are turning them into human mops so they can learn a 'healthy work ethic' early by cleaning the floor as they crawl around.

The device is essentially a baby-grow with fluffy mop ends attached to clean up grime as a baby crawls around wooden or tiled floors.

In its sales pitch the advert reads: 'After the birth of a child there's always the temptation to say 'Yes, it's cute, but what can it do?'

'Until recently the answer was simply 'lie there and cry' but now babies can be put on the payroll, so to speak, almost as soon as they're born.

'Just dress your young one in Baby Mops and set him or her down on any hard wood or tile floor that needs cleaning.'

'You may at first need to get things started by calling to the infant from across the room, but pretty soon they'll be doing it by themselves.'

Hitting back at any possible criticism the advert adds: 'There's no child exploitation involved. The kid is doing what he does best anyway: crawling. But with Baby Mops he's also learning responsibility and a healthy work ethic.'

Japan is also the home of a roller cleaning device that can be strapped to a dog to clean the floor as it walks around.

-- The Metro

On the Anwar saga

Anwar's out on bail now but he could still be charged for sodomy later. I can't help but to speculate that the incident 10 years back will repeat itself as the story unfolds. This is quite eerie. For someome aiming at a political comeback, committing such a crime is unthinkable. Now, it is either that people are framing him (evidence can also be faked) or that he did indeed commit sodomy.

Whats your take?


--Starwish

KFC employee spat and urinated in policeman's food!

As they say...never offend a waiter, waitress or chef - you never know what they might do to your food.

A police officer and his family have been awarded $40,000 (£20,000) after suing a restaurant that had served them food tainted by an employee's spit and urine.

"Employees maintained 'special servings' of food reserved for ... officers," the lawsuit said. "The 'special servings' had been urinated in or spit in by KFC/Taco Bell employees."

The court heard that his two sons, then aged four and seven, became sick from the food they ate at a franchise of the Kentucky Fried Chicken/Taco Bell chain in October 2005.

The younger boy became violently ill with gastroenteritis and dehydration, vomited for hours and was forced to spend time in a hospital, the family's lawsuit said.

The suit also alleged that Mr Andrew, his wife and their children were victims of an employee scheme that targeted police officers.

-- The Telegraph

(The incident took place in America)

Latest : Anwar Arrested!

Police arrested Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on Wednesday about an hour before a deadline for him to appear at police headquarters to answer allegations that he sodomized a male aide.

The arrest was likely to exacerbate the political divisions and tensions that have been running high since the opposition made unprecedented gains in the March general elections, eroding the ruling coalition's strength in Parliament.

Anwar has denied the sodomy accusation -- made in a police complaint by the young male aide last month -- as a political conspiracy by the government to snuff out his publicly announced campaign to seize power by September.

About a dozen policemen, some of them wearing balaclavas, cordoned off the road leading to Anwar's house and stopped his car, said his lawyer Sankara Nair. He said the policemen informed Anwar that they had orders to arrest him but gave no reason.

Anwar was bundled into a police car with dark tinted windows and driven to the police headquarters where a crowd of opposition lawmakers including his wife Azizah Ismail gathered outside. They were not allowed inside, and there was no trouble or violence.

Azizah said Anwar called on her cell phone after being arrested.

''I feel apprehensive because my husband ... is not that well. He has a bad back, he's had surgery. And (during our) the brief conversation he said they (police) were not gentle,'' she said.

It was not clear why Anwar was arrested a little before 1 p.m. since he had said he would present himself for interrogation before the Wednesday 2 p.m. deadline set by the police.

Azmin Ali, the vice president of Anwar's People's Justice Party, called the arrest ''outrageous and very uncivilized.''

''This is not a criminal case but a political case,'' he said.

The arrest was made as Anwar was returning home from the administrative capital of Putrajaya. He had told reporters there that he would go to the police headquarters at 2 p.m. and ''give my fullest cooperation'' to the police.

The sodomy accusation recreated a drama surrounding a similar scandal he faced in 1998 when he was deputy prime minister and finance minister. Another sodomy accusation at the time led to his dismissal from the government and subsequent conviction and imprisonment. His downfall led to massive street protests by his supporters for weeks.

Malaysia's Supreme Court later overturned the conviction, but by then Anwar had served six years in jail on a related abuse of power charge. He was freed in 2004, when he revived his political career as an opposition leader.

''There is no basis for this whole fabrication and malicious attacks. It is just a repeat of the 1998 script. You can see the pattern,'' Anwar said in Putrajaya.

Anwar can be held in custody for up to 14 days, after which he must be charged. Sodomy is a non-bailable offense, punishable by up to 20 years in jail.

The sodomy accusation has hampered his campaign to topple the government, which suffered badly at the hands of his three-party People's Alliance in the March 8 general elections.

The ruling National Front coalition, which has traditionally enjoyed a two-thirds majority, now has only a 30-seat advantage over the opposition. Anwar's charisma and strategic skills were credited with boosting the opposition's strength in the 222-member Parliament from 19 to 82 seats.

-- Associated Press

No wonder people call us a nanny state - we need the government to butt in everything!

From our hygiene habits to our love life. The ultimate solution to all our problems? The Government lah! And the root of our problems? Stupid Government policies! Ten years back we were using Switzerland as a role model, now its Sweden. Since we seem to have a fixation on European countries beginning with the letter S, will Scotland or Spain be next?

School bus mess : Enough, let Govt run it

As if the ding-dong over school bus seat belts was not enough, now comes another issue on higher school bus fares - whether it is anti-competition or not, whether Case should be involved and so on ('School bus fares going up on Aug 1', last Thursday).

Can the authorities comment on the transport mode of school children in Sweden? Does the government fund and manage school transport or are parents left to the vagaries of market forces when deciding which mode of transport?

On the one hand, the Government says children are our most precious asset and we need to move towards the Swedish model of better family welfare. On the other, those who implement policies are counting dollars and cents to see which policy makes economic sense - even over non-negotiable issues like children's safety and well being.

If we have to pay half a percentage point more income tax so children have better school transport with proper seat belts, so be it. But let us turn the school bus transport system inside out. It should be run by the Ministry of Education or schools themselves.

-- Nilesh Kantilal Sahita, Straits Times Forum

Things that make you go Awww : Widower's labour of love

A Cambridgeshire widower has spent 15 years piecing back together thousands of fragments of romantic notes that he sent to his late wife.

Ted Howard, 82, wrote 98 letters to Mollie during seven years courting as he travelled Europe as a farm worker.

But Mrs Howard tore them into pieces and stuffed them in a cushion after she caught someone reading them in 1953, reports the BBC.

Mr Howard, of Ramsey, wrote the amorous letters on hotel writing paper as he travelled the UK, Ireland, France and Holland in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

But Mrs Howard, who died three years ago, tore each one into more than 20 pieces creating more than 2,000 fragments, some smaller than a thumbnail.

Mr Howard said: "I still miss Mollie terribly but having the memories helps me through. The letters brought back so many good times."

Mr Howard has now written a book based on the letters, which will be dedicated to his wife and called A Week At Stanton.

The retired farm worker and machinery demonstrator, said: "It was love at first sight. No two ways about it. I was at a village feast (fair) and this girl jumped off the carousel and came careering into me.

"It turned out to be Mollie. That was 19 July 1948."

Mollie was 18 at the time and Ted was 23. They married in 1955 and went on to have three children and six grandchildren.

--Ananova

To still be so in love after so many years is hard, hence I always find it so romantic when old couples walk down the street hand in hand.

Snoozing at the terminal - Singapore's Changi ranked 1st for 10 years in a row

Airports range widely in what they offer overnight guests. The top-ranked airport at the Guide to Sleeping in Airports Web site for the last 10 years is Singapore's Changi Airport. It has dimly lighted napping areas, where comfortable leather chairs have leg rests and headrests. Some are even fitted with alarm clocks. There are also cheap sleeping cubicles available for travelers.

Sleeping at an airport overnight, once almost a sport for the young and short of cash, has become a lot more common lately, affecting even older and professional travelers. And a big reason is that airlines are no longer as free with complimentary hotel vouchers as they once were.

"Belt tightening by airlines over the last 18 months, and more so this year," is how Randy Petersen, editor of the online magazine InsideFlyer and the frequent-flier Web site FlyerTalk.com, explains it.

"They have to look at everything they spend a penny on," Petersen said. And because flights are fuller, he added, "they're not just dealing with a few passengers."

Bob Harrell, founder of Harrell Associates, an airline consultant, agreed. "If they're charging for extra bags, food and water, then the flip side is the airlines are going to go out of their way to minimize expenses on one side, while maximizing on the other," he said.

An unscheduled overnight stay at a German airport inspired one business traveler, Frank Giotto, the president of Fiber Instrument Sales in Oriskany, New York, to create the Mini Motel, a one-person tent complete with air mattress, pillow, reading light, alarm clock and pillow (which he now sells for $39.95).


Asked what airports would think of a tent city of his Mini Motels, Giotto expressed confidence.

"People sleeping in chairs don't seem to bother them," he said. "We could be forcing the airports to come up with a solution to respond to the tremendous need."

And there is even a Web site, the Budget Traveller's Guide to Sleeping in Airports (www.sleepinginairports.com), which lists the best and worst airports to spend the night in.

--International Herald Tribune, 15 July

So, thats another addition to our Number Ones list!