News, News and more News

Ever had enough of all those offers for body enhancements, prescription drugs, and Nigerian money transfers? Well, so did someone else, but he took it a stage too far and threatened the spammers as well.

After mentioning about German authorities planning to abolish the wearing of headscarves in schools, a French judge sent a woman juror home after she turned up wearing a headscarf. She was muslim, but one has to note in this article that she originally turned up for the selection procedures without one (ie that she did not feel it necessary to wear it all the time).

And finally, doctors have called for a complete ban on smoking in public places, citing definite evidence for passive smoking being the cause of more than a thousand deaths a year in the UK. About time too !!

On a more personal note, this Sunday sees a certain Frenchman celebrate his birthday. Sources have it that he is hoping for a cake wherefrom five scantilly-clad women come out. If anyone is planning to get him this, please give a warning to me so that I can get my camera ready in time :)

back to the drawing board...

Success and More Photos

The major news story is that yesterday England beat Australia to win the Rugby World Cup. The first time a country from the northern hemisphere has won it.
Talking about winning, an englishman has just won the transatlantic boat race.

There are many jokes about the German sense of humour, but I would like to disprove them with the following news story. In Berlin they are introducing rubbish bins that talk. Yes that's right, they thank you in one of various languages for throwing away your trash. Apparently they wanted them to encourage people in a "nice, funny" way. I think something went wrong in the translation, as to most of us we would call it a "stupid" way. However, maybe I should be careful about what I say, as the following story proves.

A cannibal who ate people he met on the internet in Germany, has said that he's sorry. Well, that makes us all feel better now then, doesn't it? Just goes to show there are all sorts of people out there - be careful who you annoy...

Now for those of you have been on the edges of your seats for ages awaiting the photos from the summer parties to be put up, I can now tell you, the fiesta de la fresa and hechtsheimer sommerfest 2003 photos are now up for viewing. Sorry for the delay.

Just a brief note to say that Friday night I finally got back to my old habit of cooking a load of crepes, this time at Lobelto's place. And Saturday night saw me take my turn at chinese cooking for them (seeing as I have now discovered the Asiamarkt in Mainz).

Well, about dinnertime now..mmm....

News news news

First up, a little bit of natter from Germany. A little village in the north of Hamburg has been living in a tax-haven for the last 300 years, but now it seems the finance ministry wants to end this and change it's status of the most unfashionable tax-haven. I'm sure this really affects lots of you.
The state of Baden-Wuerttemberg is making moves to ban the wearing of headscarves by muslims in schools. Six other states are also planning to follow later on in this headwear-discrimination act. However, christian or jewish religious clothing is not to be banned. Furthermore, Hesse, Berlin and Saarland want headscarves banned in all public services. Talk about racism, this is just plain ridiculous !! Next thing we won't be able to wear t-shirts with foreign bands on, nor listen to music that isn't of the German Folkmusic type !!

Due to economic problems in Russia, the inhabitants have had to endure many things, but this last measure just went too far. Due to the extremely dry year they have had, there is a severe shortage of water in the region of Vladivostok, which has meant that people only get 3 hours of water every other day. That makes 10.5 hours of water in a week !! However, ingenious as ever, the people have managed to find a way to access more water by tapping into their radiators. That's right, once the water has finished heating the house, it is taken out for drinking, cooking, washing etc.

Next time you travel through an airport, you never know what they could be looking at as you pass through the screening area. New tests have shown they can scan through clothing to see anything hidden underneath, including your body. Of course they are being told they will have to add little fig-leaves to the image to cover up the delicate parts...

And finally, a new site has started up to inform all your friends (and enemies) when you die. All sorts of possibilities spring to mind...

Now something more personal, Alex (Cortega's big bro) came over from where he's currently working (near Frankfurt) to visit us here in Mainz and we went out for a few drinks to the renowned Eisgrub. Very welcome.

Well, that's the way the cookie crumbles...

Remembering the past and protecting the future

Today at 11:11am will be, like every year since the end of the First World War, two minutes of silence will be held to remember those that lost their lives fighting for us. To find out why we wear poppies on this day, or what the significance of the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month is, visit the remembrance section of the BBC.

Now most virus warnings go out without much notice being taken, as most people who have an anti-virus program installed, and regularly update the virus definitions do not get affected. However, due to the fact that I have received no less than 7 copies of this virus sent to me within the last few days, at least one person I know is not fully protected. It's very difficult to trace from whom the viruses come, as they use names and addresses stored on the infected computer as the sender of the emails. So if you're not fully updated, do it now. To find out more about this virus, visit this page at the Symantec website.

Now for anyone roaming through london with their laptop, or any workers taking lunch outside (I know it's cold and possibly raining, but there are some mad people in this world :) If you head towards Piccadilly Circus, you will find blanket (ie total) Wi-Fi (wireless internet) coverage, thanks to a company named Broadreach. More info at The Register.

Well, no rest for the wicked...

Birthdays and a bit of news

This last week has seen a mountain of birthdays go by, so here goes...Ana (31st), Mavi (1st), Patricia (2nd), oh, and mine (1st) (sorry if I've forgotten anyone - tell me and I'll add you in :)

Not as a celebration, rather as a medical checkup I also went back home (ok, parent's home then) for a couple of days. Mostly did my christmas shopping (well, ok, just shopping really, but it sounds like I'm organised if I say I've already done my christmas shopping :)
The flight over was interesting, as we were in the middle of a hailstorm in Hahn, so we skidded all over the runway, and when we took off we were also tilting in all directions. However, this was nothing compared to the shock we got when we saw a bolt of lightning hit the wing of our plane. Seeing an explosion of light hitting the thing that stands between you and about forty thousand feet of air to fall through isn't the most reassuring of things, but after the lights got turned back on and we moved out of the hailstorm we managed to put our hearts back into their normal places.

Apart from classes starting this week, and those of us who have them attending them, nothing else has happened to detract from the coldness of the weather here in Germany (in the UK we had 16 degrees !!)

A couple of news briefs, however, have come to my attention.
A study was carried out in Oxford Street (I went there on tuesday to do my shopping :) to find out how to recognise a geek (ok, physics student). Read this article to find out how.
For those of you who thought that Paris was the centre for high society, take a look again. One of it's main department stores has decided to offer courses in stripping to it's female customers. Of course, it doesn't state if it's offering courses in videoing for it's male customers :)
And now for a truly ingenious idea, is that of anonymous blogging. That's right, those people that don't want other people to find out who it is writing web logs can now type away in safe knowledge that they can't be found out.

Well, got a project to do, and not much time to finish it in.

see ya

Back from the Brink

Of Lake Leman, that is :)

The weekend was great, good to see our old friend (old as in more experience than the rest of us put together) Laurent before he sets off for Angola. It will definitely be a change of lifestyle...let's just hope he stays safe there. On this trip we also made some new friends, and Jordi noticed how beautiful some of the swiss women are, for a change (some?? he was noticing them all !!!).

Now for a bit of news.
As always somebody else is to blame, which is why Italy is blaming Switzerland for the electricity blackout they had the other day.

As most of you will know by now, we English are a bit strange. Now you can have some proof, as the cathedral choir of one of our southern cities (Portsmouth) have stripped off for a calendar. Okay, they are raising money for the church after all...

Now for something you really have to read. A man's mechanical lifesize dog which, let's say, has 'wind problems' was stopped and thoroughly searched at an american airport following their sensors going off for high explosives.

Well, that's how the world stands at the moment. Just left for me to say that Ruben (the andaluz) is off tomorrow back to the sunny parts of Spain, so let's bid him a fond farewell.

Ciao for now

Farewells

Probably the most international goodbye goes out to Concorde, who's last journey is due to take place this morning. And to think I never even got to ride in it once !

More locally, a brief goodbye goes to Mainz, because Luca, Jordi and myself are off to Switzerland to see our main man Cortega celebrating his graduation before he goes off to, where was it again? Iraq, Israel, never mind, somewhere dangerous, for sure.

And finally, we have said goodbye to the moderate weather of autumn (did it really exist this year?) as the frost has finally arrived and we walk with frozen feet, noses, ears and hands through the streets. Now where did I put my mittens...

that's it for now, got to pack,

Au revoir

Breakfast News

What would you say if I told you that a man encased himself in a perspex box and hung it from a tower bridge for 44 days and only drank water? Impossible? No, illusionist David Blaine has just walked out of it (with the aid of a stretcher)

In Buenos Aires an arsy bit of art has been put on display. Images of 600 bottoms are shown in the exhibition by Chilean visual artist Catalina Riutort.

Now we all know that women never like their own bodies (despite the fact that men like women's bodies very much) . But after a survey of forty-five thousand women commissioned by AOL, the figures are staggering. Sixty percent couldn't stand the way they looked, and nearly ten percent said they would change their whole bodies if the cosmetic surgery was free !!! But the most important figure is that of twenty-six percent of women find shopping for clothes makes them more unhappy about their bodies. Well, there's a simple solution to this one, which men have being trying to tell their wives for centuries - that they don't need any more clothes !!!

And finally, another strange story from this land that is Germany. A judge found in favour of the Mainz coucil, that it should not have to pay for a new toilet seat for a person on social welfare, when it broke through normal usage. Very important decision, wouldn't you say so?

Post-note: Olguis plane had electrical difficulties and so she's waiting for a new one. Let's hope she gets back fine, safe, and above all soon !

South American Special

Not really that special, but the only news is of South America, so why not call it that?

Bolivia now has a new president, and the rioting has at last calmed down there. Let's hope he can succeed where the last one failed.

After citing the article on my spanish webpage about the positive effects of coffee on potency in men, it is therefore surprising to find that one of the largest producers (and consumers) of coffee spends so much on other methods of aid.

And to finish off this trans-atlantic posting, Olguis will be coming back tomorrow. Bon voyage !

bye

News Titbits

Most importantly, Alberto went home back to Spain yesterday. Let's hope his Seat Ibiza got hime there safe and sound, and that the 3 cases of beer arrived without a bottle being opened...

Now onto some more international news.
One of the main leaders of the rebel group FARC in Colombia has made moves towards a peace talk. What with the hostages still being held near Santa Marta, and the continued attempts on the lives of mayoral candidates before the elections, let's just hope this new move is taken seriously by both sides.

Something a bit closer to home now (ie Germany) in that a man has been arrested on suspicion of teaching his dog to do the Nazi salute. It could only happen here. Oh, and the dog's name is Adolf.

Well that's about it for now, although congratulations are in order to the chinese for being the third nation to put a man up in space. In fact, they were meant to be the first nation to put a man and his dog in space, but when the sweet-and-sour-pork packet burst on take-off there was no other option...

Also, congratulations go out to Olgui who has now been excepted on her course in psychology here. As everyone knows, it's very difficult for foreigners to get on these limited-entrance courses, so well done to her !

Better get back to putting variables into my program (yes, it really is that interesting).

As the new governer of california says:

Hasta la vista, baby :)

Back to School

Well, I managed to do it again. It's been over a month since I last posted, but I'm not even going to explain why ! That's because you'll already have read that I went off to Colombia for 3 weeks. Yes, my final continent has at last been conquered, another place to tick off my list...hold on...that's not true. There is really so much of it to see, and if it wasn't for political reasons (hehem, kidnappings) I would have loved to have seen more. I have at least promised that I will return soon and see as much as possible that I missed.

I will not bore you with notes from my diary there, though I will mention a couple of things that will stay with me for a long time. Firstly, arriving with hurricane Florian was a bit of an experience, although the flight itself had already put me a bit on edge (within an hour of taking off from Frankfurt, the air hostess managed to spill orange-juice over my trousers, shirt, and book that I was reading (Noticia de un Secuestro - Garcia Marquez, very apt). We then had someone smoking in the toilets (very safe...).

What amazed me was the variety of the people, food, climate, and how despite all the problems that this country endures, how relaxed, happy and friendly the people were (in fact, I only got called "Gringo" once, and that was by a schoolkid in the library of Bogota). It really is dificult for me to put into words what I experienced there, but suffice it to say that I enjoyed myself a lot, and will definetely return.

Another thing I will remember, is Olga's driving. I don't mean this in any form of bad way, just that she gets very frightened of the big buses (with good reason, I've seen how they drive, and the consequences! It isn't for nothing they're called "Borradores" - erasors). Also when we hit a big hole (and there are numerous to hit in the roads of Barranquilla, in fact, it's harder to find a bit of road which isn't part of a hole!) and the engine caught fire...that was something I won't forget quickly! (see, it had nothing to do with her driving, just that she was driving at the time these things happened).

So all in all, an amazing time, and can't wait to go back (possibly when the weather gets back to normal - 32 degrees Celsius at midnight with 100% humidity requires about 3 showers a day minimum).

Back in Mainz we have a different problem. It's freezing !!! Snow in the south, snow in the north, but here everything looks the same, except we can feel the cold entering our bones. It really has skipped autumn and gone straight into winter. I feel sorry just looking at the new Spaniards thinking of their homes....

What else is new...many people have finally gone back to their home countries, and many more have arrived to start their Erasmus year here in this village, sorry, should that be town?

And finally, as many of you already know, I'm looking for a place to live. I have until the 20th of this month to move out, so if anyone hears of a place, you can use the form on this website to email me. Thanks.

Okay, that's all for now, better get some shopping in before I starve again.

we'll meet again

Birthdays and Goodbyes

This week we have a triple. On Wednesday, Carlitos celebrated his, hehem, all the threes (and I'm not talking three hundred and thirty three). Today (Friday) saw Juanfran edge nearer his third decade, and Saturday is that of Albakra, sorry, Alberto
. Many happy returns, hope you all celebrate accordingly, and afterwards show me the photos :)

Today also saw the lovely, sorry, great friend, Javi head off for his homeland. Not one to miss an opportunity, I accompanied him to the airport to take a last beer before he boarded. Of course that wasn't my only reason for going to the airport (although a good enough one). No, I was to take advantage of Lufthansa's great day-before check-in procedures. That should make tomorrow a lot less stressful for me.

After taking and passing her final exam today, Noelia goes off back to Galicia tomorrow, but this time by bus. So here's wishing her a lot of sleep for the 18 hours or however long it takes to get there. Oh, and how did last night go? ;)

Oh, did I forget to mention where I was going? How silly of me. Tomorrow I will be leaving Germany to head off to a far more beautiful, interesting, and unseen-by-me land. Yes, it's off to Colombia. Wish me luck, and wish the colombians a lot of patience in trying to understand me.

Next post will be from the other side of the atlantic (and a bit further south :)

Cheaper Calls and Dumbest Criminal of the Year Contender

First up, for those of you with landlines in Germany, the page www.billigertelefonieren.de advises which prefix to use to get cheaper calls. Also on this site is announced that the D2 Call-Ya prepaid tariff has an offer on in September and October, whereby if you spend 10 euros in calls, they will give you 5 euros to call free. Check the offer out here.

And for those that thought that criminals were getting cleverer, have a look at this article about a man who stole a GPS tracking device !

Okay, back to the office

A day like no other

Where to start, that is the problem. I woke up on August 30th due to the alarm on my phone. Upon viewing the screen, I noticed it had the words "security failure" written across it. Not good news. Investigating further, I came to the conclusion that the service provider (o2) had cut me off. Admittedly, I had cancelled my contract for the end of the month, but by my calendar, that's midnight on the 31st, not the 29th. Moving on to today, we had to get up extremely early in order to get Olga on her plane to Colombia.

So, with the freezing weather settling in, and therefore having to shut the window at night, we got up at 3.30 this morning. After the usual showering, coffee etc, we needed to get to the Hauptbahnhof (where we had left the luggage the night before) to catch the train to Frankfurt Airport. As the first tram arrives at the station at 5am, and we needed to catch the train at 5.02am, after collecting the luggage, a taxi was required. Due to the reason mentioned above, I no longer had use of my phone. Olga's had run out of credit, so I went to the callbox in the halls of residence. Only takes phonecards, and I only had change. Okay then, over to the military base where there are three phoneboxes, one of which accepts coins. Enter it. Look for number of taxi company. No phonebook. Go into cabin next door. Flick through phonebook, only to discover that the page with taxis in has been ripped out of the book. Great ! Move onto third cabin, find full book, remember taxi number and go back to booth one. Whilst picking up the receiver to dial, my brain starts sending me bad signals which force me to look at the front of the machine, where I see pictures of the coins that are accepted. As the receiver is reaching my ear and I am not hearing a tone, I realise that the pictures of coins I am looking at are of the good old Deutsche Mark. Yes, the only coin-phone in the vicinity is stuck in the pre-euro times.

Back I go, collect our stuff (lucky we had dropped the big bags off at the station the night before) and we start walking towards Berliner Strasse. We stop to look at the bus timetable, on the offchance that one would pass before the first tram. Someone had kindly ripped the timetable off of it's holder. We carry on, only to find that there are no taxis at the next stop. By now it was 4.45am and within seven minutes the tram would be passing us by, but determined to get a taxi and arrive at the station in enough time to get this train, we continue. Pariser Tor. Here we see two taxis (they always come in twos, haven't you noticed?) arriving at the petrol station on the other side of the road. We dare the traffic, and run across the roads to get there. Finally, a ride ! Of course, we forgot that it's a perilous one way system over here, so we had to drive back to Berliner Strasse in order to turn around.

Arriving at the station at 4.53, and therefore 9 minutes to spare, I rushed in to get the luggage out whilst Olga tried to sort out paying a taxi fare of eight euros with a fifty euro note. We had made the train ! All the check-in etc went fine, and so after saying our goodbyes, I went on my way back to Mainz. Arriving at 8am I got the tram straight back home, as I had plenty of things to do today. First thing, speak to the caretaker. Arriving at his office I see a little hand-written sign saying he's just popped out - be right back. Go back to my room to sort a few things out before returning to see him. Okay. Go back to sleep as two and a half hours is not enough for me. At eleven o'clock I wake up. Feeling better, I wonder how it feels to be starting your first school day in Germany. How do I know this was their first school day here? Because I was awoken at eleven o'clock by the familiar sound of children screaming through the windows of the halls of residence, which signals that it's term-time again. Oh, what joy.

Anyway, I get up, and have a little chat with Ruben and Almudena. Whilst I am speaking to them we here a little 'ping' sound. At this point I notice that my glasses are falling off my face. Yes, the screw that holds my glasses together, decided that today was the day it was going to fall out. More than that, because after ten minutes looking for it all over the floor, and still not finding it, we decided it had gone to a better place (or the goblins had got it).

So, what I actually ended up doing was going to the opticions to get a new screw fitted. Before catching the bus to the Mensa to eat lunch, I stopped at our old friend, the turkish call shop, and bought myself a new simcard for my mobile. Which is why I am no longer available on my old number. If I haven't informed you of the new number, please send me an email, and I'll send it to you. Oh, whilst I'm on the subject. As I can no longer access the old simcard, I have also lost a lot of telephone numbers. So if you think I haven't got it (eg if I haven't phoned you in a while) let me know.

What a day !

Goodbye Lou and hello Sobig Virus

Tuesday saw Lou, Lourdes, "paso de vosotros" leave for her home, Madrid. We will all miss her a lot, but let's hope that we can meet up again soon.
Whilst some of us are now leaving, we also have a few arrivals, namely the families of Alberto and Jordi are visiting for a few days before returning to Valencia with their sons later on.

After the chaos caused by the "msblast" virus, you would assume people would be protected from another outbreak. Oh no, now the "Sobig" virus has been doing it's rounds and in the space of a week has become the most virulent virus ever. So protect yourselves now (download latest virus definitions from your AV vendor).

Nothing else very urgent at the moment...

Quickie

The attack on the microsoft update servers, due to start today, did not go quite as planned. The website targeted (an old address) was taken down beforehand. However, the increased network activity effects were seen, as I can verify at 00:45 this morning the Uni Mainz/Hechtsheim connection to the internet no longer worked (which is why I had to finish updating my site this morning). Of course, when America finally wakes up it will probably get worse...

Talking about updating, the useful sites and friend's sites pages have been updated, so give them a look.

Hey-ho and off to work I go...

Doing Nothing, Best Buys and Virus Alert

A new craze has hit Europe after making it's way through America, called "flash mobbing". This is when groups, organised through the internet receive an email telling them to do a particularly pointless thing at a certain time soon afterwards. This information is then disseminated by mobiles and text messages so that, for example, groups of about 200 people went to a bookstore in Rome asking about "Pinnochio 2 - The Vendetta" (doesn't exist) and to Macy's in New York asking for a "love rug" for a "suburban commune". Check out the following websites for more info: cheesebikini, flashmob.com, and an article by the telegraph.

Ever wanted to be mister handyman? Well, with the help of the German supermarket chain Plus and their special offers for screwdriver sets, you can :)

Now time for an important virus warning. The msblast virus seems to be affecting a large amount of home, as well as business users, and since it isn't distributed by email, rather anonomously though the computers network ports, it is a lot more difficult to stop. So here's what you have to do to prevent/get rid of it (for a full explanation, read this page at symantec.com) :

1) Firstly, you should install the latest microsoft patch (Windows 2000, or Windows XP, if your windows is not the english version, remember to select the correct language, or the update won't work) which prevents this virus from entering your system any more.

2) Reboot the computer.

3) Download the symantec fixblast tool (to desktop is a good place).

4) Close all running programs (like messenger clients, Word etc.).

5) If you have Windows XP, right-click on the "My Computer" desktop icon, and select "properties". Now click on the tab labelled "System Restore". Tick the box that says "Turn off System Restore" and then on the "Apply" button. When asked if that is really what you want to do, say "Yes".

6) Run the Fixblast.exe program (double click on the desktop icon if that's where you downloaded it to) and select "Start" for it to start checking your computer.

7) When this has finished, restart the computer.

8) Run Fixblast again (as in step 6) to check that the virus is fully removed.

9) If you have WinXP, turn on System Restore, following the same method as in Step 5.

After completing all this, update your virus signatures and install a firewall to help prevent other viruses of this nature entering again.

Remember to practice Safe Surfing.

News, news and more news

First up, safety in airports. You would think that we are now over-cautious with the safety controls that are in place, but as this article from the BBC shows, knives are still able to be smuggled through airport security. Makes you feel really safe, doesn't it.

France, always one for flouting the rules when it feels like it, has decided to allow excess water from it's nuclear plants to leak into the rivers at higher temperatures, ignoring any possible impacts it may have on the environment. Of course, they could have done like the swiss and just cut output during this hard time, but they had to do it their way. Ok, it's not fair always picking on the french, I know, so I would also like to point out that Germany too has taken to using the same method.

For those of you that like to stay up late (or those that can't get to sleep because of this ridiculous heatwave we're having) tonight at about 2-3am you should be able to see the meteor shower of Perseids.

Amongst the latest lot to leave for their home countries, are Pau, Nuria, Giulia, Carmen, David, and Juanfran. Best wishes go out for whatever they go on to do with their lives.

That's it for now

Heatwave, Monkeys and Virus Warning

As most of Europe suffers under the effects of the sun, the UK seems to be looking more like the med. It's not all good news, however, apart from Germany sweating without the help of air conditioning, the UK has used the hot weather as an excuse for slowing down the trains. We can never win.

Next up in the news, is a virus warning, although it doesn't seem to be so advanced, it hasn't stopped people from contracting it (not literally people, their computers...) As ever, the advice is to keep your virus program up to date, and to patch this critical vulnerability in Windows.

As more and more firms are moving abroad in order to reduce costs of labour, an Iowian firm has found a different method. They hire monkeys. Yes (this goes out especially to Griff) whilst we have all thought that the guy at the other end of the helpline was some form of primate, now we have the proof. This shows us two things; labour is very cheap indeed hiring chimps instead of humans, and that Visual Basic is in fact just a language written for apes.

bysie bye

BBQs, leaving, and photos

Well, the semester has ended, the temperatures have reached record levels and most of the Erasmus students are slowly making their ways home. Which means there ar elaving parties nearly every night, and what better way to celebrate than to have a barbie :) Unfortunately, it does become a bit repetitive after a while, up to the point where I can't see another sausage nor burger for a month !!!

Finally found time to put up the photos from Argentina that Fernand and Joan sent a while back, which can be found under Photos->Others->Fernando and Joan. Also, Alberto's photos from the meal at Olga's are now available to see, Photos->Meals->Olga Cena.

Well, that's it for now, more news later on.