Read more on BusinessDay.

• Have zero caveats, and are full of empty adjectives and pure glowing praise with no downsides.
• Are all left within a short period of time of each other.
• Mainly tally off product features. (Real users talk more about performance, reliability, and overall value).
• Reviewers names are all variations of one another, i.e. happykat1234, happykat7593, happykat6687

Hmmm, all a bit obvious. Read the full article on The Consumerist.

According to a study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, coffee can stave off the affects of aging on the brain—specifically in women over the age of 65. “MRI brain scans revealed that women who drank three cups of coffee per day (or 6 cups of tea) had lost less brain tissue called white matter than those who drank less.” Unfortunately men who drank the same amount of coffee saw none of the same benefit, but either way, it’s not a bad endorsement of our favorite caffeine-delivery method. (Tea drinkers, the study noticed the same results for over six cups of tea).

Psychology Today

Smartypants organization Mensa named Lifehacker among their top 50 web sites of 2010, listing us among handfuls of other great sites like Gizmodo, BoingBoing, NPR, and Wikipedia. We may not agree with every choice, but we’ll assume it’s the IQ gap!

((U+C+I) x (10-S) / 20 x A x 1 / (1-sin(F/10))

U (urgency): 1 <= U <=9
C (complexity): 1 <= C <=9
I (importance): 1 <= I <=9
S (skill): 1 <= S <=9
F (frequency): 1 <= F <= 9

This equation was commissioned by British Gas.

http://media.smh.com.au/entertainment/pick-of-the-flicks/astro-bore-is-far-from-amazing-789035.html

Do I hide the Astro Boy figurine on my desk now in case I am mistaken for a fan of the movie?

He was no ordinary gnome; he was the inventor of many wondrous things!

With a “Hrumph” he slipped off his stool and padded away from his stained drawing desk, which looked more like the nest of a papier-mâché monster than that of the world’s greatest Tinker. Over his shoulder was a parade of model flying machines, mechanical pulleys, strange sinking ships and many other curious things filled with glass and bronze. In his age withered hands he held a quill, dripping with fresh ink.

“Whatever shall I do?” Snubble quizzed as he stepped over Rumblehoff, his pet firedrake. Rumblehoff sleepily raised his head, puffed a plume of grey soot and smoke and then promptly rolled over. He was little impressed with his master’s late night nonsense, for like most firedrakes, Rumblehoff was more interested in his next meal and the warmth of the embers than the next great invention.

“His Majesty will be ever so annoyed at me!” Snubble stopped and cocked his ear. He could hear the creaking of floorboards as they strained beneath the footsteps of someone much heavier than an old gnome.

There was a banging at the door, steel hinges bulging from the pounding of an armoured fist.

Zarine, a dark haired girl of about 10, shivered as she stood by the warrior, her large brown eyes on the edge of tears, her mind still reeling from the day’s events.

“Open up dwarf!” the warrior bellowed.

Shall I write more? No.

I maintain that successful SciFi/Fantasy writing requires certain amounts of familiarity in the topic, I think originality can be difficult.

“Goth Girls Don’t Jog” remains my primary fictional writing focus.

I swear:
never to commit violence against women,
never to excuse violence against women, and
never to remain silent about violence against women
This is my oath.

I took this oath at myoath.com.au

Why swear?

UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon has labelled violence against women the most prevalent violation of human rights on the planet. And Australia is far from immune. Currently, one in three Australian women experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Every single one of us knows a woman who has suffered its effects, whether we know it or not. These women are our mothers, daughters, our wives, our girlfriends, colleagues and friends. By supporting this campaign you are helping to ensure that Australia becomes a safer place for all women, and their children.

Extracted from Keiichi Iwasaki travels across 37 countries on $2

A TOURIST has spent eight years travelling across 37 countries with the equivalent of $2, relying on his bicycle for transport.

Keiichi Iwasaki, 36, left his Japanese home in 2001 with just 160 Yen ($2) in his pocket after becoming bored with his air-conditioning job, the UK’s Telegraph reports.

After cycling the country for a year he decided to extend his journey to South Korea and, eventually, 25 other countries.

During his trip Mr Iwasaki was attacked by a rapid dog in Tibet, robbed by pirates and was even arrested in India.

He cycled over 45,000 kilometres during his marathon adventure and become the first Japanese man to climb Mount Everest from sea level without using any transportation.

Mr Iwasaki said he raised funds from performing tricks, and only his “strong will” has kept him on his bike.

Could you imagine doing this yourself? The courage, the fun!

While it was easy to find out what plug Singapore uses, my first inclination of looking it up on the Lonely Planet World Guide was not a success at all. This surprised me, I thought they used to publish this under the “Practical” section. But perhaps I was wrong.

But all of that aside, I decided to blog it here so I would never forget again. Perhaps I will do this for every country I visit from now one…

Type G

• Mainly used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Cyprus, Malta, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.
• Two parallel flat pins with ground pin.
• Electricity in Singapore is 230 Volts, alternating at 50 cycles per second.

Type G plug used in Singapore