Christmas Wish List?

Swiss Army Giant Knife by Wenger.
Features
85 instruments including:
* 7 different knives
* Golf shoe spike wrench
* Bike chain rivet setter
* Laser Pointer with 300ft range



Developed by two Cambridge students. Branded as "sick", "insensitive and inappropriate".
"The goal of the game is to liberate the world, ridding it of fear and terrorism forever. Naturally, only the biggest and strongest Empires are up to this task and so a certain amount of dominance needs to be shown. Alternatively, you can play as the terrorists, fighting for a world without empires."



New sweeter, juicier Satin White carrots will soon be a reality in supermarkets and is backed by British retail giant Asda to become even more popular than its orange cousin.
Going on sale this side of Christmas, just in time to be used in festive meals.



Home-made Formula 1 car. Fully road legal. Made using parts from a Fiat and a Ford.


Marmalade. $12,600/jar or $28/mouthful. Made by Duerr and contains Dalmore 62 whisky, vintage champagne, glittering gold leaves. The crystal jar is specially designed and hand-crafted.


The Driron by household appliance manufacturer Fagor. The world's first dryer that not only dries, but irons as well.
Price: $3,780.


World's lowest car - 55.6cm.
Developed by mechanic Andy Saunders.


Anyone who loves the taste of a spicy curry can now indulge their passion by brushing their teeth with curry flavoured toothpaste! Developed by Margaret Josefin holistic company of Japan, choose from a delectable range including kiwi fruit, banana, blueberry, chocolate, espresso coffee, and more.
Available from firbox.com.


Listening to: Assassin/Muse

Atlantis Space Walk

Not scared of heights?

Thursday: the Atlantis space shuttle landed safely on Earth following a 12-day mission at the International Space Station (ISS) to install tonnes of new solar arrays. Why? To double the amount of power produced by the ISS.

They apparently lost a couple of bolts and nuts (can't blame them, imagine trying to hold anything with that massive suit on!) but otherwise mission accomplished.

Does anybody else think that humans really aren't meant to be going into space? Consider the cost, the logistics involved, the completely unnatural effects on the body...money, time, and effort better utilised elsewhere?


Listening to: To the moon and back/Savage Garden

My Morning Fix

Weekday, 08:40
Dual power - strong peppermint tea with a bit of nicotine

To wake herself up, my flatmate literally drinks about a litre of painfully cold water.
Other unusual AM rituals I've heard about:

Having a cold, cold, very cold shower

Smoking a handful of Marlboro Reds to effectively replace sleepiness with dizziness

Drinking a Bloody Mary minus the tomato juice...the celery...the tabasco sauce...

Eat large portions of random food

But coffee is the most traditional way of doing it, and the caffeine within is responsible for being the most popular psychoactive habit-forming drug on Earth.

Walk along any street in the city and it appears that every second shop sells coffee. These days it's not just a coffee either - special people make a craft out of it and call themselves barista's, and people are becoming more fussy about their pots of wake-me-up as a result!
Our obsession is doing big things for business as well - every day, Starbucks opens four new outlets somewhere in the world and hires 200 new people (every day) to run them.

Caffeine is an alkaloid that naturally occurs in a whole variety of plants including that which makes tea leaves and coffee beans. Tea has been traced back to 6 B.C. where Lao-tzu recommended it as an elixir for his religion, Taoism. But it wasn't until the early 19th century that caffeine (definition: "something found in coffee") was recognised by a Ferdinand Runge (German chemist) for producing the addictive buzz.

Caffeine is hailed to have pulled humanity through the time of industrialisation. Boiling water for tea and coffee reduced the incidence of disease and the caffeine stopped overworked people from falling asleep on machines. This reliance has carried over to modern society and has produced a multi-billion dollar industry.

There are many existing theories to explain how caffeine - the stuff many people claim to not be able to live without - works in our body. The general understanding is that the drug acts as an antagonist to adenosine (a chemical in the body that acts as an important regulator of sleep).

As with all drugs, caffeine is bad, bad, bad. Studies have demonstrated higher rates of all sorts of cancer for regular caffeine users. It interrupts the human circadian rhythm, resulting in a deficiency in necessary sleep, and ultimately results in this: we take caffeine to fix a sleep deficit which is largely the result of taking caffeine.

However, purported benefits include: an analeptic and ergogenic effect (improved mental and physical functions), pain relief, and reduced asthma symptoms.

As the saying goes, nothing in life is free. Short term benefits for long term health risks?

And what is the point of decaffeinated coffee? It doesn't taste as good and just defeats the whole purpose of a coffee. It's like having alcohol-free beer or dairy-free milk! There are also reports purporting that it may be harmful to the heart...

Listening to: Watch the sunrise/Axwell feat Steve Edwards (Ministry of Sound)

Sydney's Anti-War Protest 12/08/06

I was half asleep on a slow-moving city bound bus when it abruptly stopped at Wynyard. The driver announced that he was kicking us out and making us walk the rest of the way due to a "demonstration" blocking the road.
It turned out to be 1000 protesters, mostly of Lebanese origin, with loudspeakers, placards, and banners marching through George St, King St, and Elizabeth St towards Hyde Park shouting things like, "Damn, damn John Howard"; "Free, free, Palestine".
Even little children in school uniform shouting, "Israel, USA, how many kids have you killed today?". It was a bit of an "awww..." amidst all the drama.

It was a peaceful protest watched on by gawking tourists, annoyed shop owners who had closed their doors, hundreds of police, and dozens of people like myself who were left confused and lost by the redirected bus routes.

The UN Security Council's resolution for a ceasefire was adopted a few hours before the protest (and has since been accepted by both the Israeli and Lebanese governments) but evidently for many Australians, much more is needed to stop the carnage and violence in the Middle East.

Listening to: Hace Calor/Los Rodriguez

SoBo

Sous, pastry, cold chefs


Putting the finishing touches to somebody's utterly scrumptious brunch


Eggs Benedict with Smoked Ham


Cracked pepper?


Take two


Before


After


One of our barista's and two of our waitstaff

I started working at SoBo a couple of weeks ago for a bit of fun and it was something different. SoBo is located on Bondi Beach at the old Hugo’s site (stunning water views albeit occasionally interrupted by the 380-1 bus). Our launch party saw local quasi-celebrities such as Lizzie Lovett, DJ Clive, Rupert Somebody (Ministry of Sound), publication hoo-ha’s and combined with free booze and food, nobody went home at the time they were supposed to which resulted in me being totally f***ed for my 6am start the next day.

Menu consists of beautiful neo-classical dishes, presentation is a priority, our head chef (Xavier Mouche) is famous for what he does, the cocktails are actually worth trying, and the coffee is brewed by professional baristas.

It's basically a nice place to go for a special night out.

www.sobo.com.au for more info.


Pictures taken with a Sony Ericsson K610i
Listening to: The ghost of you/My Chemical Romance

I've established a company and would greatly appreciate good advice and contribution.

I need somebody in real estate (leasing of premises), programmers, web designers, a web host, an accountant, and particularly people experienced in the operations of a business. I'm after the BEST you know in these fields.

They will be trustworthy, confident, reliable individuals who know what they are doing and have an obsessive appreciation of technology. But not like crazy obsessive. A good sense of direction and basic geography skills is a must.

I will pay.

I'm also in need of investors (mainly in order to remunerate the above mentioned people) - if you're interested or want to know more please email me.

Fucking, Austria

An email went around work the other day (lost it now) with an article attached about this little town and how its inhabitants are furious with their booming tourism industry.

The Germans are not amused.

"We are not impressed with the tourists stealing our Fucking sign".

I wouldn't mind having a piece of Fucking, Austria hanging on my living room wall also!

In Australia, the most stolen street signs are:
"Beer Rd" in Orange, NSW
"Nirvana Ave" in Melbourne, VIC.


Listening to: I like the way/Bodyrockers (Ministry of Sound: The 2006 Annual)