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A 10-year-old Mexican girl was found hidden inside a car's dashboard while it was undergoing an inspection Wednesday at the San Ysidro, California border crossing.

Officials said the girl was tightly trapped under the dashboard and the front passenger seat of a 1988 white Toyota Camry. She was removed after officers worked for 30 minutes to partially remove the seat. She appeared to be in good condition.

It is not that easy to be a top model.
You have to be able to walk with high heels.

A little reminder that even Supermodels don't look like Supermodels. Airbrushing, recoloring, even Feature Reassignment. Part of Dove's Campaign For Real Beauty.

Through a Rapist's Eyes (No Joke)
A group of rapists and date rapists in prison were interviewed on what they look for in a potential victim and here are some interesting facts:
1) The first thing men look for in a potential victim is hairstyle. They are most likely to go after a woman with a ponytail or other hairstyle that can easily be grabbed. They are also likely to go after a woman with long hair.Women with short hair are not common targets.
2) The second thing men look for is clothing. They will look for women who's clothing is easy to remove quickly. Many of them carry scissors around to cut clothing.
3) They also look for women on their mobile phone, searching through their purse or doing other activities while walking, because they are off guard and can be easily overpowered.
4) The time of day men are most likely to attack and rape woman is in the early morning, between 5 and 8:30 a.m.
5) The thing about these men is that they are looking to grab a woman and quickly move her to a second location, where they don't have to worry about getting caught
6) Only 2% said they carried weapons because rape carries a 3 - 5 year sentence but rape with a weapon is 15 - 20 years.
7) If you put up any kind of a fight at all, they get discouraged because it only takes a minute or two for them to realize that going after you isn't worth it because it will be time-consuming.
8) These men said they would not pick on women who have umbrellas, or other similar objects that can be used from a distance, in their hands. Keys are not a deterrent because you have to get really close to the attacker to use them as a weapon. So, the idea is to convince these guys you're not worth it.
9) Several defense mechanisms he taught us are: If someone is following behind you on a street or in a garage or with you in a lift or stairwell, look them in the face and ask them a question, like what time is it, or make general small talk, "I can't believe it is so old out here, we're in for a bad winter". Now you've seen their face and could identify them in a line-up, you lose appeal as a target.
10) If someone is coming toward you, hold out your hands in front of you and yell "Stop" or "Stay back!" Most of the rapists talked to said they'd leave a woman alone if she yelled or showed that she would not be afraid to fight back. Again, they are looking for an EASY target.

China's first liquid condom went on sale today after the country's health and drugs administration formally gave the hi-tech prophylactic the thumbs-up, the China Daily reports.


This is too interesting to pass up. In this picture is supposedly a bottle of Iiquid condom . Nanometer-silver Cryptomorphic Condom (NCC), it's designed for female rather than male usage. The condom-in-a-can is essentially an antiseptic foam spray that the manufacturer claims forms a physical membrane inside the vagina, protecting it from infection, acting as a barrier to pregnancy and providing a lubricating effect.What the heck is that? designed for ladies’ use. On the bottle, it says.


This world’s first liquid condom went on sales this week in China, after China’s health and drugs administration formally gave the manufacturer the green light.

The manufacturer claims that it forms a physical membrane inside the vagina, protecting it from infection, acting as a barrier to pregnancy and providing a lubricating effect.

Well, if it really is that good, it might just put Durex out of business. But most often, if things appear too good to be true, it most likely is! Give some feedback?

The Remember Ring utilizes patent pending Hot Spot technology to deliver a reminder that it's "That time of the year again!"

24 hours before your special day, the Hot Spot on the interior surface of your Remember Ring will warm to 120ºF for approximately 10 seconds, and continue to warm up every hour, on the hour, all day long!

Hot enough to cause discomfort but not hot enough to burn - the Remember Ring is impossible to ignore!

Remember Rings have a lifetime warranty.

This is a concept product.

Created by Chinese artist Song Dong in the basement of London Selfridges.
72,000 biscuits were used in total to construct the ‘Biscuit city’ including Chocolate Digestives, Rich Tea, HobNobs and Fruit Shortcakes.
The ‘biscuit city’ is being offered to shoppers accompanied with a cup of tea for dunking!

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22nd September 2006. This used to be Alan's laptop, an IBM Thinkpad 600 with third-party batteries we bought separately: ie possibly not IBM's. Last night it exploded.

Alan was on the other side of the room from the laptop. I was elsewhere. He yelled out, I ambled towards the room in my own good time, and then I heard Fire! Real fire! Call the fire brigade, now! and I speeded up a bit.

From Alan subsequently, I gather there was an explosion and flying pieces of laptop, and a fireball, and a couple of fires started where (presumably) boiling battery landed, and one fragment smashed an LCD monitor. And then there was smoke and smell (there is still smell) and smoke alarm wailing and firemen and sirens and paramedics (happily unneeded) and police and a man with a notebook asking questions for the fire report.

And now there is black dust everywhere in the room and a stench in the house but remarkably little damage. To my disgust, even Alan's model railway is intact, although the platforms look like they have been covered in coal (hah). Because the fragments went everywhere, we have an entertaining session of "check all the wires" ahead of us now.

One more thing. Smoke alarms are a really good idea. Ours went off within minutes. I don't know whether this is true for all of the UK, but in Wales the fire service will come round and check your house and and give you smoke alarms for free and tell you useful things you might need to know. I am very glad they did.

To answer the collective inquiries and observations of IRC and phonecalls: no, it does not look likely that the data is recoverable; yes, there was a backup; I don't know how much work was lost; we are fine (Alan has some very minor burns from flying laptop shrapnel and has lost a bit of hair, but no more than you would get from playing with a soldering iron); no, as I am not a geek, it never occurred to me to stop and take photos of the exploding laptop -- I left the house like the nice 999 person told me to -- but the pictures on the exploding laptop website give you a very good idea of what happened; Conrad, I'm sorry I didn't ring back last night: I meant to, but as you see, I was distracted!

And contrary to all expectations (diolch, Gareth..), it wasn't mine, I was nowhere near it, and this one was absolutely nothing to do with me.

Quick update from Alan: Insurance people are being good, although the first question asked was a slightly incredulous 'Did anyone else see this'. Ebay from where I bought the battery haven't replied to the information I sent them. Kudos to IBM - having phoned them to report it they are actively investigating even though we are not yet sure if the battery is genuine IBM. The remaining bits of the label I dug out of the remains seem to indicate it may be. I also took the other two unexploded battery cells out of it and put them outside.