Tom Cruise and Fertility

There's something naggling at the back of my mind: something about Tom Cruise. I'm trying to remember what it was that was said about the reason he didn't have children with Nicole Kidman. It could of course have been that he or she didn't want them, but then they adopted two.

I seem to remember (and this will make the Katie Holmes marriage look a little odd) that there was some mention of Cruise having an endocrine problem? That he was therefore infertile?

Note I said infertile, not impotent please. So both Nicole and Katie Holmes might be having fun. But if I'm right in remembering this, then how come Katie Holmes got pregnant? Is there something we're not being told?

Penny in the News

So it looks like Rod has finally married Penny Lancaster.

Took his time about it of course, it's been over two years sice the engagement and is it longer than that since Penny Lancaster bore him a child?

Oh well, better late than never I suppose.

Having the Snip

So, should male children routinely undergo circumcision?

There are those who point to the health benefits, others who insist that it's mutilation.

But here's a new one, for me at least. Circumsicion leads to greater sexual pleasure.

That's a pretty strong argument, don't you think?

The Virgin and Sex Shops

Tee hee, this has been occuring just up the road from me:

Pilgrims to a holy shrine in Portugal are being given free maps of the site that show the Virgin Mary on one side and adverts for sex objects and aphrodisiacs on the other.

The maps, thought up by an advertising company, have raised eyebrows among the Catholic faithful and ire from the authorities at the popular Sanctuary of Fatima.

"The map is not official and makes the wrong use of the picture of the Virgin Mary," a shrine spokeswoman said on Friday.

"The Sanctuary is saddened and will carry out the necessary measures to end its distribution."

Portugal is still at a really rather confused time about sex and sexuality. There's a lot of it about of course, but it's still a nominally Catholic society.

Ringtones Links

"Everybody loves ringtones. So i decided to have a search for the best ringtones sites. Maybe everyone knows Ringophone.com or Ultrasonic-ringtones.com but to tell the truth the best site for free ringtones to download is GoldRingtone.com. Download the best Ringtones for free! Doesn't it sound attractive? The site has a weekly update (as they inform me with their press release) so you can continuously find the best new free ringtones.

The site is simple. The users can download free mp3 ringtones from any carrier. Besides, there are sections for all carriers. You can get free Sprint Ringtones, or free Cingular Ringtones.

PS 3 Price Controversy

Yes, the Sony Playstation 3 has launched and there's an argument over its price:

 

The PlayStation 3 has come under fire because of its £425 price tag - around £120 more than its US retail price.

It will compete with the hugely successful Nintendo Wii console and Microsoft's Xbox 360.

The PS3 launched in Japan and the US in November but its European debut was delayed due to problems with manufacturing its blu-ray disc.

It goes on sale in the UK this Friday, with the official launch taking place at midnight in Virgin Megastores on London's Oxford Street.

PlayStation manufacturer Sony said around 220,000 consoles would be shipped to the UK for Friday.

Michael Brook, editor of gadget magazine T3, said it was rumoured the price of the PS3 would be lowered in time for Christmas. "The real techies are going to love it and I think will bear the cost straight from the offset. But for it to go really mass market I think it will be Christmas when the price drops," he said.

The reason is, as everyopne should know, that property in hte UK (as well as taxes, there's 17.5 % VAT in that price) is expensive. Thus stores need higher margins on their products.

Directories

Is there anything new that can be done with a directory of websites? You might have thought not, what with the way that Yahoo keeps expanding, or the user submitted places like Dmoz and so on.

However, there's a very interesting new approach beiong tried to a directory using the Wordpress software. As they say on their site, the Netizen's Page:

The directory entries will work exactly like an in-post links (or at least will make the search engine think this way), giving more weigh to the link than any other directories. Also, the blog and ping function will enable search engine to crawl through the blog post more frequent.

That sort of functionaility, making your own site and entries more apparent to the search engines simply has to be worth paying for. Indeed, they are asking you to pay for it but only $3 which seems really like something of a bargain.

Look, the secret to success on the web is getting good results from hte search engines: this looks like it will help. For that price, why not try it?

An interesting idea, don't you think, a Wordpress Directory?

Less Spam!

Who would believe that an Act of God could reduce the amount of spam swirling around?

A quake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale badly damaged around eight submarine fibre-optic cables on the seafloor of the Bashi channel between Taiwan and the Philippines, causing severe disruption to internet and telephone networks in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, and Japan.

Keen spam watchers and connoisseurs of this nefarious inbox abuse will note the inclusion of spam-producing nations China and Korea in the above list, and the quake's damage to their telecommunications infrastructure means these countries have not made the list of major spam sources this month for the first time in living memory.

IE Internet's figures show a sharp 10 per cent drop in spam for January, and a three per cent reduction in viruses. More than a quarter of all spam that landed into the 35,000 business Irish inboxes monitored by IE Internet originated from the US in January, while Russia and Brazil were also major culprits.

"We have seen a significant drop in spam in January," IE Internet managing director Phelim O'Connell said. "But unfortunately, the long term trend is an increase."

I'd thank the big guy for this but unfortunately, as they say, it's only going to be temporary.

 

Technorati tags: spam, email

Apple's iPod and Currencies

So someone's gone and copied the Economist's Big Mac index and used Apple's iPod pricing to estimate purchasing power parity.

Having already stormed world fashion, Apple's hip iPod music player is finally making its presence felt in global currency markets.

One of Australia's biggest banks, the Commonwealth Bank (CBA.AX: Quote, Profile , Research), has used the latest version of Apple's (APPL.O: Quote, Profile , Research) music player -- the slimline Nano -- to compare global currencies and purchasing power in 26 countries.

Along the lines of the Big Mac index launched 20 years ago by The Economist magazine, the survey prices the 2GB Nano in U.S. dollars and found Brazilians pay the most for an iPod, shelling out $327.71, well above second-placed India at $222.27.

Canada was the cheapest place to buy a Nano at $144.20, while Australia ranked 19th at $172.36, cheaper than Germany ($192.46), France ($205.80), South Korea ($176.17) and China where the machine is manufactured. The U.S. was fourth cheapest at $149.

"Interestingly, especially with freight costs close to zero, China is middle ranked in terms of global prices at US$179.84," Craig James, the Chief Equities Economist at Commonwealth Bank, told Reuters.

Purchasing power parity surveys compare the prices of goods in different countries and at their simplest level can help show whether one currency is undervalued against another.

As all iPods are manufactured in th

Technorati tags: iPod, Apple, Big Mac, PPP, purchasing power parity, currencies

e same place it doesn't really show off PPP quite as well as the Big Mac: then agan, they're so small that the transport costs don't really come into it.