The home of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle is the "most flirtatious city" of the modern world, a new study showed on Monday.
Athens topped a "World Flirtation League," which ranked cities by the number of online flirtations initiated per month by the average user in each on online social networking site Badoo.com (http://www.badoo.com/).
Moscow came second, while Rome placed 8th and Madrid 31st, Paris 38th, London 57th, Berlin 79th, and New York 89th in the study of nearly 200 cities across the world in which Badoo analyzed 12 million flirtatious contacts made during a month, with 108 million users chatting and flirting in 180 countries.
The Lonely Planet Encounter Guide to Athens author Victoria Kyriakopoulous said the results are hardly surprising as the Greek capital is a seductive city, with a hedonistic lifestyle.
"Athenians love to party and they love to talk," she said. "Flirting and sexual banter are not just a means to an end but part of social interaction."
She said the internet is just a new means to the age-old dance of attraction and love.
"Old people flirt, married people flirt, now young people are simply using technology to do what Athenians have always done."
The average Badoo user in Athens initiated 25.7 online flirtations per month -- over twice as many as in Rio (12.4) Warsaw (12.1) or Prague (12.6) and far more than in Paris (20.7), London (19.0), Berlin (17.7) or New York (16.1).
Tunis, birthplace of the "Jasmine Revolution," is among three Arab cities (with Kuwait and Beirut) to make the world top 10, along with three former Soviet ones (Moscow, Kiev and Baku in Azerbaijan) and three Italian (Turin, Rome and Bari).
Plato said "Love is a serious mental disease." The great man never shared his views on online flirting but he knew something at least about offline flirting, said Simon Hardy, British academic and author of "The Greeks, Eroticism and Ourselves."
He said ancient Athenians may have honed the art of flirtation at drinking parties known as symposia, drinking parties where men flirted with dancing girls among other entertainment.
"It is probably fair to say that the Athenians perfected the art of flirtation in ancient times, especially at the time of symposia described by Plato."
Thursday, March 3, 2011
UK investigates fish spa pedicures on health issues
Fish spa pedicures have become a popular alternative to exfoliation in recent years but health officials say they are now investigating the pampering treatment on concerns it may spread infection.
The procedure involves customers placing their feet into a water tank filled with toothless Garra rufa fish -- also called doctor fish -- which suck the dead tissue off their feet to leave them feeling softer.
Officials at Britain's Health Protection Agency (HPA) said they were launching an investigation into possible infection risks associated with the exfoliation treatment after receiving enquiries from local environmental health officers.
The HPA said it would assess all of the latest evidence on risks before issuing guidelines for the spa treatment.
"The HPA and Health Protection Scotland is currently unaware of any cases of infection associated with the use of the fish spas pedicures in the UK," a spokesman said.
Fish spa pedicures have already been banned in some U.S. states for health and safety reasons.
The procedure involves customers placing their feet into a water tank filled with toothless Garra rufa fish -- also called doctor fish -- which suck the dead tissue off their feet to leave them feeling softer.
Officials at Britain's Health Protection Agency (HPA) said they were launching an investigation into possible infection risks associated with the exfoliation treatment after receiving enquiries from local environmental health officers.
The HPA said it would assess all of the latest evidence on risks before issuing guidelines for the spa treatment.
"The HPA and Health Protection Scotland is currently unaware of any cases of infection associated with the use of the fish spas pedicures in the UK," a spokesman said.
Fish spa pedicures have already been banned in some U.S. states for health and safety reasons.
High tech gadgets used to trigger medieval weapon
Workers at a Google data center combined 12 century know how and space age technology to trigger a medieval weapon that was used to hurl rocks, balls of fire and dead animals over castle walls.
They used an Android cellphone, a computer the size of a credit card and a Blue Tooth receiver to trigger the wooden weapon, known as a trebuchet, during the first "Storm the Citadel Trebuchet Competition" in Charleston over the weekend.
The trebuchet was used during medieval times to break down fortifications.
"They also threw dead people," said Dennis Fallon, dean of engineering at The Citadel, a military college with about 2,100 male and female cadets. "What we have done in military history is not always something to be proud of."
More powerful than the ballistas and catapults of ancient empires, the trebuchet used a long swing arm, triggered by the pull of gravity on a counterweight placed at the other end, to slingshot its payload into the air.
The brutal weapon played a large part in the medieval Crusades. According to histories of the time, Richard the Lionheart called his best weapon "Malvoisine." Edward I supposedly brought about the surrender of Scotland's Sterling Castle in 1304 with a giant trebuchet named "Warwolf."
The trebuchet made a comeback in the late 20th century among medievalists, college professors and fans of the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" in which a cow is hurled over a castle wall.
In the 1990s in Britain, armament enthusiast Hew Kennedy built a massive machine on his Shropshire estate and used it to throw compact cars and flaming pianos across his field.
Saturday's competition was sponsored by Google during The Citadel's National Engineering Week to support science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs in the schools, local employees said.
In November 2009, President Barack Obama announced a major initiative to support STEM education over the next decade to keep Americans globally competitive in innovation and technology.
South Carolina high school students competed along with engineering majors and corporate teams in designing, building and firing the trebuchets.
"There's a lot of engineering principles involved. There's a lot of math principles involved. And it's just fun," said Jeff Stevenson, a manager at the Google Data Center in nearby Berkeley County.
Competing teams launched oranges and colored balls at a target, and with a larger machine Google built for demonstration purposes, squashes, melons and bags of flour.
"We're playing real-life Angry Birds," said Eric Wages, data center operations manager, referring to the iPhone and Android game in which angry birds are flung at pigs.
The Citadel Cadet Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers won the trophy for the best of the college and professional teams.
They used an Android cellphone, a computer the size of a credit card and a Blue Tooth receiver to trigger the wooden weapon, known as a trebuchet, during the first "Storm the Citadel Trebuchet Competition" in Charleston over the weekend.
The trebuchet was used during medieval times to break down fortifications.
"They also threw dead people," said Dennis Fallon, dean of engineering at The Citadel, a military college with about 2,100 male and female cadets. "What we have done in military history is not always something to be proud of."
More powerful than the ballistas and catapults of ancient empires, the trebuchet used a long swing arm, triggered by the pull of gravity on a counterweight placed at the other end, to slingshot its payload into the air.
The brutal weapon played a large part in the medieval Crusades. According to histories of the time, Richard the Lionheart called his best weapon "Malvoisine." Edward I supposedly brought about the surrender of Scotland's Sterling Castle in 1304 with a giant trebuchet named "Warwolf."
The trebuchet made a comeback in the late 20th century among medievalists, college professors and fans of the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" in which a cow is hurled over a castle wall.
In the 1990s in Britain, armament enthusiast Hew Kennedy built a massive machine on his Shropshire estate and used it to throw compact cars and flaming pianos across his field.
Saturday's competition was sponsored by Google during The Citadel's National Engineering Week to support science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs in the schools, local employees said.
In November 2009, President Barack Obama announced a major initiative to support STEM education over the next decade to keep Americans globally competitive in innovation and technology.
South Carolina high school students competed along with engineering majors and corporate teams in designing, building and firing the trebuchets.
"There's a lot of engineering principles involved. There's a lot of math principles involved. And it's just fun," said Jeff Stevenson, a manager at the Google Data Center in nearby Berkeley County.
Competing teams launched oranges and colored balls at a target, and with a larger machine Google built for demonstration purposes, squashes, melons and bags of flour.
"We're playing real-life Angry Birds," said Eric Wages, data center operations manager, referring to the iPhone and Android game in which angry birds are flung at pigs.
The Citadel Cadet Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers won the trophy for the best of the college and professional teams.
Camera prettifies subjects, even adds "makeup"
Photos are everything for Yuka Obara, a well-known Japanese blogger who insists anything showing her online be picture-perfect -- especially because it's hard these days to delete poor-quality photos once on the web.
The 20-year-old Obara, known by her online profile Yunkoro, has honed her art for four years in line with Japan's cult of the "kawaii" or cute, which has given rise to creative profile picture-taking.
Yunkoro, for example, has lots of advice on how to photograph taking photos so the subjects look honey-eyed and candy-sweet using everyday items such as hand-held mirrors and curtains.
"My blogs are there for people to see, so to have something to show I am quite particular about photos," she said, adding that in the past she has had as many as 1.1 million hits a day.
"I have many points I obsess over when it comes to taking pictures of myself or an object."
Though Yunkoro is proud of her photographic skill, additional help has arrived on the scene from Japanese electronics maker Panasonic Corp -- a camera that can brush up, clean up and even put make-up on the subject's face.
The LUMIX FX77, released last Friday, has a "beauty re-touch" function that will whiten your teeth, increase the translucency of your skin, remove dark eye circles, make your face look smaller and even magnify the size of your eyes.
For the final touch, it will apply rouge, lipstick and even eye shadow.
There has been huge customer demand for such a product, said Akiko Enoki, a Panasonic project manager in charge of developing the camera.
"According to data we've acquired, around 50 percent of our digital camera clients are not satisfied with the way their faces look in a photograph," she said.
"So we came up with the idea so our clients can fix parts they don't like about their faces after they've taken the picture."
With the digital camera market saturated, Panasonic hopes the current craze for social networking and blogs that has swept Japan and the world will help lift their product's fortunes.
The new camera has already been a hit at Bic Camera, a discount electronics retailer, which was allowed to sell the camera a week before the official launch date.
"It's very popular among people who use pictures in their blogs, or those taking just one commemorative photo that they need to be flawless," said Hiromi Honma, a Bic Camera sales representative.
Profile picture mavens such as Yunkoro are looking forward to the camera, but she said that there are certain tricks of the trade that technology can never replace.
"If your cheeks look too wide in a photograph, you can place your hands on your cheeks so it hides them, and it will have the effect of making your face look much smaller," she added.
The 20-year-old Obara, known by her online profile Yunkoro, has honed her art for four years in line with Japan's cult of the "kawaii" or cute, which has given rise to creative profile picture-taking.
Yunkoro, for example, has lots of advice on how to photograph taking photos so the subjects look honey-eyed and candy-sweet using everyday items such as hand-held mirrors and curtains.
"My blogs are there for people to see, so to have something to show I am quite particular about photos," she said, adding that in the past she has had as many as 1.1 million hits a day.
"I have many points I obsess over when it comes to taking pictures of myself or an object."
Though Yunkoro is proud of her photographic skill, additional help has arrived on the scene from Japanese electronics maker Panasonic Corp -- a camera that can brush up, clean up and even put make-up on the subject's face.
The LUMIX FX77, released last Friday, has a "beauty re-touch" function that will whiten your teeth, increase the translucency of your skin, remove dark eye circles, make your face look smaller and even magnify the size of your eyes.
For the final touch, it will apply rouge, lipstick and even eye shadow.
There has been huge customer demand for such a product, said Akiko Enoki, a Panasonic project manager in charge of developing the camera.
"According to data we've acquired, around 50 percent of our digital camera clients are not satisfied with the way their faces look in a photograph," she said.
"So we came up with the idea so our clients can fix parts they don't like about their faces after they've taken the picture."
With the digital camera market saturated, Panasonic hopes the current craze for social networking and blogs that has swept Japan and the world will help lift their product's fortunes.
The new camera has already been a hit at Bic Camera, a discount electronics retailer, which was allowed to sell the camera a week before the official launch date.
"It's very popular among people who use pictures in their blogs, or those taking just one commemorative photo that they need to be flawless," said Hiromi Honma, a Bic Camera sales representative.
Profile picture mavens such as Yunkoro are looking forward to the camera, but she said that there are certain tricks of the trade that technology can never replace.
"If your cheeks look too wide in a photograph, you can place your hands on your cheeks so it hides them, and it will have the effect of making your face look much smaller," she added.
Judge lends accused gangster tie for trial
An accused gangster nicknamed "Vinny Gorgeous" became even more dapper on Tuesday when the judge in his murder trial lent him a tie after jailers had refused him one.
Vincent Basciano is charged with murder and racketeering, crimes he allegedly committed on behalf of the Bonanno crime family in 2004, according to court documents.
Basciano, known for his sartorial style, appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court for jury selection without a tie. His discomfort was quickly noted by Judge Nicholas Garaufis, who lent him his own tie, said defense attorney George Goltzer.
The judge had previously allowed Basciano's family to supply him with a suit, socks and shoes for the trial, but a jail employee apparently read the order too literally and refused to permit a tie, Goltzer said.
"It's much ado about nothing now," Goltzer said. "The jail perhaps didn't accept ties but it's been resolved now. It was a simple misunderstanding with the parties that were involved."
He said the judge even suggested Basciano hold onto the tie until the end of the trial.
Vincent Basciano is charged with murder and racketeering, crimes he allegedly committed on behalf of the Bonanno crime family in 2004, according to court documents.
Basciano, known for his sartorial style, appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court for jury selection without a tie. His discomfort was quickly noted by Judge Nicholas Garaufis, who lent him his own tie, said defense attorney George Goltzer.
The judge had previously allowed Basciano's family to supply him with a suit, socks and shoes for the trial, but a jail employee apparently read the order too literally and refused to permit a tie, Goltzer said.
"It's much ado about nothing now," Goltzer said. "The jail perhaps didn't accept ties but it's been resolved now. It was a simple misunderstanding with the parties that were involved."
He said the judge even suggested Basciano hold onto the tie until the end of the trial.
California woman sues after slipping on banana peel
A banana peel, the torment of many a cartoon character, has allegedly become the real-life downfall of a woman in California.
Ida Valentine, 58, is suing the 99 Cents Only store where she slipped on one last April.
She said that she suffered a herniated disk and tissue damage, spent $9,000 on medical bills and is seeking an unspecified amount in damages.
"She fell and landed on her backside," said Courtney Mikolaj of the Quirk Law Firm in Ventura, California, which is representing her.
Mikolaj said the 99 Cents Only store in Fontana, California, refused a proposed settlement of $44,000. Executives from the company, a deep-discount retailer with hundreds of stores in western states, were not immediately available for comment.
The image in popular culture of an unwary pedestrian tripping head over heels on a banana peel stems from the late 19th century, when bananas were a popular street food in American cities and the press portrayed them as a public nuisance.
In 1879, Harper's Weekly groused that "whosoever throws banana skins on the sidewalk does a great unkindness to the public, and is quite likely to be responsible for a broken limb."
Ida Valentine, 58, is suing the 99 Cents Only store where she slipped on one last April.
She said that she suffered a herniated disk and tissue damage, spent $9,000 on medical bills and is seeking an unspecified amount in damages.
"She fell and landed on her backside," said Courtney Mikolaj of the Quirk Law Firm in Ventura, California, which is representing her.
Mikolaj said the 99 Cents Only store in Fontana, California, refused a proposed settlement of $44,000. Executives from the company, a deep-discount retailer with hundreds of stores in western states, were not immediately available for comment.
The image in popular culture of an unwary pedestrian tripping head over heels on a banana peel stems from the late 19th century, when bananas were a popular street food in American cities and the press portrayed them as a public nuisance.
In 1879, Harper's Weekly groused that "whosoever throws banana skins on the sidewalk does a great unkindness to the public, and is quite likely to be responsible for a broken limb."
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