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Man behind WWW finally gets his due (Go To Top)

          London: The man behind the World Wide Web will finally get his due now. According to The Daily Mail, though many scientists were involved with the development of the internet, Tim Berners-Lee was the one who came up with the idea of connecting the world through internet. However, as he refused to get it patented so that everyone could have free access to the web, he missed out on the kind of fortunes that many dotcom millionaires earned.

Guy Ritchie is writing a book to demystify Kabbalah (Go To Top)

          London: Pop diva Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie are leaving no stone unturned to promote the Jewish faith of Kabbalah around the world. After Madonna announced that she was writing a children's book on Kabbalah, Ritchie has also decided to pen a book on the religion. According to The Sun, the book will be called "Callaway" and is based on a spiritual trip the "Snatch" director took to Israel last year with Madonna. In the book, which Ritchie hopes to launch this summer, the protagonist follows a path to enlightenment through the teachings of Kabbalah. "Guy has taken to Kabbalah just as much as his wife. The book is his effort at telling people about the scientific side to Kabbalah teachings and how it changed his life for the better. Madonna has been giving him pointers on his writing style and she is helping him research the content but friends are concerned this obsession with Kabbalah is going too far," the report quoted an insider as saying.

40 stranded Indians in Singapore settle for half (Go To Top)

         Singapore: It was a far from merry trip to Singapore for 40 Indian stranded workers. Battling to get their arrears for the last six months, they finally settled for a return of 50 percent of the total amount owed after protracted negotiations with the management of Hup Xing Building and Civil Construction. The Straits Times quoted officials of the Ministry of Manpower here as saying that the Indian workers would be returning home by the end of this week. "We hope to send them all back by the end of this week," Hup Xing's director, Liew Nyit, 40, was also quoted as saying. Nyit had earlier admitted that Hup Xing owed the workers a total of 43,000 dollars in salary, but said the firm could not pay up because of financial troubles. Hup Xing was sub-contracted to do reinforced concrete works for the stretch of Kallang/Paya Lebar Expressway from Nicoll Highway to the Pan-Island Expressway. The main contractor is SembCorp- Daewoo Joint Venture. At the Manpower Ministry on Monday, SembCorp Engineers and Constructors undertook to pay each worker 20 per cent of what is owed, and Hup Xing will pay each man a flat 150 dollars. All the workers signed agreements to this effect.

After bottom etc, it's chest hair insurance (Go To Top)

          London: After voice, taste buds , bottoms and legs, it is the turn of chest hair to get insured. According to The Telegraph, underwriters at Lloyd's of London have come up with the ultimate celebrity cover ,chest hair insurance. Lloyd's which prides itself for covering risks that other insurers will not touch, devised the unique policy after receiving a call from the agent of an unnamed celebrity. The policy provides men with a cover of up to 1 million pounds for permanent loss of chest hair caused by accident. To be able to claim the insurance amount, the victim must have lost 85 per cent of chest hair and that has to be verified by two independent experts. Loss through illness or the hair simply falling out is not covered. Jonathan Thomas, of Lloyd's managing agency Creechurch, which last year insured the taste buds of Angela Mount, the senior wine taster at Somerfield supermarkets, for 10 million pounds, came up with the idea. "It is the oddest I can remember. It is for performers who require the impression of manliness," Thomas was quoted as saying. Hair loss from nuclear contamination, terrorism, mass destruction, war, invasion, or revolution is not covered, nor is the loss from skin-diving, hunting on horseback, or hang-gliding. Fire-eaters are also excluded.

Inhaler leads to faster erection in men (Go To Top)

         London: Men who have difficulty getting an erection could soon use an inhaler to help them improve their sex lives. According to the BBC, British scientists at Vectura are trying to put the active ingredients of an anti-impotence drug into an inhaler. The researchers believe that breathing in the drug, rather than swallowing it, will enable men to get an erection more quickly. The inhaler, which at the moment is called VR004, has proved very effective in early clinical trials. The active ingredient in VR004 is apomorphine hydrochloride, which has been available in Europe for the treatment of erectile dysfunction since 2001 as Uprima. The drug works by activating nerve cells in the brain that are linked to sexual response. These dopamine receptors help regulate the nerve signals which allow a man to achieve an erection The researchers recently carried out tests on 35 men with mild to moderate erectile dysfunction and found that the drug helped 59 per cent of these men to get an erection. In fact, most of the men achieved an erection within eight minutes and three in ten responded within three minutes of inhaling the drug. Non of theme reported serious side effects. Vectura is now planning to carry out further tests to see if a higher dose could benefit more men. "We want to see how far we can take the dosage. We are hoping to start that trial later this year," the report quoted Chris Blackwell, chief executive of Vectura, as saying. Dr Ian Banks, president of the European Men's Health Forum, welcomed the breakthrough research. "This does appear to act very quickly," he said. "One of the things you need for good sex is spontaneity and anything that enables men to act spontaneously has to be a good thing," added Banks.

Brit teenager offers virginity for 6000 pounds on Internet (Go To Top)

         London: David Vardy, a British teenager has put his virginity up for sale on the Internet for 6,000 pounds. According to The Sun, David was inspired to sell his virginity from lesbian Rosie Reid's sex auction in March. He has already received dozens of e-mails from interested women around the world. David, a multi-media and communications student at Bournemouth University, first advertised his virginity on eBay. He had more than 7,000 hits before the site pulled the plug because the ad was sexual and provocative. David has asked women for bids of more than 6,000 pounds and he has already received eight offers, with the top bid at 6,114 pounds. David said that he will donate 1,000 pounds to charity if his 'virginity sale' is successful. "I've never had a serious girlfriend and have never had sex. I have been wrapped up in multi-media projects since I was a teenager so I haven't had time," the report quoted David as saying. "But saying that, I don't want to sound a geek. The ideal situation would be if it was a really nice woman. I hope it will be enjoyable," he added.

Jordan can't keep clothes when doing photo shoot (Go To Top)

          London: It seems that Jordan is really fond of flaunting her top. According to The Mirror, the model was recently hired to front the Euro 2004 edition of a new boys magazine which is a sort of mini-Loaded for 12- to 14-year old boys and despite repeated requests she refused to keep her clothes on. "She didn't seem to understand that our magazine was aimed at young lads. We wanted her to pose in an England football shirt with a couple of footballs - unfortunately she seemed desperate to get her clothes off for the pics," a source was quoted as saying. "She made a real deal about the whole thing, and kept asking if she could go topless. It was terrible. We're not that type of magazine. We can't have naked women in a publication for young boys," the source added. Reportedly, Jordan, eventually agreed to the snaps but "not until there had been a lot of very loud complaining."