Peterbe.com

But so does poking needles in at random places. Basically, this article talks of a study that proved that acupuncture does work to treat headaches.

"The Cochrane reviews involved a total of 6,736 patients, who were given acupuncture to prevent either mild to moderate "tension" headaches, or migraine attacks.

Following a course of at least eight weeks, acupuncture patients suffered fewer headaches than those given only painkillers."

That's interesting. So it is better than painkillers. But like my colleague Shane said "I bet it's because it's so relaxing to take a break and sit down and get the treatment unlike painkillers where you don't stop". The report continues

"The scientist leading the review said the results showed that putting needles into particular locations might not be that important."

If you're wondering. I take neither painkillers or acupuncture and I personally think both western and eastern medicine has merits.

A hard blow for the condom manufacturing business

"Abstract In a sample of sexually active college females, condom use, as an indirect measure of the presence of semen in the reproductive tract, was related to scores on the Beck Depression Inventory. Not only were females who were having sex without condoms less depressed, but depressive symptoms and suicide attempts among females who used condoms were proportional to the consistency of condom use. For females who did not use condoms, depression scores went up as the amount of time since their last sexual encounter increased. These data are consistent with the possibility that semen may antagonize depressive symptoms and evidence which shows that the vagina absorbs a number of components of semen that can be detected in the bloodstream within a few hours of administration."

No, I didn't read the paper. Just the abstract.

Is the story about Jesus in the bible just a serious case of plagiarism. Yes is the answer if you acknowledge the fact that the story of Horus came first; and that it did.

"Stories from the life of Horus had been circulating for centuries before Jesus birth (circa 4 to 7 BCE). If any copying occurred by the writers of the Egyptian or Christian religions, it was the followers of Jesus who incorporated into his biography the myths and legends of Horus, not vice-versa."

It's quite shocking read actually. I don't believe in the Bible or the character they call Jesus but if I did and studied the story of Horus I'd right now feel pretty damn pranked.

Is it just me or is this just another proof that the film "Wall·E":http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/ predicts the future, ie. that a couple of generations from now we'll be fat, lazy and living in space.

What's interesting about this article is that they even mention Chinese people become obese. I've heard it before, that other Europeans are getting Obese too but now it's Chinas turn to get some blame light.

"In Mexico, nobody was overweight 15 years ago; now 71 percent of Mexican women and 66 percent of men are."

Naughty Christmas fun

UPDATE

The original video is gone, but this one is fun

I'm not a comic book kinda guy at all and I don't know who half of these costumes are supposed to be but it's nevertheless very impressive. Looking through the thumbnails you spot a couple of people who seem to take it very seriously but a large majority seem to just enjoy themselves. Just goes to show that people always like to dress up.

Booking and finding timetables for trains here in the UK sucks. The worst, for me, is when you don't know which London station certain destinations start from. For example, if you're going to take the train to Aberdeen, do those starts start from Victoria, Kings Cross, St Pancras, Paddington, Euston, Liverpool street or London Bridge? Sometimes you even have to know which train company to use!

Accessible UK Train Timetable seems like a great website to remedy this. You can enter a search for something like "London" to "Aberdeen" and it magically works out that Kings Cross is the London station you have to tube yourself to. They've also got this great map which I haven't fully understood yet but seems work. The URLs when you do a search become really friendly too. For example:

http://traintimes.org.uk/london/aberdeen/10:00/2008-09-03

...when I've done a search for London to Aberdeen today. And if you want a timetable that isn't for a particular day just change the URL to this:

http://traintimes.org.uk/london/aberdeen/10:00/

One last thing. Several months ago I found another website for booking trains and finding timetables. It had a blue background I think and was almost equally user-friendly. Only problem is that I can't find it again or remember what it was called. But I think I'll stick with traintimes.org.uk for now.

Here's a great blog tip: Weird Asia News, China, Japan, Korea | Offbeat, Strange, Odd, Crazy, Engrish

It's a constantly updated blog about all things weird happening in Asia. After a quick look it seems most of the entries are about China and Japan but that's fine. I'm definitely bookmarking this on on my Netvibes

It helped me find this awesome documentary about North Korea by VBS.tv. Do check it out.

My good friend Chris West has finally launched his blog

Chris is not a designer or hacker but he's done the design himself and learnt Django to be able to code it. I haven't helped at all other than listening which has just meant that he's discovered the solution himself.

I think the site looks great and has a unique feel to it and very user-friendly. There is a really interesting blog post about olympic superstitions that you should read.

Back in 2004 I used to sometimes read a blog called My Secret Life As A Prostitute which was both sexy, sobering and kind of educational. That blog was also a callgirl who wrote about her work-experiences, sex life in general and problems she had with her boyfriend. Sadly that blog disappeared suddenly. Perhaps the girl who wrote it got "discovered". By that I might mean that a colleague of hers at some investment bank found out what she was spending so much time on in her lunch breaks. Jokes aside, it's hard to tell if this is for real or just made up based on someone's fantasy of being an escort girl. Sometimes the blog gets very technical to the point that it's hard to imagine her not being a real call girl.

As I'm skimming through this new blog I find that it's so similar to the one I was skimming back in 2004. She's very blunt and has the same sense of humor and just like the 2004 blog every now and then, as she describes her encounters/jobs she also describes how she herself gets off on it.

Another similarity is that reading this gives the same feeling of shame of reading it. I'm obviously not so ashamed that I can't confess that I'm reading up it does feel a bit intimate and "dirty" at the same time. It's like reading an Bret Easton Ellis book which is sold in respectable normal bookshops but whose content is sometimes worse than porn.

And for people who've seen Flight of the Concordes, check out this post