Tabloid Edition

In the rooms

In the rooms is a phrase from the drug, alcohol and other addictions treatment world. Instead of stating, when meeting someone that you met in such a program or meeting "Hey, I met you at AA" or the like you are supposed to say that you met them "in the rooms". Just one of those little linguistic stylings which help to make the world go around really. However,InTheRooms is also the name of a website dealing with the same issues. And they've come up with a very cunning plan to use this new internet technology.

If you're moving about, or even if you're in a big city, it can be very difficult to find out when the various meetings actually are. The support groups, the AA meetings, the AlAnon, NarcAnon and so on. So what they've decided to do is to set up a wiki site so that we the public can add meetings that we know about. The more do this the better the resource becomes for those who either want or need to fnd a group in a specific place and time. If this is all part of your world why not add what you know to InTheRooms Meetings: you may well help someone in need and it could also be that you'll be aided at some point by the resource.

OK Magazine Michael Jackson cover picture

OK magazine carries a Michael Jackson picture cover this issue. Nothing unusual in that. It's just that the Michael Jackson picture cover chosen is actually one of the last photos of Jackson. While he's dying.

Or, if we're to be more accurate about it, after he's dead and while his body is arriving at the hospital.

As the First Post says:

OK! magazine has been trying to defend the controversial use on its cover of "the last picture" of Michael Jackson, showing him lying on a stretcher, possibly already dead. The magazine is reported to have paid $500,000 for the photo, to the disgust of many fans.

Gaining tax relief

The tax code is now so complex that it's simply not possible for each of us, as individuals, to keep up with it. There's just no way that we can read all of the tens of thousands of pages and make sure that we're making use of all hte get outs and clauses which are there to reduce our tax burden. Similarly, there's no way we can make sure that we're not using too many of them and thus underpaying. That's why we all need to use tax experts to make sure that we don't pay too much (which we wouldn't like) nor too little, which we definitely wouldn't like when the IRS comes after us.

This is where experts like Tax Relief come in. They help us navigate through the horros of the complexities of the system.

And it's not just in the paying of taxes of course. One of the fast growing crimes is identity theft: not just to try and gain access to your bank accounts and so on, but as a way for others not to pay taxes. They take your social security number and claim they are you: they then get paid for the work they do. However, you then end up being liable for the taxes that they should have, but did not, pay.

This sort of horror story is becoming more common and it's one of the ways in which Tax Relief can help you. See here at Yahoo news for more on how they can indeed do that.

Kevin Jonas engaged

Kevin Jonas has just got engaged to his girlfriend, Danielle Deleasa.

OK, fine, pop star hooks up with hottie is hardly an unusual story. However, there's some consternation about why Kevin Jonas might get engaged at the age of only 21. Sure, he's rich, famous and all the rest, but he's still only 21.

See here for the sort of confusion that Kevn Jonas is causing. Why so yound indeed?

Erm, because Kevin Jonas has taken that silver ring thing pledge, he wears a purity ring. You know, the be virgin until marriage idea? That might be a good idea, might be a bad one but it does indeed help to explain why Kevin Jonas has got engaged so young and might indeed get married young.

Rich, famous, decent looking: but he's 21 and and male for goodness sake. He wants to get his end away. Thus marriage.

Not that tough a thought.

Air mattresses

What with the vacation season coming up, us going away to camp maybe, others coming to see us at our house, it might be time to think about an air mattress or two. You never know when they'll come in useful. But which type, of all the variations, to buy? Fortunately, there's a guide to air beds available. Simply click through to see reviews of the different types and makes available.

Useful stuff if an air bed is something you think you might need.

Kidd Kraddick Divorce

Not sure why there's all this fuss about Kidd Kraddick's divorce. Kraddick divorced back in April 2008 and the actual announcement was in August 2009. The idea was to keep it all under wraps until their child had gone off to college I think.

Anyway, there is one amusement to be had from the story of Kidd Kraddick's divorce: it's shown up the news gathering skills of a site called "A Pakistan News". They've got, as here, adverts plastered all over the place. But they make nt even the slightest pretence at trying to write something relevant.

They've spotted that Kidd Kraddick is in the Google Trends list, then simply copied the entire Wikipedia entry to their site.

Way to go lads!

Finding the right web host

Aswe all know, if you're going to do anything in either business or culture these days you need to have a presence upon the web. This means in turn that you're going to have to get your web hosting sorted out.

The problem here is that there are literally thousands of people who can do this for you and they all have slightly different offers. Do you need lots of free tools to construct your site? Is uptime and reliability of more importance to you? Is the amount of data you can store? Or whether they will back up your site? Maybe it's bandwidth?

Well, there's a great site that can help you through all of these problems over which host to use. First, work out which of the various alternatives are actually what you need. Speed? Reliability? price or something else?

Then search through the relevant sections to find which hosts specialise in those areas you need. For example, here's the managed hosting section, the people who can help you directly in the management of your host. Or the Windows hosting section if you're going to be hosting your site on Windows rather than Linux.

Whatever are the criteria you need and you'll judge a hosting company by the site can help you narrow down to those who provide exactly those things.

Rick Astley, dead or what?

This was rather amusing this morning, well, amusing in a rather macabre manner.

Given the way in which celebrities seem to be falling off their perches at the moment someone created a quite official looking AP report (usingthe name of a well known AP reporter) and posted it up on the CNN site. The report stated that Rick Astley had died in Germany.

This of course had the search engines buzzing. But, as above, it was a fake AP report. The easiest way to check that was to look at the actual AP feed, where it didn't appear.

As far as I know, the only newspaper (as opposed to blog) that got taken in was on in Malaysia. Way to check the facts, guys!

Online backup

I have to say that this looks like a pretty good deal. You can get a fully featured 2 GB of online back up for free. If you need more space than that then 150 GB is only $4.95 a month for personal use, or 50GB business plans start at $9.95.

The basic idea is simple: instead of having to back up your computer yourself and then working out where to keep those back ups safely, simply set up the system and make sure you have automatic ones over the internet as often as you need. Smple, safe and secure: and also, as you can see, remarkably cheap. Online Backup an idea whose time really seems to have come. Click through that link to see what they can do for you.

And yes, it works with both Windows and Mac. This is what it all looks like:

Bernie Madoff sentencing

Well, this isn't exactly the world's greatest surprise Bernie Madoff has been sentenced to the full 150 years that the prosecutors were demanding.

It's not all that much of a surprise for Madoff had already pleaded guilty to running the world's largest ever financial scam. Some estimates put the losses at as much as $50 billion (although others point out that this entails double counting).

He was running a Ponzi scheme: promising high returns to investors but instead of paying these from profits he was simply paying old investors from new money flowing into the fund. Not a new game and not a clever one: but his was larger and longer running than any of the others.

Singles and the internet

We all know that in this modern world it's difficult to find someone who shares your interests, someone to share your life with. Society is so fractured that it's incredibly difficult to actually meet someone.

Of course, where there is a need, a supply rises up, leading to the hundreds (if not thousands) of dating and singles sites on the web. However, there we have a problem in itself, for which of the matchmaking websites should you try to use? There's no point in spending time on a site that doesn't cater to your interests, after all.

Fortunately, once again, demand creates supply, and there's a site out there which reviews the different singles sites for you, so that you can check that you are indeed going to find whatever it is that you're looking for on them. For example, the eHarmony review makes quite clear that the site is for those looking for a long term relationship, possibly leading to marriage. The Friendfinder description concentrates rather more on how the system works, making it easy for others to find you based upon your description. The review of Lavalife however, details that it caters to both intimate and casual encounters: so if that's what you're looking for rather than the leading to marriage option of some of the others perhaps that's where you should go.

But then that's the point of the site, to let you know what the various services are like before you try them.

Zoey Zane

Zoey Zane was leading a double life. On the net, she was Zoey Zane, the porn star. By day, she was Emily Sander, an 18 year old student at a community college. Now she's missing and as yet, no one is quite sure whether it's to do with Zoey Zane or Emily Sander.

Please note this is a repost. From the archives, what we said about the case at the time.

A missing Kansas college student believed to be the victim of foul play apparently led a double life as an Internet porn star by the name of Zoey Zane.

Nude photos of 18-year-old Emily Sander appeared on a Zoey Zane website before she vanished, and investigators were looking into whether her modeling had anything to do with her disappearance Friday.

Sander's brother, Jacob, confirmed that the nude woman pictured on the site is his sister.

A fuller report:

A missing Kansas college student believed to be the victim of foul play apparently led a double life as an Internet porn star by the name of Zoey Zane.

Nude photos of 18-year-old Emily Sander appeared on a Zoey Zane website before she vanished, and investigators are looking into whether her modeling had anything to do with her disappearance last Friday.

"She enjoyed it. She is a young teenage girl and she wanted to be in the movies and enjoyed movies. She needed the extra money," Nikki Watson, a close friend of Sander's at Butler Community College, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "Nobody in El Dorado knew besides her close friends."

From this report it appears that the Zoey Zane part of her life had nothing to do with it. She was at a bar (at 18?) and met someone there:

An 18 year-old Kansas college student missing since Friday night may have been leading a double life as a porn star under the name Zoey Zane. Emily Sander, a student at Butler County Community College in El Dorado, was last seen leaving a bar just before midnight on Friday. Now it seems that Sander may have been working as an internet porn actress, though a close friend does not believe this is connected to her disappearance.

The search continued on Wednesday for Sander, who was spotted Friday night leaving the Retreat bar with a 24 year-old man by the name of Israel Mireles. According to report on WOAI.com, evidence found in a hotel room formerly occupied by Mireles has prompted police to believe something violent occurred involving Sanders in the room. ABC News reports local authorities are asking the community to keep an eye out for a flower-patterned sheet missing from the hotel.   

The Wichita Eagle reports a witness who saw the hotel room stated there was "a lot" of blood on a bed and carpet in the room. Motel owner Isaac Patel said a window beside the door in the room had been broken and the telephone wire appeared to be possibly cut.   

"We have found some evidence that Emily may have been the victim of a violent crime," Justin Phillips of the El Dorado, Kansas, police department told ABC News on Tuesday. "They are still processing that and have been for the last two days."

Mireles, meanwhile, has also vanished along with his 16 year-old pregnant girlfriend, Victoria Martens. The couple's rental car was found abandoned in Vernon, Texas and police believe they may be headed for Mexico. Sander's vehicle was left at the Retreat bar and is being processed for clues to her disappearance.

A report from the Houston Chronicle today suggests that Emily Sander may have been working as an internet porn star under the name Zoey Zane. Photos of Zoey Zane seen on YourDailyGirls.com resemble the missing college student and Nikki Watson, a friend of Sander's told the Associated Press that the two were indeed the same person. "She enjoyed it. She is a young teenage girl and she wanted to be in the movies… she needed the extra money," Watson told the AP.

She told her parents about being on the porn site over Thanksgiving, just a few days ago.

According to Watson, Emily Sander had recently signed a contract for the site, and told her parents about it over Thanksgiving. She also said that she had told her boyfriend, and that they had broken up because he did not approve.

That would have been a trying conversation....but nowhere near the pain her parents must be going through now.

Update: Saturday 1 Dec. It looks as if the worst has in fact happened. Police think they have found Emily's body:

And reaction from her classmates:

And a wire report:

Maria Belen Chapur pictures

So, the Maria Belen Chapur photos have finally surfaced.

Or, at least, what are claimed to be pictures of Maria Belen Chapur have.

So if you'd like to find out more about the woman who swept Mark Sanford off his feet, you can go have a look. Of course, what we don't quite know yet is whether Mark Sanford swept Maria Belen Chapur off her feet. Perhaps we'll have to wait a bit to find that out.

Office trailers and house trailers

You might think that there's little difference between an office trailer and a house trailer. You could, if you needed an office, just park up a mobile home and use it, right?

Well, if you thought that way you would be wrong. Check out this Office Trailers Philadelphia page to see why. If you're going to use a trailer as a place of work then it has to meet all of the laws about places of work. You might need steps to conform with OSHA regulations, handicapped ramps for ADA.

That's not all of course, you'd prefer to have an office trailer that came equipped with plan tables and all of the other things you know you'll need, right?

So click through that link to see what you can get from the professionals: exactly what you need and desire.

Michael Jackson dies

Michael Jackson dies as a result of a heart attack in his LA home.

That's the news that is flooding the internet at the moment.

In fact, it's said that the surge through the search engines for "Michael Jackson dies" was so huge that Google for the first half an hour thought it was a denial of service attack.

You know it's got to be a huge surge when they are worried about servers getting overwhelmed.

The site which first broke the news about Michael Jackson's death, TMZ certainly went down for a time.

One reason why people were searching online, on blogs and the rest, is because the major news organisations were wary of this being another romour, the sort that has always swarmed around Jackson.