Lis Sowerbutts Her Views

Google Launches Knol

Lissie — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:53:16 +0000

The long awaited Google’s answer to Knol has been launched. The Knol project is out of private beta and now anyone with a gmail account aka as anyone can start their own knol. So WTF is a knol? Its a just a “unit of knowledge” what most of the rest of us would call an article or even a blog post! Nothing that special but its a interesting thing Google has done with the Knol concept.
Basicallya knol is a combination of the wikipedia concept and sites such as Squidoo or Hubpages which are revenue sharing user content sites. A Knol allows coorpoeration and multiple authors. It supports academic things such as references and automatic revision control - nice! Unlike Wikipedia there is a named definitlve author who may choose to have reviews and co-authors or not. The community cannot chhange a published knol - unless the author allows it.
The author can reserve the full-copyright too. There is also revenue sharing - with adsense of course - though there is no mention that I could find as to the percentage of that sharing a bit of glaring admission that!
You would have to think that knols are going to do well in the google search-engine ratings - being that they are on a sub-domain of google.com Check it lknol out at

Life Sold on eBay

Lissie — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:51:02 +0000

Ian Usher has sold his life on eBay for nearly A$400,000. Ian Usher is an Englishman who emigrated to Perth, Australia 5 years ago. When his marriage failed he decided to sell the lot: the house, the car, the jet ski, his kite-surfing gear and body boards. The winner will get access to Ian Usher’s friends and also even get a trial at his job in rug shop!
I’ve heard of clean breaks and Ian Usher is certainly made that. The reality though of course he hasn’t really been making the best decisions: $400,000 is pretty cheap for house in southern Perth, he probably would have got more for the house with a traditional auction and then sold the rest off on eBay. Anyone who is suffering from a traumatic life event such as divorce really should delay making serious life-changing decisions until they are over the shock. Ian Usher claims that he still wants to live in Australia but doesn’t really know what he wants to do. Now he is the position of not knowing what to do and living off his capital. Rumour has it that hollywood is interested in the film rights so it might work out well in the end

Modern Banks: My take

Lissie — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:49:09 +0000

What is a modern bank ? What do I look for in a modern bank ? Well there has to be a decent range of credit cards and other bank services. To me it’s really important to have a credit card which includes a smart chip for improved security
I like to have a couple of credit cards one which is low interest for the debit that I don’t pay off in full each month. For a revolving credit facility its best to have a card which gives you the lowest rate of interest: even if it involves if you have to pay a slightly higher annual fee.
I also like to have a no-fee credit card - which is something that most modern banks will offer you. Usually the deal is that you must pay the amount in full each month; even 1 day late will lead to large late fees and charges so you are best to setup an automatic payment for this type of low fee credit card.
Which means of course that any modern bank should be able to offer me on-line and phone banking. In fact once Internet banking came in I hardly use phone banking except for the odd complex transaction. My current bank even allows me to make international transfers from my laptop while paying the lowest fees.
Its important to act responsibly with a credit card and one of the nasty banking practices I think is the unsolicited credit card or un-solicited credit increase. I had one card a number of years ago that I got from bank which wasn’t my normal bank. They gave me a Visa credit card because I was a member of a frequent flyer program. They had no idea what I earned or what I owed and the card initially had a low credit card limit. I used the credit card because it gave me frequent flyer miles Every frew months I’d get a letter saying that my credit limit had been raised. After several years we got to $18,000: remember they had no idea what I earned; if anything. At that point I called and drpped the limit as I knew it would be included when I applied for a mortgage: except for that I would have continued the experiment just to see how high they would go! I am just thankful with a modern bank I never actually go into a branch

Justin L. McCain

Lissie — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:13:42 +0000

Justin L. McCain is in the news because the 18 year old married “her” partner Antonio E. Blount. Justin L. McCain married Antonio as “Justine”; officials missed that her driver’s license reflected is birth gender of male.

The couple married in Virginia which does not acknowledge same-sex marriages. The reality is that states and countries which don’t recognize same-sex marriages or unions then they don’t only discriminate against same-sex couples but also transgendered people. The old laws are all built on the assumption that people come in two types: no not black or white much more basic than that. Our whole Western society is built around the idea that people are born one sex and die the same sex. Not all societies assume that people stay the sex that they were born as. Both Asia and the Pacific Island societies don’t have the same taboos. The “lady-boys” of Thailand aren’t a product of the Vietnam war or Western imperialism in the region. Nope the concept of boys who became feminine at puberty is recognized and accepted in the society. In Samoa if a family doesn’t have a daughter its a problem because one of the daughter’s roles is traditionally to look after her parents in their old age. Its not uncommon for one of the son’s to become a transgender female to take that role.

George Carlin Dies

Lissie — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:19:13 +0000

George Carlin dies at 71 from heart related problem in Los Angeles. George Carlin became know as the anti-establishment comedian of the 1970’s especially for his stand-up comedy full of references to drugs and using “rude words”
Its surprising that there weren’t more great comedian born of the 60’s and 70’s the era is really more remembered for its impact on music than on comedy but George Carlin was clearly an exception to this. Its always sad when one of the commentators on society passes: we need more people who are prepared to stand outside of society and poke fun at us. I firmly believe if you can’t laugh at something then its a pretty feable institution. We should always be able to laugh at the big things in life: death, religion, government, politics, war.
George Carlin has some great one liners but the one I think is most appropriate here is

I’m always relieved when someone is delivering a eulogy and I realize I’m listening to it. - George Carlin

Crouzon’s syndrome

Lissie — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:02:01 +0000

Crouzon’s syndrome is a rare genetic disorder whose sufferers have a deformed face and skull. Those with Cruzon’s syndrome often have wide-set, bulging eyes leading to serious vision problems and also can have hearing problems.
Sufferers of Cruzon’s Syndrome are usually of normal intelligence but their abnormal appearance must lead to a life of hell: we so often judge people by their looks rather than their mind. One of the things about the development of the internet chat rooms and other Web2.0 interactive sites is that people who are ill or crippled can actually participate online on an equal footing. Sure there is a lot of talk of mis-leading avatars but the reality is that some people, such as those suffering from Crouzon’s Syndrome, in the “real world” are judged and dammed everyday for something they have no control. Online they can interact on an equal footing without this level of pre-conception and judgment that strangers and acquaintances usually inflict on them. Although the growth of the internet is taking us into unchartered water as far as human interaction I think the disfigured and deformed have a wonder ful new world opening up for them because of it

Elicia Hughes

Lissie — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:06:51 +0000

Elicia Hughes is in the news again: Elicia Hughes was cleared of murder charges over death of her husband, Brian Hughes, after being convicted just months before.
The retry was ordered on a technicality of the jury selection procedure: and suddenly she is not-guilty. That’s pretty scary especially in the country with the death penalty . This is the type of case which should be used to get rid of the death penalty for once and for all. Its one of the things that Saudi Arabia and the US has in common the death penalty that makes you think doesnt it.
I can’t see how a why can really commit murder anyway - lets face there is always a back story he’s pissed her off somehow so that makes it manslaughter anyway doesn’t it? You go girl Eilicia Hughes

Aleesha Young

Lissie — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:00:38 +0000

Aleesha Young is a young bodybuilder making waves. Aleesha Young is currently hot with a hot video highlighting her latest bodybuilding efforts
Aleesha Young is a beautiful young woman but I wonder what attracts a young talented dancer into the extreme world of body building. There is something pretty weird about body building. its an extreme sport by anyone’s definition. The diet alone is bizarre: all aimed to dehydrate the bodybuilder for the day of the competition so that they have the best muscle definition. And lets face both male and female body builders look really, really, ugly - how can anyone find that amount of muscle anything but really, really gross

Dekalb County Water Problems

Lissie — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 13:43:14 +0000

Dekalb County water problems appear widespread and there is no word yet when Dekalb County water will return to those dry taps.
It appears that Dekalb county’s water treatment plant has caused by a power outage at the Scott Candler Water Filter Plant, 4830 Winters Chapel Road, Doraville. Residents from Tucker, Decatur, Stone Mountain and south DeKalb are all reporting problems with water supply.
As is common with water treatment plants the Doraville water supply plant is operated by remote control. So that until the technicians get to the plant it is pure speculation as to what has caused the power outage which has knocked out water supplies in Dekalb County. Hopefully there will more news soon: but until there is it is unclear whether the water supply will be back in hours or maybe in days

Frank W Dux

Lissie — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 13:22:31 +0000

Frank W Dux’s story was dramatised in the 1988 film Bloodsport which stared Jean-Claude Van Damme. Frank W Dux made lots of claims and appears to have been a bit of a real-life James Bond: though how much is true and how much is not is unclear.
Frank W Dux claims to have to this day 1975 Kumite tournament trophy. However there is debate about whether the Kuite tournament really exists. In his autobiography Frank W Dux claims to have been a CIA under cover operative who ended up participating in the bare-knuckle, illegal fighting tournament merely to maintain his cover and get closer to the Asian gang bosses he was trying to get close to