Beens' Blog

A teenage girl with an extreme allergy has died after kissing her boyfriend who had eaten a peanut-butter sandwich hours earlier. Christina Desforges, 15, from Saguenay, Canada, went into anaphylactic shock. She was given an adrenalin shot and taken to hospital but died four days later from acute respiratory failure. Read more at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/29/wkiss29.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/11/29/ixportal.html .

Check out this amazing Christmas Lights display!   http://media.putfile.com/WizardsofWinter-SM   Crank up your speakers!  The song is Wizards in Winter by Trans-Siberian Orchestra , from their " The Lost Christmas Eve " album.

The Attorney General for the state of Texas filed a lawsuit against Sony BMG Music Entertainment on Monday, calling the media giant's copy-protection technology "illegal spyware".   Read more at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/22/texas_sues_sony_bmg/ .   (Send Sony a clear message that we want to be able to copy our legally owned CDs onto our portable MP3 players and computers. Don't buy any Sony CDs!)

When was the last time you received an e-mail from the FBI or the CIA? The blood-sucking, vermin virus creators are at it again, this time spreading a new scourge by e-mail that warns unsuspecting victims they've been observed visiting illegal Web sites.   Read more at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/249565_virus24.html .

Growing marijuana use is sparking fears of havoc on the roads in Canada and prompted the launch on Monday of an official campaign to persuade people not to smoke and drive. Read more at http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1838435,00.html

Machines will overtake humans to become the biggest users of the Internet in a brave new world of electronic sensors, smart homes, and tags that track users' movements and habits, the UN's telecommunications agency predicted. Read more at http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2005%5C11%5C21%5Cstory_21-11-2005_pg6_1 .

Got my new Suzuki DL650 V-Strom today (Saturday). It was only about 6 degrees C outside and windy, but had to take it out for a drive. What an amazing bike! I've upgraded from a Honda 80 Aero scooter to this... quite the step up!  It took a few laps around the block to get used to the balance, the shifting, and the brakes, and then I was off!  This bike has all the power I will ever need, and perfect handling.   I hear it's going up to 9 degrees tomorrow...     ( Toronto Star Review )

A prototype of a cheap and robust laptop for pupils has been welcomed as an "expression of global solidarity" by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. The green machine was showcased for the first time by MIT's Nicholas Negroponte at the UN net summit in Tunis. He plans to have millions of machines in production within a year. The laptops are powered with a wind-up crank, have very low power consumption and will let children interact with each other while learning. Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4445060.stm .

If you're into online games that make you think, check this out... http://deathball.net/notpron/

Security experts said last week that Sony is spying on thousands of listeners who buy and play its music CDs on their computers, and that hackers have quickly exploited weaknesses in the controversial Sony anti-piracy technology to infect users' machines. Read more at http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/computing/20051114-9999-mz1b14sony.html .

Digital TV prices are coming down even as technologies improve. The sets are still costly, but relative bargains are out there.   Read more at http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-technopolis13nov13,1,7872634.column?coll=la-headlines-technology&ctrack=1&cset=true .