Thursday, August 28, 2008

Mythbustin' the Moon

Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, special effects experts better known as the "MythBusters", just crushed the conspiracy theorists that said the moon landings were fake. "Do we really think that the same government that screwed up so badly during the Watergate scandal could have perpetrated the moon hoax? Come on!" "There seems to be a common tendency among conspiracy theorists, as well as among a lot of people with entrenched belief systems, to get stuck on an idea and never give up. Conspiracy theories are not really a special category -- maybe you can call them myths, but I look at them as an obsession that people want to maintain, like being abducted by aliens, Bigfoot and so on. You can't really expect that reasonable evidence will change anyone's mind if they are determined," observed Hyneman.

read more | digg story

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Apple products selling well for both home and business users




The Baltimore Sun's David Zeiler writes that Business suddenly discovers the Mac. "Mac use in businesses rose from 1.1 percent in October 2006 to 4.5 percent in June of this year, according to a report by analyst Benjamin Gray of Forrester Research released Friday and made public by eWeek’s Joe Wilcox."

"Finally, Gray offers this reason for Mac growth among businesses: “Tech populism drives younger, more tech-savvy workers to buy whatever they need to work smarter, faster, and cheaper.”

Today’s students are tomorrow’s young workers, and ever-higher numbers of them are Apple customers. In a report released earlier this month research firm IDC said Apple had regained the lead in notebook sales from Dell with 36.5 percent of the market. Dell sunk to 27.1 percent.

“What we’ve seen over the past couple of years is a significant increase in the number of students who own an Apple laptop or Apple desktop or plan to buy one,” Eric Weil of Student Monitor, a research company focused on college students, told Investor’s Business Daily."

Suzanne Choney of MSNBC wrote that Macs continue to gain in home, business share.
"More home users, and a growing number in the small business sphere, are opting to move to Apple’s computers, their interest driven by positive experiences with Apple's other products, as well as disenchantment with the Windows world."

It's been good news for the Apple iPhone as well this week as AT&T has announce new pricing plans for travelers. Also it seems that Apple has been vindicated because recently a Swedish firm has tested the iPhone 3G antenna and found no problems! Interestingly the new BlackBerry suffering same 3G connection drops as iPhone. This would seem to be some type of software problem as both phones use different chips. 

In other iPhone news it seems that some European users have also reported problems with being billed for data use even when they are on their home WIFI networks! Ouch!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Is Something Rotten at Apple?

"Apple's customer base is widening beyond longtime Mac fanatics—people who give the company a pass because they regard it as an underdog. The Mac's market share is growing rapidly, suggesting that lots of Windows users are switching. Last month, millions of people waited in line for the iPhone not because it was emblazoned with the Apple logo, but because they'd heard it was the best phone on the market. Combine that with the fact that the iPhone and MobileMe are vital to people's lives in a way that, say, an iPod isn't, and you've got a recipe for customer dissatisfaction. You may be willing to overlook Apple's silence about a dead battery on your MP3 player. But if the company continues to stonewall people whose phones cut off every five minutes, Steve Jobs better get ready for some marches on Cupertino."

read more | digg story

Apple Plans To Drown World In iPhones!

Forecasting iPhone sales is one of tech's toughest guessing games. Since Apple's iPhone 3G came storming out of the gate with 1 million units sold in the three days after it went on sale July 11, analysts have scrambled to come up with a reliable forecast for how many of the devices the consumer electronics maker will sell in the coming years.Many analysts expect Apple (AAPL) to sell around 11 million iPhone 3Gs in 2008 and another 25 million in 2009. But perhaps the most optimistic forecast is from Piper Jaffray (PJC) analyst Gene Munster, who expects the company to sell 13 million this year and 45 million next year.

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Monday, August 25, 2008

The ugly truth: Satan, social networks and security

SocNets and social media become more and more a part of our daily lives, and as the race to go to market and to gain marketshare continues, we think SocNet security will continue to become a larger problem, and recent activity seems to show that the appeal of a large and active userbase as a target for the malware industry is hard to ignore.

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Your Printer is lying to you, and what you can do about it.

Out of ink? Already? When Farhad Manjoo's Brother printer abruptly stopped zipping out prints, he began to wonder if the printer wasn't simply lying that it was out of toner in order to trick him into buying more before he needed it. The prints hadn't been fading at all, but the printer simply refused to go on without a new cartridge.

read more | digg story

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Researchers Question Wide Use of HPV Vaccines

Two vaccines (Gardasil & Cervarix) against cervical cancer are being widely used without sufficient evidence about whether they are worth their high cost or even whether they will effectively stop women from getting the disease, two articles in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine conclude.

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Saturday, August 23, 2008

Why Playing Doctor Can be a Dangerous Game


Many of us don't think twice about ditching our medicines before the prescriptions run out. We dislike the side effects, we feel better, we don't feel better, we can't afford the pills, we simply forget. But the risks of stopping suddenly are real. And many doctors don't understand these risks any better than we do. "How to go off medicines isn't routinely studied and remains more of an art than a science," says Jack E. Fincham, PhD, a pharmacy professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Pharmacy. Bottom line - Feeling better does not mean that all the bacteria have been killed or that an infection has been eradicated. Partially treated, strep can affect the heart and kidneys, for instance. Stopping too soon may also contribute to the rising problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

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Popular Mechanics Puts 9/11 Conspiracy Theory to Rest


Conspiracy theorists (fruitcakes) have long claimed that explosives downed World Trade Center 7, north of the Twin Towers. The long-awaited report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conclusively rebuts those claims. "Our take-home message today is that the reason for the collapse of World Trade Center 7 is no longer a mystery," NIST lead investigator Shyam Sunder told journalists.

read more | digg story

Friday, August 22, 2008

Russian telcos to sell 1.8 million iPhones a year

Russian carriers have committed to sell around 1.8 million Apple iPhones per year after reaching a distribution deal with the U.S. company, a Russian newspaper reported on Friday citing sources. Apple's iPhones are not yet officially sold in Russia, but they have swiftly become a status symbol in the Russian capital.

read more | digg story

Firefox to get massive JavaScript performance boost

Mozilla is leveraging an impressive new optimization technique to bring a big performance boost to the Firefox JavaScript engine. They are "getting ready to take JavaScript performance into the next tier" with a radically innovative optimization tactic called tracing that has already produced performance improvements ranging between 20 and 40 times faster in some cases. The code was merged today (but is not yet ready to be enabled by default in the nightly builds) and is planned for inclusion in Firefox 3.1, the next incremental update of the open-source web browser.

read more | digg story

iPhone is big in Japan, reflects local failure to innovate

The iPhone has proven quite popular in Japan, despite the fact that many phones in the Japanese market have most of the common features that the iPhone lacks. Because of this, a former NTT DoCoMo executive blames the industry for being too insular, designing phones only to carrier specifications. Japan, which has long had 3G networks (still in relative infancy here in the US), has been in many ways years ahead in innovations compared to other markets.

read more | digg story

Apple Burn Notice to Corporate Executives?


You never know what you will see when your in a Apple store. Seems Apple has been working over time to disgrace itself in the eyes of corporate executives lately with the MobileMe fiasco and lets not forget about the iPhone 3G call dropping issues.

Apple latest foolish impulse seems to burning corporate executives whom were previously favorable to Apple products. What happened? Well it's seems that Apple will no longer allow corporate staff to go into Apple Stores and buy iPhones or iPhone upgrades for their executives. I have personally seen mindless Apple store drones give the brush off to authorized technical support staff and executive admins telling them to have their CEO's or President's come down and stand inline and sign AT&T contracts. Yeah, like that is going to happen. You should have seen these folks trying to explain that they had purchased and upgraded numerous iPhones before and never had a problems. But the Apple employees would have none of it and handed out business cards of the store manager to the shocked corporate staff and said they could complain if they wanted. Now I remember the days when Apple was not doing so good and would have been excited to sell any equipment to any business person. So in the end all I can say is that this half-baked smack in the face to the corporate elite will not go well for Apple in the long run. After all do you think they would have received the same frosty reception in oh say the Verizon or T-Mobile stores?

IE To Get Privacy Mode

Microsoft is planning a "privacy mode" for the next release of its Internet Explorer (IE) web browser. By clicking a button, users of IE8 will be able to limit how much information is recorded about where they go online and what they do. By comparison Apple's Safari browser already has a privacy mode and developers working for Mozilla, creators of Firefox, are reportedly working on a similar feature for future versions.Other browsers, such as Xerobank, take a more thorough approach to privacy and try to anonymise all web use.

read more | digg story

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Suzuki to Begin Selling Cars Fueled by 100% Ethanol by 2010


Japan’s Suzuki Motor Company will begin selling cars that run completely on 100% ethanol in the US and Brazil by 2010. The company will begin the transition by first offering an E25 sedan for sale in Brazil this coming March.Currently the most ethanol that a flex-fuel car can run on in the US is E85 — which is an 85% ethanol/15% gasoline blend. Suzuki’s move would mark a huge development in ethanol-powered vehicles, and a huge shift for Suzuki, which hasn’t had any alternative fuel-specific offerings in its lineup to this point. Ethanol use in the US has risen sharply recently, however, it still accounts for a small amount of the fuel sold. On the other hand, in Brazil ethanol is just as prevalent as gasoline and is available at nearly all fuel stations.el car can run on in the US and Brazil is E85 — which is an 85% ethanol/15% gasoline blend.

read more | digg story

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Apple's Secret "Back to My Mac" Push behind IPv6

The Internet is running out of addresses. To get around this problem and a host of others not addressed in the existing Internet Protocol (IPv4), a new revision has been in development for years, called IPv6. Uptake has been slow; it requires upgrading all the routers and devices that make up the Internet. Apple has a few tricks up its sleeve for pushing IPv6 adoption, and many Mac users are already chin deep in the technology without even knowing it.

read more | digg story

Meet the World’s Largest Wind Turbine (7+ Megawatts)

Source: Metaefficient.com has posted a story about the World’s largest wind turbine along with some gorgeous pictures.

"The world’s largest wind turbine is now the Enercon E-126. This turbine has a rotor diameter of 126 meters (413 feet). The E-126 is a more sophisticated version of the E-112, formerly the world’s largest wind turbine and rated at 6 megawatts. This new turbine is officially rated at 6 megawatts too, but will most likely produce 7+ megawatts (or 20 million kilowatt hours per year). That’s enough to power about 5,000 households of four in Europe. A quick US calculation would be 938 kwh per home per month, 12 months, that’s 11,256 kwh per year per house. That’s 1776 American homes on one wind turbine.

The turbine being installed in Emden, Germany by Enercon. They will be testing several types of storage systems in combination with the multi-megawatt wind turbines."

Read the full story.


Monday, August 18, 2008

How hotels help themselves to your money

You’ve probably heard of hotels overcharging you for what you eat or drink. You know, $10 for a bottle of water. Six bucks for a candy bar. Here’s the latest twist on that scam — a hotel that charges you for what you don’t consume. If you think your hotel’s done with you when you check out, think again. It might just be getting started. Charges can be quietly added to your hotel bill after you’ve left. And increasingly, they are.

read more | digg story

Friday, August 15, 2008

For Most People, College Is a Waste of Time


For Most People, College Is a Waste of Time. Outside a handful of majors -- engineering and some of the sciences -- a bachelor's degree tells an employer nothing except that the applicant has a certain amount of intellectual ability and perseverance. Even a degree in a vocational major like business administration can mean anything from a solid base of knowledge to four years of barely remembered gut courses.The solution is not better degrees, but no degrees. Young people entering the job market should have a known, trusted measure of their qualifications they can carry into job interviews. That measure should express what they know, not where they learned it or how long it took them. They need a certification, not a degree.The model is the CPA exam that qualifies certified public accountants. The same test is used nationwide. It is thorough -- four sections, timed, totaling 14 hours. A passing score indicates authentic competence (the pass rate is below 50%). Actual scores are reported in addition to pass/fail, so that employers can assess where the applicant falls in the distribution of accounting competence. You may have learned accounting at an anonymous online university, but your CPA score gives you a way to show employers you're a stronger applicant than someone from an Ivy League school. Certification tests would provide all employers with valuable, trustworthy information about job applicants. They would benefit young people who cannot or do not want to attend a traditional four-year college. They would be welcomed by the growing post-secondary online educational industry, which cannot offer the halo effect of a BA from a traditional college, but can realistically promise their students good training for a certification test -- as good as they are likely to get at a traditional college, for a lot less money and in a lot less time.Certification tests would disadvantage just one set of people: Students who have gotten into well-known traditional schools, but who are coasting through their years in college and would score poorly on a certification test. Disadvantaging them is an outcome devoutly to be wished.

read more | digg story

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The best PC for Microsoft Office? A Mac!


How's this for the ultimate digital-age, small-business irony: Want the best possible environment for Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) Office? Try running it on a Mac. Is there a Mac in your future? As with everything Apple, that depends. But if you see margins in being super-efficient in the digital domain, and you have to guts and the means to make it work, I would invest the time in seeing if Office 2008 for Mac is for you. For the right business - say, a 12- to 15-person firm that manages heavy digital content, that works remotely across the country or deals with iterative graphics such as constantly updated presentation materials - Office for Mac offers a tantalizing upside. The Mac can be a real ROI generator!

read more | digg story

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

7 Blunders That Threaten Your Identity

SOURCES: YAHOO! & Consumer Reports

1. Assuming Your Security Software Is Protecting You

Security software is fully effective only when activated and frequently updated. (Most products can update automatically.) To update most commercial software products, you must pay an annual fee. Last fall, the National Cyber Security Alliance and the software maker McAfee found that nearly half the users polled who thought their software was protecting them hadn't updated it regularly. Software bundled with a new computer requires special attention because its subscription may expire within weeks.

What you can do: Renew the subscription when the software prompts you. Make sure your security software is active when you're online and that it has been updated within the past week or so. (Most products will display that information.) If it wasn't updated recently, verify that its automatic updating feature is enabled. If it isn't, that's the problem; enable it, then update manually. If you can't, your subscription has probably expired. Renew it or call the software maker. If you can update only manually, automatic updating might not be working. Call the software company's support line for help. (For help in choosing security software, see our latest security suite report and Ratings of security software, available to subscribers.)

Test your FireWall with ShieldsUP!

If don't have any money you can still use Anti Virus software free!
PC users should check out: Avast!AVG, PCTools
Mac users should check out: ClamXav, iAntiVirus
Do turn on your FireWall! Windows users who do not have a firewall look at ZoneAlarm.

2. Accessing an Account Through an Email Link

No matter how official an e-mail message looks, trying to access a financial account by clicking on embedded Web links is risky. If the e-mail message is fraudulent, a cybercriminal could use the account number and password you enter to steal your identity or empty your bank account.

What you can do: If an e-mail message asks you to update your password, account number, or other information, don't take the bait. Access an online account only by using your existing browser bookmark or typing in the institution's Web address. If you suspect that an e-mail is a phishing attempt, forward it to spam@uce.gov and reportphishing@antiphishing.org.

3. Using a Single Password for All Online Accounts

Nine percent of home Internet users who responded to our State of the Net survey said they used a single password for all their accounts. That practice lets someone who gets your password and steals your identity easily access all your accounts.

What you can do: Using different passwords need not be burdensome. Do what 15 percent of the respondents to our survey do: Use variations on one password. A well-crafted password uses a combination of at least eight letters, numbers, or punctuation symbols. For convenience, you can use a fingerprint reader to store passwords for sites you go to often.

Need help with creating a good password? GRC's Perfect Passwords web site can help you. Apple users can also use their KeyChain application.

4. Downloading Free Software

You couldn't resist that neat, free utility. Or your teenager couldn't resist those fish-tank screen savers and smiley faces. Now your computer runs more slowly than ever. That's because spyware was probably packaged with the freebies.

What you can do: Download freeware only from reputable sites such as SnapFiles.com and Download.com. Tell your kids that free software is often anything but. Eliminate most spyware by downloading the free Microsoft Windows Defender and scanning your PC. If you use Windows Vista, there should already be a copy of Defender on your computer.

5. Thinking Your Mac Shields You From All Risks

According to this year's State of the Net survey, Mac users fall prey to phishing scams at about the same rate as Windows users, yet far fewer of them protect themselves with an anti-phishing toolbar. To make matters worse, the browser of choice for most Mac users, Apple's Safari, has no phishing protection. We think it should.

What you can do: Until Apple beefs up Safari, use a browser with phishing protection, such as the latest version of Firefox (see full article for more details) or Opera. Also try a free anti-phishing toolbar such as McAfee Site Advisor or FirePhish.

6. Clicking on a Pop-up Ad That Says Your PC Is Insecure

Fifteen percent of respondents to our survey who saw pop-up ads clicked on them. But that's never a good idea. Even if you know such pop-ups are phonies, they're still dangerous. It's easy to click inside the ad by mistake and be transferred to a spyware site or, worse, have malware automatically downloaded onto your computer. Our survey showed that 13 percent of respondents who saw such a pop-up tried to close it but launched it instead; 3 percent clicked on a pop-up and got a malware infection.

What you can do: When closing a pop-up (shown at left), carefully click on the X on the upper left or right corner, not within the window. To avoid pop-ups altogether, enable your browser's pop-up blocker or use a free add-on blocker such as Google Toolbar.

If your running Windows XP then download Windows Defender it is a free program that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware. If your running an older version of Windows check out Ad-Aware.

7. Shopping Online the Same Way You Do in Stores

Online shopping requires special precautions because the risks are different than in a walk-in store: You can't always be sure who you're doing business with. You must disclose more personal information, such as your address, to the online retailer. Thieves can sneak in undetected between you and the retail site.

What you can do: Use a separate credit card just for your Internet shopping, as did 7 percent of respondents to our survey. Don't use a debit card. Sites that display "https" before their address when you're entering sensitive information and those displaying certification symbols from TRUSTe and other organizations are usually safe, but there are no guarantees. When in doubt, get a virtual account number from your credit-card company. It's good for only one purchase from a specific vendor.



read more | digg story

Monday, August 11, 2008

IKEA to start selling solar panels!


IKEA has shown some great green developments lately, from flat-pack bike trailers to eco-friendly lines of housewares. Now the patent purveyor of all things flat-pack has announced plans to invest $77 million into its GreenTech energy fund with the goal of eventually producing solar panels, efficiency meters, and energy efficient lighting. Granted its massive distribution network, IKEA’s uptake of green tech could pose a monumental shift in the accessibility and affordability of these technologies. IKEA hopes to bring its first wave of green tech products to market within three to four years.

read more | digg story

Inside MobileMe: Mac and PC cloud sync and mobile push

MobileMe is advertised as push messaging service, so some users were disappointed to find that some desktop updates may take as long as fifteen minutes to find their way up to the cloud. However, the service does also support push IMAP email as well as full desktop push updates from the cloud, at least on Mac OS X. Here's how Apple's service works

read more | digg story

Saturday, August 9, 2008

106 mpg 'air car' creates a buzz


You've heard of hybrids, electric cars and vehicles that can run on vegetable oil. But of all the contenders in the quest to produce the ultimate fuel-efficient car, this could be the first one to let you say, "Fill it up with air." That's the idea behind the compressed air car, a vehicle its backers say could achieve a fuel economy of 106 miles per gallon. New York-based Zero Pollution Motors is the first firm to obtain a license from MDI to produce the cars in the United States, pledging to deliver the first models in 2010 at a price tag of less than $18,000.

read more | digg story





Friday, August 8, 2008

Detroit Finally Gets It!



During the past two weeks, General Motors reported a $15.5 billion quarterly loss (including special items), following Ford Motor's $8.7 billion loss the week before. I shudder to think how bad it is at Chrysler. Auto execs claim they were giving Americans the products they wanted. Really? For proof to the contrary, look at their U.S. market shares, which are slumping to historically low levels as Japanese auto makers gain ground. In a recent meeting with Ford executives, CEO Alan Mulally dared to challenge the Detroit gospel that you can't make money on small, fuel-efficient cars. At last Ford appears to be making bold moves to design and sell vehicles that people want. So with Fords EcoBoost and Verve at least there is some promising news from the American auto-industry, but is it too late?

Thursday, August 7, 2008

E-Passports Can Be Hacked and Cloned in Minutes


A computer researcher proved it by cloning the chips in two British passports and then implanting digital images of Osama bin Laden and a suicide bomber. Both passports passed as genuine by UN approved passport reader software. The entire process took less than an hour.

read more | digg story

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

What Actually Happens When You Hit Those StumbleUpon Buttons


Have you ever wondered what is going on in the backend when you click on that tempting little blue and green StumbleUpon button in your toolbar? Chief architect and co-founder Garrett Camp lets on to the SU algorithm and hints at a couple of upcoming changes. StumbleUpon is all about site discovery. I used to click on the “Stumble!” button and figured it would return me some random site based on the categories I said I was interested in. But then I noticed that the more I used it, better sites were being sent my way. This is because it’s not actually random, but rather sites are served up based on a series of processes that go on within the StumbleUpon Recommendation Engine.

read more | digg story

Monday, August 4, 2008

Dedicated Energy Crops Could Replace 30% of Gasoline


Ceres, Inc., the self-described “energy crop company,” is engineering plants that could play a big role in the future of sustainable biofuels. In stark contrast to food crops, what Ceres is in the business of creating are “dedicated energy crops”—like switchgrass, sorghum, and miscanthus—that are ideally suited for fuel production.While the global “food vs. fuel” debate rages on, a few companies like Ceres are quietly moving forward with next generation technology that challenges many of the current assumptions about growing fuel. In their view, it’s time to move the conversation on from corn-based controversy to second-generation, non-food based sources of ethanol.Unlike growing an ear of corn, Ceres doesn’t care about increasing the number or size of starch-containing kernels. They’re interested in biomass: the leaves and stalks of the plant that contain everything else.

read more | digg story



Friday, August 1, 2008

Sexual Harassment Still Thrives in Russia!

Yes Sexual Harassment Still Thrives in Russia, much to the chagrin of the normal Russian woman.

In 1994 Alessandra Stanley wrote in an article for the New York Times that "The advertisement for a secretary in a Moscow newspaper listed computer skills, typing, English and German as necessary qualifications. It also specified that applicants should be 18 to 25, 5 foot 7 and have long hair. "There will be a contest," it said.

The advertisement was just one of scores placed every day that list youth and sex appeal as job requirements. It was also among the more courtly. Some Russian employers include another prerequisite in their advertisements: "bez kompleksov," or "without inhibitions." Everyone in Russia knows what that means.

In Moscow's bustling new business community, it is usually not frowned upon to grope the secretary, to require that the new office manager be single, long-legged and blond, or to offer to discuss a filing clerk's raise after work in a hotel room -- and dismiss her if she refuses.

Sexual harassment in the workplace is rampant in today's Russia, and the sexism that thrived under the Communists is growing worse, aggravated, feminists say, by the new lawlessness that rules the business world."

Dr. Zoya Khotkina wrote that sexual harassment was a real issue for Russia back in 1997 and yet even today we see that not much has changed. "In the Criminal Code, Russian Federation, (CC RF), there exists a law which prohibits utilization of an office position and material dependence for coersion of sexual interactions (Article 118, current CC RF). However, in practice, the courts do not examine these issues. Until 1990, there were annually 20-25 legal cases regarding this article; in the beginning of 1990, there were no more than 2-3 cases; and in 1994 there was not one case. Finally, the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace, in spite of its sharpness and widespreading, proves to be a social, invisible, ''transparent problem"."

So here we are today in 2008 have things gotten better for the wonderful Russian women? Not so much it would seem as related by Adrian Blomfield's article in the UK Telegraph. "The unnamed executive, a 22-year-old from St Petersburg, had been hoping to become only the third woman in Russia's history to bring a successful sexual harassment action against a male employer.

She alleged she had been locked out of her office after she refused to have intimate relations with her 47-year-old boss.

"He always demanded that female workers signalled to him with their eyes that they desperately wanted to be laid on the boardroom table as soon as he gave the word," she earlier told the court. "I didn't realise at first that he wasn't speaking metaphorically."

I for one find this judges ruling to shocking and reflecting a lack of respect and honor for the Russian women. He seems to confuse sexual harassment,

The judge said he threw out the case not through lack of evidence but because the employer had acted gallantly rather than criminally.

"If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children," the judge ruled. Since Soviet times, sexual harassment in Russia has become an accepted part of life in the office, work place and university lecture room.

According to a recent survey, 100 per cent of female professionals said they had been subjected to sexual harassment by their bosses, 32 per cent said they had had intercourse with them at least once and another seven per cent claimed to have been raped.

Eighty per cent of those who participated in the survey said they did not believe it possible to win promotion without engaging in sexual relations with their male superiors.

Women also report that it is common to be browbeaten into sex during job interviews, while female students regularly complain that university professors trade high marks for sexual favours.

Only two women have won sexual harassment cases since the collapse of the Soviet Union, one in 1993 and the other in 1997. Human rights activists say that Russian women remain second-class citizens and are subjected to some of the highest levels of domestic abuse in the world."

I for one am horrified by this judges ruling as he show a lack of education on his part and a total disregard for respect the Russian women deserve. This jude also confuses flirting, sexual harassment and possible rape with having a loving family with children whom are loved and cherished. I wonder if he would approve of his daughter or sister being treated in such a manner?