1 in 5 Divorces blamed on Facebook!

Interesting article I caught regarding how facebook is affecting our current, modern social-networking:

From Tom's Hardware site-->
"Attention married people: watch what you do on social networks.

Divorce-Online recently conducted a study and discovered that Facebook was named in one out of five American divorce petitions this year alone. The most common reason is that spouses are conducting inappropriate sexual chats with Facebook friends. The study, consisting of 5,000 divorce papers, also revealed that MySpace, Twitter, and Bebo also contributed to marital deterioration.

"I had heard from my staff that there were a lot of people saying they had found out things about their partners on Facebook so I decided to see how prevalent it was," Mark Kennan told The Sun. "I was really surprised to see 20-percent of all the petitions containing references to Facebook."

Kennan, who headed the study, said that the inappropriate sexual chats were the most common reason for divorce. He also added that, after scanning the Divorce-Online database for the word "Facebook," he discovered 989 instances of the word in 5,000 petitions.

The Sun also reports that divorce lawyers openly admit to searching through Facebook and other social networking sites in order to dig up dirt on the "errant" spouse."

Obviously it is not Facebooks fault, strickly speaking, but just a sign of the times for how we interact and communicate with each other that is the notable story here.  I guess we have made the switch from cheating via phone calls or late night barroom triste's, to cheating via our personal internet portfolios.
 
But then again, being that Facebook originally began with the intention of student/teacher/student connections within america's colleges, it should'nt really be a surprise that the other national passtime of college students bleeds over to the rest of the user database that has signed on. Right?

NORAD Santa Tracker 2009 here-->

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!
It's that time of year again, to track Santa using our friendly neighborhood NORAD unit!

---> http://www.noradsanta.org./

This is a fun site that I first discovered last year, there are many options to play with, including viewing santa's journey using google earth.. so, without further ado... -enjoy!

Loteria Navidad 2009 !

It's that time of year again, where those crazy spanish are rubbing there mittens together in hopes of becoming the next yearly millionaire! I believe it was yesterday that the final numbers went down?

Here is the link to the Spanish site: http://www.loterianavidad2009.org/

The Spanish Christmas lottery, El Gordo or 'The Fat One', is the biggest lottery in the world and also one of the oldest, having started in 1812. While the first prize in 2005 was 'only' 3€ million, El Gordo has the biggest prize pool of any lottery in the world, last year totaling over two billion euros!

How the El Gordo Spanish Christmas Lottery Works

The Spanish Christmas Lottery works differently to most lotteries in the world. Tickets are very expensive, but you don't have to buy the entire ticket. However, if you don't buy the whole thing, you can't get the whole winnings! Read more about how this works:

El Gordo Spanish Christmas Lottery - How the Winnings Are Divided.

The Draw

El Gordo is drawn every December 22. The process is long (taking in excess of three hours) so you will likely see people sat by their radios for much of the day, waiting for the results.

For details of how the draw takes place, see this page:

How El Gordo is Drawn

Loteria del Niño

A second draw takes place on January 5. You will need to buy new tickets for this draw.

How Can I Play El Gordo?

Unlike with most lotteries, there are a number of ways of playing El Gordo, and some are very sociable. You don't need to be in Spain at Christmas time - tickets go on sale in the summer. Read more about How to Play El Gordo Spanish Christmas Lottery.

Brittany Murphy - R.I.P.

Yet another young talent cut off before fully realized. My wife and I both, are saddened by this news, as many are. It is a testament to ones character, and memory, that so many people are affected, literally, the entire globe is searching for news as to what was the cause.

There will be countless celeb-tabloid posturing, leaked autopsy reports and supposed 'experts' hypothesizing on there personal opinions of the results of her death. But, no doubt it will be related to her pre-existing heart condition, mixed with prescription drugs. It is sad. This seems to be the state of things in modern life.

I noted last night the ironic humor of one commercial touting one herbal remedy for curing X,Y,Z and making you feel GREAT! -with a small caption 'This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA.'

Then,

The very next commercial was a lawyer speaking in a aggressive purposeful voice, "Have you been diagnosed with Tardive dyskinesia? Call us NOW so we can profit from your ill fate!"
Kind of makes you scratch your head doesn't it...

R.I. P. Brittany

America’s Army 3 -A 10 second review -->

There has been some discussion on the merits of the Army’s free-to-play advertisement/game, America's Army 3. The recent report shows the cost to the Army’s budget was approximately 32.8 million over 8 years. MW2 cost 50 Million to make, Spore (I read) was probably over 80 million(?), Most AAA games have this high of budget it seems, these days.

Though I would rather they spend that money on a better military project, the Army isn't known for 'thriftiness' or 'well thought-out' projects as it is. So you get what your congress approves them to get. Don't like it, don't vote republican! Just sayin'!

The quick and dirty: The game AA3 is the sequel/update of sorts, to the project that began 8 years ago by the U.S. Army's recruitment think-tank. All versions I've played, have been buggy, but playable for the most part after they get ironed out. The first version was notorious for laggy server issues, making other players suddenly skid 10 feet over while trying to line up a bead on them, not to mention, your shots seemed to lag behind a half second from where they are lined up in your sight. AA3, same thing. They haven't changed it.

Most of the gameplay is essentially identical to previous versions, though they've altered the menu and planning screens a bit. Now you can ‘secure’ a downed enemy, so they can’t be revived by teammates [and vice-versa]. The engine seems to have the exact same models and animation but with better textures. Maybe a better sun flare etc...everything else is almost identical. For that, millions of dollars seems a dreadful flush down the toilet!

BUT-for some reason, i've spent an insane amount of time in the first version, and getting back into the 3rd, hoping for another update to fix things. My chief complaint is the same as what PC gamer said-it takes TOO long to switch weapons, bring up your 'nade launcher, toss a grenade or smoke, lay prone/stand up etc etc...by the time the animation gets done, your enemy has already jumped the wall, or shot you silly as you sloooowlly pullll yoouurrr pisstoll out.. It takes a lot of the adrenaline rush of real combat out of those interactions.

I would best describe AA3 series as a sortof capture the flag chess game, with brief and tense firefights.. It's slower pace and tension attract those of us that want a little more planning/strategy than just bunny-hopping aim-bot decimator's.

Check it out and see if you like it...after all, it IS free! The game has obvious marks of workmanship, detail, and has some fun maps to play in, and I thought the training missions were always fun and fairly realistic [I went to Air Force Basic, but the weapons training was spot on from what I experienced]. I just wish they were a little more diligent in getting out the bugs faster, perhaps even responding to player feedback? In this respect, it seems painfully just like every other gov’t project. Take a number…wait in line. You get what we give you.

My Score- 6.5/10 For bugginess/annoyance factors and unpolished state. Good graphics and environments, easy-to-understand and addictive gameplay.

Macho Skeet Video -It's Funny! -->

BWAA HA HA HA....... Something to lighten the holiday blues!

**For trivia's sake, the tank is an Austrian-built SK-105 Kürassier, a 1971-vintage light tank made by Steyr-Daimler-Puch, equipped with the French AMX-13's oscillating turret.

As it's been used (or still is used) by Austria, Argentina, Bolivia, Botwsana, Brazil, Macedonia, Morocco, Paraguay and Tunisia, I wonder where the ad was shot. Maybe Argentina, as many publicity agencies like to work there because of the low costs. **