No folks, nothing about Avian Flu here . . . read the following short article: (I'm sure the milllions of people who look at porn can't wait until this kind of technology becomes available) Touching a pet or child across cyberspace will be possible with a system developed in Singapore that seeks to transmit sensation via the Internet, researchers said yesterday. The innovation is aimed at helping people communicate with pets and children wherever they might be, said James Teh of Nanyang Technological University's Interaction and Entertainment Research Center. "Poultry Internet" is the first focus, Teh said, adding he felt chickens are "badly treated but make highly intelligent pets." Elaborating on the two parts of the system, Teh said that a camera captures how the pet fowl, wearing a wireless, sensor-rigged jacket, is moving inside its coop in the "home" set-up. The information is transmitted over the Internet to the "office" set-up, where a model of the pet moves like its live counterpart. When the owner touches the model, the signals are transformed into data and reproduced as a series of vibrations on a jacket worn by the pet, Teh said. The system, still in the testing stage, gives the chicken the feeling of being touched by its owner. He has been working on the project for two years with center director Adrian David Cheok and center manager Lee Shang Ping. Transmitting hugs comes next, using the same concept, the researchers said. "These days, parents go on a lot of business trips, but with children, hugging and touching are very important parts of communication," Cheok said. Under consideration in the project is a wireless, sensor-rigged pyjama suit to be worn by children. Parents wearing a similar suit could be hugged back by their children, he added.

Went to California Fitness this evening as I always do and I'm into my 2nd set of preacher curls when all of a sudden some dude in a wife-beater strategically positions his 85lbs barbell upright and directly to the right of me. Slaps his gym towel over the weight and cruises to the local watering hole. Finished up with my 3rd set and zoning out to Switchfoot on my Ipod when out of the corner of my eye I see the wife-beater wearing dude standing akimbo next to his weight. I begin my 4th set and I can feel this ass-hole giving me the superman stare. So I finish my set and I take-off my earphones and tell politely him that I have 6 more sets to go. His nostrils flared, his eyes rolled and his arms crossed and then in Mandarin asked if he could work-in. And herein lies my question about gym etiquette, if you want to use a machine and someone's on it, do you wait until he finishes or do you ask when he finishes? My guess is, whatever the choice being polite counts. Before I continue, I have to say that when I work out, I have a routine and I have a way I enjoy working out. Having said that, I don't like it when people ask to work-in and I sure as hell don't like it when a hardass wants to work-in with me. Wait your fucking turn prick! So I tell the guy that he should wait, cause I waited for the machine as well. And then he busts out: "You're from the states right? You should know the rules!" WTF?! My fellow gym rats, did I miss a line in the Geneva Convention where it states the code of conduct for working our overseas?! Bitch, you ain't in America no more!!! Anyways I finish my 10 sets and walk-off feeling shitty about my workout. I'm a nice guy, gym time is my ONLY time in the day for ME and I hate working out POed. So I decide to apologize to the fucker. I do, he accepts naturally with an air of arrogance I try to swallow. And then he throws out: "Some of the locals here are ignorant about these things." I nod like I care and then I ask him where's he from (cause he made his whole soapbox tirade in English) and he says all pride and mighty: "Oh I from here, but I went to Berkley for college." !!!!???!!??!!?WTF!?!?! Dude . . . Why do so many of these locals who go the states for education and then come back have such an elitist attitude?! Are you not still Taiwanese?? Are you not still a local?? Don't be calling your people ignorant! Thats fucked up.