<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" version="2.0"><channel><title>THE INTERNATIONAL TRAVELLER</title><description>STYLE TRAVELLER,INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL IN A DANGEROUS WORLD</description><managingEditor>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</managingEditor><pubDate>Sat, 14 Sep 2024 06:57:11 +0100</pubDate><generator>Blogger http://www.blogger.com</generator><openSearch:totalResults xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/">277</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/">1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/">25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/</link><language>en-us</language><itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit><itunes:subtitle>STYLE TRAVELLER,INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL IN A DANGEROUS WORLD</itunes:subtitle><itunes:category text="Arts"><itunes:category text="Fashion &amp; Beauty"/></itunes:category><itunes:owner><itunes:email>noreply@blogger.com</itunes:email></itunes:owner><item><title>Ms Sandiford to be executed for drug trafficking.</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2013/01/ms-sandiford-to-be-executed-for-drug.html</link><category>Ms Sandiford to be executed for drug trafficking.</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Tue, 22 Jan 2013 10:24:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-7908174747169498260</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;div class="widget storyContent article widget-editable viziwyg-section-1825 inpage-widget-6296795" style="outline: none; font-size: 1.2em; color: #444444; font-family: arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;&lt;span class="storyTop " style="outline: none;"&gt;&lt;p style="outline: none;"&gt;A British grandmother has been sentenced to death by firing squad for smuggling almost 5kg of cocaine into Bali.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="widget storyContent article widget-editable viziwyg-section-1825 inpage-widget-6296940" style="outline: none; font-size: 1.2em; color: #444444; font-family: arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;&lt;div class="body " style="outline: none;"&gt;&lt;p style="outline: none;"&gt;Lindsay Sandiford was arrested in May last year after she tried to enter the Indonesian holiday island with illegal drugs worth &amp;pound;1.6 million hidden in her suitcase.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="outline: none;"&gt;Local prosecutors had called for the 56-year-old housewife to be jailed for 15 years. But today there were gasps in the Bali courtroom when a panel of judges announced Ms Sandiford would be executed for drug trafficking.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="outline: none;"&gt;As the shock verdict was announced, Ms Sandiford, from Gloucestershire, slumped back in her chair in tears before hiding her face with a brown sarong as she was led out of the courtroom.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Major wildfire in Malaga leaves elderly Briton dead and his wife missing   </title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/09/major-wildfire-in-malaga-leaves-elderly.html</link><category>Major wildfire in Malaga leaves elderly Briton dead and his wife missing</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sat, 1 Sep 2012 00:17:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-574857286213456569</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;One person was confirmed dead and another missing on Friday night after a major wildfire Affected Municipalities of the Coin, Alhaurin el Grande, Mijas, Marbella and Oj&amp;eacute;n, in M&amp;aacute;laga province. The victim is a British man aged 78 was found Whose charred body in the area of ​​Las Blanquillas, inside the city limits of Oj&amp;eacute;n. His wife has not yet been found.  Meanwhile, a couple in late fifties was taken Their hospital with burns to 60 percent to of Their Bodies. Both lived in a detached home inside the Marbella residential estate of El Rosario.  A mother and her two children were found hiding inside a cave in Oj&amp;eacute;n and taken to hospital to be Treated for smoke inhalation. Five other people Were Also Evacuated from Their Homes.  The fire was Extending to the Sierra de las Nieves even as the chief of the firefighting department M&amp;aacute;laga, Manuel Marmolejo, Announced That a new front had opened up and Reached the area of ​​Juanar, where two hotels had to be Evacuated. Marmolejo said Extending the wildfire was with "great virulence."  The blaze Began around 6.50pm on Thursday and soon extended to a perimeter of Between 50 and 60 kilometers, said Marmolejo. An Estimated 1.000 hectares of land Have Been Affected.&lt;/p&gt;</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Marbella eight urbanisations  has been evacuated. 4,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. </title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/08/marbella-eight-urbanisations-has-been.html</link><category>Marbella eight urbanisations</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:46:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-2248083534698877452</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;The village of Ojen and eight urbanisations in Marbella have been evacuated. 4,000 people have been evacuated from their homes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCuYaS7i2vEp0oHE1EFVE8bAjmbNYBeKDIG8p4Bm2HzPCv-g6_B9DL7_iuLP960AcGnQ7OXmZfyMFiL4p0quSawn17MKVkIgw_ixIN_tpi307W5cvqwMYNb33GZ4Ph2_0r4fpl27WHy3k7/" alt="" width="512" height="341" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The fire broke out on Thursday afternoon and has affected Co&amp;iacute;n where some 60 homes have had to be evacuated. The fire was still burning overnight so the terrestrial fire fighters continued to work overnight, according to the fire fighting Infoca.&lt;br /&gt;The extinction of the blaze was complicated by the strong hot wind known locally as the &amp;lsquo;Terral&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;Three of the four fronts were brought under control just after midnight.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The fire is also affecting Alhaur&amp;iacute;n El Grande and Mijas where homes have been evacuated in the Entrerrios area, according to the Junta de Andaluc&amp;iacute;a.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Barranco Blanco urbanisation in Co&amp;iacute;n is close to the fire, and there were fears that non-forestry zones could be affected.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In Calahonda there are flames in the urbanisation between Calle Crist&amp;oacute;bal Col&amp;oacute;n and Residential Princess Park. The upper zone of Calahonda is being evacuated.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Two people have been seriously injured with burns. They were in the urbanisation El Rosario where five homes have been affected by the flames. The two injured were taken to the Costa del Sol Hospital in Marbella a 4.30am this morning. One of them has burns to 50% of their body.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The AP-7 Motorway was for a time overnight for a while.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Mayor of Marbella, &amp;Aacute;ngeles Mu&amp;ntilde;oz, has confirmed that several urbanisations have been evacuated, including La Mairena, Elviria, the area of Las Chapas and Molinillo where the fire is concentrated and continues to advance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Hotel La Cala Resort has also been evacuated of its 200 guests.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Those evacuated have been told to go to the sports centre in La Cala, the sports centre in Las Lagunas or the Mijas Hippodrome.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Between 25 and 30 families have been evacuated from Alpujata on the outskirts of Monda.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;13 airborne fire fighting planes were brought in on Thursday afternoon from M&amp;aacute;laga, C&amp;oacute;rdoba and Granada, and they have resumed their work at first light.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Land forces totalled 99 fire fighters distributed in seven brigades, three reserve brigades, five fire engines, five operation technicians and four environmental vehicles.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The fire continues out of control on one front and the Mijas Town Hall has told the residents of la Atalaya to urgently leave their homes. A level 1 has been put in place and that indicates that the prevision for the fire could affect non-forestry assets.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;350 firefighters are at the scene this morning and the fire fighting planes have returned to work.&lt;br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #3b3b3b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 21px; background-color: #ffffff;" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" height="72" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCuYaS7i2vEp0oHE1EFVE8bAjmbNYBeKDIG8p4Bm2HzPCv-g6_B9DL7_iuLP960AcGnQ7OXmZfyMFiL4p0quSawn17MKVkIgw_ixIN_tpi307W5cvqwMYNb33GZ4Ph2_0r4fpl27WHy3k7/s72-c" width="72"/><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Numerous homes have been burnt out and others seriously affected in Ojén and Marbella. The urbanisation La Mairena has flames affecting several properties.</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/08/numerous-homes-have-been-burnt-out-and.html</link><category>Numerous homes have been burnt out and others seriously affected in Ojén and Marbella. The urbanisation La Mairena has flames affecting several properties.</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:37:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-5068531369082389569</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNoyedFccQ8Ply1yzqxdf753KX62afcP7YdSkb4lYlVzVP1AWn4EjxQQxxPLRsnCe7cwMvh7p3cEHuQ-KL_a6DXhjCHBOHzB19t8CW4hDLDTu6Nqe1WQ-LmogzDy74WuGvwWa594GgD-Zn/" alt="" width="512" height="341" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The situation is particularly difficult in the upper part of Calahonda where residents have been evacuated and there are flames in the urbanisation between Calle Crist&amp;oacute;bal Col&amp;oacute;n and the residential complex Princess Park.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Some 3,000 residents of El Rosario in Marbella have been evacuated, and German couple in their 60&amp;rsquo;s have been seriously hurt. Marbella Ayuntamiento says they were surprised by the flames and now have burns 40-50% of their bodies.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Those affected by the blaze are being first treated in the Costa del Sol Hospital in Marbella, and then many suffering burns are being transferred to M&amp;aacute;laga to the Specialist Burns Unit in the Carlos Haya Hospital.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;People have been sleeping in sports centre in Monda and Marbella and municipal buses have been laid on as transport.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Junta delegate in M&amp;aacute;laga, Jos&amp;eacute; Luis Ruiz Espejo, has said today that he suspects the fire could have been started deliberately given its rapid propagation. He said the technicians suspected the fire was man made from the start.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ground fire fighters worked through the night facing difficult terrain and totalled 99 fire fighters distributed in seven brigades, and three reserve brigades, five fire engines, five operation technicians and four environmental vehicles.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At first light this morning the 17 fire-fighting planes returned to the air.&lt;br /&gt;Five planes which drop earth, four large capacity helicopters, five transport helicopters, two amphibian planes, and a plane for coordination and vigilance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More than 250 professionals from fire fighting organisation INFOCA are working this morning in Mijas, Marbella, Alhauin de la Torre and in Co&amp;iacute;n where the fire started.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Mayor of Marbella, &amp;Aacute;ngeles Mu&amp;ntilde;oz, has confirmed that several urbanisations have been evacuated, including La Mairena, Elviria, the area of Las Chapas and Molinillo where the fire is concentrated and continues to advance.&lt;br /&gt;Between 25 and 30 families have been evacuated from Alpujata on the outskirts of Monda.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The fire broke out on Thursday afternoon and has affected Co&amp;iacute;n where some 60 homes have had to be evacuated. The fire was still burning overnight as so the terrestrial fire fighters continued to work over night, according to the fire fighting Infoca.&lt;br /&gt;The extinction of the blaze is being complicated by the strong hot wind known locally as the &amp;lsquo;Terral&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Three of the four fronts were brought under control just after midnight.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The fire is also affecting Alhaur&amp;iacute;n El Grande and Mijas where homes have been evacuated in the Entrerrios area, according to the Junta de Andaluc&amp;iacute;a.&lt;br /&gt;The Barranco Blanco urbanisation in Co&amp;iacute;n is close to the fire, and there were fears that non-forestry zones could be affected.&lt;br /&gt;The Hotel La Cala Resort has also been evacuated of its 200 guests.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Those evacuated have been told to go to the sports centre in La Cala, the sports centre in Las Lagunas or the Mijas Hippodrome.&lt;br /&gt;13 airborne fire fighting planes were brought in on Thursday afternoon from M&amp;aacute;laga, C&amp;oacute;rdoba and Granada, and they resumed their work at first light this morning.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The fire continues out of control and the Mijas Town Hall has told the residents of la Atalaya to urgently leave their homes. A level 1 has been put in place and that indicates that the prevision for the fire could affect non-forestry assets.&lt;/p&gt;</description><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" height="72" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNoyedFccQ8Ply1yzqxdf753KX62afcP7YdSkb4lYlVzVP1AWn4EjxQQxxPLRsnCe7cwMvh7p3cEHuQ-KL_a6DXhjCHBOHzB19t8CW4hDLDTu6Nqe1WQ-LmogzDy74WuGvwWa594GgD-Zn/s72-c" width="72"/><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>A huge wildfire is approaching the wealthy resort of Marbella on Spain&amp;#39;s Costa del Sol, where the authorities have evacuated thousands of people.</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-huge-wildfire-is-approaching-wealthy.html</link><category>A huge wildfire is approaching the wealthy resort of Marbella on Spain's Costa del Sol</category><category>where the authorities have evacuated thousands of people.</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:29:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-8926516216072889222</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;p id="story_continues_1" class="introduction" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.077em; text-rendering: auto; clear: left; font-weight: bold; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;&lt;img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFCePDeAVMSInf_SosVm6hYBqv3UXHDWqoQlTAe1JQ4py5qrnNm8zxz9tw8Yec3U91i7lXNN0DKNG7yWA3x5OnlZmCOSKHv8YXKJpXcp4Xcq3tdpraUnE8dnKBN-rXC0kpCo-Nq2ZdXIc1/" alt="" width="512" height="341" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.077em; text-rendering: auto; clear: left; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;Flames reached the Elviria area on the edge of Marbella early on Friday.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.077em; text-rendering: auto; clear: left; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;About 1,000 people have been evacuated from the edge of Marbella, about 3,300 from Ojen and others from a camp site at Alpujata, Spanish media report.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.077em; text-rendering: auto; clear: left; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;They include at least 300 British expats sent to evacuation centres, the UK embassy told the BBC.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.077em; text-rendering: auto; clear: left; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;Marbella is famous for its up-market hotels and villas - it is a favourite haunt of wealthy foreigners.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.077em; text-rendering: auto; clear: left; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;Overnight the fire spread rapidly through a 12km (eight-mile) coastal strip, not far from holiday resorts.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.077em; text-rendering: auto; clear: left; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;&lt;img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_XhBdfbqTozJxTOAIuwsULYRpNgQQ1FDd6SqmC8ARp-SAWweIIPApm8TM9kBG0Vl2u5-8B7P36HVcLKpIXig__niYf4a_eHGxegGpqRCI-SpfFVUaWALU5Nk9wOCMUqoC41zOZa5c8fbw/" alt="" width="512" height="341" /&gt;Two people have suffered serious burns and some homes have been engulfed by the fire.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.077em; text-rendering: auto; clear: left; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;The Costa del Sol is one of Spain's most popular holiday destinations and home to a large British expatriate community.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.077em; text-rendering: auto; clear: left; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;The British embassy says it is working closely with the Spanish authorities and consular staff have been deployed to assist those affected.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="caption body-width" style="color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; position: relative; clear: both; float: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; font-size: 13px; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;&lt;img style="border: 0px; position: relative; letter-spacing: 0px; font-style: italic;" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/62595000/gif/_62595280_spain_fire_marbella_464.gif" alt="Spain Costa del Sol map" width="464" height="380" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.077em; text-rendering: auto; clear: left; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;Much of Spain's countryside was left tinder-dry this summer by a prolonged heatwave. There have been major wildfires in northern Catalonia - near the Pyrenees - and on La Gomera, in the Canary Islands.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.077em; text-rendering: auto; clear: left; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;The wind speed has dropped since Thursday and the air is more humid, so there are hopes that the Costa del Sol blaze can be contained soon.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.077em; text-rendering: auto; clear: left; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;More than 250 firefighters are battling the fire, helped by 17 aircraft dropping water to douse it, Spain's El Pais news website says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.077em; text-rendering: auto; clear: left; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;The fire started on Thursday afternoon in the Sierra Negra area of Coin, near Malaga and has now affected an area of some 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.077em; text-rendering: auto; clear: left; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;Part of the AP-7 highway was cut temporarily, but other roads are unaffected. It is not yet clear how many homes have been damaged or destroyed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" height="72" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFCePDeAVMSInf_SosVm6hYBqv3UXHDWqoQlTAe1JQ4py5qrnNm8zxz9tw8Yec3U91i7lXNN0DKNG7yWA3x5OnlZmCOSKHv8YXKJpXcp4Xcq3tdpraUnE8dnKBN-rXC0kpCo-Nq2ZdXIc1/s72-c" width="72"/><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>OwnFone: A Custom-Printed Phone Perfect for Seniors and Kids</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/08/ownfone-custom-printed-phone-perfect.html</link><category>OwnFone: A Custom-Printed Phone Perfect for Seniors and Kids</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Mon, 27 Aug 2012 11:22:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-1183383232482493889</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;h1&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;object id="myExperience$BCpost" width="608" height="342" seamlesstabbing="false" data="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?&amp;amp;width=608&amp;amp;height=342&amp;amp;flashID=myExperience%24BCpost&amp;amp;bgcolor=%23FFFFFF&amp;amp;playerID=1265504713001&amp;amp;publisherID=1130468786001&amp;amp;isVid=true&amp;amp;linkBaseURL=http%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2F2012%2F08%2F26%2Fownfone-customizable-phone%2F&amp;amp;isUI=true&amp;amp;%40videoPlayer=1805928869001&amp;amp;wmode=transparent&amp;amp;autoStart=&amp;amp;debuggerID=&amp;amp;startTime=1346062746639" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some people need all the latest apps and features available on their smartphone so they can be connected 24/7, while others just want to make a phone call. For the connected crowd, read all the latest reviews onMashable. For the others, check out the OwnFone.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s designed to call only the people you want to reach most frequently. In fact, it can only hold 12 contacts. There are no keys or buttons to program. Instead you let&amp;nbsp;OwnFone&amp;nbsp;know who you want to add, and they program and send you a custom-printed phone, about the size of a credit card.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you lose it, they just print you a new one. You do need to call OwnFone support if you need to change someone&amp;rsquo;s number, or add a contact.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;OwnFone says it plans to come out with a phone that can be customized in braille in the near future. Right now OwnFone is only available in the UK.&lt;p&gt;Check out the video above for more details and let us know what you think of a printed, pre-programmed cell phone.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Estepona Wild Fires rage on a 2km front</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/08/estepona-wild-fires-rage-on-2km-front.html</link><category>Estepona Wild Fires rage on a 2km front</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sun, 26 Aug 2012 01:33:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-2260373016406199322</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;Police and Ambulances hurried to evacuate as wild fires quickly spread our reporter on the scene photographer the devastation&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZrdjT5369xWtrMU2a4YgZE-v-04yxJbW3MD9LhBeGBWncLB2SPXzpwC3WbmpJ5IRpUGja7TLZSMCGyDrrTNZIFUPQO4Rgf8lgeUc1nJtdU2CAlXJroooLDSNbg5XM4HDYqUADq9lu4Sw4/" alt="" width="512" height="341" /&gt;&lt;img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNttXLrdjjJzJ5hyO5MTh1Pfwbp_BiN3p2oYAM_w8eNw7Ipv1cIW06Hih7F-O0_etwSPMu2a3d6QWcHJRunh2K3F6I9tovumkLyMXJLaWlX2du-WiSjgisaKjqgsuwvKSAjYR7xNphInjv/" alt="" width="512" height="341" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" height="72" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZrdjT5369xWtrMU2a4YgZE-v-04yxJbW3MD9LhBeGBWncLB2SPXzpwC3WbmpJ5IRpUGja7TLZSMCGyDrrTNZIFUPQO4Rgf8lgeUc1nJtdU2CAlXJroooLDSNbg5XM4HDYqUADq9lu4Sw4/s72-c" width="72"/><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Estepona on Fire</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/08/estepona-on-fire.html</link><category>Estepona on Fire</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sun, 26 Aug 2012 01:20:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-4593887998274364677</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;We had a tiny little fire today, which they put out.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #ffffff;" /&gt;&lt;br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #ffffff;" /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;Then an hour later, it restarted, and spread along 2 Klm of the coast.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #ffffff;" /&gt;&lt;br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #ffffff;" /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;It was horrible seeing old people being run out of their homes, and carried through the smoke by police and ambulances.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #ffffff;" /&gt;&lt;br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #ffffff;" /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;The pictures really doesn,t do show bad it really was.many houses have gone&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;&lt;img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqwkq4kDOizNEQcb8LDyPh_PV1fTzuKjo48_v2DQeBIJOZz7uFmsH8H2BLZLcD1d5LMJR_jK0QG1LvymfyY9-ZoHVHk-78l6RZ5hsDITOU6g21hcsyjX0FzPTg0jrtZkaqoX6319NslCvk/" alt="" width="512" height="341" /&gt;&lt;img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2mWF85ZaMY3iqhrafdr1qf0oxx3kKjYGU4kX4WeBBYXx1q205K7yRXKW-1pjoFg_Rb3hhj6q8xXWzrTrE-z-ql_J3gDYnsvUlNdPLFtsa07f2sCQL8WtpEknHO45d0PFepRYVKQxnAAM6/" alt="" width="512" height="341" /&gt;&lt;img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinUTRcsdc7wujQ_cVOgPSUsg_K1dzE_DoIEZbOMOK1Gx8bxydNVVB4jDg5VBkx8TJ9qL3tjkK9cYOFwY6ed_Dzo40eoe8Sx63H8ft_dQ6b3zbopXf_VSQ22SLhnqPlh5_i1I27sG4nBngc/" alt="" width="512" height="341" /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" height="72" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqwkq4kDOizNEQcb8LDyPh_PV1fTzuKjo48_v2DQeBIJOZz7uFmsH8H2BLZLcD1d5LMJR_jK0QG1LvymfyY9-ZoHVHk-78l6RZ5hsDITOU6g21hcsyjX0FzPTg0jrtZkaqoX6319NslCvk/s72-c" width="72"/><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>During experiments on the axons of the Woods Hole squid (loligo pealei), we tested our cockroach leg stimulus protocol on the squid&amp;#39;s chromatophores.</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/08/during-experiments-on-axons-of-woods.html</link><category>During experiments on the axons of the Woods Hole squid (loligo pealei)</category><category>we tested our cockroach leg stimulus protocol on the squid's chromatophores.</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sat, 25 Aug 2012 12:01:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-5835572809054115110</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;The results were both interesting and beautiful. The video is a view through an 8x microscope zoomed in on the dorsal side of the caudal fin of the squid. We used a suction electrode to stimulate the fin nerve. Chromatophores are pigmeted cells that come in 3 colors: Brown, Red, and Yellow. Each chromatophore is lined with up to 16 muscles that contract to reveal their color.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Paloma T. Gonzalez-Bellido of Roger Hanlon's Lab in the Marine Resource Center of the Marine Biological Labs helped us with the preparation. You can read their latest paper at:&lt;a title="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2012/08/13/rspb.2012.1374" dir="ltr" rel="nofollow" href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2012/08/13/rspb.2012.1374" target="_blank"&gt;http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2012/08/13/rspb.2012.1374&lt;iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/G-OVrI9x8Zs" frameborder="0"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" height="72" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/G-OVrI9x8Zs/default.jpg" width="72"/><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Breaking Free of the Co-dependency Trap presents a groundbreaking developmental road map to guide readers away from their co-dependent behaviors and toward a life of wholeness and fulfillment.</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/08/breaking-free-of-co-dependency-trap.html</link><category>Breaking Free of the Co-dependency Trap</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Mon, 13 Aug 2012 10:06:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-7342080773811358281</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;Breaking Free of the Co-dependency Trap presents a groundbreaking developmental road map to guide readers away from their co-dependent behaviors and toward a life of wholeness and fulfillment.UK Citizens&lt;iframe src="http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?t=cosdelcri-21&amp;amp;o=2&amp;amp;p=8&amp;amp;l=as1&amp;amp;asins=1577316142&amp;amp;ref=tf_til&amp;amp;fc1=000000&amp;amp;IS2=1&amp;amp;lt1=_blank&amp;amp;m=amazon&amp;amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;amp;bc1=000000&amp;amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;amp;f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is the book that offers a different perspective on codependency and is strongly recommended by Dream Warrior Recovery as part of a solution based recovery. This bestselling book, now in a revised edition, radically challenges the prevailing medical definition of co-dependency as a permanent, progressive, and incurable addiction. Rather, the authors identify it as the result of developmental traumas that interfered with the infant-parent bonding relationship during the first year of life.US Citizens&lt;iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&amp;amp;bc1=FFFFFF&amp;amp;IS2=1&amp;amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;amp;fc1=000000&amp;amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;amp;t=dreawarrreco-20&amp;amp;o=1&amp;amp;p=8&amp;amp;l=as4&amp;amp;m=amazon&amp;amp;f=ifr&amp;amp;ref=ss_til&amp;amp;asins=1577316142" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Drawing on decades of clinical experience, Barry and Janae Weinhold correlate the developmental causes of co-dependency with relationship problems later in life, such as establishing and maintaining boundaries, clinging and dependent behaviors, people pleasing, and difficulty achieving success in the world. Then they focus on healing co-dependency, providing compelling case histories and practical activities to help readers heal early trauma and transform themselves and their primary relationships.&lt;/p&gt;</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Vintage Ads Most Disturbing Household Products</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/08/vintage-ads-most-disturbing-household.html</link><category>Vintage Ads Most Disturbing Household Products</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sun, 12 Aug 2012 05:27:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-4212464878047724228</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;h1 id="articleTitle"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/h1&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/8/9/7/140897.jpg?v=1" alt="" /&gt;&lt;div id="persistent-share"&gt;&lt;div id="pshare-container"&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;All of the following ads are real and unaltered, so don't blame us. We weren't there when they were made, and in some cases the entire insane thought process that went into creating them has been lost to history. Maybe they made perfect sense at the time?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maybe. But it's really hard to see how even our parents and grandparents didn't get nightmares from ...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;#13. Three-Legged Dingo Boots&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/8/9/2/140892.jpg?v=1" alt="" width="336" height="445" /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/celebrities-ads-1970s#ad25fiwshgsima7n" target="c"&gt;vintageadbrowser.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Message:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here are some boots that you should buy, because famous people wear them.&amp;nbsp;Three of them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Horror:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wait, what?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yes, amazingly, the fact that this ad stars a pre-murder O.J. Simpson is the second-creepiest thing about it. And you can squint and try to read the text all you want -- it makes no reference whatsoever to the fact that their spokesperson has three legs. There's no cute slogan like "Boots so comfortable, you'll wish you had another foot!" Nope. It's like some guy in the art department just said, "Eh, I don't like how you can't really see the chair, let's just add another leg to fill that space."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We know what you're thinking: "Cracked, this is obviously a subtle 'big dick' joke. 'Third leg?' Get it?" But, no, it turns out this was a whole campaign they did with various celebrities, some of whom are women:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/8/9/3/140893.jpg?v=1" alt="" width="286" height="388" /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/MS-DINGO-DINGO-LEATHER-BOOTS-VINTAGE-AD-1978-/350128943995" target="c"&gt;eBay&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Like, uh ... this famous lady right here.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But O.J. seems to be the most frequent star of the "Third Leg" campaign, which apparently lasted for years. Note how his afro shrinks as he gets more comfortable with his new appendage:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/8/9/4/140894.jpg?v=1" alt="" width="412" height="566" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The picture in that third ad would have been perfect for the cover of his book.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Please don't blame us for the inevitable nightmare in which O.J. is running after you, in the dark, those three boots pounding down the pavement after you with a noise like a wounded horse.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;#12. Lord West Suits Will Impress Your 7-Year-Old Date&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/8/9/0/140890_v1.jpg" alt="" width="324" height="454" /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/clothes-ads-1960s/3#ad083dohrlmkd67o" target="c"&gt;vintageadbrowser.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"I like my women like I like my code names: 007."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Message:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Women of all ages dig men in tuxedos!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Horror:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to the text, this dinner suit is for "sophisticated traditionalists," a euphemism we weren't previously aware of for "child molesters." Because there's no other way to interpret this picture. That's not tenderness on their faces. That's&amp;nbsp;hunger. If you told us that they're a father and daughter, that would only make it creepier.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And it turns out that this is only the worst example in a whole series of ads associating little girls with selling tuxedos.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/8/9/1/140891.jpg?v=1" alt="" width="494" height="353" /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_nkw=1967%20The%20Look%20is%20Lord%20West%20and%20the%20lady%20approves%20Ad&amp;amp;_itemId=380179681544" target="c"&gt;eBay&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The style is best described as&amp;nbsp;Godfather&amp;nbsp;meets&amp;nbsp;Lolita.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can you imagine the pitch meeting that led to this campaign? Picture Don Draper from&amp;nbsp;Mad Men&amp;nbsp;standing before his clients, selling them on this idea:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"Class. Elegance. Making out with little girls. These are the values your company represents."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"Did ... did you say 'making out with little girls,' Don?"&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"Yes," replied Don with perfect confidence.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"OK, just making sure."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sitting at the end of the table, Peggy looks at Don and smiles. He did it again.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;#11. Man in Tuxedo Carefully Considers Naked Child&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/8/8/8/140888.jpg?v=1" alt="" width="345" height="529" /&gt;&lt;a href="http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess_BH0802/" target="c"&gt;library.duke.edu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"Told you it was bigger. Now pay up."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Message:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Regular soap sinks in the bathtub, causing children to take longer in washing themselves and their fathers to get angry and spank them. Prevent child abuse by buying Ivory Soap -- it floats.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Horror:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;OK, they're clearly just fucking with us at this point. Remove the text and the message becomes clear: "In the old days, child predators used to dress way better than they do now." But let's put the pedophilia overtones aside for the moment and examine the text.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Was the elaborate scenario described under the picture (involving childhoods ruined by non-floating soap)&amp;nbsp;really&amp;nbsp;such a common problem in the '20s, or was this based on the painful personal experiences of whoever commissioned this ad? We're betting on the latter option. Note that the father's body language doesn't say "I'm going to spank you" -- he's clearly pondering which part of the kid's body to break first.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/8/8/9/140889.jpg?v=1" alt="" width="193" height="195" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"Maybe the 28th trimester&amp;nbsp;isn't&amp;nbsp;too late for an abortion."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;#10. "Are You Sure I'll Still Be a Virgin?"&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/8/9/6/140896.jpg?v=1" alt="" width="351" height="477" /&gt;&lt;a href="http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/07/12/marketing-the-tampon-will-i-still-be-a-virgin/" target="c"&gt;thesocietypages.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"If you didn't think band camp counted, I don't see why you'd think this would."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Message:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Don't worry, teens, you can use Tampax tampons without losing your virginity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Horror:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Be honest: How many of you looked at this picture and immediately recognized it as a Tampax ad? And how many looked at it and thought it depicted a teenage girl being sexually propositioned? It's not just us, is it?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This ad would have looked 90 percent less sordid if both people involved were clearly visible. Instead, the second teenager is for some reason sitting on the floor of the porch with her back to us, so we can't see how young, or scared, she is. But, of course, all of that is purely from our own depraved imagination. The real ad is simply about two teenagers debating whether or not inserting a tampon counts as sex.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;#9. Escaped Convicts Love Revell Authentic Model Kits&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/8/8/2/140882_v1.jpg" alt="" width="336" height="450" /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/military-ads-1960s/10#adjp4c5c2lyr9ceu" target="c"&gt;vintageadbrowser.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"Is this the new plan, boss?"&lt;br /&gt;"I've spent all day plotting against Superman; this is 'Lex Time'."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Message:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hey kids! Check out these sweet model kits!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Horror:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There's only one possible scenario in which this picture could have come to exist: The photographers were getting ready to shoot this ad when they realized that the boy who was supposed to be holding up the models in the picture never showed up for work. Panicking, the man from the ad agency looked around the studio.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"Dmitri, can you come here for a second?" he said to the guy who fixes the lighting. "Stand here and hold this model. Yes, that's great. You'll play the boy in this ad."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"But sir," said the photographer, "Dmitri was just released from jail. In fact, he's still wearing the prison jumpsuit."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"No, no, he's perfect. Look at him. Look at that childlike innocence in his face."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/8/8/3/140883_v2.jpg" alt="" width="196" height="289" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"Could you open the top button maybe, show a little chest hair?"&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"Perfect."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;#8. Our Competitors = Surgical Ass Torture&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/8/9/5/140895.jpg?v=1" alt="" width="395" height="521" /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/medicine-ads-1930s/3" target="c"&gt;vintageadbrowser.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"Don't worry, sir, the gloves are just to establish atmosphere."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Message:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Using cheap toilet paper can lead to medical complications.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Horror:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;... which in turn can lead to rubber-gloved hands inserting clamps in your anus. Better play it safe and go with Scott Tissues.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This attempt to traumatize customers into buying their product with threats of anal torture was part of a whole marketing campaign created during the Great Depression in which Scott Tissues' slogan went from "Wipe your butt with us" to "Wipe your butt with us,&amp;nbsp;or die in a world of asshole pain."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Of course, it was all bullshit: There's no such thing as "toilet tissue illness," it was just a thing they made up to convince people to keep buying tissues at a time when they were lucky enough if they had a toilet.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;#7. "Before You Scold Me, Mom ... Maybe You'd Better Light Up a Marlboro"&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/8/7/4/140874_v1.jpg" alt="" width="183" height="481" /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.deceptology.com/2011/02/10-deceptive-baby-advertisements.html" target="c"&gt;deceptology.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Message:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Before you beat your baby for stealing your favorite hat, have a cigarette and relax yourself.&amp;nbsp;Then&amp;nbsp;beat the baby.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Horror:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;How many times did this months-old child have to be punched before it learned to pick up the Marlboros and offer them to mommy to calm her down? If that's not the saddest thing you've imagined all week, you're dead inside. This is actually one in a series of ads from the '50s, back when Marlboro was targeting mommies instead of rugged cowboys. Sometimes the babies actually seem to be guilting their moms into smoking more.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/8/7/2/140872.jpg?v=1" alt="" /&gt;&lt;a href="http://tobacco.stanford.edu/tobacco_main/images.php?token2=fm_st142.php&amp;amp;token1=fm_img4318.php&amp;amp;theme_file=fm_mt016.php&amp;amp;theme_name=Infants%20&amp;amp;%20Children&amp;amp;subtheme_name=Babies" target="c"&gt;tobacco.stanford.edu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"You turned me into an addict when I was a fetus, now deal with it."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Oddly enough, the version of this ad aimed at fathers doesn't involve scolding, but a pompous baby in a basket defending daddy's rather feminine cigarette tastes (note the reference to "beauty tips" at the bottom).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.625em;"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit;" src="http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/8/7/3/140873_v1.jpg" alt="" width="140" height="363" /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: xx-small;"&gt;&lt;a style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 10px; font-family: inherit; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; color: #145e9d;" href="http://tobacco.stanford.edu/tobacco_main/images.php?token2=fm_st142.php&amp;amp;token1=fm_img4318.php&amp;amp;theme_file=fm_mt016.php&amp;amp;theme_name=Infants%20&amp;amp;%20Children&amp;amp;subtheme_name=Babies" target="c"&gt;tobacco.stanford.edu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: xx-small;"&gt;This is the kind of debate babies have all the time.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Georgia, serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Brad Pitt is reportedly utilising his free time to plan his wedding with Angelina Jolie.</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/08/brad-pitt-is-reportedly-utilising-his.html</link><category>Brad Pitt is reportedly utilising his free time to plan his wedding with Angelina Jolie.</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sun, 5 Aug 2012 10:39:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-7109211204016312300</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img class="bor-pad-ab" style="border: 1px solid #d9d9d9; padding: 4px; margin: 0px 8px 0px 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;" src="http://zns.india.com/upload/2012/8/5/pitt301.jpg" alt="Brad Pitt busy planning wedding" align="left" /&gt;&lt;br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;" align="right"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"&gt;The 48-year-old has taken charge of preparations for the wedding that is expected to take place end of September. He has flown in a team of builders to renovate the home he shares with Jolie in southern France.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;" /&gt;&lt;br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;" /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"&gt;"Angelina isn`t so bothered about when they tie the knot, it`s Brad who is piling on the pressure," a website has quoted a source as saying.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;" /&gt;&lt;br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;" /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"&gt;"He wants the main house to be finished when the event takes place, even though the close friends and relatives who are invited aren`t the types to care. He wants everything to be absolutely perfect," the source added.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>yellow jacket stun gun case for iphone</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/08/yellow-jacket-stun-gun-case-for-iphone.html</link><category>yellow jacket stun gun case for iphone</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sat, 4 Aug 2012 11:55:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-2401147944415137313</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.designboom.com/weblog/images/images_2/andy/yellow_jacket/yellow_jacket01.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="570" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;yellow jacket&amp;nbsp;is a case that transforms the iPhone 4 &amp;amp; 4S into that 650,000-volt stun gun you've always needed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;iframe width="818" height="460" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/44116436?portrait=0" frameborder="0"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;scheduled to hit the US market in fall 2012 the case is advertised as being able to&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;easily stop an aggressive male attacker, and ready for use in less than two seconds.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;its designer seth froom, a former military policeman came up with the product after&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;being robbed in his home at gunpoint.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;what is the demand for such a hostile product you might ask? well, yellow jacket&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;has managed to receive over 100,000 USD worth of backing on the crowd-funding&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;website&amp;nbsp;indiegogo&amp;nbsp;which means that there must be quite a few people out there&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;who feel the need to transform their phone into a weapon.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.designboom.com/weblog/images/images_2/andy/yellow_jacket/yellow_jacket03.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="356" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;detail of the stun gun nodes&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;the iPhone's designers could never have conceived half of the the weird and wonderful accessories&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;that have been designed for use with the iPhone since its launch, but even in the name of self defense&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;a stun gun seems a bit much, doesn't it?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Panerai Granturismo - Men's Rose Gold Automatic Chronograph Watch by FERRARI</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/08/panerai-granturismo-mens-rose-gold.html</link><category>Chronograph</category><category>Ferrari</category><category>Granturismo</category><category>Maserati GranTurismo</category><category>Panerai Granturismo - Men's Rose Gold Automatic Chronograph Watch by FERRARI</category><category>Scuderia Ferrari</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sat, 4 Aug 2012 09:09:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-8497687722188902115</guid><description>&lt;span class="zemanta-img separator" style="clear: right;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/21612624@N00/5975515585" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img alt="Ferrari 308" height="180" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6029/5975515585_18196a2721_m.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="clear: both; float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; width: 240px;"&gt;Ferrari 308 (Photo credit: &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/21612624@N00/5975515585" target="_blank"&gt;dave_7&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="zemanta-img separator" style="clear: right;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://jump.fashiontraffic.com/aff_c?offer_id=332&amp;amp;aff_id=4814&amp;amp;source=9413a7a0-b11b-49de-8a60-ad153e088ca8&amp;amp;aff_sub5=embed_code_onlyUrl&amp;amp;aff_sub4=frasertrevor&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fclick.linksynergy.com%2Flink%3Fid%3DWVcdfiAq5iU%26offerid%3D260586.35495%26type%3D15%26murl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.forzieri.com%252Fusa%252Fproduct_view.asp%253Fl%253Dusa%2526c%253Dusa%2526dept_id%253D84%2526sku%253Dfe27479-010-00%2526popup%253D0%2526type%253Dprodfeed%2526camp%253Dlinkshare_us%2526source%253Dlinkshare%26u1%3Do332a4814p9413a7a0-b11b-49de-8a60-ad153e088ca8" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img alt="Panerai Granturismo - Men's GMT Alarm Automati..." src="http://images.fashiontraffic.com/6263851f-a024-49bd-a638-dbe96f067fd7_m.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="clear: both; float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;Panerai Granturismo - Men's GMT Alarm Automatic Watch (Image credit: FERRARI)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="zemanta-img separator" style="clear: right;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://jump.fashiontraffic.com/aff_c?offer_id=332&amp;amp;aff_id=4814&amp;amp;source=66ca2599-a968-473e-812f-0fd451d3d864&amp;amp;aff_sub5=embed_code_onlyUrl&amp;amp;aff_sub4=frasertrevor&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fclick.linksynergy.com%2Flink%3Fid%3DWVcdfiAq5iU%26offerid%3D260586.40182%26type%3D15%26murl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.forzieri.com%252Fusa%252Fproduct_view.asp%253Fl%253Dusa%2526c%253Dusa%2526dept_id%253D84%2526sku%253Dfe27479-003-00%2526popup%253D0%2526type%253Dprodfeed%2526camp%253Dlinkshare_us%2526source%253Dlinkshare%26u1%3Do332a4814p66ca2599-a968-473e-812f-0fd451d3d864" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img alt="Panerai Granturismo - Men's Rose Gold Automati..." src="http://images.fashiontraffic.com/3ae0cf89-ef66-41ee-9a04-1e057279f019_m.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="clear: both; float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;Panerai Granturismo - Men's Rose Gold Automatic Chronograph Watch (Image credit: FERRARI)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="zemanta-img separator" style="clear: right;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://jump.fashiontraffic.com/aff_c?offer_id=332&amp;amp;aff_id=4814&amp;amp;source=5fa4488c-892d-4119-8477-83054a13f2a9&amp;amp;aff_sub5=embed_code_onlyUrl&amp;amp;aff_sub4=frasertrevor&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fclick.linksynergy.com%2Flink%3Fid%3DWVcdfiAq5iU%26offerid%3D260586.35490%26type%3D15%26murl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.forzieri.com%252Fusa%252Fproduct_view.asp%253Fl%253Dusa%2526c%253Dusa%2526dept_id%253D84%2526sku%253Dfe27479-007-00%2526popup%253D0%2526type%253Dprodfeed%2526camp%253Dlinkshare_us%2526source%253Dlinkshare%26u1%3Do332a4814p5fa4488c-892d-4119-8477-83054a13f2a9" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img alt="Panerai Granturismo - Men's Automatic Chronogr..." src="http://images.fashiontraffic.com/9d764e5e-3b38-4080-8ef8-fa8e0bb97f48_m.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="clear: both; float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;Panerai Granturismo - Men's Automatic Chronograph Watch (Image credit: FERRARI)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="GingerNoCheckStart"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;Panerai Granturismo - Men's Rose Gold Automatic Chronograph Watch by FERRARI:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;h3 style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Dosis, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://jump.fashiontraffic.com/aff_c?offer_id=332&amp;amp;aff_id=4814&amp;amp;source=66ca2599-a968-473e-812f-0fd451d3d864&amp;amp;aff_sub5=social_share_blogger&amp;amp;aff_sub4=frasertrevor&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fclick.linksynergy.com%2Flink%3Fid%3DWVcdfiAq5iU%26offerid%3D260586.40182%26type%3D15%26murl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.forzieri.com%252Fusa%252Fproduct_view.asp%253Fl%253Dusa%2526c%253Dusa%2526dept_id%253D84%2526sku%253Dfe27479-003-00%2526popup%253D0%2526type%253Dprodfeed%2526camp%253Dlinkshare_us%2526source%253Dlinkshare%26u1%3Do332a4814p66ca2599-a968-473e-812f-0fd451d3d864" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="320" src="http://images.fashiontraffic.com/3ae0cf89-ef66-41ee-9a04-1e057279f019_l.jpg" width="249" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;$31465.00&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Dosis, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 9px; width: 287px;"&gt;FERRARI&lt;/div&gt;&lt;h4 class="descLabel" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Dosis, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 20px 0px 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; width: 287px;"&gt;Description:&lt;/h4&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Dosis, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"&gt;Ferrari's Granturismo chronograph engineered by Officine Panerai offers class and precision with automatic movement up to 46 hour power reserve polished 18K rose gold case featuring sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating and &lt;span class="GRcorrect" grphrase="750cb859b05b979767f8c4a6cfb1953229a24133" grtype="null" id="GRmark_750cb859b05b979767f8c4a6cfb1953229a24133_tachymeter:0"&gt;tachymeter&lt;/span&gt; scale. The black alligator leather strap features red interior and logo buckle. Supplied with a steel screwdriver and a second interchangeable strap in rubber with the Ferrari inscription. Chronometer Certificate (C.O.S.C.) Swiss Made&lt;/span&gt;&lt;img height="1" src="http://jump.fashiontraffic.com/aff_i?offer_id=332&amp;amp;aff_id=4814&amp;amp;source=66ca2599-a968-473e-812f-0fd451d3d864&amp;amp;aff_sub5=social_share_blogger" width="1" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="GRcorrect" grphrase="36c3bc7ef69775ad1dd4ff3db4fc4a963436c545" grtype="null" id="GRmark_36c3bc7ef69775ad1dd4ff3db4fc4a963436c545_::0"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;Text may be subject to copyright&lt;span class="GRcorrect" grphrase="36c3bc7ef69775ad1dd4ff3db4fc4a963436c545" grtype="null" id="GRmark_36c3bc7ef69775ad1dd4ff3db4fc4a963436c545_.:1"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="GingerNoCheckEnd"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="zemanta-related" style="margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;"&gt;&lt;h4 class="zemanta-related-title"&gt;Related articles&lt;/h4&gt;&lt;ul class="zemanta-article-ul zemanta-article-ul-image" style="margin: 0; overflow: hidden; padding: 0;"&gt;&lt;li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2012/07/11/2013-maserati-granturismo-sport-first-drive-review/" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img src="http://i.zemanta.com/99900033_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2012/07/11/2013-maserati-granturismo-sport-first-drive-review/" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"&gt;First Drive: 2013 Maserati GranTurismo Sport&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
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&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"&gt;&lt;a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/?px" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"&gt;&lt;img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_h.png?x-id=9a92cc73-3524-4f93-8bcd-6aff4f7e6208" style="border: none; float: right;" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" height="72" url="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6029/5975515585_18196a2721_t.jpg" width="72"/><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Now You Can Buy a $250,000 Nail Polish</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/08/now-you-can-buy-250000-nail-polish.html</link><category>000 Nail Polish</category><category>Now You Can Buy a $250</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Fri, 3 Aug 2012 01:38:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-2015959764173882771</guid><description>&lt;p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.45em; color: #363636; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;&lt;img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-277604" style="margin: 0px 20px 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: #cccccc; max-width: 100%; float: left;" title="bottle" src="http://cdn.fashionista.com/uploads/2012/08/bottle-150x369.jpg?9d7bd4" alt="" width="150" height="369" /&gt;Remember that time when everyone got all freaked out about thatsnakeskin pedicure that cost $300? Well, get ready to completely lose it, because we just got a press release for the &amp;ldquo;most expensive&amp;nbsp;nail polish&amp;nbsp;in the world.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That title was previously&amp;nbsp;held by Models Own, which produced a $130,000 bottle (featuring a 24-carat gold, diamond-encrusted lid) back in 2010. However, the self-professed &amp;ldquo;king of black diamonds,&amp;rdquo; Azature, has doubled that figure. A bottle of black nail polish containing a whopping 267 carats of black diamonds in the actual polish will go for $250,000. Yikes. You won&amp;rsquo;t be able to just walk into Duane Reade and buy this sucker, however&amp;ndash;only one bottle of the stuff will be produced.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For those of us who can&amp;rsquo;t afford a quarter of a million dollars for a manicure, Azature is offering a $25 version (see, now doesn&amp;rsquo;t $25 nail polish sound downright cheap in comparison?) containing one measly black diamond. You&amp;rsquo;ll be able to pick it up in LA at Fred Segal starting this month.&lt;/p&gt;</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Estepona Town Hall sacks 176 municipal workers</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/08/estepona-town-hall-sacks-176-municipal.html</link><category>.Estepona Town Hall</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Fri, 3 Aug 2012 00:49:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-5018522152531846817</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;The news was given on Wednesday by the Councillor for Personnel, Pilar Fern&amp;aacute;ndez-Figares Estepona Town Hall has sacked 176 municipal workers. The PP Councillor for Personnel, Pilar Fern&amp;aacute;ndez-Figares, announced on Wednesday that the 176 workers are victims of the ERE Employment Regulation which the Town Hall put forward in June.   The workers will be compensated with 2.5 million &amp;euro; and they will be given their &amp;lsquo;finiquito payments of 408,000 &amp;euro; between them.  Pilar Fern&amp;aacute;ndez-Figares said one they were sacked the Town Hall will start to work on a new &amp;lsquo;training program for the reinsertion of the sacked workers&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>BMW to sell luxury cars for less online</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/07/bmw-to-sell-luxury-cars-for-less-online.html</link><category>BMW to sell luxury cars for less online</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sun, 29 Jul 2012 19:21:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-2536110772250390841</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;h1&gt;&lt;img src="http://cmsimg.detnews.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=C3&amp;amp;Date=20120729&amp;amp;Category=AUTO0104&amp;amp;ArtNo=207290302&amp;amp;Ref=AR&amp;amp;MaxW=640&amp;amp;Border=0&amp;amp;BMW-sell-luxury-cars-less-online" alt="The BMW i3 concept car at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show in January." /&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div id="article-bodytext"&gt;&lt;div id="ody-mainphoto"&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;h6&gt;The BMW i3 concept car at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show in January. (John T. Greilick / Detroit News)&lt;/h6&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div id="artpagination"&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;p&gt;BMW will sell cars over the Web for the first time as the world's largest maker of luxury vehicles seeks an inexpensive way to reach more buyers to recoup spending on its electric models.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A direct online sales platform for BMW's new I sub-brand will be unique in an industry where, outside of small-scale experiments, competitors leave Internet orders for cars to dealers. BMW's range of strategies for the models, including a roaming sales force backing a limited showroom network, reflects the challenge carmakers face as low-emission vehicles trickle into dealerships to sluggish demand after years of development.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"There is considerable risk in BMW's approach of promoting the I brand so prominently," said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center of Automotive Management at the University of Applied Science in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany. "There is the image risk, if they don't succeed as quickly as expected, and then there's the main risk of costs, which can only be countered with high deliveries."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;BMW opened the I models' first showroom Tuesday in London, although only prototype cars and informational materials will be displayed at first because the vehicles themselves won't go on sale before next year. BMW is spending about $3 billion developing the i3 battery-powered city car and i8 plug-in hybrid supercar, according to an estimate by Frost &amp;amp; Sullivan. Industry sales of electric cars last year, at 43,000 vehicles, were only 57 percent of the 75,000 deliveries predicted by Sarwant Singh, a London-based automotive partner at the consulting company.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Starting prices posted&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;The four-seat i3, scheduled to reach the market in late 2013, will be priced at about 40,000 euros ($48,500), Bratzel estimated. That compares with a 23,850-euro starting price ($29,388) in Germany for the 1-Series, the cheapest BMW-brand car. The i8, targeted for sale in 2014, will cost more than 100,000 euros ($123,221), according to Ian Robertson, BMW's sales chief.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Details of how I-model buyers, the website and dealerships will interact are "still in the planning process" and will be communicated later, Linda Croissant, a spokeswoman at Munich- based BMW, said last week. Sales will be focused on the world's major urban areas, she said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The online sales option is aimed at a generation of drivers used to making daily purchases over the Internet, and will be an extension of the car configuration that most automakers offer customers to view models with desired options such as interior colors, seat materials and roof styles.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Test drives not an option&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Internet platform may take a while to catch on because "many customers will still want to go somewhere to look at and drive the vehicle before buying," said Ian Fletcher, an auto analyst in London at research company IHS Global Insight.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"With new technologies, there may be even greater skepticism about buying a car over the Internet, as in many cases you'll have to win the confidence of customers that it works and there is support for them," Fletcher said in an email.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The setup may help BMW reduce expenses: Internet sales require less than half the cost of distributing through a dealership, according to Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer of the Center Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. That allows online car prices to be 5 percent to 7 percent less than showroom tags.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Still, BMW sees standard dealerships as "the backbone of what we are doing in the interface with the customer" for the I models, Robertson said in June at a press presentation at the sub-brand's Park Lane showroom in London.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Dealer selection criteria&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;Outlets will be restricted to dealers with high BMW-brand sales volume who have floor space as well as capacity to work with I models' powering technology and carbon-fiber body material, Robertson said. The carmaker has chosen 45 of its approximately 200 dealers in Germany to sell the i3 and i8, a ratio that will probably be similar elsewhere, he said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dealers will be designated as agents for the I models, which provides an "advantage" by keeping the vehicles on the carmaker's books, the association of BMW distributors in Germany said in an email.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Electric vehicles' disadvantages versus conventional cars include costly battery packs, limited ranges and the time needed to recharge. Consumer reception to models like the Nissan Motor Co.'s Leaf and General Motors Co.'s Chevrolet Volt has been tepid.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"Currently available electric cars have a limited market success because they are a big compromise," said Arndt Ellinghorst, a London-based analyst at Credit Suisse AG. "Customers are not willing to compromise and spend a lot of money."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Carbon fiber bodies lighter&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;BMW Chief Executive Officer Norbert Reithofer started Project I at the end of 2007 as tighter emissions regulations threatened the viability of sporty sedans. BMW chose to create all-new vehicles that use expensive carbon fiber for a lighter body to make up for the weight of the battery system.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The approach contrasts with a decision by Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz Cars division to convert existing models, such as the van-like B-Class or two-seat Smart, to electric power.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To make its electric vehicles more attractive, Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler's Smart brand offers to lease the battery separately from the car. The automaker has a target of selling more than 10,000 of the models next year, with a starting price of 18,910 euros plus monthly battery rental at 65 euros.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The I models' new technology poses risks for BMW, "but they have no choice if they want to keep their premium and image as an innovation leader," Ellinghorst said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The i3 and i8 will probably be among BMW's lowest-selling models through 2024, alongside the existing Z4 roadster, according to IHS estimates. In 2014, the first full year of production, BMW will probably deliver 31,380 i3s, compared with 564,760 of the best-selling 3-Series model and 18,101 Z4s, a study by the research company shows.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;BMW's stance is that the models should produce earnings from the start, sales chief Robertson said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"We clearly, as a company, go into any product launch with the view of making profit, which is no different with the I brand," Robertson said. "This is a car line just as every other car line, and we intend to make profit from Day 1."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; line-height: 13px; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Jamie “Iceman” Stevenson is back on the streets</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/07/jamie-iceman-stevenson-is-back-on.html</link><category>Jamie “Iceman” Stevenson is back on the streets</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sun, 29 Jul 2012 14:17:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-5054230630911162890</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;Jamie &amp;ldquo;Iceman&amp;rdquo; Stevenson is back on the streets &amp;ndash; less than halfway through his prison sentence for laundering &amp;pound;1million of drugs cash. Scotland&amp;rsquo;s most powerful mobster has been enjoying meals at expensive restaurants and socialising with pals after being allowed home for a week each month. Stevenson &amp;ndash; who was also accused of shooting dead his best friend in an underworld hit &amp;ndash; was put behind bars in September 2006 when he was arrested after a four-year surveillance operation by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency. He was later sentenced to 12 years and nine months for money laundering. But, we can reveal, he is now allowed out of Castle Huntly open prison near Dundee &amp;ndash; just five years and 10 months later. A source said: &amp;ldquo;He seems determined to show his face all around town to deliver the message that he&amp;rsquo;s back and, as far as he&amp;rsquo;s concerned, nothing has changed. &amp;ldquo;A lot of people are surprised that he&amp;rsquo;s being allowed out so early. Some are not too pleased about it for a number of reasons.&amp;rdquo; Stevenson, 47, has been spotted at Bothwell Bar &amp;amp; Brasserie, which is run by his friend Stewart Gilmore. He and his cronies have also dined at upmarket Italian restaurant Il Pavone in Glasgow&amp;rsquo;s Princes Square shopping centre. And Stevenson has joined friends at various other restaurants and hotels, including Glasgow&amp;rsquo;s Hilton Garden Inn. A Sunday Mail investigation can today reveal that the Parole Board for Scotland could recommend Stevenson&amp;rsquo;s total freedom as early as February next year. However, the final decision on his release will rest with Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill. Yesterday, Labour justice spokesman Lewis Macdonald said: &amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;m surprised to hear this and that anyone in these circumstances should get out of jail before the halfway point of their sentence &amp;ndash; far less so when the conviction is of someone involved in organised crime. &amp;ldquo;The only circumstances where that would be conceivable would be if someone completely changed their lifestyle. But even then that should not be before they&amp;rsquo;ve served half their sentence. &amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;m sure the victims of these crimes &amp;ndash; and with drugs there are direct and indirect victims &amp;ndash; will also be surprised at this.&amp;rdquo; To prepare Stevenson for his release, prison bosses have allowed him to stay a full week each month at his modest flat in Burnside, near Glasgow. On Friday, we watched him leaving the property with his wife Caroline and driving off in a silver Audi. A prison service insider said: &amp;ldquo;The Parole Board expect the prison authorities to have allowed home visits to test suitability for release ahead of the first eligible parole date. In Stevenson&amp;rsquo;s case, that&amp;rsquo;s next February. &amp;ldquo;There are conditions attached which vary but usually include the obvious ones like not mixing with other criminals and staying only at the designated address. &amp;ldquo;For prisoners sentenced to more than 10 years, the Parole Board make their recommendations to the Justice Secretary, who then decides whether to release on licence. &amp;ldquo;Stevenson is trying to keep his nose clean to convince the Parole Board that he poses no threat to society. &amp;ldquo;But, given his high profile and significance, it&amp;rsquo;s inevitable that the authorities will be careful before making any final decision.&amp;rdquo; Stevenson headed a global smuggling gang with a multi-million-pound turnover when he was brought down by the SCDEA&amp;rsquo;s Operation Folklore, which seized &amp;pound;61million of drugs. He faced drug and money laundering charges along with eight other suspects, including his 53-year-old wife. But his lawyers struck a deal with the Crown Office to admit money laundering in exchange for his wife&amp;rsquo;s freedom and the drugs charges being dropped. Stevenson&amp;rsquo;s stepson Gerry Carbin Jr, 32, was also jailed &amp;ndash; for five years and six months &amp;ndash; but was freed in 2010. Stevenson was previously arrested for the murder of Tony McGovern, 35, who was gunned down in Glasgow&amp;rsquo;s Springburn in 2000. But prosecutors dropped the case through lack of evidence. A gangland source said: &amp;ldquo;He does not fear any kind of reprisal from Tony&amp;rsquo;s brothers, nor does he regard any other criminals in Scotland as a threat or even as rivals. He did not fear any other operation in Scotland before he was jailed. Why would he now?&amp;rdquo; Two years ago, the Sunday Mail exposed a backdoor deal when the Crown handed back Stevenson&amp;rsquo;s &amp;pound;300,000 watch collection, which had been seized under proceeds of crime of legislation. Last June, he was sent back to high-security Shotts jail in Lanarkshire from an open prison after a major SCDEA drugs probe, Operation Chilon. Detectives believed that the gang they investigated was controlled by Stevenson. Haulage firm boss Charles McAughey&amp;rsquo;s home was one of 11 targeted in raids. In 2009, we revealed that French police had found 684kg of pure cocaine worth &amp;pound;31million in a lorry owned by McAughey. Chilon resulted in the SCDEA seizing 242kg of cannabis worth &amp;pound;1.21million and the jailing of three men for a combined 15 years.&lt;/p&gt;</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title/><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/07/blog-post.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sun, 29 Jul 2012 13:55:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-6345409203012309344</guid><description></description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Tulisa&amp;#39;s Friend, 21, Shot Dead In Gangland Hit</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/07/tulisa-friend-21-shot-dead-in-gangland.html</link><category>21</category><category>Shot Dead In Gangland Hit</category><category>Tulisa's Friend</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sat, 28 Jul 2012 08:52:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-2332264209949534222</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;Reece James, 21, a close friend of Tulisa Contostavlos has been shot dead in a reported gangland attack. The 21-year-old, who appeared with Tulisa in a video for rapper Nines, was shot in the head in a "pre-planned and targeted" hit, 100 miles from his home in London, reports the UK's Sun newspaper. Police found James' body in Boscombe, Bournemouth, at around 2.30am near where Somali drug gangs are said operate. A 22-year-old man was arrested. Reece was said to have been in the area with some friends for "a couple of months", though had filmed the video earlier this month with Tulisa and rapper Nines on the Church End Estate in Harlesden, North West London. The former N Dubz star caused controversy at the time, making a "C" symbol to the camera - the same sign that is used by Harlesden's notorious Church Road Soldiers gang. Tulisa claimed it was a reference to Camden, where she was born. Twitter tributes began flooding in last night, with one user writing, "RIP Reece James. Thoughts are with him and his family and friends". Local MP Tobias Ellwood described the killing as "a spill over from the drugs turf war in the capital", adding, "This was one London gang chasing down another, carrying out a professional hit and then going back".&lt;/p&gt;</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Gangs of highway robbers are targeting British tourists on holiday in Spain.</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/07/gangs-of-highway-robbers-are-targeting.html</link><category>Gangs of highway robbers are targeting British tourists on holiday in Spain.</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Fri, 27 Jul 2012 14:21:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-5949866438924812288</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hundreds of visitors in British-registered vehicles or hire cars have had their possessions, passports and money taken in &amp;lsquo;quick and slick&amp;rsquo; distraction muggings.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The thieves typically trick their victims with loud noises, apparent accidents, supposed vehicle problems or pleas for help &amp;ndash; before stealing bags and belongings from their vehicles.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;img src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/26/article-2179516-143C1C11000005DC-558_468x286.jpg" alt="Thieves: Hundreds of visitors in British-registered vehicles or hire cars have had their possessions, passports and money taken in 'quick and slick' distraction muggings" width="468" height="286" /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thieves: Hundreds of visitors in British-registered vehicles or hire cars have had their possessions, passports and money taken in 'quick and slick' distraction muggings&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;As millions of families begin their summer breaks, the Foreign Office has warned British-registered cars are &amp;lsquo;an easy target&amp;rsquo; for motorway thieves.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The number of British tourists ambushed on Spanish roads has soared as the euro crisis has deepened, with the British Embassy in Madrid reporting a 10 per cent rise in the first quarter of this year.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;This is likely to increase further as the peak holiday season begins.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;A spokesman for the embassy said:&amp;nbsp; &amp;lsquo;Motorists may be driving along the motorway and not notice there&amp;rsquo;s a car close up behind.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;Someone in the other car throws a stone at their vehicle which creates a loud bang. The British drivers pull over to see what has happened and the gang is behind them.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;They cause a distraction to steal from them or simply mug them. It&amp;rsquo;s a growing problem.&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;img src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/26/article-2179516-009908E000000259-639_468x286.jpg" alt="Warning: As millions of families begin their summer breaks, the Foreign Office has warned British-registered cars are &amp;iquest;an easy target&amp;iquest; for motorway thieves" width="468" height="286" /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Warning: As millions of families begin their summer breaks, the Foreign Office has warned British-registered cars are &amp;iquest;an easy target&amp;iquest; for motorway thieves&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;A hotspot for the gangs is the AP7 motorway between the French border and the Alicante region in southern Spain.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;More than 140 cases of theft on this route were reported to British Consulates last year.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;However, a spokesman said there were likely to be &amp;lsquo;hundreds more&amp;rsquo; attacks going unreported across Spain because victims usually contact a British consulate only if they have lost their passport.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dave Thomas, consular regional director for Spain, said: &amp;lsquo;Be on your guard against anyone who attempts to stop you or ask you for help.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;They may well be part of a&amp;nbsp; gang operating a scam in which an unseen accomplice will rob you of your things.&amp;rsquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Stephen and Helen Robinson, from Desford, Leicestershire, had their bags stolen from their Audi Q5 as they stopped to walk their labrador retriever Polly at a service station between Barcelona and Valencia.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The couple, who are in their 50s, were standing at the boot of their car when a man on a mobile phone asked them how to say something in English.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While he distracted them, their belongings were taken from the front of the car, despite Polly being inside.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mrs Robinson said: &amp;lsquo;It was quick and slick. You may be more tired and therefore more vulnerable when you&amp;rsquo;ve been travelling, so separate your valuables into different places in the car, and when you stop be aware you may be being watched. You won&amp;rsquo;t see the accomplice of the person who is distracting you.&amp;rsquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In a separate incident, Joy and Alan Horton, from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, were driving a Ford Focus hatchback through Spain when they heard a loud bang and pulled over.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A car that had been travelling close behind them also stopped, and while the driver talked to them, his accomplice stole their possessions without them noticing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mr Horton said: &amp;lsquo;If you think your car may have been in a collision and you pull over, lock the car as soon as you get out and mount a guard on both sides of the vehicle. Keep all bags and valuables in a locked boot.&amp;rsquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Professor Stephen Glaister, of the RAC Foundation, said: &amp;lsquo;Drivers need to remember to stay alert and be ready for unwelcome surprises just as they would be at home.&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>The biggest fines in British maritime history were handed down to a group of Spanish fishermen on Thursday, for illegal fishing in UK waters.</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-biggest-fines-in-british-maritime.html</link><category>The biggest fines in British maritime history were handed down to a group of Spanish fishermen on Thursday</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Thu, 26 Jul 2012 14:47:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-6575221999543947153</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;div id="main-content-picture"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/columnists/2012/2/23/1330010686918/Leo-blog--Romanian-fisher-006.jpg" alt="Leo blog : Romanian fishermen are cleaning up their net from small dead fish" width="460" height="276" /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;Photograph: Robert Ghement/EPA&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div id="article-body-blocks"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some of the biggest fines in British maritime history were handed down to a group of Spanish fishermen on Thursday, for illegal&amp;nbsp;fishing&amp;nbsp;in UK waters.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Two companies owned by the Vidal family were fined &amp;pound;1.62m in total in a Truro court, after a two-day hearing, in which details emerged of falsified log books, failing to register the transfer of fish between vessels, false readings given for weighing fish at sea, and fiddling of&amp;nbsp;fishing quotas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Judge Graham Cottle said the family were guilty of "wholesale falsification of official documentation" that amounted to a "systematic, repeated and cynical abuse of the EU fishing quota system over a period of 18 months".&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He said: "[This was a] flagrant, repeated and long term abuse of regulations. The fish targeted [hake] was at that time a species of fish on the verge if collapse and adherence to quotas was seen as crucial to the survival of the species."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Spanish fishing vessels had been sailing under UK flags and were landing fish based on quotas given to British fishermen under the EU's common fisheries policy. Two vessels were involved, but the companies own several other large vessels, capable of industrial-scale fishing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The offending fishermen, who admitted their guilt earlier this year, were not in court to hear him, having been given leave to return to Spain last night. The offences, dating from 2009 and 2010, relate to two companies, Hijos De Vidal Bandin SA and Sealskill Limited, both owned by the Vidal family. They were fined &amp;pound;925,000 on a confiscation order, plus &amp;pound;195,000 in costs, and an additional fine of &amp;pound;250,000 levied on each of the two companies. Two skippers who were acting under the family's instructions were fined &amp;pound;5,000 each.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ariana Densham, oceans campaigner at Greenpeace, who was present for the trial and judgement, said that the fines, while welcome, did not go far enough. "This group of people should never be allowed near UK fishing quota again," she said. "The Vidal's right to fish should be removed completely."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She said the offences showed the&amp;nbsp;vulnerability of the EU's fishing quota system to fraud. "The system that allowed this to happen needs to be fixed," she said. "This case is not a one off. It's a symptom of&amp;nbsp;Europe's farcical fishing rules. The Vidals were permitted to fish under UK flags, using UK quota, and receive huge EU subsidies, with none of the proceeds ever feeding back into the UK economy. The system is skewed in favour of rich, powerful, industrial-scale fishing companies, when really it should be supporting low-impact, sustainable fishermen."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are currently moves under way in Brussels by the fisheries commissioner,&amp;nbsp;Maria Damanaki, to reform the EU's common fisheries policy. The proposed reforms &amp;ndash; which include the ending of the wasteful practice of discarding healthy and edible fish at sea &amp;ndash; have met stiff opposition, particularly from the French and Spanish fishing industries. Spain has the biggest fishing fleet in Europe and receives the lion's share of the subsidies available for fishing within the EU. A&amp;nbsp;historic agreement was reached among member states last month on the proposals, but they must now pass the European parliament, which is expected to consider the proposals later this year.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>A million Britons live with the hell of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/07/a-million-britons-live-with-hell-of.html</link><category>A million Britons live with the hell of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Thu, 26 Jul 2012 11:03:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-7945958932093563758</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;Nadine Stewart was convinced she was going to die. Just ten minutes after setting off for a pop concert with her sister, she felt a tingling sensation in her arms and pain in her chest.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;I knew I was having a heart attack,&amp;rsquo; says Nadine, 41, a customer services adviser from Morecambe, Lancashire. &amp;lsquo;I begged my sister to take me to A&amp;amp;E: I ran in and screamed that I was having a heart attack.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;They put me on a monitor and my heart was fine &amp;mdash; what I had suffered was a panic attack. I have no idea to this day what caused it, but it terrified the life out of me.&amp;rsquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;img src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/25/article-2178978-13FDCCA8000005DC-228_634x565.jpg" alt="Nadine Stewart has to do everything nine times or fears her husband will die" width="634" height="565" /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nadine Stewart has to do everything nine times or fears her husband will die&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;But worse was to come.&amp;nbsp;&amp;lsquo;Afterwards, I developed a fear that if I didn&amp;rsquo;t do something nine times, something terrible would happen to me, my husband Paul or a member of my family.&amp;rsquo; says Nadine.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;If I made a drink I had to stir it nine times. If I locked the door I had to check it nine times and if I used a cloth to wipe a surface I&amp;rsquo;d have to wipe it nine times. I don&amp;rsquo;t know why it was nine. I realised I was being utterly irrational. But every time I tried to curb it &amp;mdash; such as only stirring my drink three times &amp;mdash; I&amp;rsquo;d begin to panic.'&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;lsquo;If I didn&amp;rsquo;t do these things nine times, I&amp;rsquo;d imagine Paul and me veering off the motorway in our car and see his injured face in the aftermath.&amp;rsquo;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nadine had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), recognised by the World Health Organisation as one of the top ten most disabling disorders in terms of its effect on quality of life.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Last month both the British actress Emily Blunt and the MP Charles Walker revealed they suffered from it, with Walker admitting he had to do everything in multiples of four &amp;mdash; and felt the need to wash his hands hundreds of times a day.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;Who&amp;nbsp;knew?&lt;br /&gt;Surveys estimate&amp;nbsp;that fewer than&lt;br /&gt;10 per cent of those&amp;nbsp;suffering OCD are&amp;nbsp;currently receiving&amp;nbsp;treatment.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;They are not alone. Around a million people in the UK are thought to be undergoing treatment for OCD, the majority of them women. Women are twice as likely as men to develop anxiety disorders such as OCD &amp;mdash; and high-achieving perfectionists are particularly at risk.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;There are two parts to OCD, the obsession and the compulsion,&amp;rsquo; explains Joel Rose, of charity OCD Action.&amp;nbsp;&amp;lsquo;The obsession is a thought that pops into your head, about harm coming to someone you love or you causing harm to someone.'&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;Everyone has these thoughts but most of us ignore them and get on with our lives.&amp;nbsp;Someone with OCD will develop a compulsive ritual as a reaction to them.&amp;nbsp;It can be continually washing their hands or something invisible like repeating the same phrase over and over in their heads.'&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;The time spent on these compulsions lengthens with time. A severe OCD sufferer might spend six or seven hours a day washing their hands in the hope nothing terrible happens to their children.&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The cause of the condition is not known, though a stressful event in someone&amp;rsquo;s life may trigger an underlying problem.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nadine has never pinpointed the root of her troubles &amp;mdash; though they began in the year she started a new job, moved house and got engaged. &amp;lsquo;I had no reason to feel anxious,&amp;rsquo; she said, &amp;lsquo;though I suppose there was a lot of change.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;I became scared of choking to death so I stopped eating and lost three stone in less than three months.&amp;nbsp;I couldn&amp;rsquo;t leave the house without Paul, and even then it would take me three hours to pluck up the courage.&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Someone who can empathise with Nadine is Jeni Scott, 31, who&amp;rsquo;s had OCD for three years.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;It began when her father had a heart attack and her mother was diagnosed with cancer, soon after Jeni left university.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;I became obsessed with doing things in order,&amp;rsquo; says Jeni, a tutor from Newport, Wales.&amp;nbsp;&amp;lsquo;I started making lists but it had everything on it such as &amp;ldquo;get up, have shower, make a cup of tea&amp;rdquo; and if I didn&amp;rsquo;t stick to it I would punish myself by denying myself a treat.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;img src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/25/article-2178978-139B6B4A000005DC-908_306x1060.jpg" alt="Actress Emily Blunt, star of Five Year Engagement, has revealed she suffers from OCD" width="306" height="1060" /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Actress Emily Blunt, star of Five Year Engagement, has revealed she suffers from OCD&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;I developed a phobia of being in the rain in the wrong clothes and had to take a backpack with spare bra, pants, coat, shoes and umbrella everywhere with me.&amp;nbsp;I&amp;rsquo;d carry antibacterial gel in my bag and use it every ten minutes. I&amp;rsquo;ve still no idea why I did it, I just found it helped me.&amp;rsquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Aisha Faisal, from Reading, Berkshire, also suffers from OCD &amp;mdash; and it&amp;rsquo;s getting worse.&amp;nbsp;&amp;lsquo;I developed it in my teens when my mother fell ill and I had to clean the house,&amp;rsquo; the 26-year-old says. &amp;lsquo;Now I&amp;rsquo;m obsessed with everything being super-clean. I wash my hands 14 or 15 times a day, I shower for an hour at a time and wash the shower head and bath thoroughly before I step in.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;If someone touches me, I cringe. My neighbour touched my scarf to tell me it was pretty and I had to have a shower and put all my clothes in the wash.&amp;rsquo;&amp;nbsp;Aisha, who has three children under four, admits her obsession extended to giving birth.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;Each time I had Caesarean sections &amp;mdash; the thought of having a natural birth makes me feel physically sick.&amp;rsquo;&amp;nbsp;She made the surgeons assure her everything had been scrubbed thoroughly before each operation. Understandably, her OCD worries the rest of her family. &amp;lsquo;My husband Ali finds it very hard to see me like this. I won&amp;rsquo;t let him touch me when he comes in from work: he has to shower and put on clean clothes before he can hug me.'&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;With three young children, being clean is impossible and I bathe them twice a day in the winter and sometimes four times a day in the summer if they&amp;rsquo;re hot and sticky.&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As a result of her obsession her own hands are red raw and she suffers from eczema. &amp;lsquo;I have been to the GP but it&amp;rsquo;s very difficult to treat.&amp;nbsp;I know I must do something soon, because my eldest daughter, who is four, is picking up on my behaviour and I feel very guilty about that.'&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;The other day she came in from the garden and said she was dirty so needed to get out of her clothes and I washed her and cleaned her thoroughly. My husband can&amp;rsquo;t believe our electricity bill because the washing machine is on constantly.&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While Aisha is still in the grip of OCD, Jeni and Nadine have overcome the condition. According to the NHS, the two recognised forms of treatment are Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), which helped Jeni, and anti-depressants.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But Nadine used another therapy called The Linden Method &amp;mdash; a two-day workshop costs &amp;pound;995 &amp;mdash; when she reached her lowest point early last year.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;I was unable to work, leave the house or answer the phone,&amp;rsquo; she says. &amp;lsquo;My vision became blurry, my hands would spasm and I&amp;rsquo;d get pains like rheumatism. I began to think: &amp;ldquo;What&amp;rsquo;s the point in living?&amp;rdquo; yet I was too scared to kill myself.&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Linden Method &amp;mdash; which has also helped OCD sufferers Jemma and Jodie Kidd &amp;mdash; works by convincing the sufferer&amp;rsquo;s sub-conscious that they are safe.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;I&amp;rsquo;m a different person,&amp;rsquo; says Nadine. &amp;lsquo;I can leave the house, I&amp;rsquo;m applying for jobs, taking up hobbies and it&amp;rsquo;s transformed my relationship with Paul.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;He says it&amp;rsquo;s like having a wife in a wheelchair who can walk again.&amp;nbsp;Except I feel I can not only walk, I can fly.&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Paper Passion, a scent from Geza Schoen for Wallpaper magazine, makes its wearers smell like freshly printed books</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/07/paper-passion-scent-from-geza-schoen.html</link><category>a scent from Geza Schoen for Wallpaper magazine</category><category>makes its wearers smell like freshly printed books</category><category>Paper Passion</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Thu, 26 Jul 2012 10:38:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-1517855331063874568</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Paper Passion, a scent from Geza Schoen for Wallpaper* magazine, makes its wearers smell like freshly printed books. I suppose it can be alternated with "In the Library," a perfume that smells like old books.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote style="border-left-width: 2px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: #dddddd; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 4em; padding-left: 20px; font-family: Georgia, 'Liberation Serif', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://craphound.com/images/paperpassion.jpg" alt="" align="right" /&gt;Paper Passion fragrance by Geza Schoen, Gerhard Steidl, and Wallpaper* magazine, with packaging by Karl Lagerfeld and Steidl.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px;"&gt;&amp;ldquo;The smell of a freshly printed book is the best smell in the world.&amp;rdquo; Karl Lagerfeld.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-family: Georgia, 'Liberation Serif', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;It comes packaged with inside a hollow carved out of a book with "texts" by "Karl Lagerfeld, G&amp;uuml;nter Grass, Geza Schoen and Tony Chambers."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>It will cost two million € to connect the electricity, and nobody wants to pay.The empty Guadalhorce Hosptial in Cártama</title><link>http://narcocosta.blogspot.com/2012/07/it-will-cost-two-million-to-connect.html</link><category>and nobody wants to pay.The empty Guadalhorce Hosptial in Cártama</category><category>It will cost two million € to connect the electricity</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Mon, 23 Jul 2012 03:00:00 +0100</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783224952924392656.post-8171926996144338098</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;The Guadalhorce Hospital has been completed in C&amp;aacute;rtama on the Costa del Sol, but it has been empty for several months with no opening date planned.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To continue installing the equipment in the hospital it has to be accepted as meeting requirement, and to show that hospital is as planned, but for that to take place it must be connected to the electricity supply.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The problem is that will cost two million &amp;euro;, although the originally quoted price was 300,000 &amp;euro;, to install the electrical connection required. Endesa say the problem is that to supply the hospital an electrical substation at Villafranca del Guadalhorce will have to be expanded.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;C&amp;aacute;rtama Town Hall has said they cannot meet the extra cost, which has put the budget up five fold. Mayor Jorge Gallardo says he thinks the electricity company is &amp;lsquo;making the most of the circumstances&amp;rsquo;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However the Junta say they think the 2 million bill should be met by the Town Hall. They say the electricity contract was undertaken by C&amp;aacute;rtama Town Hall.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Guadalhorce Hospital has been built thanks to an agreement between the M&amp;aacute;laga Diputaci&amp;oacute;n, the Junta de Andaluc&amp;iacute;a and the C&amp;aacute;rtama Town Hall, to give the district its long-wanted hospital. Many foreigners live in the inland area and have complained about the time to get to a hospital in M&amp;aacute;laga.&lt;/p&gt;</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item></channel></rss>