News
'Fatties' kicked off dating site 

Members of an exclusive dating website for attractive people only have been booted out for piling on the pounds over the festive break.



A reported 5,000 users were made to re-apply to BeautifulPeople.com after they posted pictures of themselves looking chubbier than usual.



Sky News reported members who were not asked to re-apply decided if the others were still attractive enough to still be a part of the website, with only a few hundred being allowed back in.



The site, which calls itself an "exclusively beautiful community," was responding to complaints from its customers when it banned the so-called "ugly people."



"As a business, we mourn the loss of any member," said founder Robert Hintze.



"But the fact remains that our members demand the high standard of beauty be upheld."



"Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded."



Managing director Greg Hodge reiterated Hintze's response.



"People can be big and beautiful but it doesn't suit everyone," said Hodge.



"If you join as a size six, or with ripped abs and a slim physique, you have to maintain this look or expect to be re-rated."



It has been reported the applicants who were booted from the site were sent e-mails encouraging them to re-apply once they have slimmed down.


 


Articles taken from http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/6645679/fatties-kicked-off-dating-site/

 
 
When you stop dating 
November 9th, 2009 Written by Laura Murray



So what happens when you stop dating? When you meet someone you like and decide that you want to put everything into this relationship – what happens then?




So is this a date or a relationship?


Why? You may be wondering!


Well I have recently entered a relationship – one that has the makings of a serious relationship.


Still not getting it?


I have been single for three years. I have been dating for three years. I have a three year old online personality. I have three years of friends with benefits in my little black book. I have three years of online communication with various random people.




Friends with benefits??


What happens to all of that? Do I simple delete my profiles on all the online dating sites? Which I haven’t actually used in ages anyway so that wont be a huge deal. Do I delete all the numbers of my FWB from my phone book?


Do I end all those relationships?


Recently on my way to meet my new man I received a text from a fwb – he wanted to hook up and was most upset I wasn’t keen. Despite the fact that our relationship was never more than the odd hook up now and then, he was wounded.




So, what to do now?


I wounded another friend when I failed to mail him one day and when I apologised I said that I was seeing someone now and he occupied the free time I did have during work. Him and I were never more than friends and yet he was still wounded that now he had been bumped down.


So again I ask – do I end all these relationships?


Obviously the answer to the FWB is easy. Yes those relationships have to end. If they can not be my friend without the benefits then yes they need to go.




Friends with benefits, and we’re talking about those on the social


I suppose the same would apply for the other friends. If they aren’t able to accept that now they are knocked a notch down on the food chain then they would have to end. Right?


It is a tricky one and one I don’t have the answers to right now. For so long now I have been single and never had to worry about this. I have always had more than enough to go around. Now my time is spent with the new man in my life. He wants my time and rightfully so.




Who do you spend your time with?


But it still leaves a wake of broken relationships of people (ok mainly men) who have been in my life the last three years.


It is not a simple, easy thing to do.

 
 
Tips of Getting Notice 
1.

Upload a photo.






Profiles with photo(s) are always displayed on first page randomly. Uploading a picture of yourself also highly increase your profile to be notice by other singles. .





2.

Be proactive.






Don't expect you can get tons of flirts or messages by just creating an account and leave it. Search members or find your matches on My Matches page, and then send a flirt or a short message to get the ball rolling first.



 3.

Log into your account more often.






Make full use of who's flirted with you and also Encounters (who has viewed your profile).



 4.

Rate members photos.






Be active, blog about something, participate on forums discussion. Or other word, get noticed!



 5.

Post in


dating discussion forums

.






This is the opportunity to express yourself in various aspects and topics. Communication is the key to relationship building. Forum discussion is a many-to-many communication and can be very effective.



 6.

Write a better About Me in your profile.






Don't put "Ask me and I will tell you" - it's boring and tells nothing.




I wish you luck and Happy Dating.

 
 
Indonesia quake leaves villages buried 
AAP October 3, 2009, 2:22 pm




Whole villages in Indonesia's quake zone were found obliterated by landslides on Saturday, as rescuers searched desperately for up to 4,000 people believed still trapped in the disaster area.


The extent of the damage from Wednesday's 7.6-magnitude earthquake widened as attention turned to the hundreds of villages in the hills outside the Padang, a devastated city of one million which was worst-hit.


AFP journalists travelling from the coastal area on Sumatra island to the surrounding mountains encountered dozens of devastated houses on the steep roads, and then four villages buried by landslides.


A search and rescue officer from the local government named Topan said that up to 400 people could have perished in the four hillside villages alone.


"The difficulty in this rescue operation is that the houses are buried under the soil as much as four metres deep," he told AFP. "So far we have been using our hands to dig up the soil."


One body was seen lying in a stream nearby, but Topan said he expected to find many more. A 100-strong rescue team arrived on the scene but was unable to bring in heavy machinery because of the broken, narrow roads.


Bob McKerrow, head of the Indonesia delegation of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, said aerial photos showed the extent of the damage in the rocky, mountainous outlying regions.


He said hundreds of villages were in the disaster zone, and that the few which had been visited all reported deaths and serious injuries that were in need of treatment.


"Typically in every village, there's an old woman with a broken back with a gash on her arm and she's not moving. That's why we're sending in helicopters with medical teams," he told AFP.


In Padang, where hardly a single building has been left undamaged, rescuers were racing against time to haul any survivors from schools, hotels and homes that have been reduced to tangles of concrete and rubble.


Foreign rescue teams with sniffer dogs and infra-red equipment were being deployed to help overwhelmed and underequipped Indonesian emergency crews.


"We estimate about 3,000 to 4,000 people are still trapped or buried under the rubble," UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Indonesia El-Mostafa Benlamlih told AFP.


The United Nations has said that at least 1,100 people have died in the disaster while the government toll, which has not been revised since Thursday, stands at 777 but it has said it expects the figure to go much higher.


"I think the death toll is going to rise dramatically, the current figure of 1,200 is going to be very low from listening to people working at the scene. There will certainly be more than 2,000," McKerrow said.


Indonesia appealed for foreign aid on Friday as the stench of decomposing bodies indicated that many trapped in the wreckage have already perished.


Experts said that with specialised crews now arriving, there was some chances of still finding survivors providing their injuries were not too serious.


"I've worked on big earthquake disasters and if you've got an air pocket you're ok," McKerrow said. "It's hot outside but cool inside. There's still hope if people have got air."


Specialist teams from Japan and Switzerland with infra-red equipment were working Saturday in Padang, he said, adding that he had heard reports of three or four people being pulled to safety early Saturday.


But the UN's Benlamlih said that the window of opportunity was closing fast.


"Generally there is a maximum of five days from the time the quake strikes for the buried or trapped victims to survive. We only have one or two days left to save them," he said.


One lucky survivor was 20-year-old Ratna Kurnia Sari, who was pulled limp and covered in dust from the ruins of a college on Friday after spending more than 40 hours buried beneath rubble.


The quake struck off Sumatra's west coast northwest of Padang on Wednesday, on a major faultline on the volatile "Ring of Fire" that scientists have long warned was a disaster waiting to happen.



 
 
NSW to ban dating agency 

AAP September 5, 2009, 12:45 pm

Australia, New South Wales.


People are being warned against joining a NSW dating service following reports victims were fleeced of thousands of dollars in their quest for love.


Fair Trading Minister Virginia Judge said the government had uncovered a series of complaints from consumers and was taking steps to ban TLC Consulting Services.


She said a Fair Trading investigation found the Tweed Heads company had used misleading and deceptive tactics to induce people to sign expensive contracts for dating services, life coaching and grooming packages.


Some victims reported paying up to $35,000 and $110,000 but received nothing in return. Evidence also existed that the company had preyed on emotionally vulnerable people struggling to find a partner because they had a disability or lived in remote areas, Ms Judge said.


"This company will not find you true love but will leave you with a broken heart and an empty wallet," she said.


"The conduct of this company is unconscionable.


"It is important we stop the unscrupulous operators from breaking any more hearts."


Ms Judge warned people against dealing with the company and its former director Holly Veall.


TLC was placed into external administration on August 4, but it is believed Ms Veall is now working for another introduction agency based in Queensland.


Consumers who have dealt with TLC should contact Fair Trading on 13 32 20.


 
 
Tips To Increase Your Online Dating Success 




Are you making the best of online dating opportunities?


Every couple of months I receive a complaint about someone's online dating success, about the lack of responses a person is getting with their personal ad, usually complaining that Internet dating is juts a scam, and the person more often than not goes on to say "No one ever meets online, online dating is a rip-off" and that "online dating is for losers".


Well, (although I am an online dating success story having met my wife online 6 years ago) I have to admit that some online dating services are scams. Full of fake profiles, full-time message senders whose only aim is to get you to upgrade to a full paid membership.


But not all.


The larger percentage of online dating services are honest, popular and busy places where people really do meet, get to know each other and make dates for the real world. People can introduce themselves online and meet face-to-face and begin great friendships, relationships, and yes I'll say it, even families.


So, if you are serious about using online dating to meet people, begin friendships and relationships but you are having little success with the services you are currently using I have this advice to offer you:


1. When joining any service be sure to complete the membership profile as much as possible. If you are not comfortable answering any question where anyone can read your response, don't leave it blank, put in it's place "ask me" or something similar. You don't seem to be very interesting if you leave most of the profile questions blank or the answers you've given don't seem realistic or thoughtful.


2. Include a photo of yourself. It should be a very recent photo. The photo should be clear, in color and showing you from the shoulders up. Generally full-figure pictures are too small for someone to clearly see your face and you also have to keep in mind the limited size available to show your digital picture in your online profile. Most people that are getting disappointing responses to the online personal don't have a picture posted.


3. Many online service are now allowing you to upload a short video message. Use this to your advantage. Get yourself a webcam, they can usually be purchased in any computer store for under $50.00. Click record and talk about where you live, what you do for a living and why you're trying online dating. Keep your message short, to the point and be sure that your face is clearly visible and your voice is steady.


4. Browse the profiles of your chosen service in an ever widening circle/area. Start your search for people to meet in your city, then other local cities, then state/province and move on from there. You don't know who's moving closer to you in the future, so don't be disappointed by early poor results in your local area. many people will relocate for love (maybe even yourself) so distance isn't a concern in the beginning when you are first meeting people.


5. Many services allow you to "bookmark" or place into a "favorites" list the member profiles you find attractive and interesting. Do this before you start sending out messages. Once you have 10 or so profiles saved, re-read all the profiles and start sending out short introduction letters. (Also note: many online services have a feature that allows you to send out "smiles" or "hugs". Feel free to use this feature instead of introduction letters. Be sure to keep track of who you've sent messages to, you'll want to know how long it has been from the time you sent your message to the time you received your reply.


6. Your introduction letter or at the least, your first regular message to someone, should include the following information:

- general location of where you live

- what you do for a living

- two or three things that you like to do that make you a fun person

- what you found interesting in the person's profile


7. Try a different service and don't be afraid to send twenty or thirty dollars for a full membership. You'll get noticed more, you'll be able to send and reply to more messages and your online dating experience will be greatly enhanced!


Happy Dating!


Robert Lee


 
 
Lost Flight 

Hopes dim as search teams hunt for Air France plane


2nd June 2009, 17:30 WST

Let's have a moment of prayer for the unfortunate victims. We hoped for miracles.


Search teams hunting an Air France plane that vanished with 228 people on board scoured remote Atlantic waters today with scant hope of finding survivors and few clues to explain the crash.


Burning wreckage of what could be the missing Air France A330 that disappeared yesterday was spotted by an airline pilot.


According to Brazilian airline TAM, pilots on one of its A330s that took off shortly after the Air France aircraft and flying the identical route, spotted what has been termed “orange coloured spots on the ocean”.


The Brazilian Air Force confirmed the sighting about 40 minutes after the last contact between Air France Flight 447 and Brazil’s air control centre.


The TAM pilot “saw glowing spots on the high sea on its path between Europe and Brazil, about 1300km off the island Fernando de Noronha”, TAM said.


The Fernando de Noronha island is about 350km off the Brazilian coast.


Authorities are investigating the report, Air Force spokesman Colonel Jorge Amaral told the Agencia Brasil official news service.


Crew on a French freighter have also spotted debris floating on the Atlantic Ocean in the area where the missing Air France airliner is suspected of crashing, Brazilian media say.


The sighting by the Douce France was said to be in the same area off the coast of Senegal where TAM airline also may have spotted the wreckage.


As investigators puzzled over a series of error messages sent by the plane after it hit heavy turbulence, two Brazilian aircraft with night sensors swept a patch of the Atlantic Ocean almost halfway between South America and Africa.


Officials determined the zone about 1,100km off Brazil's northeastern coast based on the last signal from Air France flight AF 447: an automatic warning of multiple electric and pressurisation failures.


French President Nicolas Sarkozy and others warned there was little hope of survivors from what appears to be the worst air accident in over a decade and the worst loss of life in Air France's history.


"The prospects of finding any survivors are very slim," a grim-faced French Sarkozy said after talking to stunned relatives of missing passengers.


"It's a catastrophe the likes of which Air France has never seen."


US President Barack Obama pledged his country's help in probing the incident.


The flight disappeared early yesterday four hours into its 11-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris after the Airbus A330 flew into a storm.


A daytime search by eight Brazilian air force aircraft doing visual sweeps did not find anything.


The search pushed ahead overnight using a Hercules C130 transport with equipment to detect the plane's emergency beacon and another aircraft with onboard radar and infrared gear that could detect bodies in the water.


While the cause of the crash remained a mystery, Air France's chief executive said the aircraft had sent a series of error messages.


"A succession of a dozen technical messages" sent by the aircraft around 0215 GMT showed that "several electrical systems had broken down" which caused a "totally unprecedented situation in the plane," said Pierre-Henry Gourgeon.


"It is probable that it was shortly after these messages that the impact in the Atlantic came," he told reporters at Charles de Gaulle airport, where the flight was meant to have landed yesterday morning.


Airline officials had earlier said the plane was probably hit by lightning but Gourgeon declined to make a direct link between weather conditions and the error messages.


Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he held out hope for survivors but added that earlier he had spoken with Sarkozy by telephone "and really it was an exchange of condolences".


If it is confirmed that all 228 people on Flight AF 447 are dead, it would mark the worst loss of life in Air France's history and civil aviation's worst accident for more than a decade.


Spanish and French air forces also sent out search planes to scour a vast area of ocean between Brazil and Africa.


In response to a request for assistance from Paris, the US dispatched a surveillance aircraft and an Air Force search and rescue team.


At Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and at Tom Jobim International Airport in Rio, tearful relatives were ushered into private areas to await developments and receive counselling away from news media.


In Rio, Vasti Ester van Sluijs said she had jumped into a taxi as soon as she heard the flight had disappeared.


"My daughter Adriana Francesca was on the plane," she said.


Air France said the 216 passengers included 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby. There were 12 French crew members.


The passengers hailed from 32 countries, including 61 from France, 58 from Brazil and 26 from Germany.


French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, whose portfolio includes transport, said hijacking had been ruled out.


Airbus said the A330 has a good safety record, with no fatal accidents on a commercial flight. One did crash in 1994 during a test flight in southern France, however, killing all seven people on board.

 
 
Vatican launches Facebook application 

Pope Benedict XVI has entered the world of social networking sites and smartphones with a Vatican portal that includes Facebook and iPhone applications.


The Pope2You website was launched on Thursday and allows Facebook users to send virtual postcards with photos of Benedict and excerpts from his messages. An application for iPhones and iPod Touch devices gives surfers video and audio news on the Pope's travels and speeches, as well as on Catholic events worldwide.


The new portal is the latest update in the Vatican's efforts to broaden Benedict's audience and reach out to young people. Earlier this year, the pontiff got his own YouTube channel, which is now also linked to the portal.


While wary of the potential pitfalls of new media, the 82-year-old Benedict has also encouraged young Catholics to use the internet to spread the church's message.


On Wednesday he told pilgrims gathered for his weekly audience that young people should use the internet to build a better world through bonds of friendship and solidarity, adding that the digital world can help make the Gospel known.


For the Reverend Paolo Padrini, a technologically savvy Italian priest who led the Pope2You project, giving Benedict a presence on the world's largest online social network was in keeping with the church's centuries-old communications strategy.


"The walls of our churches are painted by the greatest artists of all time," Padrini said. "This means that the church has always invested in the culture of each period, using the best instruments available to communicate with people."


Padrini, 36, works in the small of village of Stazzano in northern Italy and routinely chats online with his 2,500 parishioners. He was also behind another Vatican foray on the web: iBreviary, an application that brought the book of daily prayers used by priests onto iPhones.


Padrini said the new project aimed to put the focus on the church by creating a Facebook application rather than a personal profile for Benedict like those made for stars and world leaders, including US president Barack Obama .


"The Pope is not a Hollywood star who signs autographs," Padrini told AP in a telephone interview on Friday . "We don't follow a concept of leadership; the Pope has always made it clear that he is a servant of the church."


Some top clergymen do have profiles on Facebook , including Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, the archbishop of Naples.


The Pope2You portal is run by the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communications and is available in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. It was launched ahead of the church's World Communications Day on Sunday.


Padrini didn't know if the pontiff had been informed of the website, but said the initiative was consistent with the message the Pope had prepared for World Communications Day.


Addressing the "digital generation", Benedict praises new media for helping people keep in touch and creating new friendships and communities worldwide.


But he also warns that social networking can become "obsessive," isolating individuals from real-life interaction.


"It would be sad if our desire to sustain and develop online friendships were to be at the cost of our availability to engage with our families, our neighbours and those we meet in the daily reality of our places of work, education and recreation," Benedict says in the message.


 
 
Chat Room 

Hi Daters,


As you've prob notice, Chat Room is still not working. We're working on intergrating the software but unfortunately we encounter some difficulties along the way. Sorry for the inconveniences caused and thank you for your patience.

 
 
Online Dating 
Practically every day singles don't have trouble making good connections with people online, but they have very little success once they meet those people in person. This is an issue surrounding online dating that does not get discussed all that often. It is important, however, to talk about, because you want to minimize the amount of time you spend talking online to people with whom you will not connect in real life.

 

Here are six key dating tips to maximizing your chances of a successful transition from connecting online to connecting in real life:

 

1. Take action and keep the momentum going. One of the biggest things I stress to people when they are dating online is to make a meeting happen as soon as possible. Don't write emails back and forth for two weeks. Don't wait 10 days before you give someone your phone number. Online dating is a momentum-based thing. The other person may be corresponding with six, seven, or 10 other people. You want to be the one who sticks out among the group. You want to be the person who is full of action. So, right after you have exchanged emails twice, get a phone number, talk on the phone, and set up a meeting. Set up something very simple. Go meet for a cup of coffee. Take a walk with your dog. Pick something really easy.

 

2. Real chemistry happens in person. One reality about online dating is that most of the time you are not going to have the chemistry with someone in person that you do over the phone or via email, so



“you always want to keep your first meeting simple.”



 




you always want to keep your first meeting simple. You want the meeting to happen quickly, and you want to make sure that you both get to the place on your own, so you are able to leave when you choose. Never have dinner on a first meeting.



3. Put the right kind of photos on your profile. The minimum number of photos you should post with your online profile is five, and every single one of those photos must be current. Of those five pictures, three of them need to be full body shots. You should be clearly visible; don't post any photos where you are so far off in the distance you are totally unrecognizable. Don't post pictures of you surrounded by 10 of your friends at a dinner table. Each of your photos need to clearly show who you are and what you're all about. All of the photos you post also must have you in them. Don't post photos just of your dog or of a waterfall you saw during your last trip to Hawaii.

 

4. Look within your area first. Another tip to increase your chances of a successful transition from online into real life is look in your own geographic area first. Don't send winks to people who live 3,000 miles away from you; that's ridiculous. Search within your own geographic area. Try limiting your search at first to a 25-mile radius. Now, don't do that for one day then declare there to be no one in your area to meet so as to give yourself permission to re-expand your search area. Instead, keep looking within that same mile radius.

Also, don't waste time trying to connect with someone who says they are looking to meet someone who lives within a 10-mile radius when you live 500 miles away. Don't waste other people's time, just as you would not want someone wasting yours. Successfully dating online is all about being as time-efficient as possible. If you do that, you are going to be able to go out and meet more people. So respect other people's boundary lines.

 

5. Remember to "reapply." Going online to meet your love match is very much like going to a giant singles bar. Just because you contacted someone a month ago (or two or three months ago) and they did not respond, does not necessarily mean they are not or would not be interested in you. There are a million reasons why they may not have responded to you the first time. They may have been dating someone else. They may have had their profile online but not been checking it. They may simply have gotten a flood of emails the day you sent yours and your message got lost in the shuffle. So, in online dating it is perfectly okay to "reapply" if you are still interested in someone who did not respond to you.

There are a few important keys to remember when reapplying online. First, do not ever reapply with the exact same email as the one you originally sent. Type something different and something fun. Do not reference the fact that the person did not respond to you the first time. Also, only reapply once. Do not take the idea of "reapplying" as a justification to start stalking someone online.

 

6. Make your contacts real conversations. Online dating is about starting the conversation. So before you contact someone, make sure you read their entire profile. It's very important to begin communication by addressing something substantive you liked or noticed about their profile. Remember that when that person wrote their profile, they did so to communicate certain pieces of information about themselves to you -- to start a conversation with you.

Imagine what someone is like when you read their profile. Read it aloud so you can actually hear their voice tone, and then take the first couple of questions that come into your mind and send them to that person. It will make for the start of a real conversation, so you can see if they are someone you want to get to know better.

These tips will make your online dating experience far more rewarding and will help you meet people online whom you'd want to get to know in the real world. It's about being different, and not being the same as everyone else who is online looking to meet someone.
 
 
Tough smoking bans may be law next week 

8th May 2009, 13:30 WST









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Western Australia’s tough new smoking bans, which impose fines of up to $1000 for smoking in cars carrying children or between the flags at the beach, are set to become law after passing through the lower house of parliament.

 

Independent MP Janet Woollard, who framed the legislation, said today she was hopeful the Bill would be passed by Parliament’s Legislative Council as early as next week.

 

The new laws will ban smoking within 10m of playgrounds, in cars carrying children under the age of 16 years, in the alfresco areas of cafes and restaurants, in at least half of the outdoor areas of hotels and in designated beach bathing areas.


Cigarette advertising will be banned in all shops, while outlets other than tobacconists will be required to keep tobacco products under the counter or in a drawer where they are hidden from view.


 


 


 


In the original Bill, Dr Woollard had sought a ban on smoking in all outdoor areas of hotels.


 


 


 


The laws have been watered down to allow smoking in up to 50 per cent of the hotels’ alfresco areas, with publicans found to be in breach of the laws liable for fines of up to $2000.


 


 


 


Police and council rangers will be expected to take details of anyone breaking the law and report them to the WA Health Department, which will then consider a penalty.


 


 


 


People found flouting the law face an initial $200 fine, while repeat offenders can receive a penalty of $1000.


 


 


 


PERTH

 
 
Mother's Day 

Hi everyone,


Mother's day is just around the corner (applicable to Australia). Remember to stop chatting and say Hi or send some flowers back to your mom.


Cheers.

 
 
Welcome 

Hi daters,


Thanks you for using this website as an alternatives to look for your other half. If you have any issues or problem, please feel free to contact us. Hope you enjoy using this website and let us know if there's any area we need improvement.


Once again...Thanks heap.