February 11, 2008
How deep is your love? Korean passion phones know
SEOUL (Reuters) - Valentines Day in South Korea means chocolates, romantic dinners and a high-tech mobile phone device that can secretly check the passion in the voice of a lover.
The "Love Detector" service from mobile operator KTF uses technology that is supposed to analyse voice patterns to see if a lover is speaking honestly and with affection.
"We created this service because we thought people would want to know what others were feeling about them," said Ahn Hee-jung, a KTF official.
Users who speak by pointing their mobile phones at themselves for video conferences can see a "love meter" bar on the screen of their handset during a conversation.
They later receive an analysis of the conversation delivered through text message that breaks down the amount of affection, surprise, concentration and honesty of the other speaker.
The service costs subscribers a flat fee of 1,500 won (80 pence) a month for unlimited use or can be accessed at 300 won for each call, KTF said.
"The caller is paying the money, so the information is provided only to him or her," said Ahn.
Posted by ronnie at 07:25 AM | Comments (0)
February 10, 2008
Love in the air from Bondi to Bangkok to Beijing
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australians seeking love on Valentine's Day speed-dated in deckchairs on Bondi Beach, while Japanese trekked through snow in search of romance and Filipinos sang syrupy ballards.
Contrary to its racy reputation, Thailand told police and "student inspectors" to stake out motels, malls and parks to ensure youngsters behaved themselves on the "Day of Love," when polls say many teenagers have sex for the first time.
In the northern city of Chiang Mai, youngsters flocked to give blood in a "I'd rather lose blood than virginity" campaign.
In China, where homosexuality was listed as a mental illness until 2001, 20 gay and lesbian activists in Beijing marked the day by handing out roses to promote awareness and same-sex marriages.
More than 2,000 people signed up for 16 simultaneous speed dating events in eight Australian cities on Thursday, with the proceeds going to charity.
Australian newspapers ran pages of Valentine's Day love messages to people with nicknames like "Boo Bubby," "Pookey," "The Phantom" and "Wicked Wench." "I love 2 Things," wrote a romantic Johnny, adding "cars & u."
Mobile telephone networks were preparing for an onslaught of love over the airwaves. Top phone company Telstra expected picture messages to be up 60 percent and video calls 50 percent higher than normal.
Valentine's Day in the Philippines was celebrated traditionally, with a riot of red and pink roses, heart-shaped cards and syrupy love ballads.
But Manila's Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales warned against "exclusive moments" between unmarried couples.
"We advise everyone to be careful especially when spending time with one's boyfriend or girlfriend," Rosales said in an interview on Church-run Radio Veritas. "Sometimes, celebration of this day -- which is not really bad -- ends up in a sin."
SAY A PRAYER
Although a largely Roman Catholic country, where marriage is heavily emphasized, extramarital affairs are often accepted in the Philippines and teenage pregnancy is not uncommon.
The cardinal said religious pastimes such as attending Mass or saying the rosary were a good way of celebrating special days, such as Valentines. "It's best to look for honest-to-goodness entertainment," he said.
A day before Valentine's Day, more than 500 Japanese women sailed across the Ashino-ko lake at the foot of Mount Fuji, then trekked through a snow-covered forest to pray for love at the small red Kuzuryu shrine, a famous divine match-making site.
The more than 1,000-year-old shrine, whose name means "nine-headed dragon," started to attract singles after some pilgrims reported that their prayers for romance had been heard.
"I prayed for the man I love to fall in love with me," said Ayumi Sakai, a 25-year-old saleswoman who had arrived in one of two love boats ferrying more than 500 women to the shrine.
With both men and women in Japan increasingly putting off marriage to pursue their careers -- often cited as one reason behind the country's low birth rate -- lovelorn Japanese in search of a partner need all the support they can get.
In the Japanese version of Valentine's Day, women buy chocolates for their lovers and even colleagues, while men return the favor a month later, on White Day.
South Korea put a typically modern spin on the traditional festival, with a mobile phone operator promoting a "Love Detector" service that is supposed to analyze voice patterns to see if a lover is speaking honestly and with affection.
Valentine's Day, with roots in both an early Christian martyr and an ancient Roman fertility festival, was first linked to romance by Chaucer in a 1381 poem, according to some references. The exchange of cards was popularized in England not long after.
Posted by ronnie at 07:27 AM | Comments (0)
October 02, 2007
Lover to die for kiss-and-kill pill
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A Chinese woman who killed her lover with a rat poison-laced kiss when she suspected him of being unfaithful has been sentenced to death, a newspaper said Thursday.
Xia Xinfeng, from Maolou in the central province of Henan, passed a capsule with rat poison from her mouth to her long-time lover, Mao Ansheng, during a kiss, the Shanghai Daily said.
Mao swallowed the capsule and died soon afterwards.
"The couple had said that if either one of them cheated on the other, he or she would have to die," the paper said in explaining the mouth-to-mouth assault.
Xia found Mao had been "talking" with another woman and deemed that he had broken their promise.
Posted by ronnie at 05:39 AM | Comments (0)
August 31, 2007
Author says Japan love hotels not just for "love"
TOKYO (Reuters) - Long associated with seedy red light districts, sleaze and sex, Japan's love hotels are growing up to be socially acceptable and even classy, says the author of a new book on the subject.
In fact, many aren't even being used for "love" anymore.
"Increasingly, people are frequenting love hotels who have no intention of having sex with each other," said Sarah Chaplin, author and professor of architecture at the U.K.'s Kingston University.
Although love hotels continue to do brisk business in Japan, raking in nearly 4 trillion yen (17.1 billion pounds) in annual sales, according to Chaplin, the 1.3 million people who visit the 30,000 hotels each day often go there just to relax.
Some also go there for groups parties or for quiet time alone, she said in a phone conversation with Reuters.
"If you look at Japanese demographics on marriage and relationships and sales of condoms and all sorts of things, there is a kind of voluntary abstinence going on," Chaplin said.
Japan ranked last in a 26 nation survey of sexual activity released in July by condom maker Durex. The average Japanese had sex 48 times a year, well below the global average of 103 times.
The love hotel, Chaplin said, has been a cultural barometer since its beginnings in the 1950s. In their 1970s heyday, the hotels were gaudy, masculine and ultra-sexual with amenities such as revolving beds and ceiling mirrors. A decade later, they became more "kawaii," or cute, reflecting a trend toward infantilised sexuality, she said.
In recent years, love hotels have abandoned cuteness, going for a more sophisticated look. Of the 350 hotels Chaplin studied over 10 years for her book, "Japanese Love Hotels: A Cultural History", many were renovated with higher quality materials -- using an austere stone front rather than flaunting a mock-castle look, for instance -- and interiors characterised by subdued colour schemes and simple elegance.
"The pleasure is less to do with a visceral pleasure of the body. If there is any kind of visceral pleasure, it's more to do with outwardly appreciating the material and the quality of the workmanship and interior," Chaplin said.
Posted by ronnie at 07:41 AM | Comments (0)
July 27, 2007
China cameras spy on love developing in public
BEIJING (Reuters) - Young Chinese couples should think twice about getting too affectionate in public in the Chinese capital -- the chances are they are being watched, state media said on Wednesday.
"A comprehensive closed-circuit TV camera network in Beijing sees all," the China Daily warned.
Security authorities said the cameras were there to make the public feel safe, a vital issue ahead of next year's summer Olympics.
"Eye-catching bilingual signs will be put up to remind the public to 'watch your behaviour' when entering areas that have camera surveillance," the newspaper said.
It quoted Jian Bo, 20, as saying the cameras were in the public interest.
"But I don't think I'll alter my habits. Public displays of affection are fashionable, particularly for me and my girl."
In the financial hub of Shanghai, more teenage girls had been calling the city's only accidental pregnancy hotline since the summer vacation started, the newspaper said in a separate article.
"We have seen a 12 percent increase in phone calls, and a 23 percent increase in abortion procedures," a doctor was quoted as saying.
Posted by ronnie at 08:41 AM | Comments (0)
April 29, 2007
Police say man was love-struck thief
LOS ANGELES - Whenever Antonio Moreno wanted to see his girlfriend, police say, he'd jump in a car and drive right over. But there was a problem. The 26 cars Moreno jumped into all belonged to someone else, according to authorities who arrested the 31-year-old near his Inglewood home on Wednesday. They said he was behind the wheel of a 1987 Toyota Camry when they found him.
Since January, police said, Moreno had been stealing Toyota Camrys and Nissan Sentras by using a simple device that starts Japanese cars of a certain age. Acting on a tip, members of a regional auto-theft task force took him into custody.
Some cars were stolen in Inglewood and abandoned in Santa Barbara, police said, while others were taken from Santa Barbara.
He was "stealing vehicles as transportation to pursue their relationship," according to a statement from Lt. Paul McCaffrey, a Santa Barbara Police Department spokesman.
He didn't have a driver's license or car of his own, police said.
Moreno was jailed in Los Angeles for investigation of auto theft and was to be transferred to Santa Barbara to face charges, police said. It wasn't immediately clear whether Moreno had an attorney.
His girlfriend, who was not arrested, told authorities she had been trying to dump him.
Posted by ronnie at 07:36 AM | Comments (0)
March 29, 2007
Love in the air for one lucky couple
LONDON (Reuters) - Love will literally be in the air for one lucky couple as a local English radio station offers a chance to join the mile high club over America.
Big L radio in the sleepy English coastal town of Frinton, some 60 miles northeast of London, is inviting couples for the next week to go on air and describe how they are growing old in a suitably disgraceful manner.
The winning couple, who will be selected by a panel of judges appointed by the radio station, will be flown to Atlanta, Georgia and put onboard a private plane equipped with champagne and a double bed to take to the air in amorous style.
Posted by ronnie at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2006
Are you a woman going solo? Try a blow-up man
LONDON (Reuters) - He fits in a car's glove box, appears at a flick of a switch and when a woman has finished using him, she can just pull the plug and he deflates.
He's the "Buddy on Demand," a blow-up man launched on Tuesday with the aim of making solo female motorists feel less nervous about driving at night.
According to research by the inflatable friend's creator, insurer Sheilas' Wheels, 82 percent of women feel safer with someone sitting in the car beside them and nearly a half don't like driving alone in the dark.
"We're not saying that an inflatable man is the only answer but we do hope it will give women extra confidence and make journeys in the dark less fearful," said Jacky Brown, the spokeswoman for Sheilas' Wheels.
Posted by ronnie at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)
July 20, 2006
US judge dumps law banning cohabitation by unmarried couples
MIAMI (AFP) - A judge in North Carolina has ruled unconstitutional a 201-year-old law banning cohabitation of unmarried couples that was cited in the firing of a local Sheriff's office employee.
"I am absolutely thrilled with the court's decision," said Deborah Hobbs, 41, who lost her job as an emergency services telephone operator in Pender county because she lived with her boyfriend.
Hobbs was fired in 2004 after her boss told her she violated a North Carolina law banning unmarried couples from living together.
"I just didn't think it was any of my employers business whether I was married or not, as long as I was good at my job," she said after North Carolina State Superior Court Judge Benjamin Alford ruled late Wednesday the law was unconstitutional.
"North Carolina's cohabitation law is not only patently unconstitutional, but the idea that the government would criminalize people's choice to live together out of wedlock in this day and age defies logic and common sense," said Jennifer Rudinger, executive director of the eastern state's American Civil Liberties Union.
The 201-year-old law states that is illegal for unmarried couples to "lewdly and lasciviously associate, bed and cohabit together."
Florida, Michigan, Mississippi, North Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia have similar legislation, though it is seldom enforced.
Posted by ronnie at 06:55 PM | Comments (0)
May 31, 2006
Woman wins $2 million in matchmaker suit
LOS ANGELES - A widow won $2.1 million from a high-priced matchmaker whom she claimed failed to deliver on promises of introductions to cultured, wealthy men.
Anne Majerik, a 60-year-old social worker from Erie, Pa., claimed in a lawsuit that she paid Beverly Hills matchmaker Orly Hadida $125,000 to be introduced to men who wanted monogamous relationships, earned more than $1 million and had estates of up to $20 million.
Instead, she said, she only got a few introductions to inappropriate men. For example, her suit claimed, the matchmaker's "international banker" turned out to be "an interpreter that worked in a bank."
Orly, an Israeli beauty pageant winner who goes by her first name, countersued. She alleged Majerik is a "serial matchmaker suer" who enjoyed herself with the men she met before claiming she had been "psychologically damaged by the process" and demanding compensation.
Orly claimed Majerik became her client after she helped the widow prevail in a lawsuit against another matchmaker, San Diego-based Valenti International. She said Majerik, whose husband died in 1999, gave her "enthusiastic feedback about nearly every man to whom Orly had introduced her."
A Los Angeles Superior Court jury ruled in Majerik's favor on Tuesday, although jurors weren't entirely sympathetic to her.
"We wanted to punish the defendant, but in the amount we wanted to punish the defendant, we didn't want to reward the plaintiff," said foreman Christie Troutt. "They were both wrong."
Orly's attorney said she plans to appeal.
Posted by ronnie at 02:49 PM | Comments (0)
April 28, 2006
Pakistan couple go free, jailed for falling in love
HYDERABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Pakistani couple were released on Saturday after serving five years in jail for adultery, their only crime having been to fall in love and get married.
Sodi, 23, and her husband, Abdul Hakeem Kashkeli, 26, appeared in court in the southern city of Hyderabad where the judge ordered their release.
"I am overjoyed. We have got justice at last," Sodi, 23, told reporters waiting outside. "The judgement shows we have done nothing wrong and it is no crime to marry the man you love."
The court heard a statement from the maulvi, or Muslim preacher, who had conducted the marriage and dismissed the adultery case, defence lawyer Khuda Baksh Leghari told Reuters.
Every year, hundreds of Pakistani women become victims of so-called honour killings for marrying without their families' consent, especially in conservative rural areas.
Others end up in jail after relatives file adultery cases.
Sodi and her husband were arrested in October 2001 on adultery charges and held in separate jails after the woman's father accused the man of abducting his daughter.
Posted by ronnie at 01:14 PM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2006
Veiled Egyptian lover caught red-footed
CAIRO (AFP) - An Egyptian man who routinely donned the full Islamic veil to visit his mistress incognito was tipped off by his unfeminine shoes in the Cairo metro's women-only carriage.
Camouflaged under a head-to-toe black niqab to spare his illegitimate partner her neighbours' reprobation, the 30-year-old student eventually met his own doom after accidentally revealing suspiciously clumpy footwear, newspapers reported Sunday.
An alarmed passenger on board the carriage screamed for security at a central Cairo underground station and the impostor was unmasked, the newspapers said.
Posted by ronnie at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)