Most Workers Admit Using Phone in Bathroom

Most Workers Admit Using Phone in Bathroom - If you hear the sound of running water the next time you call a co-worker on his or her mobile phone, don’t be surprised. Three-fourths of Americans with mobile phones say they use them in the bathroom, a new study shows.

Approximately the same number of men and women have used the phone in the bathroom, according to a survey of 1,000 Americans by 11mark, an integrated marketing agency, although men seem more tethered to IT in the toilet: 30 percent of men versus 20 percent of women agreed with the statement, "I don't go to the bathroom without my mobile phone."

More than half the surveyed users (63 percent) said they have answered a phone call in the bathroom, and almost half (41 percent) reported initiating a phone call. That's not all, however: What goes on behind the walls of the stalls is anything a mobile phone is capable of. Sixty-seven percent said they have read a text, and 39 percent have surfed the Web. Men work more from the bathroom—20 percent said they have participated in work-related calls, versus 13 percent of their female colleagues.

As expected, Gen Y respondents are the pacesetters in the "mobile everywhere" movement, with 91 percent using their phone in the bathroom. Still, older generations are not far behind. Eighty percent of Gen X reported using the phone in the bathroom, as did 65 percent of Baby Boomers and 47 percent of the Silent Generation.

While online, they are doing more than just surfing; 16 percent of Gen Y report they have made an online purchase while in the bathroom. Users of iPhones are particularly likely to browse and buy in the bathroom – 22 percent have made a purchase, versus 10 percent of Americans with mobile phones overall.

"The writing is on the stall," said 11mark principal Nicole Burdette. "This study confirms what we all know: that the last private place is no longer private."

In the process, high-tech hygiene is taking a hit, the survey found. While 92 percent of mobile phone users said they wash their hands after using the bathroom, only 14 percent said they wash their phones. ( LiveScience.com )

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Ink Pens And Stained Fingers!

I can not rest until we flow as one,

To meet whatever future Fate contrives.

Our poem shall pour forth from sun to sun

As, pen in hand, we two write out our lives.

~ William Shakespeare ~

Ink Pens And Stained Fingers! - This is said to be part of a long-lost sonnet by the Bard; which was a recent discovery, and it was hand written with a fountain pen, giving rise to speculation among pen scholars that the fountain pen was indeed invented 300 years earlier than believed.

From scholars to the common man, everyone used the quintessential ink pen all those years ago. They had to, they had no choice.

But today, when I need to scribble something, I pick up the gel pen. A friend of mine asked me recently why I don’t use an ink pen. This question took me back to when I was young and reminded me of the red ink nib pen my grandfather gifted me. It would be my lucky pen for many years to come. In school too, we were always told that using an ink pen improves handwriting.

However, with the passage of time, that pen was left behind as part of other memorabilia, giving way to the more modern pens. The transition from an ink pen to a gel pen was painless, as it was the norm and ink pens slowly faded away from the main stream. At work, hardly anyone uses an ink pen these days. You won’t find ink pens being advertised too, all the advertising budget is dedicated to the latest in gel pens with fancy names.

No longer do pens hold the same value as they did before. A pen lasts only as long as its ink lasts, after which it is dumped and replaced with a new “gel” pen.

Can’t help but feel that this generation is missing out on the thrill of having ink on their fingers, and also the pleasure of knowing that a pen can bring them good luck. A pen no longer holds the sentimental value that it did and today’s kids may even find it surprising that we keep those old pens as memories.

Images of people filling ink into the pen with a bottle keep flashing in front of me and I miss it. Makes me wonder if the disposable times we live in are a curse.

Though the ink pen is slowly fading away, the beauty of words etched with ink stand out from all others. Although, ink pens are not used much for regular writing, they are still used for manga inking as well as for calligraphy; especially the dip pens.

In spite of feeling the loss and missing the good old days, if you ask me to go back to using ink pens, I may not be able to do so. The fountain pens, ballpoint pens, roller ball pens have taken over.

The ultimate arbiter is convenience and somehow I console myself thinking that if Shakespeare were alive today, he himself would be using a gel pen. ( dirjournal.com )

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Facebook-banning NJ pastor acknowledges threesome

Facebook-banning NJ pastor acknowledges threesome – A pastor who said Facebook was a "portal to infidelity" and told married church leaders to delete their accounts or resign once testified that he had a three-way sexual relationship with his wife and a male church assistant.

The Rev. Cedric Miller confirmed the information reported Saturday by the Asbury Park Press of Neptune, which cited testimony he gave in a criminal case in 2003. The relationship had ended by that time.

Miller gained national attention when he issued the Facebook edict this week. He said it came about because much of the marital counseling he has performed over the past year and a half has concerned infidelity stemming from the social-networking website.

The 48-year-old leader of Living Word Christian Fellowship Church in Neptune Township had claimed Facebook ignites old passions, and he ordered about 50 married church officials to delete their accounts with the social networking site or resign from their leadership positions.

Miller had previously asked married congregants to share their login information with their spouses — as he does — and now plans to suggest that they give up Facebook altogether. The minister also said he would leave the site this week.

In court testimony he gave in April 2003, Miller said his wife had an extramarital affair with the church assistant. Miller said he participated in many of the sexual encounters and said the assistant's wife was sometimes present, too.

Miller said the dalliances — which occurred in the Millers' home — sometimes took place during Thursday Bible study meetings and Sundays after church. But the minister said the encounters "came to a crashing halt" when several women in the church accused the assistant of having sex with them.

The testimony was given in connection with a criminal case against the assistant that was eventually dismissed. The names of the church assistant and his wife were not disclosed, and Miller told the newspaper that he was concerned that revisiting the incident would "irreparably" hurt some people.

"It has come to my attention that a very painful part of my past has resurfaced," Miller wrote in an e-mail sent Friday. Noting that his court testimony was mailed to his church leaders and other pastors several years ago, Miller said, "This was resolved at that time and accordingly we will not allow it to detract from our mission at hand to save as many marriages as we can."

Miller said people must look at his Facebook directives in the proper context.

"My life as a minister, husband, father and friend has led me to the conviction that I must do all that I can to help as many people strengthen, preserve and repair the often times fragile cords of marriage," Miller wrote. ( Associated Press )

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Delete Facebook to Save Your Marriage, Pastor Preaches

Delete Facebook to Save Your Marriage, Pastor Preaches - This week, the celebrity gossip columns were filled with reports of Tony Parker's text-based infidelity and wife Eva Longoria's subsequent divorce filing.

The news will probably add some fire to a small-town pastor's controversial sermon on the evils of social networking.

This Sunday morning at 9:30am, Reverend Cedric Miller (pictured) of the Living Word Christian Fellowship Church in Neptune, New Jersey, will ask his congregation of 1,100 to delete their Facebook accounts, in order to preserve their relationships.

"I've been in extended counseling with couples with marital problems because of Facebook for the last year and a half," Miller told the Associated Press. "What happens is someone from yesterday surfaces, it leads to conversations and there have been physical meet-ups. The temptation is just too great."

Eliot Subervi, a member of Miller's congregation told the New York Post that Facebook flirtations caused some trouble in his marriage

Reverend Miller is "not saying Facebook is the devil," Subervi told PCMag. "He's just saying it's another place where temptation can arise and if it does, take yourself out of the mix. It's like—if you're an alcoholic, you wouldn't hang out at a bar."

Using another sermon-like analogy, Subervi linked the emergence of the Internet to the disapperarance of the town square.

"At one point we had a town square—where couples would go to listen to bands, talk—and then they went home together. The husband didn't stay at the town square while the wife went home," said Subervi. "The Internet's become a town square where couples break off and do their own thing," he said.

But for couples who simply can't bring themselves to delete their Facebook accounts, even in the name of God, Subervi says to practice full transparency.

"If you're married, share passwords and log-ins," he said. "Or create a Family Page. I think [Facebook CEO] Mark Zuckerberg should heed the cry and make it easier to create Family Pages."

In another clash between God and technology this week, Guardian columnist Martin Robbins blogged about a group of Brazilian evangelical Christians who have banned the use of USBs because the symbol resembles the Satanic trident. ( PC Magazine )

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Average Joe's life in numbers

Bloke's brains in bits ... survey reveals what men really think

FREE porn, Facebook, Barack Obama and Cheryl Cole ... that's what boys are made of.

That is, according to Askmen.com's 2010 Great Male Survey, that quizzed men on everything from their Twitter habits to their breast preferences.

Here, we round up some of our favourite stats from the 7,000 who took part in the survey.

SEX AND RELATIONSHIPS

When men were quizzed about the size of their manhood a whopping 46 per cent were happy with their lot, and just 32 per cent reckoned they would make it bigger to feel better about themselves.

power ... Cheryl is men's number one

When it came to breast size, it seems men love an average pair, with 36 per cent of British blokes claiming a C-cup is the perfect size and 24 per cent saying it didn't matter at all.

The idea of getting down and dirty with more than one lady is still top of the sex charts according to this survey, with 63 per cent still feeling it is something they haven't yet done, but would like to.

But fear not ladies, men are more romantic than they might seem - a huge 76 per cent says feeling close to their partner motivates them to be romantic and only 16 per cent admitted the possibility of sex encouraged them to whip out the flowers and choccies.

But be careful if he's the mistrusting type - 1 in 5 men would track their woman with a Sat Nav system if they could.

Only seven per cent of men said they would be prepared to pay for online porn, when quizzed about their internet tendencies - more of a nod to the many free porn sites these days, than the virtue of those questioned.

It seems CHERYL COLE can't do any wrong these days, with women aspiring to be her and men wanting both a date AND a one night stand with her. Miss Cole got 34 per cent of the vote on who men would most like to date and over 43 per cent on who they would like a one night stand with.

LIFESTYLE

Cooking good ... men are a dab hand in the kitchen

Thanks to Ronaldo's pedicures and Lampard's fake tans, we might think our men are bigger fans of a bit of man-beauty, but the truth is - they're not. Only six per cent would have a manicure or pedicure, with a majority just opting for a haircut and some additional skincare.

The new age man has officially landed, as 64 per cent of men enjoy cooking at home and just 5 per cent think its women's work.

While 58 per cent of men feel they may be judged on the car they own when it comes to status symbols, adorably 36 per cent of men feel having a family is the ultimate. Awwww.

If men could live like any fictional character, a whopping 63 per cent would chose the cooler than cool James Bond - over Dr Who, Kick Ass and Super Mario by a large majority.

Most men also think that the best dressed men come from Italy - we'd be inclined to agree checking out Milan fashion Week during menswear season.

MEN IN 2010

Facebook is still winning over Twitter in the online lifestyle stakes, with 71 per cent using it regularly, as opposed to just 5 per cent using Twitter.

Don't panic ladies, you're still likely to be lavished with gifts. Despite the economic gloom, 63 per cent of men feel it didn't really affect them or their spending habits.

When it comes to politicians, British MPs just aren't floating the boats of our boys. A majority would want to be Barak Obama if anyone (37 per cent), with just 18 per cent claiming they'd like to be Mr Cameron.

The British flag still brings lots of pride for guys, as 38 per cent claim to be very proud of being British.

But one British couple men are really tired of is Jordan and Peter. 51 per cent are tired of reading about Katie Price and 28 per cent of Peter Andre.

If men could choose from the following list: A long and healthy life, an attractive partner, a pile of money or a big penis, guess which they picked? 46 per cent went with a long and healthy life and just three per cent a big penis. So they do have some sense afterall! ( thesun.co.uk )

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