ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
08/04/2006 Maxine Gauthier doesn’t own a computer. She doesn’t know the first thing about Web browsing or sending e-mail. She’s not even sure where to find a computer’s "on" button, as she describes it.
Yet for the past nine months, she has been fighting one of the most persistent and some say irritating institutions in cyberspace: AOL, formerly known as America Online. "They just haven’t wanted to let go," the 55-year-old St. Louisan said. "I don’t think they’ll ever really let go."
Her struggle has involved about a dozen phone calls often ending with an AOL customer service representative or manager hanging up on her. She even tried impersonating someone else in a couple of the calls. The giant online service provider wouldn’t budge. Advertisement
The problem? An AOL account once held by Gauthier’s late father still showed billing charges accumulating against it. The account had been dormant for months; the credit card he used for it was inactive at least as long. Nevertheless, AOL kept charging $25.90 each month for dial-up online access. Late fees for non-payment accumulated on the credit card, too.
Gauthier even offered to send a copy of her father’s obituary as proof he truly was dead. AOL was unmoved.
"An AOL service guy told me to stop complaining and learn to use a computer," she said. "Then he hung up."
Now I know why it’s called AOHell.
08/05/2006(REUTERS) LONDON – Hundreds of Britons are being urged to attend what is being branded as Europe’s first "masturbate-a-thon," a leading British reproductive health care charity said Friday. Marie Stopes International, which is hosting the event with HIV/AIDS charity the Terrence Higgins Trust, said it expected up to 200 people to attend the sponsored masturbation session in Clerkenwell, central London, on Saturday. "It is a bit of a publicity stunt, but we hope it will raise awareness," a Marie Stopes spokeswoman told Reuters.
"We want to get people talking about safer sex, masturbation and to lift taboos." Participants, who have to be over 18, can bring any aids they need and can take part in four different rooms — a comfort area, a mixed area, along with men and women only areas. However, the rules on the event’s Web site states there can be no touching of other participants, nor are people allowed to fake orgasms. "The amount you raise will be determined by how many minutes you masturbate and/or how many orgasms you achieve," the Web site said.
The Marie Stopes spokeswoman said local religious groups had been initially outraged, but after people had heard what the event was about, most had approved it. Police had also given it their approval. Similar events have been staged in San Francisco for the last six years raising $25,000 for women’s health initiatives and HIV prevention. If successful, Marie Stopes said it could take place elsewhere in mainland Europe next year.
We suspect the winner will be a twelve year old boy with a copy of Maxxim Magazine’s Swimsuit issue.
08/06/2006 ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – In a sudden blow to the nation’s oil supply, half the production on Alaska’s North Slope was being shut down Sunday after BP Exploration Alaska, Inc. discovered severe corrosion in a Prudhoe Bay oil transit line. BP officials said they didn’t know how long the Prudhoe Bay field would be off line. "I don’t even know how long it’s going to take to shut it down," said Tom Williams, BP’s senior tax and royalty counsel. “We do know that our customers will be paying for this until we see blood come out of their eyes and they have to sell their children to refill the family car.”
A spokesman for the White House said that President George Bush was on vacation in Crawford, Texas and was showing as “Away” on his AOL Instant Messenger.
RoadDave 