For me, writing without having access to the web is like trying to sing with my ears are stopped up. I have become so used to reading while writing that I find it almost impossible to write in the way I used to think normal.

My dear friend Halley reports that she's In The Hospital. Doesn't sound too dire. A shout out from Mr Wonderful.

Joi Ito (my Plazes nemesis) is considering leaving Japan because of Heavy Metals that have found their way into the ecosystem there.

Joi Ito thinks he's said something dumb but I don't: "No matter what time zone I flip to, I have things scattered throughout the day and night almost every single day. I just realized that I have jet lag even though I'm staying in one place." Traveling without moving.

The SIRC Guide to flirting is a wonderfully tongue in cheek but learned compendium of info about flirting:

... in some rather Puritanical cultures, such as Britain and North America, flirting has acquired a bad name. Some of us have become so worried about causing offence or sending the wrong signals that we are in danger of losing our natural talent for playful, harmless flirtation.

So, to save the human race from extinction, and preserve the foundations of civilisation, Martini commissioned Kate Fox at the Social Issues Research Centre to review and analyse all the scientific research material on interaction between the sexes, and produce a definitive guide to the art and etiquette of enjoyable flirting.

Psychologists and social scientists have spent many years studying every detail of social intercourse between men and women. Until now, their fascinating findings have been buried in obscure academic journals and heavy tomes full of jargon and footnotes. This Guide is the first to reveal this important information to a popular audience, providing expert advice on where to flirt, who to flirt with and how to do it.

[pointer from Dave Evans at Online Dating Insider]

Thanks to Dave at Online Dating Insider, I learned about Imaginary Girlfriends, a new service: $40 for two months. "This is a service provided by a real life girl where she will pretend to be your long distance girlfriend by sending you personalized love letters, emails, pictures, leave phone messages (if you want), and provide other girlfriend-like services. This relationship appears real to others that may see these things, but it is not. There will be no actual real life meetings or relationship between you and your Imaginary Girlfriend other than that specified in your order."

Via SocialPeople's RelaxedGuy, I bumped into this gem:

[from Married But Dating - MarriedSecrets.Com Fits The Bill]

For Immediate Release

LOS ANGELES/EWORLDWIRE/May 24, 2004 --- With the popularity of Internet dating soaring, a new dating site stands out from the rest. MarriedSecrets.com touts itself as the only dating website specifically designed for married people.

Due to the anonymity of online dating, it has never before been easier for people to find each other both anonymously and with little effort. MarriedSecrets.com makes it especially easy for individuals who are looking for some relationship outside of marriage to find other likeminded people. The site is meant to serve those people who want to stay married, yet meet some quality people for discreet hook-ups for whatever reason.

The company stems out of the realization that there was a niche market for married people looking for dates. Upwards of 30 percent of the users of traditional matchmaker sites are married; MarriedSecrets.com was designed to tap into that market and serve those people specifically.

The site's founders felt that if they made a web site that was designed for married people, and if married people could feel comfortable about putting up an anonymous profile on the site, and hook up with likeminded people, then they would be successful.

Over 30% of online daters are married? No wonder they took "All The Good Ones Are Taken" as the site's motto.

On one hand, this could indicate a growing Scandinavianization [yes, you heard that word here first] of sexual attitudes: according to various surveys, many Scandinavians enjoy extramarital sex, and the culture is very relaxed about it. But I am betting that, even while large numbers of Americans are doing one thing behind closed doors, in pulpits and op/ed columns across the country we will hear this condemned as yet another Internet indecency.

I love this social networking concept. Too bad it's just a parody.

Who Banged Who?

About WhoBangedWho.com!

What better subject for a Social networking site than sex and sexual past? This site is a parody, meant to entertain with a silly idea, and we hope it has served exactly that purpose. As of right now, we have no real inention to develop this site and build a functioning network. If you would like to develop something under this domain, feel free to contact us with a proposal. And don't worry if you filled out the signup form....it doesn't submit anywhere. Thanks for coming, and be sure and tell all of your friends...and past partners about WhoBangedWho.com.

-The WhoBangedWho Team

I came across this piece, which includes some amazing stats about the level of Intenret dating in Europe -- good grist for the mill, since I will be opining about that topic at iDate (Nice on 15 July). In particular, the projections about future single status for the enderly are compelling:

Ruth Hill

[from The Observer -- Their eyes met across a crowded room full of speed-daters...]

Now, one in five single adults in Britain happily admits to using some sort of dating service, enabling agencies to boast of memberships larger than the population of some small countries: DatingDirect.com, for example, has a membership of more than 1.5 million.

[...]

There are currently 11 million single adults in Britain, a number that is predicted to increase to 16 million by 2010, and fairly evenly split between genders.

According to a Demos report last week, the number of socially isolated elderly people will rise by a third to 2.2 million by 2021, thanks to the failure of younger people today to find a partner.

[...]

The rise in the popularity of the web-based dating industry in the past year alone is astonishing: there are 44 million links to dating agencies on the web today, compared to 13.1 million in March 2003; 3.95 million personal advertisements, compared to less than one million in 2003; and almost 7.5 million dating services, compared to 2.8 million a year ago.

The piece also digs in on "serial daters" -- people who never really settle into relationships, but just keep on with the services and various activities (like naked speed dating).

[pointer from Judith]

Todd Tweedy, president of the Tweedy Group sent me an interesting email. Todd is a well-known figure in the instant messaging marketplace (co-chaired the recent Instant Messaging Planet Conference), and serves as president of the DC New Media Society.

Todd recently moved from DC to the farm country of Virginia, which serves as the comic plotline of an upcoming Discovery Channel biopic, entitled City Slickers.

"City Slickers

Gabriella and her high tech husband Todd have decided to say goodbye to city life. They want to bring up new baby Sebastian in a little slice of country heaven, but they have to move out of their city digs in just sixty days!"