Parody sites start anti-social networking trend

Tired of phony online friends? Make enemies instead.
Riding on the popularity of social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, new Web sites are poking fun at online friendships that connect you to the people you like, by turning attention to the ones you don't.
Over the past 18 months, sites such Snubster, Enemybook and Hatebook are appealing to Internet users who get a kick out of the tongue-in-cheek humour of mocking their friends and others who are just plain cynical.
"I didn't understand these fake-friend war chests that people were so busy building online," said Bryant Choung, a technology consultant who started Snubster last year.
"I would get Facebook requests from people I talked to for three minutes at a bar or party, and now this person wants to go online to peruse all of my photos and contacts. I just didn't get it," the 26-year-old added.
Snubster, a Facebook application and a Web site with 16,000 users worldwide, lets users compile people and things they dislike. No one from Facebook, which boasts 59 million active users worldwide, was available to comment about the sites.
When Facebook opened up its network to outside applications earlier this year, some users decided it was an opportunity to poke fun at the phenomenon.
Kevin Matulef, the creator of Enemybook, said the idea for his Facebook application started as a joke last summer when friends at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were asking if someone was a real friend or a Facebook friend. "It started basically as a satire, sort of a parody of some of the superficial aspects of Facebook and the connections that you have, but now it's kind of evolved and it allows people to express themselves via their dislikes," said Matulef, 28.
Enemybook, which has 9,000 users, is similar to Snubster in that it lets you "enemy" so-called friends, public figures and fictitious characters.
"A lot of people like myself use it just to joke around with our good friends," said Matulef. Choung agrees."I hope that most people take it as a joke, on occasion I do get complaints from people about others who take it too seriously."
But Murray Pomerance, a professor of pop culture sociology at Ryerson University in Toronto, said most people take their online relationships very seriously.
"There are a lot of people who do not believe the friends that they have on these sites are phony," he explained. "I know people who have lots and lots of friends on these sites and who say things about themselves on these sites that they would never say to anyone straight up in public or in private."
Pomerance added that any online social networking, whether it's making friends or enemies, could be dangerous.
"Who you liked and who you hated used to be private," he said. "What they're doing is taking human feeling and emotion and making us actually register them through these online services."

Common man's airline Deccan will still be affordable

The much anticipated merger between Air Deccan and Kingfisher has been formalised. But how will it affect the way you travel?
Air Deccan MD G R Gopinath says, “It has already been decided by both Vijay Mallya and me that we will retain two separate identities."
Air Deccan will still fly the Indian skies but with a new name. Despite the merger with Kingfisher airlines, Air Deccan will continue to operate as a low cost carrier bringing to the table India's largest civil aviation company one that's more profitable and punctual.
Talking about the merger, UB Chairman Vijay Mallya says, “The report has highlighted the synergy potential between the two airlines and how it can bring down the cost of operations, save a lot of money and accelerate the route to profitability."
But how will this integration change the way you travel? If you are an Air Deccan regular, the first thing you will notice the restructuring will be the change in flight schedules

For example, if you fly an 0800 hrs, IST Mumbai-Delhi Air Deccan flight, it may soon be replaced with a Kingfisher one simply because there's a higher demand for premium services during the peak hours.
But if you're looking for cheaper tickets during the non-peak hours, there may soon be many more available.
So for all practical purposes the common man's airline will still be affordable to the common man, and that with a bonus of no-frills international flights as well

Big B, SRK better role models than historical figures: Study

Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai serve as more influential role models for youngsters than any of the famous figures from history, a new study from the University of Leicester suggests.
The research in the University of Leicester Department of Media and Communication examines interest in celebrities and gossip about them. It was carried out by Charlotte De Backer who sought in her study to explain interest in celebrity culture.
"Life is about learning, gaining experience and in that process we have a tendency to observe and mimic the actions of others. Ideally we mimic what makes others successful and avoid unsuccessful actions others have trialed (and paid for),” De Backer said.
"In reality, humans seem to have the tendency to mimic the overall behaviour pattern of higher status or more successful others. This explains why celebrities act as role models for broad ranges of behaviour they display – good or bad,” she added.
De Backer also examined another theory for interest in celebrity, known as the Parasocial Hypothesis.
In this case, the bonds are parasocial or one-way because the celebrity reveals private information (often involuntary), and the audience members respond emotionally to this, but there is no feedback of the private life of the audience going to the celebrity (or hardly ever), and nor do celebrities display emotions towards their audience.
Her study of 800 respondents and over 100 interviews confirmed that younger participants showed greater interest in celebrity gossip, even if it was about celebrities who were a lot older than them and even when they did not know the celebrities. They showed greatest interest in internationally known celebrities, because they considered those as more prestigious.
De Backer study also found that older people were interested in celebrity gossip not because they wanted to learn about the celebrities, but because it helped them to form social networks with other people.
"We did find in the interviews that older people do not gossip about celebrities as much because they want to learn from them or feel befriended with them, but they use celebrity gossip to bond with real life friends and acquaintances,” De Backer said.
"Living in scattered societies, we often don't know who to talk about with the many people we know, and celebrities can act as our mutual friends and acquaintances,” she added.
De Backer’s research was published in the journal Human Nature.

London Inn offers free stay for Marys and Josephs

London: Josephs and Marys in search of a room at the inn this Christmas are being made an offer they can't refuse.
A British hotel chain is promising free accommodation to couples who share their first names with the couple from the Christian Nativity story.
Almost 30 Josephs and Marys have already signed up for the free night's stay at the Travelodge, said Shakila Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the hotel chain.
"The 'gift' of free night's stay is to make up for the hotel industry not having any rooms left on Christmas Eve over 2000 years ago when the original 'Mary and Joseph' had to settle for the night in a stable," the company says on its Web site.
The offer is good at any one of the chain's 322 hotels in the United Kingdom, the Web site says. The couples must bring proof of identity and must prove that they are in a long-term relationship.
"If you satisfy the criteria, you get a free night in a family room for two adults and two children," Ahmed said. "There's also parking space for a donkey if needed," she joked.
Ahmed said the offer, which will run from Christmas Eve to Twelfth Night — December 24 to January 5 — had been very well-received.
"We've had a lot of interest. I think people like the fact that it resonates with the Nativity story at a time when the actual meaning of Christmas often becomes forgotten in festive overkill," she said.
Couples can register their names at a special e-mail address set up by Travelodge, which has hotels across the Britain, Ireland and Spain, Ahmed said.

One-film-old Gemma bags next 007 girl role

London: Actress Gemma Arterton of the show St. Trinian will be the next Bond girl. It will be her second film.
Thesun.co.uk reports that the 22-year old beat 1,500 other women to co-star with Daniel Craig in the movie is tentatively titled Bond 22. Filming starts in January.
After getting the confirmation, Arterton sent an SMS to her mom saying, "I got Bond!"
An insider at the Bond studios Eon Productions said, "She has the modern look."