March 4th, 2008
by Heather.

One night in July, I was up late on the computer,
and recieved an instant message from some guy. It stated, “Hey,
remember me?” I didn’t know who it was so I asked him a few questions
to see if I could remember. Well, he told me that I met him at some
party, which wasn’t true, b/c I hadn’t been to any parties in years.
Turns out, I really didn’t know him, just some random instant message.
He was the funniest person I had ever encountered on the net, so I just
kept talking to him.
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 4% [?]
Posted in Horror Stories | 8 Comments »
February 24th, 2008
by Matt Titus.

There is one thing I try to convey to all of the
women I work with: most men do not approach a woman because he thinks
she is moral, funny or smart. His initial intention is to sleep with
her. I know this sounds harsh and it may be shocking, but it’s true. I
am a man and it has never been my intention to approach woman to make a
new friend. I have enough friends and none of them wear make-up or
smell pretty.
I try to teach women how to think like a man while never losing
sight of her femininity. In most cases, a man’s actions are
(unfortunately) driven by what pleases him visually, acting out of
instinct and only thinking in the moment. My basic thesis is that if a
woman can be taught to understand a man’s dating behavior, she can
easily control, predict and successfully maneuver through all the
confusing “MANerisms” during that date. In other words, I teach women
how to speak “man.”
So here’s secret #1 of the Boy’s Club: when a man walks down a
crowded street he involuntary classifies all women into two categories:
“would sleep with” and “wouldn’t sleep with.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 8% [?]
Posted in Dating Tips, Dating and Relationships Opinions | 16 Comments »
February 16th, 2008
by Joshua Thompson.

Buddha said, “We are what we think. All that we
are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.”
Our thoughts honestly control what we do. There is plenty of material
written on this. So I won’t get into it too much.
We are a product of what we think…but also what we feel. And I think our feelings aren’t focused on enough.
Honestly, we are mostly emotionally beings. We act based on
thoughts, we react based on emotions. Our emotions can stimulate us to
do things. They can also stimulate us to ignore reason.
This is the idea that women can really mess you up…because you don’t
think logically. Your control is overrun by your emotional language.
But how does this apply to your dating?
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 1% [?]
Posted in Dating Tips, Dating and Relationships Opinions | 2 Comments »
February 8th, 2008
by Katy Franklin.

Every girl has her own little hang-ups about a
guy that drive her crazy. Whether you’re out on a first date with
someone, have been dating him casually for quite some time, or have
been in a long-term relationship with a man, these little annoyances
can become “Dealbreakers” or “DB’s,” as my friends and I so lovingly
refer to them. Some are not so bad, while others can be totally
devastating to a first date, or a committed relationship. So I thought
long and hard and came up with a list of things I would consider
“Dealbreakers” for myself. I also polled some girlfriends to get some
second opinions and fresh ideas. The following are 50 serious
Dealbreakers…guys, you may want to take notes…
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 18% [?]
Posted in Dating Tips, Dating and Relationships Opinions | 35 Comments »
February 3rd, 2008
by Andy Cowan.

As with the early days of live TV, the early days
of “live women” are starting to seem like a quaint remnant from
yesteryear, yet another golden age we didn’t know was golden until it
faded away with our memories. I admit that most of the ladies who’ve
been “communicating” with me lately have been prerecorded – as when I
recently answered the phone and heard, “Hi, this is Wendy! Great news!”
It would be greater news if the Wendy in my life wasn’t an automaton.
My most serious relationship with a virtual woman – My voicemail
secretary. Unfortunately, I know she’s been two, three and four-timing
me with other guys, and women, after I reach their voicemail and hear
her busily answering their phones while busy not answering mine. But at
least she sounds as detached with them as she does with me. (I was
starting to take it personally.)
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 2% [?]
Posted in Strange Dating Ideas, Humorous | 3 Comments »
January 25th, 2008
by Chania

Well, dating is never easy when you’re 16 and
desperately want a boyfriend, but it can get much more difficult if
you’re very naive and with your head in the clouds.
I had my first boyfriend at 15 (it only lasted a month and a half),
and I can’t possible imagine what I saw in him then. But at that moment
I was so eager to have a boyfriend that I was literally “blind”. One
afternoon, after waiting 3 or 4 days for him to call, I simply got out
of the house, in spite of my father’s warnings that it is embarrassing
for a girl to look for a boy and to contact him, and that she should
wait (“That’s what I have been doing for 3 days, dad! I want to see
him!” Man, how desperate it sounds now…) and I went to his block of
flats. I knew that at that hour (around 6.30 pm) he should be outside
with the boys, playing football. But nobody was there, probably because
it was dark and cold.
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 5% [?]
Posted in Horror Stories | 10 Comments »
January 16th, 2008
by Karen Rodriguez

I was 24 years old and divorced living in a house
with six other flight attendants, with only a laptop and a suitcase as
my real processions. However, that wasn’t the worst part. I was now at
the airport being picked up by my first date via Myspace, which is a
current site being used by people who were too broke to pay any fees at
a real dating site. Surely, this was a recipe for disaster, but having
found love and marriage so quickly at a young age once makes me an
eternal romantic.
His name was Peter. He was 26 years old, divorced, with a 5 year old
daughter, and working at a hardware store. Amazing the potential
suitors you can find by just typing in your zip code while including a
twenty mile radius. Even if we did not have movies, passions, and
interests in common, we had divorce, starting over and heartache to
dwell on. Soon after, what followed were the awkward first phone calls.
After the second week of phone conversations he let me know he told his
daughter that he had a new girlfriend. This should have set off an
alarm in my head. Instead I was flattered. A flight attendant’s life
could at times be very lonely, and a friendly voice during a layover in
Alaska or Kuwait was better than watching an episode of the Golden
Girls.
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 11% [?]
Posted in Horror Stories, Humorous | 16 Comments »
January 4th, 2008
by Ed Attanasio

Because I am a writer, many of my friends ask me all the time to
write their online profiles to post on dating web sites. I always feel
like it’s a big commitment — kind of like writing someone’s resume or
biography. There’s a lot at stake and the pressure to write something
really good about someone can be very exhausting, because many of my
friends are highly dysfunctional. How do you effectively describe the
essence of a human being in just a few paragraphs? Without lying or
opening yourself up to a civil suit?
I must admit, I have gotten pretty adept at it over the years. The
secret to writing a great profile is to emphasize the good things about
people while minimizing their shortcomings. Stretching the truth
slightly is no crime and many people do it.
No matter how bad or messed up some people are, you can usually find
something positive to write about them. They say that Attila the Hun
was really nice to his elephants (“loves animals”). Hitler was a
vegetarian (“healthy and fit”). And legend has it that Genghis Khan
took really good care of his fu manchu (“well-groomed”).
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 25% [?]
Posted in Dating Tips, Humorous | 51 Comments »
December 18th, 2007
by Carly Zinderman.

You know that Drew Barrymore movie, Never Been
Kissed? I totally relate to it, except for being a completely pathetic
loser. Yet, in high school, no boy ever showed me the slightest bit of
interest. I wasn’t worried about it though, my friends were never asked
out either, despite the attempts my closest friend occasionally made on
random guys that happened to catch her interest. Other than her
over-aggressive pursuit of the male sex, my friends and I had next to
no contact with boys during our four years of high school and for most
of us, the male-free barrier continued on into our college years as
well. But the dearth of dating didn’t bug me as much as you’d think.
You don’t miss what you’ve never had and never having had a guy; I
didn’t miss not having one. Besides, my friends and I had each other,
and that was enough. We would sometimes joke about how we would be old
cat ladies, which did bother me, because I’m a really a dog person.
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 9% [?]
Posted in Dating and Relationships Opinions, Happily Ever After | 18 Comments »
December 13th, 2007

Are you watching old Seinfeld reruns for dates because you’re broke?
Do you need help with saving money without being a cheap date? If you
answered “yes” to either or both of these questions, consider this
dating advice: Spice things up a bit with these 7 money-saving and fun
dating ideas.
Here’s the link to the full article.
7 Dating Tips - Ideas for How to Save Money
Some of these ideas have potentials of being Romantic (e.g. Central
Park), while others may be disasterous if you want a second date. It’s
definitely worth a look though.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Posted in Dating Tips, Dating and Relationships Opinions | 9 Comments »
December 6th, 2007
by Brenda.

A few months ago I left a comment here on a post entitled “Are You Permanently Celibate” and have been asked to expand on my thoughts.
Basically the post was about a women who had her name on a dating
site and in her profile stated that she was permanently celibate. The
post itself didn’t compel me to leave a comment, it was everyone’s
comments that got me a little hot and bothered. Most of them were about
how this woman was a tease, had problems, didn’t like men, was lying to
herself, etc. I disagreed completely. She seemed to understand herself
well and was very upfront about what she wanted, which struck me as
being very honest. Chances are she only got responses from men who felt
much the same way she did about dating…more power to her I say.
Unlike this woman I haven’t made some declaration to be permanently
celibate, but I do consider myself to be happily single. As I said in
my comments to the original post, “There’s a myth out there that women
or men who are happily single are not open enough, hate the opposite
sex, need therapy or are just lying.” The reality is, being in a
relationship or being married does not automatically mean that you’ll
be happy. It also doesn’t mean you won’t be lonely. I was married for
10 years and have been single for 14, and during both times experienced
feelings of loneliness, along with many other feelings, both positive
and negative.
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 12% [?]
Posted in Dating and Relationships Opinions | 24 Comments »
December 4th, 2007
by Paul G Akins Jr.

Dating can be summed up in one word, annoying.
The whole process and all of the games involved irritate the hell out
of me. Which is why when my friends suggested that I give online dating
a try I politely said hell no.
But after about a month of harassment and ridicule I signed up to a
few sites to test my luck. I was surprised by the shear number of sites
and how many lonely and horny women there are out there. All just
waiting for Mr. Right, but for right now they’ll settle for Mr. Big
Johnson and Sir Quick Tongue.
I met a few women online but one stands out. Her names was, well you
don’t really need to know her name—besides it was bootyluscious or
lickous or something. Her real name wasn’t important, however her butt
was. From the pictures she had on her site this girl had a nice big,
juicy, yet firm butt.
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 5% [?]
Posted in Horror Stories, Humorous | 10 Comments »
November 28th, 2007
by Sara Hodon.

Online dating is not for the faint of heart. It’s
good if you post a profile but don’t have the highest expectations in
the world, because more often than not, you’ll be disappointed. But if
you’re considering trying it—congratulations! You’re far braver than
about 80% of the single population out there.
I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m no stranger to the world of online
dating. Though I haven’t met a bona fide,
“Okay-I-must-be-leaving-now-because-you’re-too-weird-for-words” wacko,
I’ve definitely had my share of bad experiences. The hard part is just
getting through the date itself. This can be tricky, particularly if
you seemed to hit it off so well when you first started talking. Sadly,
my friends, a person can post as many pictures as they want, but until
you experience the real thing, you can truly only take a picture at
face value.
So the real question remains—how do you make it past those awkward moments on a first date?
Unfortunately, I really don’t recommend jumping out of the bathroom
window—that is, unless you absolutely have no other choice. As a wise
man once said, sometimes you just have to suck it up. It is possible to
meet The One online (I know plenty of people who have), but it’s a lot
like shopping for bargains—the trick is to sort through the rejects
until you get to the one worth keeping.
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 9% [?]
Posted in Horror Stories, Humorous | 17 Comments »
November 23rd, 2007
by Vicky Zhou.

Creating an online dating profile can be
challenging, particularly if you’ve never done it before. There are
some definitely things you do and do not want to do when you create
your profile in order to have the best success with your endeavour.
Here are the things you should definitely leave out.
1. Past Relationship Experiences
While it’s okay to mention what you’ve learned from past
relationships, don’t ever go on and on about the way your ex treated
you or anything of that resemblance. The more positive you are in your
profile, the more positive people will think you are in real life - and
everyone wants to date someone positive, right?
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 10% [?]
Posted in Dating Tips | 19 Comments »
November 17th, 2007
by Wais Hassan.

There have been numerous articles written
recently about online dating and courtship but I have not seen many
from the Muslim perspective. Actually, there are a number of Muslim
dating sites that have popped up during the past few years and some of
them are pretty well designed and have thousands of registered users.
I, an Afghan American 1st generation graduate student, have joined a
couple of these sites during the past few years.
It is so difficult to meet and become friends with Muslim women in
my everyday life because there are so many expectations the culture
places on both men and women. Women do not want to be perceived as
being loose or immoral and many who date will never admit to actually
be dating anyone. All Muslim parents I know frown on casual dating and
most of my relatives agreed to arranged marriages when they decided
they were ready to settle down.
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 8% [?]
Posted in Horror Stories | 15 Comments »
November 11th, 2007

A study was done recently by economists and psychologists from
Columbia University trying to answering the age-old dating question:
“What, exactly, makes someone desirable?”. During the two year study,
speed dating experiments were conducted to collect response by more
than 400 daters.
Among the result of the study some “not-so-surprising” findings from the experiment typically include things such as:
- Male based their decision heavily on the physical appearance of
their dates, while women based their decisions on the intelligence of
their dates.
- Women who are more ambitious than their dates are considered less desirable.
These conclusions are fairly well known and intuitive. However, one
of the most surprising results from the experiments indicates that
women prefer their own race, while men just don’t care.
Also among the findings, it is found that “…East Asian women did not
discriminate against white men (only against black and Hispanic men).
As a result, the white man-Asian woman pairing was the most common form
of interracial dating—but because of the women’s neutrality, not the
men’s pronounced preference….”
Here’s the link to the full article.
An Economist Goes to a bar … and solves the mysteries of dating.
Althought some of the results seems interesting; I think the problem
with this study is the experiment smaple size seems too small. The
study deals with grad students from an east coast school, which might
not be a good representative sample of the general female/male
population across the country.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Posted in Dating and Relationships Opinions | 19 Comments »
November 7th, 2007
by Janet Trakin.

I’m a self-defined lesbian, but what lesbian
isn’t tempted by a cute guy? I recently posted my profile and picture
on My Space.com, that intergenerational melting pot of cyberbabies and
misfits. Where most people wrote, Angelina Jolie, Dalai Lama, Hillary
Clinton and other assorted luminaries under the question, “Whom would
you most like to meet?”, I wrote, “A woman who understands me on all
levels.” Amazingly so, my inbox was then inundated by a barrage of
e-mails from male geeks from all around the world.
Among the photo of a tribal chief from Ghana, an e-mail of a
faceless British artist, and a hate-filled, homophobic abusive e-mail
from a Yugoslavian 16-year old punk, appeared the picture of Tom Smith.
He had dark hair just messy enough not to be neat, dark brooding eyes
and a sweet smile. He appeared to have a melancholy spirit underneath
the smile, and his broad shoulders hinted of strength and
masculinity–the perfect combination of the hopeless romantic and macho
man…the poet and football player…Jung’s anima and animas. His e-mail
contained life-weary original musings on love, a desire to settle down,
and a propensity to do “anything for love.” I checked him out.
Tom’s profile appeared to be hastily put together just so that he
could answer ads. Whereas many people on My Space go to great lengths
to create an elaborate, impressive web site, Tom’s remained blank, and
only “United States” appeared under his name and age. But the photo—ooh
the photo. With no hesitation, I returned his e-mail.
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 4% [
Comments
I was in total technological awe, till I saw the blurb "and now prepare to die". I note the "monster" looking part appears to be coming out of the canadian portion so shouldnt that read "Prepare to die, eh?"
Dextre.
Canadian for "Giant Robotic Tiki God!"
Looks like a giant break dancer to me
Yeah, it's real great and all, but the thing comes down to Florida every year for the winter and drives 15 in a 45. He also wears Canadian flag thongs to the beach in January.
Yes, I'm from Florida.
They had to go with the French spelling for Dexter, didn't they?
@combat chuck:
well, they are CANADIAN
@combat chuck: Everyone give Chuck a minute to wake up this morning.
It's okay man. Happens to the best of us. :)
"half a fraction of an inch"
What's that in centimeters? ;-)
Dextre has to be an acronym for something. Anyone? Seriously, what was the last time any piece of equipment went into orbit whose name wasn't an acronym?
@Barcard: a few
Yeah actual space stuff and real science are sooo unhip compared to iPods and plastic toys. (?)
If you are building a LEGO Millennium Falcon in your home (and at this point I'd have to say it's a growing "if" unless you're doing the time lapse thing BoingBoing Gadgets beat you to weeks ago) you can probably manage a little joy to be witnessing REAL and ACTUAL developments in space without fear of it appearing to damage your hipster cred with the Gizmodians or anybody else.
I know for a fact that you were filled with wonder and joy at the things we're doing in space because I think that's the kind of person you are, so THERE! :p
Be a booster. We can't get into space without 'em.
@Geisrud:
Demonic
Extra-terrestrial
Xenomorph
Threat
Retaliation
Exterminator
George Bush was quoted as saying, "You go get them there space Aliens, Dex... Dax... You go get 'em Dippy!"
Oh Canada, oh Canada, your robots best not error
Oh Canada, oh Canada, they would induce some terror
@Geisrud:
Dextre (Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator)
Oh you like it now. But just wait until it demands you only talk to it in French, joins a union and sits around the Space Station on strike, drinking beer and playing with his hockey stick telling everyone how it could have made it to the NHL if only its engineers weren't such hosers and programmed it how to skate like good, eh.
(Go Flames Go)
pfft. At best it's an artificial Canadian... Seriously... Where's it's toque? :P
And yes I am Canadian.
@Amsterdaam - KEEP SMILING: Hey! You guys have a huge military that the MP force alone can take over our country... We have spooky people that trek down to Florida in questionable garb and Celine Dion.
P.S. You can keep her.
Ummm, "all with a precision of half a fraction of an inch" is still just a fraction of an inch. All that sentence shows is that a dumb writer is trying to make his message stronger by saying something that actually doesn't make any sense.
Besides, doesn't NASA do most, if not all of their work with metric now? I know the Canadians do. And since the robot is Canadian made, wouldn't the proper and more precise terminology would be more along the lines: "all the precision of .5mm of control?"
/former news producer
//stickler for proper copy, use of English
Where is Johnny Sokko when we need him? Who else can possibly control this metal monster??
@mrsteve007: Yes, I concur.
It's the old Carlin Conundrum: If you take a crumb, and cut it in half, is that two crumbs, or two halves of a crumb?
@mrsteve007: If we have to start making this all proper english, or even lucid, most of the posts and comments will cease. I dont know about everyone else, but I read Giz for substance and not for style.
Now see? Canada is gonna take over the WERLD!
I wonder if it thinks the iPod on the dash is its runt cousin?
I saw some of this action on NASA TV live on the web too. They put a lot of work to put that thing together over the weekend and past couple of days. It's cool as hell to watch this live and also live-track the location of the shuttle and the ISS. It's freakin' flying right along at like 17000mph. Cool. Hey, I'm married okay. I get it all the time :)
um, since this is all about scientific achievement and all, exactly how long is "half a fraction of an inch" ? ;)
@islandhopper: A hair over a smidge.
@Barry99705:
In Canada they call that a coozie hair
I knew Canada was spending their military budget on something. I mean you can't be a huge country like that and not have a huge military budget. Now we know...
I for one welcome our new Canadian controlled Robot Overlords.
@apeguero: your married AND you get it all the time?
You can't understand.
You're frightened because you can't understand it.
I'm going to show you.
I'm going to show all of you.
It takes 430 people to man a starship.
With this, you don't need anyone.
One machine can do all those things
they send men out to do now.
Men no longer need die in space
or on some alien world.
Men can live
and go on to achieve greater things
than fact-finding
and dying for galactic space,
which is neither ours to give or to take.
You can't understand.
We don't want to destroy life.
We want to save it.
Thanks Dr. Daystrom, for trying to save us from ourselves..
too bad one power glitch can render it totally unusable.
I give it less than a year of functionality.
@Curves: And that is why Gawker sites post 40+ items per day of terribly-written faux-reporting copy.
@mrsteve007: Continue the crusade.
To clarify, the Canadian Space Agency website says that Dextre has "millimetre level positioning accuracy" (1/25th of an inch for metric-resisters).
@mrsteve007: Yeah, you are right. I was writing while I was listening to the comments from the presenter and just didn't do research for precise data. I should have, but I just wanted to put the images, which to me were the biggest thing as we have written about the bot and its technical features before. I'll add the info. Oh, yes, and you are banned for being a douchebag.
@strider_mt2k: Watching science is not sad. What I meant is that I spent two hours watching people moving in slooooooowmoooootion as the put the final touches on the bot. LEGO is still in construction. But it won't be time lapse. It will be another thing.
@mrsteve007: "doesn't NASA do most, if not all of their work with metric now? I know the Canadians do."
huh? wait... we do? I'm Canadian and work in Canada and only about 2% of my work is metric.
@Topcat: Yeah, 40+ posts terribly-written post so you can read and terribly write inaccurately comments on.
"millimetre level positioning accuracy" (1/25th of an inch for metric-resisters)."
I'm afraid that's also inaccurate: it's 2 millimeter incremental positioning accuracy (1/12 inch) and 6 millimeters relative to the target (1/4 inch)
Thanks for playing.
@Jesus Diaz: I quoted I was sourcing the CSA's public website for Dextre, which leaves it vaguely at "millimetre scale" (hence quotations). If I'd read the fact sheet initially, I would've quoted the exact numbers.
@Jesus Diaz: No, please, Mr. Jesus Diaz, please, oh, please, do not wield the deadly banhammer! Topcat is merely standing up for what he believes is right! I am sure he means no disrespect, Mr. Jesus Diaz! Spare him from the ugliness of the wicked blows of your banhammer! Put it back in its banhammer-hammock for another time! There will come a day, Mr. Jesus Diaz, when deadly banhammer may be loosed freely on the recalcitrant population, but Topcat is but a waif, a naif, a child among the fierce tigerousness of Gizmodo!! Spare him in the name of all that is sacred, Mr. Jesus Diaz!
@ps61318: Um, he banned the OTHER guy.
I might remind anyone who dislikes the posts or form of Giz (I dont go to any of the other Gawker sites), that they CAN go the hell BACK to work and not read it.....
NASA, like all of science, has ALWAYS used the metric system for everything they do.
@Geisrud:
Deadly EXra Terrestrial Robotic Enigma
@ps61318: I didn't ban him. We don't ban people for disagreeing. We only ban them for acting like douchebags.
@Topcat: If I had read the spec sheet before, I would have quoted it too. But as I said, I just wrote by ear while listening to the live broadcast.
"I was watching it live on NASA TV and grabbed these shots (yes, I am that sad) of this fully-assembled gigantastic space spider"
Hey, thats not sad at all! I've been keeping the NASA TV feed running continuously on my second monitor ever since the launch last Tuesday, watched the ISS docking and all spacewalks so far. Some people could care less, I suppose, but to me, these dudes are friggin' floating around in OUTER SPACE, and we get to watch live! I could watch for hours on end, on pins-and-needles the whole time. There's no better reality TV.
Not bad. You'd think a robot by Dexter would shoot fireballs or sumthin', or a least dodgeballs.
+ Watch video
'Dextre' is French, from the Latin word 'Dextra', meaning dextrous, or right-handed. I wonder if the space station's going to get a Sinistra arm as well?
Time to die stupid humans!
Smart! Naming a giant space-robot after a TV serial killer! I'm gonna sleep in the basement tonight.
@Beelzeboss: It also means demonstrating good skills. Like diestro in spanish (Diestro in spanish, btw, also means "bullfighter"). That's why they put that name to the bot.
Sinistra will probably be the name of the maintenance bot in Spectra's secret space station.
I think Gizmodo should run more articles with "Giant Space Robot" in the headline.
@Brian Sexton: In their headlines, that is.
Is it a bending unit? And will it be last 992 years to befriend (currently) frozen pizza delivery boys?
@LastVigilante: it's always fascinating to watch pictures from up there, I find myself doing it for hours on end.
@Jesus Diaz: Oh, that's very different.
Never mind.
Post a comment
Login with your username and password below. New User?
Forgot your username or password?