Spinnaker [Distributed: Wednesday, January 24, 2007]

After a long day of school and work, you sit down at the computer and anxiously await those four little words: You've got a date.

Millions of Americans are signing up for online dating services, according to online dating sites. These services allow people to simply register (for a fee), take a personality test and get matched up to someone compatible with them.

Whether people have difficulty meeting others in person, are too nervous about first dates, or just want to meet someone while in their pajamas, it is unknown why people are trying online dating. But the statistics are clear - people are trying this modern way of dating.

One of the most recognizable online dating Web sites is Match.com. Established in 1995, it now has 15 million members. It has members in over 240 countries and sites in 18 different languages. Match.com has had more than 400,000 singles find love on its Web site in the past year, according to Match.com. Nine out of 10 people on Match.com want a relationship, according to the Web site.

There are many different types of online sites that narrow down potential prospects. With a little searching, you can find sites for Gays, Christians, Hispanics and many more.

Match.com has a new program called Match.comPLATINUM, which provides a matchmaker to do your searching for you. So for the busiest of people who can't even find time to online date, this plan, which costs more, is for you.

The site offers a program called MindFindBind by Dr. Phil, which incorporates his no-nonsense approach to dating. This program includes weekly videos, podcasts and dating techniques and more.

The process to start online dating is straightforward. Most Web sites offer free personality tests and profiles.

After answering an abundance of questions about yourself to see what your true personality is, it's time to set up a profile. This can be a little scary knowing people all over the world can look and judge you, but you must remember you're here to find love.

Nervous about your picture? Match.com offers a free Portrait Toolkit by stylist Jay Manuel of Voyeur's Guide that allows members to look at good photographs and learn how they can make their profile pictures more eye catching.

Once you develop a profile, start browsing. Know that fees are required to continue your stay on most sites. Each Web site is different, but most usually offer plans for one, three or six months at a time. Most Web sites offer a trial period of six months free of charge.

And if you become one of the hundreds of thousands that find love, members are allowed to easily cancel their subscriptions.

So why go out to that smoky bar? Staying at home and scoping out Mr. or Mrs. Right could be right at your fingertips.

Cell phones shifting the way students interact with others

Cell phones are taking this nation by storm. From newfangled phones that take pictures and play MP3s to old school phones with batteries big enough to jump-start a car, it seems that just about everyone owns a cell phone.

In fact, since the mid '90s, cell phone use has increased over 300 percent in America alone, with U.S. citizens paying out more than 100 billion dollars for service every year.

Americans are also talking up a grand total of over 1 trillion minutes annually, and that's only with half of the nation subscribed.

Cell phone companies attract new customers every day, and with what seems to be a new phone coming out every week with technology that fulfills the role of a laptop, MP3 player, and television all rolled into one.

It's no wonder cell phones are quickly becoming a necessity for most students. It's almost impossible to walk to class without hearing someone's digitized ring tone version of "Make it Rain," or whatever the weeks' hottest song might happen to be.

Other than ring tones, pieces of conversations can often be heard as cell phone talkers walk the halls, speaking way too loudly about how wasted they were the night before, or how stressed they are about class.

Some students run out of class to take a call, or, what most people think to be a most discourteous move, answer their phones while in the middle of a conversation.

It is this blatant rudeness and lack of courtesy exhibited by people who can't put their cell phones down that drives Josh Longenecker, a freshman International Business major, up the wall.

"I really hate it," said Longenecker. "They talk too loud, like they're the only person in the room. It's really distracting when people use their phones in class. But I use mine too sometimes."

Most professors would tend to agree with Longenecker on the distractions caused by cell phones. Some might force a student to leave class for the day, or take away points from their final averages.

Still, there are others who prefer less draconian methods of punishment, like English professor Dr. Bart Welling, who has students dance to the beat of their offending ring tone.

While Welling definitely feels ringing phones can cause distraction, he likens this distraction to that of a student walking in to class extremely late, or doing assignments for other classes during the middle of his lectures.

Welling feels while distractions in class do occur, the real problem with the increasingly prolific use of cell phones is the effect they are having on American culture as a whole.

"For me the big picture is that [they] destroy community. They are changing the way we communicate with each other," Welling said. "They should be supplementing things like land lines, letters, and e-mail, not replacing them."

Aside from robbing people of face to face contact, Welling is also concerned with students having to pay cell phone bills which seem frivolous when compared to the other, more essential things in life.

"Students are spending money on cell phone bills instead of spending that money on things like books, or beer even," Welling said.

Welling isn't the only instructor with these concerns. Marcus Pactor, a visiting instructor in his third year at the University of North Florida, said he doesn't own a cell phone.

"If you look around on campus everyone is hooked to their cell phones and that makes it hard to meet people," Pactor said. "They isolate people more than they help them to open up."

Professors aren't the only ones taking notice of the growing number of students fixed to their phones.

Ashby Davis, a junior English major, feels the major problems with cell phones is that incoming students may not feel as inclined to branch out and meet new people if they can call their old friends any time they feel like it.

"The major problem is that people don't have to look around and appreciate the other people around them, they can just live in their own little bubbles," Davis said.

Whether or not cell phones are definitively changing the means by which American's communicate and socialize remains to be seen.

The technology is still relatively new, dating back only 30 years. However, as the technology which brought cell phones from their obscure and bulky beginnings continues to improve, and as more and more features are added into cell phones, they will be viewed less as a phone and more of a tool for entertainment.

It can hardly be denied that people might begin to rely on their cell phones for entertainment and fulfillment instead of looking for other ways to satisfy these needs.

As it stands, modern cell phones are capable of playing music, television, movies, and doing a myriad of other tasks not normally associated with any previous telephone.

And if they ever figure out how to wirelessly transmit beer through a tap on a phone, it could very well spell the end of man as the social party animal that he is. With television, Internet, music, and beer all conveniently tucked into a pocket, why would anyone ever need to leave the house again?

Matisyahu's remix album has 'No Place to Be'

Matisyahu's latest EP is a boring retread of old material and subpar remixes.

Simon and Garfunkel. 50 Cent and bullet wounds. Keith Richards and illegal substances. These all represent some of the greatest collaborations the mainstream music industry has ever unleashed onto the world.

In 2004, a strict devotee of the Jewish faith with the eye-catching stage name of Matisyahu revealed a new combination - Hasidic Judaism and dancehall reggae.

After playing the Bonnaroo music festival in 2005 and gaining a grassroots fanbase, Matisyahu shot to worldwide fame with the release of a live album and his last studio album, Youth, which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard charts.

Seeking to parlay his newfound success into more records sold, Matisyahu recently released No Place to Be, an EP of remixes including a live DVD of a performance in Israel.

The album is a fairly haphazard collection of previously released tracks and questionable remix choices. The first three songs are various cuts from Matisyahu's first two studio albums and do little more than stretch out the record to seven tracks.

After the first three throwaways, No Place to Be actually takes a downward tumble with the inclusion of a weak cover of the Police's "Message in a Bottle." Matisyahu's flimsy vocals on the track simply lack the driving force behind Sting's tenor and end up being overshadowed by the over-processed guitars. The song features a solid hook, but that's not exactly high praise for a cover song.

The album is book-ended by two remixes and a dub version of the Police cover already on the EP.

In a head-scratchingly bizarre choice, Matisyahu allows his song "Jerusalem" to be chopped by Swisha House DJ Michael Watts and included on the album as a new mix. The track is ponderous and the bass on the vocals is artificially raised, sounding as if Watts recruited former Swisha House member Slim Thug to record the mix in a trailer.

One of the bright spots of the album is the Small Stars remix of "Youth." Eschewing the rap-rock of the original track, the new mix sports a faster beat and little flourishes like harmonica. It takes a different approach and succeeds more than it fails.

The dub version of "Message in the Bottle" is fairly standard, with a lot of reverb and echo, some dense bass and little emphasis on vocals.

With such a lackluster record, one would think the live DVD would have benefited. Unfortunately, Matisyahu's live set in Tel Aviv is disturbingly subdued. At points, his guitarist looks like a reanimated corpse and the crowd is virtually nonexistent.

Interviews are interspersed into the live set, but these are often brief and provide little substantive commentary on who Matisyahu really is.

No Place to Be is an exercise in futility, containing little more than a few throwaway remixes, covers and a deadpan live DVD. With this release Matisyahu presents his own style of reggae-lite, as if his music is a gateway drug to more substantial dancehall sounds.

Advice for the hung-over

Your hair hurts, your mouth feels as if you've eaten steel wool, your stomach is angry at you, and you can't see across the room. The only good news is that you recognize the person sleeping beside you as your significant other.

This is a hangover. You drank too much, and now you're paying for it.

What to do?

The only time-tested method is to take a couple of aspirin or ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil), drink a lot of water, fruit juice or something such as Gatorade, then get some rest and wait for the effects to go away, says Dr. Charlene Prather, associate professor of internal medicine at St. Louis University School of Medicine. Anything to get the water back into your system and to replace the nutrients (electrolytes) that the alcohol drained away will help.

Prather can give some specific medical advice: do not take Tylenol, she warns, because its reaction with alcohol residue in the liver can be toxic.

"The hangover is still a mystery to scientists," said Erin Hunt-Carter, a clinical psychologist and doctoral candidate at the University of Missouri at Columbia. "We know that heavy drinking may lead to headache, fatigue, thirstiness, gastrointestinal distress and other assorted unpleasantries. But we don't really know why this happens or why some people report being hangover-prone and others hangover-proof."

Hunt-Carter is writing her doctoral dissertation on hangovers and alcohol abuse. Hunt-Carter is tackling the subject because no one else has.

"Scientists have not yet identified the exact mechanisms that lead to the misery of hangover," Hunt-Carter said. "We know that people increase their risk of hangover with each drink, so heavy drinking is especially likely to produce a hangover."

"It's not what you drink but how you drink it. If you drink to intoxication, you are likely to get a hangover," Prather said.

"It may be a form of withdrawal," Prather said. "But it may be because things in alcohol are toxic."

Prather suspects the dehydration from drinking too much is the big culprit.

"Alcohol is a diuretic, and it causes a lot of urination," Prather said.

The symptoms of a hangover mimic those of severe dehydration.

Prather loathes the binge drinking in colleges. Many students think they have a hangover when they actually suffer from alcohol toxicity; their body is being destroyed by too much alcohol. Alcohol is a depressant, and too much can shut down your system and kill you.

A new rave among the 20 and 30-something crowd is over-the-counter pills claiming to reduce or eliminate hangovers. While they've been around since the mid-1990s, about two dozen have popped up in the past two years.

Mike Pearson, co-founder of HangoverReview.com, and his associates tested more than 50 of the pills and concluded the newer pills are versions of the old pills. Some work best by taking one before going to bed, others by taking one or two between drinks.

The Web site also lists the ingredients in these products; the most common are vitamins B-6, B-12 and C. They also contain a bunch of herbs and a few minerals, such as calcium.

Pearson did name the most effective over-the-counter hangover remedies. Only one, Alcohol Hangover Relief, claims to work after a night of drinking. The others are preventative a little late for the day after the party. Take them before or during your misbehavior.

The more experienced set, including Mark Pollman, a freelance bartender, author of books about bartending and spirits, and member of the Bartender Hall of Fame, has less high-tech advice.

"I would say, 'Don't drink too much in the first place,'" Pollman said. "If you do, put something really nice and greasy in your stomach before you start."

Man breaks into crowded apartment

BZZZZZ! OH, ER I JUST THOUGHT I'D DROP IN
A Sydney, Australia, man attempted to break into his neighbor's apartment which shared a common wall with his by cutting through the wall with a circular saw. He soon found out there were five people home at the time.

TALLAHASSEE; NO, BOISE; NO, GRAND RAPIDS
A Chicago woman got so drunk that she had to be hospitalized after she played a game of Trivial Pursuit in which participants had to take a shot of booze when they answered a question incorrectly. Officials said she became heavily intoxicated after "continually providing wrong answers."

AT THE TIME, IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA
A man in Wichita, Kan., called the police to report that two armed men had forced him at gunpoint to sign over the title of his motorcycle to them. But an investigation revealed the guy was hosting a crack party, and, when the crack ran out, he signed away his cycle to buy more.

DADDY, WHERE'S FRITZIE?
A man in Berlin told his 6-year-old stepdaughter he was taking her pet beagle for a walk, then took the little doggie to a bar where he convinced the owner to buy the animal for $53, which the man spent on beer.

WHAT KIND OF A MAN ARE YOU, ANYWAY!?
A major executive with a wife and three kids went trolling for some extracurricular, shall we say, partnerships on the Internet. He hooked up with a 22-year-old woman who, while extorting $125,000 from him, wrote him surprisingly self-righteous notes demanding the money. She called him "disgusting" for "what you've done to your wife."

WHAZZAP, DUDE, I MEAN OFFICER
Police in Chicago pulled over a man for running a stop sign and found 92 pounds of marijuana in his car. They decided to search the vehicle because he was smoking a joint when they stopped him.

PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN IN THE PHONE BOOTH
A man was thrown out of a strip club in Columbus, Ohio, and responded by phoning in a bomb threat. Unfortunately for him, the club has Caller ID, and the bouncer was able to trace the call to a nearby pay phone.

TALK ABOUT INCRIMINATING
A man was caught in the parking lot of a greenhouse in Lower Nazareth Township, Pa., with planting pots and other items he had shoplifted under his coat. Among the things he had on him was a list with the heading "things needed to grow pot."

NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED
Police set up a checkpoint in Bremen, Germany, to randomly stop drivers to see if they had been drinking. A drunk driver pulled over on his own because he mistakenly thought a vehicle had broken down, and he wanted to help.

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EXPRESSIONS

Dating in the digital age

Cell phones shifting the way students interact with others

Matisyahu's remix album has 'No Place to Be'

Advice for the hung-over

Man breaks into crowded apartment

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