Firefox 1.5 has officially been released. Latest improvements include:
Here’s what’s new in Firefox 1.5:

* Automated update to streamline product upgrades. Notification of an update is more prominent, and updates to Firefox may now be half a megabyte or smaller. Updating extensions has also improved.
* Faster browser navigation with improvements to back and forward button performance.
* Drag and drop reordering for browser tabs.
* Improvements to popup blocking.
* Clear Private Data feature provides an easy way to quickly remove personal data through a menu item or keyboard shortcut.
* Improvements to product usability including descriptive error pages, redesigned options menu, RSS discovery, and “Safe Mode” experience.
* Better accessibility including support for DHTML accessibility and assistive technologies such as the Window-Eyes 5.5 beta screen reader for Microsoft Windows. Screen readers read aloud all available information in applications and documents or show the information on a Braille display, enabling blind and visually impaired users to use equivalent software functionality as their sighted peers.
* Report a broken Web site wizard to report Web sites that are not working in Firefox.

Download here

Chilling can cause colds
Did your mum ever tell you to “wrap up warm or you’ll catch a cold?” If so, scientists at Cardiff University’s Common Cold Centre have proved her right.

For the first time, new research, published in the medical journal Family Practice by Claire Johnson and Professor Ron Eccles at the University’s Common Cold Centre supports the folklore of chilling and colds. Previous scientific studies had dismissed any relationship between chilling and viral infection as having no scientific basis.

180 volunteers were recruited for the study during the common cold season in Cardiff (October to March). The volunteers took their shoes and socks off and half had their feet chilled in ice cold water for 20 minutes while the others sat with their feet in an empty bowl. 29% of the chilled volunteers developed cold symptoms over the next 4-5 days compared to only 9% in the control group.

Professor Ron Eccles said: “When colds are circulating in the community many people are mildly infected but show no symptoms. If they become chilled this causes a pronounced constriction of the blood vessels in the nose and shuts off the warm blood that supplies the white cells that fight infection. The reduced defences in the nose allow the virus to get stronger and common cold symptoms develop. Although the chilled subject believes they have “caught a cold” what has in fact happened is that the dormant infection has taken hold.”

Common colds are more prevalent in winter than summer and this may be related to an increased incidence of chilling causing more clinical colds, but another explanation put forward in a review article published by the Centre is that our noses are colder in winter.

“A cold nose may be one of the major factors that causes common colds to be seasonal. When the cold weather comes we wrap ourselves up in winter coats to keep warm but our nose is directly exposed to the cold air. Cooling of the nose slows down clearance of viruses from the nose and slows down the white cells that fight infection. Mothers can now be confident in their advice to children to wrap up well in winter.”

http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/newsevents/17472.html

Well….
Henry:
- Its source is Heimrich, an ancient Germanic name meaning “Home Leader”.
- Nicknames: Harry, Hal, Hank and in spanish Enrique
- Teasing nicknames: Hen, Henrietta, Henery, Henk, Henry the 8th

So there you go Hen we have been calling you all the teasing nicknames all your life.
(http://tools.oxygen.com/babynamer)

Guys Ask: Why do girls go to the bathroom in groups and gossip like maniacs? I know that’s what they’re doing. Is this a genetic defect?

The Girls Respond: Guys, you are correct that we are not in the bathroom helping one another flush the toilet. We are connecting! And we don’t need basketballs or video games to do it. We dissect other people’s personalities because it’s fun.

And we can’t relax and do it in front of boys because they’ll judge us and call us catty. Guys, after all, are talking about supremely impersonal stuff like events, games, objects, politics. Snore

Firefox 1.0.5 was released yesterday… go get it.

Wooohooo end of term next Thursday!!! That means i only got another five days of uni left!! (i dont have anything on thursdays, so i will be going home after lectures next wednesday). Then next Friday i leave at 8 in the morning for a long weekend backpacking with Duke of Edinburgh, which is the last practice before the final in June.

Not much else to say, but to those people who break up for Easter this friday - grrrrr! But it does mean i start back a week later

What a good weekend! I had a 6 hour first aid course at uni on saturday afternoon for duke of edinburgh which was ok, not the best 6 hours i've ever spent but its a useful skill to have anyway, so i didnt really mind.

On the night Lauren invited loadsa people round her house and we had an ace night! I havent seen a lot of people for ages as we've all been off in different parts of the country at uni so it was nice to see everyone again. We had a few drinks, then went up to Blastoff (thaks for giving us a lift Dooner!) and basically had a good time there.

Dont know what im doing this week. Theres nothing special, just the usual work. I dont think i'll be going out during the week as it's getting towards the end of term and i have various bits of work to get done, and of course revision for the dreaded exams which start two weeks after we come back from Easter, and end two days after my birthday! grrrrr.

Had quite a bit of snow today. I had a bit of a shock when i walked out of my room to see it snowing like mad (i hadnt opened my curtains yet!). It was looking pretty promising, but then it stopped snowing and rained at about lunch time so that just messed everything up.

Ive not been up to an awful lot recently. Only three weeks of term left, then its off for Easter! woohoo! I got my Duke of Edinburgh big practice in Yorkshire Dales over Easter weekend which im looking forward to, then its a whole load of lazin/revisin for four weeks. I gotta start looking for a job for the summer :S. Went to a job fair in the guild the other day which i was hoping to pick up some good bits of info, but there was nothing there apart from the usual crew - inland revenue, gap year, that sort of shit. If anyone has any ideas for a good summer job let me know!!

thats all folks!

So here it is, half way through the term. Halfway to Easter, halfway to exams. So far its not been too bad i spose - could have been better (it can always be better), could have been a lot worse.

I dont really have a lot to say at the moment. Just thought id come and say hi to everyone i havent seen for a while. If anyone has any interesting stories to share, why not post them on my <a href="http://forum.henrycleaver.co.uk" target="_blank">forum</a>?

see you all soon