Vanity, Vanity

“We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don't care for.” Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach

The Telegraph reports on a new phenomenon. The increasing popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace have led to an enormous jump in the request for photographic airbrushing services.

The vanity of users of social networking and dating websites has led to a big increase in the demand for photo airbrushing services.

Image-conscious web users have created a 550 per cent increase in requests for airbrushing services, according to the photo specialists Snappy Snaps.

The company said the majority of requests related to profile images for sites such as Facebook, MySpace and My Single Friend.

Technology means images can be improved. Those striving to achieve a flawless look can have crooked teeth straightened. Dark shadows can be removed, wrinkles erased and bodies slimmed.

For example, with a tiny bit of work, a photo of Austrian novelist Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach can look just like Keira Knightley in the nude - well, not quite nude (link should be safe for most work environments, it is a Chanel ad. If you have a strict environment, wait and open it at home). Now some folks might doubt that, but another news item today proves the point. An Australian farmer thought he had found the love of his life on the internet. Only the lovely bride from Mali turned out to be several men wielding machetes.

Des Gregor, 56, traveled to the West African nation last month to meet his supposed bride, whom he had met on the Internet, and collect a dowry of gold bars worth $85,000.

But when he arrived, the wheat and sheep farmer was abducted by a gang of armed bandits who bound him, beat him with a machete and stole his cash and credit cards.

Gregor, who returned to his home state of South Australia with a police escort late Sunday, said the men told him they would hack his limbs off with a machete unless he paid them a $85,000 ransom.

The scam was stopped when Australian and Malian police, alerted by Gregor's family in Australia, tricked the kidnappers into taking Gregor to the Canadian Embassy to collect the ransom money.

Australian Federal Police said in a statement that Gregor's case was an "extreme example" of what can happen to people who succumb to Internet scams, and warned Australians to protect themselves.

That's what we'd call an extreme makeover. On the internet nobody knows if you're a dog. Or a gang with machetes.