The weather is exceptionally frigid.

Then there are the Roxxxy Gold sex robots, developed by True Companion, which come with pre programmed personalities, including Frigid Farrah that gives the impression of shyness and Wild Wendy with an adventurous personality.

There are many disturbing aspects to the rise of sex robots not least of which is the replacement of real, human relationships but the subservient female traits, the rapey connotations of making a move on Frigid (read resistant) Farrah, are the most concerning.

But in other cases, the stakes have become very high indeed. Bilateral relations between Indonesia and Australia since last November have become more frigid than they have been in decades, owing to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono s very real anger at Australia s refusal to offer an apology for tapping his private telephone (and his wife s).