Retractable Speed Bumps
Mexican firm Decano Industries has developed a speed bump that remains in place when a vehicle that is moving too quickly is about to drive over it, but retracts when a slow-moving vehicle approaches. Christ Hawley writes in USA Today:
“With this speed bump, people will feel rewarded for obeying the law,” says Carlos Cano, the company’s president.
The technology is relatively basic: The speed bump is formed by two steel plates that form a triangle sticking out of the pavement. When a car tire touches the plate, a patented device under the triangle measures the force of the impact.
If the tire’s impact is gentle enough — that is, if the vehicle is traveling slowly — both plates immediately collapse into the ground under the weight of the car.
Link via DVICE | Image: Sergio Solache, USA Today
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Axolotl Salamanders
Image: The Cellar
The Axolotl is a rare type of salamander, closely related to the Tiger Salamander species. They are about 9 inches long on average, and carnivorous. The cute critters are only native to central Mexico’s Lake Xochomilco, and yes – they are edible, and used to be a staple in the Aztec diet; but they are highly endangered due to the expansion of Mexico City.
They are, on the other hand, highly bred in captivity due to their value in research.
Axolotls are especially easy to breed compared to other salamanders in their family, which are almost never captive bred due to the demands of terrestrial life. One attractive feature for research is the large and easily manipulated embryo, which allows viewing of the full development of a vertebrate. Axolotls are used in heart defect studies due to the presence of a mutant gene that causes heart failure in embryos.
Cellar Image of the Day
Link to Axotls site
Wiki
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Mexico Goes for Thriller Record
Thousands of people turned out for an attempt to break the world record for the number of people doing a simultaneous Thriller dance in Mexico City. Organizer Javier Hildago says 12,937 participated on Saturday, which would have been Michel Jackson’s 51st birthday. Officials from the Guinness Book of World Records will take some time to determine whether all those people completed the entire dance routine. The current official record is 242 dancers from the College of William & Mary. Link
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Mexico City Breaks Kissing Record
After a year of drug wars that have taken the lives of at least 6,000 citizens, Mexico opted to fight violence the way the Beatles preached -with love. Almost 40,000 people gathered together on Valentine’s day to break the world record for most simultaneous kisses.
Link Via Weird Stuff News
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Let's Play ... Virtual Border Patrol!
A new $2 million surveillance project in Texas lets you patrol the US border with Mexico from the comfort of your own home, and report any suspicious activity you see.
The project results in one crime bust in the six week it has been on, but it was a biggie: "virtual deputies" spotted three suspects trying to smuggle 540 pound of marijuana across the border. According to Wired:
The exact location of the cameras is not disclosed, but according to a press release about the project, "a significant number of Texas landowners" requested that the cameras be placed on their property.
More than 21,000 people from several states, including as far away as Ohio, have signed up to be virtual deputies so far. BlueServo claims its web site has received more than 5 million hits, resulting in about 1,000 e-mail reports of suspicious activity. The average camera watcher spends about eight minutes on the site examining video.
What do virtual deputies get in return for their efforts?
Aside from the satisfaction of knowing they’ve done their part to combat crime, they get the opportunity to become targeted consumers.
Link | Here’s the webcam: BlueServo – via Attuworld
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Lawmakers Ran for the Door as Anti-Drug Crusader Proposed Drug Testing
The Los Angeles Times has been running a series of articles about Mexico’s drug cartels and the government’s (so far ineffective) war against drugs.
Past articles have included the gruesome tale of drug boss dissolving the bodies of his enemies in vats of lye and the tale of a legendary kingpin who picks up the tab of everyone dining at the restaurant he happens to eat in.
In the latest article of the series, Tracy Wilkinson writes about Yudit del Rincon, an anti-drug crusader and state legislator from Sinaloa, who had a brilliant idea:
Yudit del Rincon, a 44-year-old lawmaker, went before the state legislature this year with a proposition: Let’s require lawmakers to take drug tests to prove they are clean.
Her colleagues greeted the idea with applause. Then she sprang a surprise on them: Two lab technicians waited in the audience to administer drug tests to every state lawmaker. We should set the example, she said.
They nearly trampled one another in the stampede to the door, Del Rincon recalled.
(Photo: Don Bartletti/LA Times)
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Blonde, Black Miniskirt and a Sticky Situation ...
When Anadel Carrizales pulled over to help a blonde in a black miniskirt whose car appeared to have broken down on a Mexican highway, he thought that he was his lucky day … but all he got was a super sticky situation:
Once he had stopped, the woman walked up and told him an accomplice was pointing a gun at him, said David Perales, a spokesman for state investigators.
She then tied him up with packing tape, super-glued his hands to the steering wheel of his truck and demanded money. Carrizales didn’t have any cash, but the woman took his credit cards and fled.
"He probably thought it was his lucky day when he saw the woman in the miniskirt, but was surprised when she tied him up," Perales said.
With his motor still running and his hands still glued to the wheel, Carrizales managed to drive a few miles (kilometers) down the road until he found a police officer to help him.
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Japanese Man Lives In Airport For No Reason
It sounds like someone took Tom Hank’s role in Terminal too seriously.
Japanese citizen, Hiroshi Nohara, has decided to live in the Mexico City airport for 3 months and with apparently no reason. Since September 2, his home has been in the terminal and he has survived off food and clothing donations from travelers and airport shops lookin for advertising. In his own words, he claims to have no reason for staying so long:
“I don’t understand why I’m here,” he said through a visiting interpreter originally hired by a television station. “I don’t have a reason.”
He is now a minor celebrity in the city, as his refusal to go home has ignited the city’s imagination. Neither Mexican or Japanese authorities have been able to help persuade him to leave and he may stay put until his visa runs out in Early March.
Link Via Tokyo Mango
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