In his latest series called "IT Everywhere" Paul The Wine Guy photoshopped pictures of graffiti as if they were done by geeks: Link [Flickr set]j - Thanks Jon Jason and Luciano!
Previously on Neatorama: Understanding Art for Geeks, also by Paul The Wine Guy
Ah, Google Earth. It's an amazing technology and service from Google ... which inadvertently helped launch UK's summertime craze: pool crashing!
Teens begin by surfing Google Earth’s satellite images to find houses with swimming pools — or at least paddling pools. Once a target has been identified, sweaty swimmers then use Facebook to arrange an organised, but uninvited, pool-crash. [...]
Owners of several plush poolside properties have already returned home to find teenagers taking a dip in their man-made lakes or their spoor: beer cans, dog-ends and vomit floating atop their once crystal-clear pools.
I've travelled quite a bit in the past, but I didn't even know about this: US Customs and Border Protection agents can "randomly" seize your laptop, camera, cell phone and other electronic devices at the border for inspection - meaning they'll take a peek at what you've got stored in your machine:
Bill Hogan was returning home to the U.S. from Germany in February when a customs agent at Dulles International Airport pulled him aside. He could reenter the country, she told him. But his laptop couldn't.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents said he had been chosen for "random inspection of electronic media," and kept his computer for about two weeks, recalled Hogan, 55, a freelance journalist from Falls Church, Va.
But don't they need a warrant to do that? Nope - no, they don't:
Authorities need a search warrant to get at a computer in a person's home and reasonable suspicion of illegal activity to search a laptop in other places. But the rules change at border crossings.
Courts consistently have ruled that there's no need for warrants or suspicions when a person is seeking to enter the country -- agents can search belongings, including computer gear, for any reason.
Bad: Assaulting your mom
Really bad: Stabbing your mom with a fork
Neatorama-worthy: While you're at it, beating another woman with a frozen chicken!
Meet Frederick McKaney, 40, of Ypsilanti, Michigan, who was arraigned in Jackson county courtroom with two felony assaults, one of which is "assault with chicken":
"He stabbed his mother in the back of the neck when she refused to give him money, and then, an hour later, he attacked a neighbor woman with a chicken," Jackson County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Mark Blumer told the Ann Arbor news.
A short time later, he encountered two other women talking on the sidewalk on Woodbridge Street. The woman said he said something nasty to them and hit one of them over the head with 10 pounds of frozen chicken.
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/16715911/detail.html
Pretty soon you can ditch that remote control and change the channel with just winking at the TV or something, thanks to Jacob Whitehill.
Jacob, a computer science Ph.D. student from UC San Diego built a technology for detecting facial expression that turns his face into a remote control that speeds and slows video playback:
In a recent pilot study, Whitehill and colleagues demonstrated that information within the facial expressions people make while watching recorded video lectures can be used to predict a person's preferred viewing speed of the video and how difficult a person perceives the lecture at each moment in time.
This new work is at the intersection of facial expression recognition research and automated tutoring systems.
"If I am a student dealing with a robot teacher and I am completely puzzled and yet the robot keeps presenting new material, that's not going to be very useful to me. If, instead, the robot stops and says, 'Oh, maybe you're confused,' and I say, 'Yes, thank you for stopping,' that's really good," said Whitehill, the computer science Ph.D. student leading the project.
We've all grabbed a stick and drawn a figure in the sand on the beach, but Jim Denevan took this artform to the extreme: he created some of the largest human-made art on Earth!
Dark Roasted Blend has a neat feature on Jim's artwork (including one 3-mile across made on a dry lake in Nevada! It took 100 miles of walking to draw that pattern)
An inmate escaped from an Arkansas county jail ... and left behind a toilet paper flower because he felt bad for escaping! Luis Camacho-Mendoza was recaptured later hiding in a closet with a pillowcase over his head.
Link - via Blue's News
The photo to the left is a toilet paper flower you can make yourself at eHow.
Here's how to torment telemarketers with one word - is it a gem? Yes! (Make sure you wait till the very end ...). Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Grow-a-brain
Almost as good as this classic one, by Tom Mabe, previously on Neatorama: Plight of a Telemarketer
Blogging is like exercise or a diet program. It's easy to start but very hard to keep up. But most people usually give it a couple of weeks or months before they quit blogging.
There are, however, a select few for which one post is quite enough thank you very much - for example, this blog featured above titled I Know My Chicken:
Tuesday, February 20, 2001
Dont even ask me about the title..muahaha. I woke up today with a cat on my head....what a wonderfull event to start off the day! Then..I went walking my dog..and some fat guy was smoking..and he yelled at me. I was just walking!! Fooey...Well Im going to go update the rest of my webpage and go to some meeting...FRAH!
posted by Brittany at 3:24 PM
So, what better tribute to these One Post Wonders than a blog featuring their single posts for all of eternity?
Link: One Post Wonder blog - via J-Walkblog
And here [YouTube] is where the "Know My Chicken" line came from ...The researchers at the ICT Graphics Lab at University of Southern California have created a low-cost 3D holographic display system ... and what image did they choose to showcase the technology? The TIE Fighter from Star Wars!
http://gl.ict.usc.edu/Research/3DDisplay/ - via Wired's Gadget Lab, Thanks Brendan Leahy!
Here's our weekly collaboration with Bizarro (perhaps inspired by the recent spate of severed foot washing ashore in Canada?). For more Bizarro, check out Dan Piraro's website and blog!
Joey "Animal Style" Mariano, a Philadelphia chiptune artist, created this awesome Gameboy foot controller to create some amazing 8-bit madrigals:
Using the power of the Gameboy sound chip, Mariano’s madrigals blend the body of early role playing and puzzle video games with awesome, powerful electro-dance beats. Since the Gameboy only has three melodic monophonic channels to create melodies to begin with, this helped Mariano stay true to the traditional madrigal form of 2 to 3 voices.
Geekadelphia has a pretty neat video of Joey (and the foot controllers) in action: Link - thanks Eric!
Technology has always played a big role in fighting terrorism. Some inventions are truly useful and will undoubtedly save lives, whereas others are so bizarre that one wonders how in the world they got patented. This list is about the latter: Behold the Top 10 Strangest Anti-Terrorism Patents!
(Note: yes, most of these patents cite fighting terrorism as raison d'être)
U.S. Patent 4667565, Rapid response patrol and antiterrorist vehicle by Reg. A. Anderson. Issued May 26, 1987.
Problem: Terrorists can pop up at any time, leaving local authorities totally defenseless against their raging attacks.
Solution: When terrorists walk past this non-descript truck parked quietly on the street, its roof pops out to reveal a machine gun turret! If that doesn't strike fear into the heart of Jihadis, well ... then we can still mow 'em down!
Bonus: Also great for battling zombies.
U.S. Patent 7107990, Portable face protector for protecting human being from poisonous gas and securing visibility by Kuk-Bin Lee. Issued Aug 30, 2004.
Problem: Terrorists may use poisonous gas to terrorize civilians, and gas masks are not very attractive looking.
Solution: A portable face protector (10), probably inspired by Robin's mask, and a piece of cloth (22) to cover the mouth and nose.
Bonus: Also protects against flatulence.
U.S. Patent 6920646, Human waste management suit, by Caleb Clark Crye, Gregg M. Thompson, and Eric Owen Fehlberg. Issued Jul 26, 2005.
Problem: You got to wear a biohazard suit to protect against biological or chemical weapons ... but as soon as you put it on, you really gotta go!
Solution: A biohazard suit with a built-in toilet! Just squat a little bit and go.
Bonus: Hazardous fumes are sealed inside the suit, thus preventing embarrassing smell from adding extra stress to an already strenuous situation.
Potential Complications: How do you wipe?
U.S. Patent 4896580, Railroad missile garrison system, by Ron Rudnicki. Issued Jan 30, 1990.
Problem: Terrorists may attack a missile silo, a stationary target if there ever is one.
Solution: Make it mobile. Here's a patent for a railroad missile garrison system that launches ICBMs from rail cars of a train.
Bonus: Makes a great movie plot!
U.S. Patent 6591786, Device and method for safetly inserting an electronic device in an ear of a four-legged non-human trained animal, by Eric R. Davis. Issued Jul 15, 2003.
Problem: It's well known that Al Qaeda terrorists hate dogs, but how do you tell the animals to get to these dirty SOBs if they can't hear you? (You being a far away, of course, preferably in the safety and comfort of a bunker.)
Solution: a custom-fitting earpiece for dogs so they can receive verbal instructions remotely.
Bonus: The method specifically said four-legged non-human animal, so I'm thinking this will work with goats. Attack goats.
U.S. Patent 6844817, Aircraft anti-terrorism security system, by Wolfgang Gleine. Issued Jan 18, 2005.
Problem: Terrorists want to hijack a plane by trying to break down the cockpit door.
Solution: After hardening the cockpit door, airlines should add the next logical step: airplane trap door that springs open to entrap terrorists below deck.
Bonus: Great prank to pull on the co-pilot going on a bathroom break.
Improvement Suggestion: Add an alligator pit to the trap door ... or better yet, some motherf-ckin' snakes on the motherf-ckin pit!
U.S. Patent 6499693, Aircraft to respond to threats, by Ariel S. Rogson. Issued Dec 31, 2002.
Problem: Terrorists are almost successful in breaking down the cockpit door...
Solution: Gas 'em! Here's a system that puts incapacitating gas into the plane's ventilation system. After everyone's knocked unconscious, the pilot can land the plane and let the police deal with the hijackers.
Potential Complications: Better hope the terrorists aren't carrying the Face Protector Against Poisonous Gas invention listed above. Also, the gas knocks out everybody, passengers and terrorists alike, which leads us to ...
U.S. Patent 6970105, Passenger control system during a plane flying, by Paolo Valletta. Issued Nov 29, 2005.
Problem: A terrorist is onboard, and you want to disable him without harming the other passengers.
Solution: Make all passengers wear armbands that monitors their body for signs of falsehood and evil (ooh, say heart pulsation and blood pressure - hey, it's in the patent application, mmkay?). And did I mention there's a syringe filled with a strong tranquilizer connected to the thing? One "anomalous emotional condition," then off to dreamland they go!
Bonus: Works for unruly kids.
U.S. Patent 6854374, Explosion containment net, by O. Alan Breazeale. Issued Feb 15, 2005.
That you, Solid Snake?
Problem: Suicide bombers may detonate their bomb and kill a lot of people.
Solution: It may look like an umbrella, but that's actually a kevlar net fired from a special gun to encapsulate and contain a bomb's blast. The net also contains a tube for dispensing fire suppressant agent (the tank is worn on the back of the net operator in Figures 6 and 7 above).
Bonus: Great for fishing or tackling
U.S. Patent 6729247, Mobile crematorium, by Andrew and Nelle Brown. Issued May 4, 2004.
Problem: When all effort to prevent a large scale act of terrorism failed and the body count of victims is high, then something is needed to get rid of the bodies ...
Solution: A mobile crematorium - basically a combustion chamber on wheels.
Bonus: Probably makes a mean BBQ! Also works to get rid of dead zombies.
