India's bhut jolokia is acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's spiciest chili. That nation's military has responded by developing a grenade that carries small quantities of it:

It has more than 1,000,000 Scoville units, the scientific measurement of a chili's spiciness. Classic Tabasco sauce ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units, while jalapeno peppers measure anywhere from 2,500 to 8,000.

"The chili grenade has been found fit for use after trials in Indian defense laboratories, a fact confirmed by scientists at the Defense Research and Development Organization," Col. R. Kalia, a defense spokesman in the northeastern state of Assam, told The Associated Press.

"This is definitely going to be an effective nontoxic weapon because its pungent smell can choke terrorists and force them out of their hide-outs," R. B. Srivastava, the director of the Life Sciences Department at the New Delhi headquarters of the DRDO said.

Link via Say Uncle | Photo: (unrelated) US Department of Homeland Security

We've previously featured Phil Elkins' homemade travel trailer that was light enough be hauled by a bicycle. Now he's turned his attention to creating a portable shelter for the homeless. The result weighs 225 pounds and has a tiny bed, kitchen, and bathroom:

elkins wanted his design construction to be a simple, light weight, water tight insulated box on wheels, built with an area for displaying and selling handmade wares.[...]

the roof acts as a rain catcher. when it starts raining, a valve is turned to stop the flow of water to the collection tank to allow debris to be flushed from the roof. after a minute of this cleaning process, the valve can be turned back on and collect free water. when the tank is full, it has an overflow feature which allows excess water to drain to the ground.

You can view more pictures at the link.

Link via Fast Company | Photo: Design Boom

Matthew and Nora Eaton had a clever scheme: shoplifting popular toys and resell them on online. It was such a smart idea that they decided to go on the Dr. Phil show and brag about it. This decision brought them to the attention of prosecutors:

District Judge Irma Gonzalez sentenced Matthew Eaton, 34, to 27 months in prison — one year more than prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office thought was sufficient punishment.

Nora Eaton, 27, was sentenced to one year and one day in custody.

Gonzalez had little sympathy for Matthew Eaton, calling his conduct in running the scheme over two years “despicable.”[...]

Matthew Eaton’s lawyer said the couple went on the show seeking help for their chronic shoplifting problem. On the program, however, they came across as bragging about their exploits and not appearing particularly troubled.

Instead of helping them, producers egged them on to exaggerate their cases, said defense lawyer Leila Morgan. And the only help they got was free copies of McGraw’s books, she said.

The judge also had harsh words for Dr. Phil.

Link via Ace of Spades HQ | Photo: Consumerist

Here at Neatorama, we've previously covered the eerie world of abandoned amusement parks. Joel W. Styer is assembling a comprehensive list of defunct US amusement parks, sorted by state, including pictures and video where available. Pictured above is a roller coaster from Chippewa Lake Park, Ohio, which closed in 1978. Photographer Dave Sandborg writes of his exploration of the park in 1997:

As for the condition of the coaster, it actually didn't look that bad from a distance. Most of the structure seems intact, except for a few missing handrails. The wood seemed in surprisingly good condition, given how long it's been neglected. I'm not a good person to judge how easy it would be to move or reconstruct this coaster, but I could clearly see several major problems. First, the ground near the back end of the coaster is pretty waterlogged. Second, there is one spot where a tree has completely fallen over the track and wrecked it. Third, the undergrowth around the coaster would be a major problem. There were trees growing straight through the brake run tracks. Finally, the cars themselves were in terrible shape.

Link via Hell in a Handbasket | Photo: Dave Sandborg

(YouTube Link)

YouTube user TheJediCharles made a time-lapse video of a young girl losing her baby teeth and growing in her adult teeth over a seven month period. It consists of seventy frames with a photo taken about every three days.

via Urlesque

The South Korean company Primpo has developed an improved cane for the visually impaired. It vibrates with increasing intensity as its sensor approaches an object. It can also detect colors:

Unlike conventional white canes, with which a user can not detect obstacles above waist height, the "Isonic" model can detect obstacles within a range of 25 degrees horizontally and 50 degrees vertically with an integrated supersonic sensor.

The product can also detect obstacles within a distance of 2 meters, as well as very slim objects, narrower than 3cm. With decreasing distance to an object, the cane's vibrating indicator sends a stronger signal to the user, pinpointing the location of the obstacle.

A feature to inform a visually impaired user of an object's color draws special attention. With a color sensor attached, the user is informed by voice messages of 10 detectable colors and their brightness, including red, orange and blue.

Link via OhGizmo! | Photo: Aving.net

Sylvester Jiles violated his probation by trying to break into the Brevard County, Florida jail and has been sentenced to fifteen years in prison:

At the time, he begged jail officials to take him back into custody, saying he feared retaliation from the victim's family. But officials refused his request, advising him to file a police report instead.

Link | Image: FBI

Obesity experts at Cornell University say that depictions of the Last Supper, such as that of Leonardo da Vinci (above), have shown increasingly larger meal portions for the past thousand years:

They found the main courses, bread and plates put before Jesus and his disciples have progressively grown by up to two-thirds.

This, they say, is art imitating life.

Professor Brian Wansink, who, with his brother Craig, led the research, published in the International Journal of Obesity, said: "The last thousand years have witnessed dramatic increases in the production, availability, safety, abundance and affordability of food.

Link | Image: Art Renewal Center

Researchers at Britain's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory are developing machines that can generate electrical fields that could repel projectile attacks:

When a threat from incoming fire is detected by the vehicle, the energy stored in the supercapacitor can be rapidly dumped onto the metal plating on the outside of the vehicle, producing a strong electromagnetic field.

Scientists behind the project claim this would produce a momentary "force field" capable of repelling the incoming rounds and projectiles.

Although it would last for only a fraction of a second, if timed correctly it could prevent rocket propelled grenades, which detonate on impact, from reaching their target. The supercapacitor could then be rapidly recharged ready for another attack.

Link via io9 | Image: Paramount

"Lights Off" is a short film created by the World Wildlife Fund to promote Earth Hour -- a time when people around the world turn off all of their electrical appliances for an hour. The film has separate light and dark modes, and will play either the light or dark version depending on whether your computer's webcam detects illumination or darkness. There's also a light switch that you can flip to view either version of the film, no matter how well your computer area is lighted.

Link via The Presurfer | Screenshot: The Presurfer

(YouTube Link)

Engineer Scott Amron has a clever invention. It's a heat sleeve for a cup that expands when hot liquid poured into is so that the drinker has additional protection from the heat.

Other Amron inventions that we've featured at Neatorama include a keyring/key, leather band-aids, and an art exhibit for which Amron plugged non-electrical objects into electrical appliances.

Link via Gizmodo

(YouTube Link)

This video shows a Soviet animated short from 1968, created in something similar to ASCII:

A group of russian physicists and mathematicians with N.Konstantinov in the head of it created mathematic model of the cat and its moving and realized this model in the program for the computer "BESM-4". Computer printed hundreds of frames on the paper using alphabet symbols and then they were converted to the cinefilm.

via Make

The Plastiki is a boat made from recycled plastic bottles. It was built by a team led by David de Rothschild in order to call attention to the value of recycling. It set sail on Saturday from Sausalito, California and is heading for Australia:

The Plastiki, named in honor of Norwegian explorer Thor Hyderdahl's raft Kon Tiki, is a boat like no other in the world. Besides the hull of recycled plastic water and soda bottles, the vessel is made of a hardened plastic called PET.

The boat is a twin-hulled catamaran rigged as a ketch. It will rely on the wind for propulsion and has only a small auxiliary engine. No such boat has ever made an ocean passage before.

The Plastiki was built on the San Francisco waterfront in 2009 and has been making trial voyages on the bay.

Link via The Presurfer | Official Website | Photo: Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle

Police sometimes use rubber bullets to subdue protesters or rioters without killing them. Unfortunately, rubber bullets can still kill people, especially at close range. In response to this problem, Lund Technologies has developed a rifle that will automatically determine the range of the target and slow down the velocity of the bullet (fired with compressed air) as needed in order to reduce the likelihood of killing the target:

“Less-lethal,” of course, is a term that replaced “non-lethal” because it turns out most rounds being billed as non-lethal – like rubber bullets for instance – are actually quite fatal at close range. Too keep less-lethal intentions from turning into lethal actions, the LVVWS is equipped with a range finder that locates the target and calculates distance; if the shooter is working in less-lethal mode, the rifle ratchets down the muzzle velocity of the round, maintaining its less-lethal status even in close quarters.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-03/variable-velocity-rifle-puts-less-less-lethal | Photo: Lund Technologies

Transportation is challenging for people living in the mountains around the Rio Negro in Colombia. For more than two hundred years, the only way in or out of this area has been by zip line. Even school-age children ride it a half-mile every day to attend classes:

More than 1,300ft above the roaring Rio Negro in Colombia, nine-year-old Daisy Mora prepares to throw herself over the abyss. Attaching herself to an old and rusted pulley system she drops over the edge before plummeting at 40mph along a zip wire to the opposite bank half a mile away - a vertigo-inducing journey she has to take every day to get to school.

Link via The Agitator