There's a store in Clearwater, Florida that has a unique sign. It reads "DUI Scooters". This scooter dealership caters to people who have lost their driver's licenses, but need transportation. Under the law, riders of low-powered scooters don't need a license:

They have pedals, which may or may not be used, and run for up to 25 miles on an electric charge. They fit a state and federal description of "low-speed electric bicycles." Sunset Scooters gives customers copies of the law, recommending they laminate it and keep it with them.

"At first, we had some trouble with law enforcement basically not understanding what these were," Vitello said. "Even some judges were completely mystified. But now they all seem to be on board.

Link via Marginal Revolution | Photo: St. Petersburg Times

India has deployed large langur monkeys in Delhi to serve as security guards during the upcoming Commonwealth Games. They will chase smaller monkeys away from sporting venues in the city:

From Wednesday, 10 langurs will be put on duty outside several Games venues in the Indian capital, with the swimming complex seen as particularly vulnerable to monkey misbehavior, an official said.

The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has a regular team of 28 langurs which are used to scare away their weaker brethren in VIP areas of the city.[...]

Monkeys are a common sight in the verdant Indian capital, where they routinely scamper through government offices, courts and even police stations and hospitals.

Link via Hit & Run | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user mckaysavage used under Creative Commons license

Joseph Karam, a fan of Koji Kondo's musical score for Super Mario Bros., discovered that there is no complete body of sheet music for the game. So he decided to create a professional-level transcription:

[...] I pulled out my professional engraving software and embarked on a meticulous and uncompromising transcription project that involved (i) transcribing every pitch and rhythm while listening to the original 8-bit NES recordings hundreds of times, voice by voice, note by note, in a loop, (ii) rigorously cross-checking my work with several of the best transcription attempts out there, (iii) arranging the visual layout and pagination for clear readability, and (iv) optimizing the piano fingering by learning the pieces myself and playing them every day for several months.

Link via Geekosystem | Image: Joseph Karam

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Last weekend, American Bobby Cleveland took his lawn mower out to the Bonneville Salt Flats and accelerated to a record-breaking 96.529 MPH. This performance took the title away from British driver Don Wales, who had reached a speed of 87.833 MPH on his lawn mower.

Link via The Presurfer

On 21 September 1956, test pilot Tom Attridge was flying Grumman's new F-11F-1 Tiger. He fired a burst from his 20mm cannon while diving and accelerating. The cockpit was then struck by an outside object. Attridge immediately radioed that he was returning to base. While attempting to land, the jet lost power and crash-landed on the runway. Attridge, thankfully, escaped safely. A subsequent examination found three bullet impacts and one intact 20mm bullet in the plane. Attridge had managed to shoot his own fighter down:

How did this happen? The combination of conditions reponsible for the event was (1) the decay in projectile velocity and trajectory drop; (2) the approximate 0.5-G descent of the F11F, due in part to its nose pitching down from firing low-mounted guns; (3) alignment of the boresight line of 0° to the line of flight. With that 0.5-G dive, Attridge had flown below the trajectory of his bullets and, 11 seconds later, flew through them as their flight paths met..

Link via View From The Porch | Photo: Military.cz

The Golden Ratio is a mathematical constant that, since the Renaissance, artists have incorporated into their works as an expression of aesthetic perfection. Doug Bowman of Twitter says that the site's redesign is directly based upon it:

To anyone curious about #NewTwitter proportions, know that we didn't leave those ratios to chance.

This, of course, only applies to the narrowest version of the UI. If your browser window is wider, your details pane will expand to provide greater utility, throwing off these proportions. But the narrowest width shows where we started, ratio-wise.

Link via Gizmodo | Image: Doug Bowman

Previously: The Amen Break and the Golden Ratio

The use of the bayonet has been part of basic training since the beginning of US military history. Although its use in combat has becoming increasingly less common, US Army trainers had kept it in place for psychological reasons:

“Traditionally in the 20th century – certainly after World War I – bayonet training was basically designed to develop in soldiers aggressiveness, courage, and preparation for close combat,” says Richard Kohn, professor of military history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Bayonet training is, in short, used to undo socialization – to “basically to try to mitigate or eradicate the reluctance of human beings to kill each other,” Mr. Kohn says. It is one of the challenges in US or Western society “where we have such reverence for the individual, where we socialize our people to believe in the rule of law, and all of that,” he adds. “What you’re doing with young people is trying to get them used to the highly emotional and irrational and adrenaline-filled situations in which they are liable to find themselves whether they are within sight of the enemy or not – and the reluctance to take a life.”

Nonetheless, the US Army has decided to eliminate bayonet training from its basic training program and to use that time developing other skills.

Link via Glenn Reynolds | Image of the 65th Infantry during the Korean War via of the US Department of Defense

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Remember the "surprised kitty" video (below) that made it around the Internet a few months ago? It shows a kitten playing with a human in fairly superior kitten cuteness. YouTube user CapnPeteStraw offers this parody, featuring an adorable baby Darth Vader. (via GearFuse)

Ross Luippold of The Huffington Post photoshopped nine movie posters, album covers, and title cards that imagined a world in which celebrities went by their real names instead of their stage names. Tom Cruise's real name is Thomas Mapother?

Link via Geekosystem

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The World Wildlife Fund created augmented reality t-shirts in an effort to raise awareness of the threat that poachers pose to Siberian tigers. When people in trendy clothing stores in Moscow tried on the shirts in front of mirrors, the mirrors displayed images of the wearer getting shot in the chest.

via Gizmodo

Ed Diment built a LEGO Minifig scale (that's 1:40) aircraft carrier modeled after the Essex-class carrier USS Intrepid (CV-11). It will be on display at BrickCon this weekend in Seattle.

Link | Photo: Ed Diment | Previously: LEGO Aircraft Carrier in Water

A commuter train between Shanghai and Hangzhou set a new speed record yesterday. It reached 258.86 MPH during its journey:

"The new record of 416.6 km per hour shows that China has achieved a new milestone in high-speed train technologies," Zhang Shuguang, deputy chief engineer of the Ministry of Railways, was quoted as saying.

The rail service has been largely unsuccessful in attracting customers due to high ticket prices. Its managers hope that this new record will counteract that problem.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/66816/20100929/china-high-speed-train-new-record-in-train-speed-china-shanghai-hangzhou-high-speed-train.htm via Popular Science | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user occam used under Creative Commons license

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The B.O.N.D. (Build of Notorious Deterrents) Bike is a bicycle that comes equipped for many commuting situations. Should you encounter heavy snow, the rear tracks and forward skis will propel you forward when your tires lose traction. An ejector seat and a flamethrower mounted into the handlebars helps the rider address interpersonal conflicts. The bicycle is not available for sale, but it will go on public display at a bike show in London next week.

Link via DVICE

The late fashion designer Alexander McQueen once designed high heeled shoes modeled after the movie Alien. They were a one-off production so, sadly, you won't be able to buy a pair and wear them to work.

via Great White Snark | Photo: Wicked Halo

Apparently there's a growing subculture of people who reenact scenes -- including replica clothing and vehicles -- from the 1979 Mel Gibson movie Mad Max. Fans are getting together in the California desert next month for a big meet-up called "Wasteland Weekend". From the official description:

Join the hundreds of fans coming from all over the the United States (and beyond) to gather in the Southern California desert. Set up camp at our wasteland compound, surrounded by specially-built sets. Costumes are required and post-apocalyptic campsites and vehicles are encouraged. Live for three days in a world pulled straight out of the Mad Max movies, beyond the grip of so-called civilization.

Top DJs from all over will provide the soundtrack, fire dancers and bonfires will light up the night, and modified vehicles will shake the earth with their engines.

Link via Ace of Spades HQ | Image: American International Pictures

Previously on Neatorama: Living Mad Max