weird news

University bans <3, 'monkey' suffix

abennett — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:24:00 -0500

Lake Superior State has issued its annual list of words it decrees affronts to the English language. This year there's an unword on the list, <3, and the use of "monkey" as a suffix is also banned.

Welsh "out of office" email ends up on road sign

abennett — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:53:40 -0500

When road officials in Wales wanted a translation into Welsh for a road sign, they sent an email to the local government agency in charge of such things, which fired an email back in Welsh ... which the road officials, we should mention, couldn't read. And then guess what happened.

Cell phone pervert gets taste of his own medicine

abennett — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:29:06 -0400

A New York woman was horrified when she realized that a fellow subway rider was using a cell phone camera to take pictures up her skirt. But rather than get mad, she got even.

Nebraska politician unable to control robot minions

abennett — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 10:27:13 -0400

Mike O'Dell thought that his quest for city council would be easier if he could enlist an army of robot campaign workers. Little did he know that their automatic phone calls would drive voters away -- and he could do nothing about it.

Net-enabled toaster officially world's most pointless object

abennett — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:25:47 -0400

Have you ever wanted to download a graphic or short text clip from the Internet and burn it onto a piece of toast? Of course you haven't, because that's the most moronic thing that you or anyone else has ever heard of.

Annals of science: Israeli dog police use DNA to bust poop violators

abennett — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:04:03 -0400

Like most places, the Israeli city of Petah Tikva requires dog owners to clean up after their pets -- but how to track down violators based only on the, er, evidence left behind? The solution: create a database of doggy DNA.

Robot rebellion update

abennett — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:10:36 -0400

Faithful ITwhirled readers remember the horrifying prospect of mechanical apes and robotic pilots joining forces against us. Well, the cyberape has been spotted -- in VERMONT!

Park rangers create cactus cyborgs

abennett — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:16:42 -0400

The majestic saguaro cactus is a striking, internationally known, and now microchip-implanted symbol of Arizona -- the better to thwart cactus thieves, you know.

Annals of science: People really are more attractive when you're drunk

abennett — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:30:17 -0400

British researchers have proven what barflies and frat party attendees have known for centuries: getting liquored up makes other people seem more attractive.

City government cyberscrewups: Wrong skyline, wrong language

abennett — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 11:42:55 -0400

Residents of Birmingham, England, probably felt some pride when they got pamphlets in the mail praising their recycling levels -- but then were confused when they realized that the skyline on the leaflet wasn't their home town. Turns out that it was the skyline of Birmingham, Alabama, taken from an "Internet photo archive."