Posts tagged Weird at Switched

Posts with tag Weird

Teen Lands In Jail After Posting Baby-Tossing Video on YouTube

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jul 3rd 2008 at 1:42PM

Look we know that babies, for all their cuteness can be absolutely infuriating sometimes. Some parents have even admitted to hating their baby. But no matter how aggravated the child may make you, launching it across a room is never the solution. And posting the video of the baby launch on YouTube is just shy of the stupidest thing ever.

A Georgian teen learned this after being thrown in a detention center following the discovery of this video online by one of his teachers. The 16-year-old, who was helping babysit the toddler, places it on an inflatable pillow, then leaps on the other side, sending the child several feet through the air before it lands on the floor and wails.

The video has since been pulled by Google and the teen faces felony charges of cruelty to children. [Source: WFIE]

YouTube Divorcée Defends Videos in Court

by Christine Whitney, posted Jun 30th 2008 at 5:17PM

YouTubing divorcée Tricia Walsh-Smith never really got famous as an actress, but has become sorta (in)famous for her nutso Internet monologues, in which she sings, dances, and rails against the man who spurned her. Her grievances against Philip Smith, president of the Schubert Organization, involve everything from settlement money and prenups to details of the couple's (lack of) a sex life. Trish claims that Smith wouldn't put out, and that he had a stash of Viagra which he used strictly extramaritally. Ouch.

TWS' series of YouTube divorce vids have gotten tons of attention, and suddenly she's all over Gawker, New York Magazine, etc etc etc, always with a new tale of woe and the same psychotic gleam in her eye. Rumor has it that she is being courted by Bravo for the next season of 'Real Housewives of NYC.'

Do they let divorcées on 'Housewives'? Is that cheating? (We don't watch too much reality t.v., aside from 'The Hills' and 'Shear Genius' so this is baffling.)

At any rate, the grandfatherly, defamed Philip Smith is fighting back, with a lawsuit claiming spousal abuse (based on the YouTube clips) which TWS claims have been viewed almost four million times.

Trish defended herself in a court hearing last week, alleging that her Smith was "trying to leave her penniless" and that the YouTube campaign was her last resort. "I didn't know what else to do because I had no money...I'm not just going to slink off into Central Park," she sassed. The YouTube videos made a court appearance as well. We love the 21st century! [Source: Reuters]

10 Most Innovative Bathrooms From Around the World

by Evan Shamoon, posted Jun 25th 2008 at 11:09AM

Gotta love bathrooms, man. It's tough to argue that they're not the best room in the house, and it is with such unfettered esteem that Cracked has compiled a list of the most innovative bathrooms around the world.

Highlights come from such faraway places as Japan (where the Intelligence Toilet can measure the sugar levels in your urine, test your blood pressure, body fat, and weight, and then give you recommendations for diet and exercise), Ft. Lauderdale (where the mayor has proposed spending a quarter of a million bucks on a public toilet that's self-locking, self cleaning, and sets off a siren and opens the door if it thinks you've been inside it for too long), and the backseat of your car.

Our personal favorite? The portable washlet -- also brought to us by the Japanese -- which is like a personal bidet ... to go. Because let's face it: Once you go clean-butted, you need to stay clean-butted. [Source: Cracked]

Robots to Be Our Lovers By 2050, Not Just in Massachusetts

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jun 23rd 2008 at 6:09PM

Remember when you were a kid and you told your friends that you totally loved your new computer, and some little luddite looked at you and said, "So why don't you marry it?" There was that brief moment when you thought your Commodore 64 (C64) could, in fact, make a nice spouse. If not, move along.

If so, David Levy told participants at a conference last week that we will all be having loving relationships with robots by 2050, not just trysts in Massachusetts. He predicts that we'll have robots as sex toys within five years and true, deep relationships later on. Some robots already kiss, some seem to hate, but Levy says we'll have emotional relationships based on conversation by mid-century. Until that time, remember your C64, your first true love. She / he remembers you, you selfish jerk. [Source: Times of India]

Northern Lights May Increasingly Interfere With GPS

by Will Safer, posted Jun 23rd 2008 at 4:01PM

GPS units are not infallible.

Stories abound of users blindly following poor GPS directions (based on improperly developed maps) onto train tracks, off marked roads, and even into a nasty part of town.

Now, there's a brand new problem: interference from the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, the natural lightshow seen near the Earth's poles when high-speed particles from the Sun hit the atmosphere. The natural light show distorts the signals from Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) that are 12,600 miles overhead. With increasing solar activity expected in the coming years, the bright lights could foul up navigation devices at an increasing rate.

The last peak of solar activity came in 2000, which is before portable navigation devices were popular, so users haven't experienced this kind of interference to date. The next peak is expected in 2012, with increasing activity each year until then.

According to a report in the American Geophysical Union's 'International Journal of Space Weather' (their Summer Fun issue is a must-read), tests conducted in Norway during Northern Light activity showed GPS units were not able to precisely identify the roads the researchers were on. Sometimes the units lost their signal entirely.

The global positioning satellites hover in fixed positions 12,600 miles above sea level. For the portable navigation units that people use in their cars, boats and planes to work, they must be able to receive unimpeded signals from these satellites. When the Northern Lights are in play, the Earth's ionosphere gets "lumpy," rendering the signals inaccurate.

Navigation device makers say this won't cause a dangerous situation for drivers as long as they use common sense while behind the wheel. So, mainly, the same common sense that (we hope) will keep you from driving off the road into a river, either. [Source: Telegraph.co.uk.]

Click here to see other gadgets that go haywire.

Laptop Cakes Pay Homage to Internet Dating

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 23rd 2008 at 11:28AM

Shockingly enough, the image you see above isn't as radical as you probably think. Just last year we saw a San Francisco couple profess their inexplicable love for TiVo with a his and her cake arrangement, while another treated guests to a flavorful version of their wedding day playlist. This perky pair, however, decided to create cakes that would visually describe just how they ended up together, complete with on-screen profiles and a crossover cable (or something) with a heart along the way. Gives a whole new meaning to the networking category, now doesn't it? [Source: Make: Blog]

Auction for Man's 'Life' Starts Sunday

by Tim Stevens, posted Jun 21st 2008 at 5:07PM

Sick of your tired, boring life? Want a new one? Well, you're in luck, because as it turns out, there's a burgeoning market for the trading of lives. No, we're not talking about underground slave labor. We're talking about people selling their possessions, friends, and even jobs online -- that's right, their whole lives. The latest 'life,' that of Ian Usher's, is going up for auction on eBay in tomorrow.

Ian, whom we first reported on when he started planning this auction earlier this year, is an Australian twenty something whose life will hit eBay on June 22. Anyone, whether Aussie or not, can bid on everything he has to offer -- though it's a little unclear how the whole job transfer thing will work. One thing we do know is that he's not the first, and not even the first Australian, to sell his life. Fellow countryman Nicael Holt beat him to the punch last year. Ian seems to be getting a lot more publicity than Nicael did, though, showing that being the first isn't necessarily always a good thing. [Source: Alife4sale.com, via Reuters]

Want to Clone Your Dog? Then Bid on This Auction...

by Will Safer, posted Jun 19th 2008 at 4:19PM

Is Fido on his last legs? Well, he may have a second chance, in a manner of speaking, as long as you're sure to collect a DNA sample.

BioArts International, a San Francisco-based firm, has announced it will auction off five slots for people who want clones produced of their dogs – plus one more slot for a lucky contest winner. Despite the lessons we all learned from Stephen King's 'Pet Sematery' (in which those animals who are resurrected come back evil), BioArts claims its dog clones will not only match their donor subjects in appearance, but also in personality.

We'll admit, we're simultaneously intrigued and creeped out (especially by all the weird "clone" images of old dogs and young dogs together on the BioArts site).

The "Best Friends Again" auction will commence July 5, with five separate bidding rounds running in succession. Winning bids will have 30 days to successfully collect and supply DNA from their dogs so BioArts can get to work. Now, before you get too excited, know this: Bids start at $100,000, so you'll need deep pockets to participate in the auction.

Also, no cats, you cat-people out there.

The BioArts project got its start back in 1998 after the successful cloning of Dolly the sheep was announced to the world the year before. An organization called Genetic Savings & Clone was established to collect the DNA of a dog named Missy, who was both beloved by her family and apparently advanced in age. The so-called Missyplicity project wasn't able to clone the dog before her death, but one of the participants, a South Korean scientist, eventually did clone a dog named Snuppy in 2006. One year later, clones of Missy were created and apparently they look and behave much as the original dog did, even down to the canine's odd preference for broccoli.

So, if you could clone your dog, would you? [Source: BestFriendsAgain.com, via KGO-San Francisco]

Click Here for a Strange Gallery of Cloned Fluorescent Cats

Tardy Traveler Calls In Bomb Threat So He Can Catch His Flight

by Will Safer, posted Jun 16th 2008 at 4:02PM

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and phoning in a bomb threat is certainly desperate enough if you're late for a flight. But be careful about leaving tracks. Read on, crimestoppers...

If you're into soccer – we mean really into soccer – then nothing will stop you from attending an important match. So take, for example, this German reporter, who was tasked with covering the European soccer championship and was late for his flight from Verona, Italy, to Vienna, Austria. What to do, what to do?

The options:

Print your ticket from home and go straight to the gate (great time saver).
Call the airline and book a later flight (responsible, yes, but you could miss your deadline).
Phone in a bomb threat from your mobile phone while en route to the airport (only for a man of action!).

Yes! You guessed it! Option number three wins out!

But wait! When desperate times and desperate measures are in play, it's important to keep your wits about you, and this is where the reporter lost his.

Upon arriving at the airport, he asked about his flight being delayed, even though no public announcement had been made, which made him prime suspect numero uno with the authorities and he was subsequently arrested. How did they know for sure it was him? Why, he left his digital tracks, of course.

A check of his mobile phone's call log revealed he was the source of the threatening call. [Source: Metro via Textually.org]

Can Cell Phones Pop Popcorn or Are All These YouTube Videos a Hoax?

by Tim Stevens, posted Jun 11th 2008 at 11:10AM

Currently making the on YouTube is a series of videos that has many cell phone haters in a tizzy, proving (so they claim) the adverse affects that cell phones can have on your health. The videos, an example of which is inserted above, show cell phones arranged in a circle popping a few kernels of popcorn placed in the center. The idea is that the heat generated from the microwaves emitted by the phones causes the kernels to burst. It's plainly a hoax (try it yourself and see), but that hasn't stopped thousands of believers from posting frightening comments such as following:

"Mobile phones dont have to be run at these frequencies. It's the frequency of the network the phones use that pop corn and cause tumors to grow it is completely unnecessary for mobile communication, the only explanation for its widespread use must be EVIL! Think about it."

The next thing you know people will be telling us that this video of a supposed cell phone exorcism is also real. Don't believe it -- that clip is part of an advertising campaign. We're guessing these faked popcorn vids (all posted by the same user) are also part of some sort of viral marketing scheme. [Source: The Telegraph]

Drunk Man Trapped in Porta-Potty Loses Clothes, Keeps Phone

by Tim Stevens, posted Jun 10th 2008 at 11:53AM

When using a porta-potty, it's hard to not gaze in disgust at the holding tank that lingers below the seat; the oddly blue-green liquid conceals unknown horrors. It's certainly not a place you'd want to climb down into -- not if you're sober at least. Even drunk, it seems like an awfully bad idea, as was unfortunately discovered by a man from Pennsylvania, who was found trapped inside one -- naked and apparently rather inebriated.

Rescue forces had to cut the man free -- he had shed his clothes at some point before or after crawling in there -- but thankfully he retained his cell phone and used it to call for help. Once free, he was charged with public drunkenness and creating a health code violation -- charges that hopefully come with a free shower. [Source: AOL News, via Asylum]

New Security System Interprets Guard Dog Barking

by Will Safer, posted May 22nd 2008 at 11:00AM

When a dog barks, do you know what it is saying – or at least trying to say?

A system designed by an Israeli tech firm is being employed by the Israel Prison Service to help guards understand when a guard dog's barking is "normal" and when the dog is stressed, which could mean that a dangerous situation is developing.

Guard dogs are often able to sense a developing situation well before people or automated systems recognize danger – but human guards often don't hear the dogs or ignore the barking until it is too late.

Watch a video demonstration here.

That's why the developers at Bio-Sense, a high-tech company near Tel Aviv, created the program to interpret dog barks. They recorded thousands of dog barks from a variety of situations, from playtime to cat encounters to real emergencies. They then analyzed the barking to differentiate between normal and emergency situations. Now they claim the system identifies when a dog senses a problem and when it is just, ahem, crying wolf.

This goes well beyond the the LED light that purportedly interprets what a dog's wagging tail means, although a group of Hungarian scientists have developed a fairly complex program to interpret the language of the Mudi herding breed. The Hungarian system does not appear to be used by anyone yet for practical purposes.

The system from Bio-Sense, however, is in place with more than 100 clients in Israel, from prisons that want to prevent jail breaks to farmers who are trying to prevent theft. [Source: USA Today.]

Urinal Video Game Is Played While You Relieve Yourself (Really)

by Evan Shamoon, posted May 21st 2008 at 10:04AM

Ever since the advent of the handheld gaming system, the tradition of combining urination with video games has been long and firm. Now, two men have released a game called Place to Pee, which allows those in need of bladder relief to fly down ski slopes or kill aliens while relieving themselves at urinals.

The idea came to the duo, Werner Dupont (a software developer) and Bart Geraets (an electrical engineer), while drinking beers and, presumably, making trips to the potty.

According to News.com, the Place to Pee booth is designed for two users at a time and offers two games: blowing up aliens in outer space or skiing down a virtual slope. Gamers hit their target by 'aiming' at sensors positioned on either side of the urinal. Apparently, a "specially designed paper cone" allows women to play as well.

Finally, a game where urine control. [Source: News.com]

Freak Helicopter Death Sparks Baffling Debate About Headphone Safety

by Tim Stevens, posted May 16th 2008 at 10:34AM

Death By Helicopter Leads to Curious Questions about Headphone Safety

Reports of an aircraft crash usually result in news reports expressing doubts about travel by air, investigations into the cause of the crash, and, of course, questions regarding whether the crash could have been prevented. But what do you do if you're a news outlet and everyone else has already covered those obvious angles to the point of tedium? Easy: You find some completely unrelated detail of the story and try to blow it way out of proportion. That seems to be what Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper is up to, with a report indicating that the real problem for the man killed yesterday by a falling helicopter wasn't the spinning blades that decapitated him, but rather the MP3 player he was wearing.

The story states that the 23-year-old victim who was killed on the ground by the stricken copter, Isaiah Otieno, frequently listened to his music player while he was out and about. The implication is, naturally, that if he didn't have his player on he might have heard the copter and been able to dive out of the way.

To us, the idea that we shouldn't wear music players in public for fear of helicopters falling on our blissfully ignorant heads seems a bit preposterous -- just like last year's failed attempt to ban listening to music players in New York City while crossing the street. If you live in a city and can't safely cross the road with your ears plugged, then chances are you're going to have issues surviving on the streets anyway. And, if you have a helicopter falling in your general direction, then you have bigger things to worry about than the volume of your MP3 player. [Source: Globe and Mail]

Man Tries to Ditch Cheating Wife on eBay

by Terrence O'Brien, posted May 15th 2008 at 4:37PM

The Internet has provided many ways for shaming those who have wronged you, and we thought we'd seen them all. That is, until Paul Osborn decided to auction off his "adulterous, lying, cheating, bitch, whore" of a wife on eBay (his words).

Paul found out that his wife and mother of his children, Sharon, was having an affair with a co-worker. His response was to throw her out of the house and post an "auction" for her on eBay. We use quotes around "auction" because in the listing Paul specifically states, "please do not bid on her because she is worth sod all." Paul also used the eBay listing to out her lover Richard Drew, who is also married. Paul provided phone numbers and addresses for both Richard and Sharon. Naturally, eBay took the listing down pretty quickly. [Source: The Sun]

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Teen Lands In Jail After Posting Baby-Tossing Video on YouTube

YouTube Divorcée Defends Videos in Court

10 Most Innovative Bathrooms From Around the World

Robots to Be Our Lovers By 2050, Not Just in Massachusetts

Northern Lights May Increasingly Interfere With GPS

Laptop Cakes Pay Homage to Internet Dating

Auction for Man's 'Life' Starts Sunday

Want to Clone Your Dog? Then Bid on This Auction...

Tardy Traveler Calls In Bomb Threat So He Can Catch His Flight

Can Cell Phones Pop Popcorn or Are All These YouTube Videos a Hoax?

Drunk Man Trapped in Porta-Potty Loses Clothes, Keeps Phone

New Security System Interprets Guard Dog Barking

Urinal Video Game Is Played While You Relieve Yourself (Really)

Freak Helicopter Death Sparks Baffling Debate About Headphone Safety

Man Tries to Ditch Cheating Wife on eBay

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