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Man Believes His Dead Wife is Contacting Him Via Cell Phone



It was five years ago when Frank Jones' wife and son died unexpectedly. His son, Steven, died of a brain tumor at an early 32. Three months later, his wife, Sadie died from a heart attack at the age of 69.

Sadie was a cell phone addict. "She always had a mobile with her," Jones told the Blackpool Gazette. So, of course, they buried Sadie with her cell phone.

Now Jones believes Sadie is getting service six feet under, and she has been sending him text messages with words only Sadie would say. Of course, there is no return number on the messages or missed calls, leading Jones to believe the communications are form his deceased wife.

Creepy? Yes. But here's where things get creepier: The house Jones lives in has a history of hauntings from a being called "The Thornton Thing". The entity drove a family from the house in 1971, and after the Jones family suffered hauntings as well, they had the house exorcised.

It wasn't until the untimely deaths of his wife and son did Jones start experiencing messages from beyond. The obvious question we can't help asking: What kind of service does one get up there? She's clearly getting a lot of dropped calls.

From the Blackpool Gazette

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Comcast Wants to Put Cameras In Your Home


Conspiracy theorists are going to have a field day with this story. In fairness, so will just about everybody else. We hope.

Comcast is experimenting with camera technology. More specifically, it trying out technology that turns cable boxes into camera-equipped devices that would utilize body-form-recognition as a means to provide custom-tailored service, and, of course, custom tailored advertising. The boxes would be able to tell who is in the room based on the shape of their body, thus tailoring programming to fit their specific desires and security settings (when children are involved). Facial recognition is not in the works as of yet.

We should be clear: This is all in the experimental phase. There has been no consumer testing and Gerard Kunkel, Comcast's senior VP of user experience, stresses that any final decision is predicated on the boxes providing more to the viewer than just precision advertising.

Custom Tailored. Security. Efficient. Your New Best Friend. Now You Can Leave the Kids At Home With Super Cable Nanny! Those are hypothetical buzz-words and -phrases Comcast will most likely lay on in hearty layers if and when it begins to roll out this new technology.

Honestly, what is your immediate gut reaction when you hear that a massive corporation might want to place cameras that actually track your movements in your own home? We won't say what we think. Trust your gut reaction and don't let any amount of mediocre advertising sway you.

Security. Customization. Blah blah blah.

Gut Instinct.


From NewTeevee (via Rantings of a New Yorker)


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New Remote-Control Vasectomies Require No Surgery

http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/sex/common/ibank/ibank/0124a.jpg
Might want to sit down and cross the legs for this one, fellas.

A new vasectomy procedure has been developed by a team of researchers from Australia's University of Adelaide. Essentially, it consists of a silicone polymer valve that fits snugly inside the vas deferens, thereby blocking the passage of sperm. The valve is inserted through a hypodermic needle, so there's no need for surgery.

The upside is that there's no surgery, and that the procedure is reversible: The doctor can use radio-wave frequency technology to "open" the valve back up, thus letting you commence baby-making.

"It will be like turning a TV on and off with a remote control," team founder Derek Abbott told New Scientist, "except that the remote will probably be locked away in your local doctor's office to safeguard against accidental pregnancy or potential misuse of the device."

*Shiver.*

From Gimundo

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Scary Search Engine Lets You Search By Face



Ladies: if you thought random dudes sending you marriage proposals laced with spelling mistakes and little-to-no grammar on MySpace was freaky, just wait until mugr.com takes off -- the creepy quotient promises to be off the scales.

Mugr is essentially a "face-based" search engine, linked to its own social-networking site (and offered to others through an API), connects images of people's faces to information about their identity.

Want an example? Say a dude is at Trader Joe's and sees you shopping for asparagus, but can't muster the cojones to actually step his game up and say something to you. So what does he do? He takes your picture on his cell phone, uploads the shot to MUGR, and gets a message back telling him who you are. Creepy enough for you?

The folks at Mugr have an answer to the obvious privacy questions: "The technology that powers mugr.com is not so terribly different as that possessed by many governments and law enforcement agencies. As such, there is no reason that the public should not have the ability to do what it will with such technology. In the end, the technology at mugr.com is only frightening if its users make it so."

Yeah, um...they will. Let the anarchy begin (in a few years, at least, when the thing actually works. Maybe).

From Rough Trade

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