The BBC convinced 13 year old Scott Campbell to swap his iPod for a Walkman and use it for a week. The first shock came just from seeing the thing:

[My Dad] had told me it was big, but I hadn’t realised he meant THAT big. It was the size of a small book.

It gets worse from there. Wearing the 30 year old device on his belt (“it is certainly not pocket-sized, unless you have large pockets”) Scott felt embarrassed at the attentions of passersby as they stared and shouted insults.

Other problems included lack of a shuffle mode (“I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down “rewind” and releasing it randomly”), terrible battery life (three hours), sound quality (we’d disagree — even a tape sounds better than the average MP3), and capacity (twelve tracks in your pocket!).

Scott had some operational troubles, too: “It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape.” The ultimate insult comes at the end, though:

Did my dad, Alan, really ever think this was a credible piece of technology?

Ouch!



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drunk tractor driver

Kevin Whitesell, 31, of Terre Haute, IN was taken into custody for drunk driving. He was driving a tractor while towing his wrecked car and crashed both vehicles into a creek Friday morning.

Source and photos: Click Here.

Stopping driver’s license fraud is no laughing matter: Four states — including Indiana — are ordering people to wipe the grins off their faces in their license photos.

“Neutral facial expressions” are required at departments of motor vehicles (DMVs) in Arkansas, Indiana, Nevada and Virginia. That means you can’t smile, or smile very much. Other states may follow.

The serious poses are urged by DMVs that have installed high-tech software that compares a new license photo with others that have already been shot. When a new photo seems to match an existing one, the software sends alarms that someone may be trying to assume another driver’s identity.

Source: Indy Star -> Article

Via Channel 6 in Indy

GARY, Ind. — Church leaders visiting a former funeral home they recently bought in a tax sale stumbled upon a gruesome discovery — four unidentified bodies that had been left behind, perhaps for years, in the vacant building.

Lake County Coroner David J. Pastrick described the situation as “unbelievable.”

Leaders of the Northlake Church of Christ called authorities after finding a body bag on a table Sunday.

Pastrick and his staff investigated and found one body in the bag, another in a corrugated burial box and two in caskets.

“They are unidentifiable,” Pastrick said Tuesday of the remains.

Pastrick said the bodies may have been in the former Serenity Gardens Funeral Home since 2006, when the Indiana State Board of Funeral and Cemetery Services revoked the business license for owner Darryl Cammack.

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Heart attack grill

Stop on by the Heart Attack Grill. They’ll wheel you in. Yes, that’s right. More calories and lard than you can shake a stick at! The owner claims he gets 80 emails an hour from people wanting him to franchise.

Check it out the menu. Yum!
Image source: www.heartattackgrill.com

Via Yahoo!:

Researchers in Texas are trying an unusual approach to combat fire ants — deploying parasitic flies that turn the pesky and economically costly insects into zombies whose heads fall off.

Read full story.

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Honda demonstrated its prototype walking assist devices for the first time in the U.S. today. Intended to support walking for the elderly or people with weakened leg muscles, the devices are currently being tested in real-world conditions to evaluate their effectiveness. The company has applied for more than 130 patents for the devices which are based on the study of human walking along with research and development of technologies conducted for Honda’s advanced humanoid robot, ASIMO.

japanese-spa-industry

Japanese spa industry, under heavy competition, is trying new features to attract health-conscious bathers on February 25, 2007. This spa has a Wine Spa, under a giant object of a wine bottle. The spa management claims it has health benefits such as relieving fatigue, moisturizing action and anti-aging. (UPI Photo/Keizo Mori)

Votive candles with a saintly image of Barack Obama have angered members of the St. Philip the Apostle Church who see the candle as mocking Jesus. The store ‘Just For Fun’ has sold over 1,000 of the 10 inch votives which sell for $12.95 each. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Source: here

OAKLAND, Calif.—Relatives of Eunice Workman had no idea where the elderly woman had gone when they reported her missing seven years ago. They finally found her—under a pile of debris in her own home.
Workman’s daughters were cleaning out the two-story north Oakland home Wednesday when they discovered the body. Her remains were in a second-floor bedroom.

Workman had lived in the house for a decade before she went missing.

Authorities plan to conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

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