Aliens!

Or not.

Brilliant!

Robotic furniture powered by vermin like mice and flies, which it catches itself. Functional AND functional.

At long last?

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead.

Alumni group to pay $6M to separate Antioch College in Ohio from parent university

By Associated Press

12:52 PM EDT, June 30, 2009
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — An alumni group from Antioch College in Ohio has a conditional agreement that will allow them to operate the financially strapped school and reopen in two years.

The alumni group agreed to pay parent Antioch University $6 million for the campus and the college's endowment. The school is closed because of financial problems caused by declining enrollment, a heavy dependence on tuition and a small endowment.

The college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, is the flagship of Antioch University, which also has campuses in Seattle, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Calif., and Keene, N.H.

The agreement, announced Tuesday, is contingent on approval from the Ohio attorney general's office and university bond holders.

I <3 the future!

Telekinesis machines? In the Weird seems to have missed the announcement of Mattel's Mindflex, the game that allows players to move objects with thought, but here comes even more exciting news: a wheelchair controlled by thought.

It's an EEG device that "analyzes brain wave data using signal-processing technology and delivers neuro-feedback to the driver." Similar technology is being used for other mind-controlled devices, as well as the next generation of more-accurate lie detectors.

Nerd Core

Actor/writer and acknowledged nerd John Hodgman discusses President Obama's geek credentials while the president plays along in front of a crowd of media correspondants. Good, clean fun for geeks and nerds!

The best of both worlds

More stuff to love:

Dean Fraser draws pop culture icons in the style of The Simpsons at Springfield Punx. His most recent posts caricature the folks from Lost. Older posts showcase comic book superheros (Marvel and DC), old TV characters, and pretty much whoever strikes his fancy.

My skin just came off my body and ran away

(from a tech demo of animation from a still image)

You're less dead than me

So have you had the chance to meet the glorious Croy Devenish-Phibbs and his hilariously dead family? Croy is the 103 year old (so it is claimed at least) "silver surfer" of the web and twitscape who has urged people to send him photographs of donated park benches around Scotland with obituary markers from his extended Devenish-Phibbs clan... with extremely humorous results. This is one of the funniest "public art" projects I have ever seen... may take a bit to load the images, but hang in there, they are so very worth it.

Click here to visit the Devenish-Phibbs bench plaque photo gallery.

One of my favorites, just as a teaser:
"For Flo who used to love to come to this park to chase squirrels, sniff dogs and do her business in the bushes. She was by no means a conventional woman but we miss her all the same.
Florence Devenish-Phibbs, wife and sister
1830 - 1934"

They saw a need...

Click here to read about an exciting new invention: the scorpion shield, which keeps the potentially dangerous arachnid from climbing into your child's crib and stinging him to death!

In fact, out here in the desert, there's nothing at all weird about this, but I imagine folks in the rest of the country shuddering and shaking their heads.

"At night [the inventors] used to prowl the rooms in their North Side home with a black light and tongs, catching scorpions."

Yes, many scorpions fluoresce under ultraviolet light! Isn't that interesting? Just another one of nature's miracles.



Florescent scorpion

But don't breathe easy just yet: "...although smooth glass is a good shield, it won't keep out every scorpion. They also walk across ceilings and sometimes drop onto furniture." Are you ready to move out to the desert?

Go to www.scorpionsafe.com to learn more!

Two-Stroke Rhythm Section Looks Exhausting*

This reminds me of a wonderful duet for trombone and tractor I once heard at the SF Contemporary Music Players, I wish I could remember who that composer was.

Tractor Used As Drums For Sweet Georgia Brown





(thanks steve)

* apologies for the pun, I couldn't resist.