Archive for July 19th, 2009

Unreleased Michael Jackson Song

Here is a snippet from an unreleased Michael Jackson song, “A Place With No Name.”

You may notice it sounds similar to a song by the “America”, called “A Horse With No Name”, which was released in 1971.

Although there has been no official confirmation from Sony that the recording is actually from Michael Jackson, several years ago America’s manager gave Jackson the permission to use the song. The band were honoured that he chose their song to record.

Ping Pong Door

Take a look at this. Are you a table tennis enthusiast, but can’t fit a table tennis table into your home? Well Tobias Fränzel now has a solution. Introducing the ping pong door.

Ping Pong Door. Image: fubiz/Tobias Fränzel

It looks like something from the future, but it is really needed? Surely if you were that desparate to play ping pong, you could just set up a net on your dining room table and save yourself the trouble of a new door.

Contemporary design at its finest…or just silly? Whatever floats your boat I guess…

Link

Pepper Spray In ATMs To Stop Criminals

Cash machine criminals have become a big problem for South Africa. The number of cash machines blown up with explosives has risen from 54 in 2006, to nearly 500 last year. This problem needs to be solved. Deploy more police onto the streets perhaps, or how about increase surveillance? Well South African officials had a much better idea…they decided to squirt the criminals with pepper-spray, directly from inside the cash machine.

ATM. Image: delhinybank

Cameras are used to detect whether someone is tampering with the card slots. If they are, another machine releases pepper spray to stun the criminal while police response teams race to the scene.

“But the mechanism backfired in one incident last week when pepper spray was inadvertently inhaled by three technicians who required treatment from paramedics.”

At present, only a few ATMs are using the technology, however if the scheme is successful it will be expanded to cash machines around the country.

What are your opinions on this? Is it too extreme or is it what’s needed to try to stop ever growing numbers of cash machine criminals?

Link

World’s Cheapest Car Is Launched

The world’s cheapest car is set to go on sale in India as the first customer receives the key to the vehicle, handed to him personally by the chairman of the car company.

Tata Nano. Image: Tata Motors

The Tata Nano, created by Tata Motors costs only 123,360 rupees ($2,531), with upgrades such as air conditioning and cup holders available for up to $3,536 more. The Nano is set to revolutionize the transport industry in India.

From the 203,000 people who pre-ordered the Nano, 100,000 of them were selected from a ballot to be the first to get their hands on the car.

With an engine of just 624 cubic centimeters, it is smaller than those found in motorcycles and has been compared to the European Smart Car and the Volkswagen Beetle.

The vehicle is set to come to the U.S. in two years…Just in time for us to be out of the recession?

Link