Category: Weirdness
Bill Gates unleashes horde of mosquitos into packed conference hall
Screaming “Not only poor people should experience this!”, last night Bill Gates released a swarm of mosquitoes into the audience at TED – a technology conference in California. You just can’t make this stuff up.
Gates, whose foundation spends millions of dollars on combating malaria, was making a point that rich countries don’t pay the disease enough attention because it doesn’t really impact their citizenry. Still, hell of a PR stunt!
The Twittersphere reported the swarm as it was release, with eBay founder and Twitter CEO Pierre Omidyar providing the best commentary.
(via Switched)
More insanity: Canon doesn’t make vacuum cleaners | Google blacklists ENTIRE INTERNET
eBay Nutcase of the Week: DJ selling "famous" 867-5309 number, from Tommy Tutone's 1982 hit
If you’re old enough to remember the news, current events and popular culture of the year 1982, we would firstly like to enquire how your joints are holding up in this cold weather. And your knees OK? How about that dodgy shoulder? And your neck? You might want to start taking some cod liver oil, you know. It really works.
Secondly, we’d like to alert you to this eBay auction – in which a US DJ is selling his business as a way of also getting rid of the New Jersey phone number 867-5309 – made famous by Tommy Tutone’s 1982 hit…
Celebrity Twitter user Stephen Fry in LIVE LIFT TRAP SENSATION
Stephen Fry, who has gone from obscure advert voice-over man and trainee Peter Ustinov to become the WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS PERSON thanks to his embracing of the tech world and Twitter in particular, has, once again, done it.
He got stuck in a lift.
Fortunately, there was a mobile signal available…
Man killed by exploding mobile phone
A man in his twenties in Guangzhou, China, has died after an exploding mobile phone severed an artery in his neck. He’d just replaced the battery after charging it. It’s unclear what make or model the phone was, or if it was a dodgy third-party battery, but police are investigating.
Amazingly, it’s the ninth recorded death by exploding phone in China since 2002. One man died when his battery overheated due to the heat of an iron mill he worked at and blew a hole in his chest. Since this incident however, newspapers have published advice on how to avoid mobile phone explosions that I think we can all take on board. Click through to see them over the jump.
Canon doesn't make vacuum cleaners
Today, ladies and gentlemen, Canon did not announce a vacuum cleaner. It didn’t announce one yesterday either, or one the day before. In fact, it’s never announced a vacuum cleaner. That’s why Canon’s Russian service personnel were a little confused when people started calling saying that their vacuum cleaner was broken.
What seems to have happened is that a major electronics supplier bought a job lot of vacuums that a dodgy Chinese factory had produced with the Canon label, figuring (correctly) that it’d help them sell. Hilarious. If you’ve got one, then please send it to us – we’d love to review it.
(via EnglishRussia)
Related posts: iRobot automated vacuum cleaners | Roomba vacuum cleaner hacked to become Bluetooth Pac-Man!
Google blacklists ENTIRE INTERNET
Over the weekend, between 2.30pm and 3.25pm on Saturday, Google managed to blacklist the entire internet. I know that it’s a dangerous place, Goog, but that’s ridiculous. Next to every single one of its search results appeared This site may harm your computer”, and users would have to go through a warning page.
Normally, Google only flags pages this way if the site is known to host malware. Google updates its list, though, and during the weekend’s update, the website “/” was accidentally added to the list. Because that covers every website in the world, every website in the world was blocked. Nice work Google – I’m glad I’m not trusting you with pretty much all my important data. Oh… hang on a sec…
(via Official Google Blog)
Related posts: Google Street View car in SENSELESS animal slaughter shock – pictures included | GDrive rumours solidify – code spotted in Google Apps
Google Street View car in SENSELESS animal slaughter shock – pictures included
For the love of GOD, won’t someone stop them?
Google’s roaming fleet of privacy-invading world-mapping cars caused a bit of a stir yesterday, when one of the people who spends their every waking hour combing Street View for photos of hookers, drugs deals going down, shootings and sunbathing ladies found this – the moment the Street View car flattened a deer.
You’d think the driver would’ve said something and told his bosses not to upload the pictures, but no. Although the photo has since been removed from the service, to…
World of Warcraft – a religion?
A student from Colorado University has a rather left-field suggestion regarding Blizzard’s insanely popular MMO – it’s a religion.
Invoking French sociologist Danil Hervieu-Lger’s definition of a religion as consisting of community, ethics, culture and emotion, Theo Zijderveld determined that World of Warcraft fits the bill. Find out how over the jump.
eBay Nutcase of the Week: Jon Ward auctions date with himself for… £46
Spurred on by the sorry tale of that American slapper who auctioned her alleged virginity for several million dollars, long-term Potters Bar singleton Jon Ward decided to sell an all-expenses-paid night out with himself “in London” on eBay.
The listing’s ended, but you can read Jon’s excellent self-oriented sales speak here.
The result? A lady called “sexysarah2009” bought an evening with Jon…
Vladimir Putin lays the smack down on Michael Dell
File this one under “lol”. Last night at the World Economic Forum on Davos, Switzerland, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin gave a 40 minute keynote speech about a variety of topics. In the ‘questions’ section afterwards, Dell chairman Michael Dell said nice things about Russia’s scientific prowess, and then asked how his company could help Russia expand its IT infrastructure.
Putin’s response?
“We don’t need your help. We are not invalids. We don’t have limited mental capacity.”
Ouch. Video over the jump, the smackdown begins right at the start.
