Category: Weirdness
Twitter to be taught to ten-year-olds
The UK government announced today that it wants to teach Twitter in primary schools as part of a campaign to make online communication and social media part of the national curriculum. Kids will also be taught to use Wikipedia, how to blog, and proper typing skills alongside traditional handwriting skills.
The plans, which also remove the Victorians and Second World War from the primary syllabus, were going to be launched next month, but leaked early in the Guardian. Analysts and teacher groups have cautiously welcomed the moves, though they wonder why current trends are being given so much weight.
Personally, I’m glad that Wikipedia, blogging and proper keyboard usage are being taught – all of those are, for the moment, here to stay. I’m a little confused, though, as to why Twitter has been singled out. It’s not that revolutionary and, even speaking as a heavy user, it’s current prominence in the news is surely no more than a passing media fad caused by high-profile celebrities joining up. Students should certainly understand online communication, but I’m not convinced Twitter is the best way to show them.
What do you think? Tell us on Twitter – and no, the irony of that isn’t lost on me – @techdigest.
Guardian (via Techcrunch UK)
Teen paints 60ft penis on roof of parents' house for Google Earth's cameras
When you’re designing a million pound house, there are all kinds of things you need to check. Double glazing? Check. Burglar alarm? Check. 60 ft phallus painted on the roof? Ch… wait, what?
And that expression of surprise was probably comparable to the reaction of Andy McInnes when reporters from The Sun asked him if he was aware of the giant penis daubed in white paint across his rooftop. Unsurprisingly he wasn’t (it’s not the kind of question you answer with “why yes, of course” is it?). Turns out the stunt was his son’s dong doing – having seen a TV programme on Google Earth, he wanted to see if the giant phallus would be picked up by Google’s cameras. The answer? No, the website still shows the original pristine rooftop at the time of writing, despite the artwork being up there for over a year now.
LOL juice no laughing matter, says school
Kids, just say no to LOL. That’s the message coming from Bankstown Grammar School in Sydney, where the carbonated fruit juice is being consumed as a breakfast beverage by children as young as six.
Despite the claims that the side of the packaging make about the soft-drink containing “no bad stuff”, each can contains 26mg of sugar, and the design – with its large smiley face and colourful labelling – has been criticised for looking similar to the Red Bull design.
Fitness First ad gives you something to ponder while you 'weight'
It’s not that uncommon for something which is amazing technology to show an equally amazing lack of tact, but this new advert in the Netherlands for Fitness First manages both with aplomb. The bus stop seat is linked up to the banner, and will display your weight when you take a seat.
DS makes the Kama Sutra even more embarrassing
What could possibly be more embarrassing that being caught reading a copy of the Kama Sutra on the train? How about watching an animated couple having at it on your DS screen with an accompanying explanatory text? Yep, that’ll do it.
Before I go any further, I should point out that this isn’t an official Nintendo product and never will be. What you have here is some homebrew software unveiled as part of the annual flash card coding competition, and it will never ever sit alongside Mario Kart and Sonic on the shelves of your local game store. Which is a shame, because some of gaming’s iconic figures starring in a digital version of the Kama Sutra would both be hilarious and likely to make Daily Mail readers foam at the mouth like Pavlov’s dog chained next to Big Ben.
The Nintoaster is back – now in 16-bit
You may remember around 6 months ago we published a piece about the Nintoaster – a fine, if somewhat pointless piece of engineering ingenuity where the innards of Nintendo Entertainment System were crammed still working into the shell of a toaster with the bread-loading mechanism in tact. Given there was a five year gap between Nintendo releasing the NES and the SNES, it’s pretty impressive stuff that the same modder has a toaster based on the newer hardware already.
Other than the step up from 8-bit to 16-bit gaming, it’s more of the same, from the modder.You still switch it on by pushing down the bread switch (technical name that, I’m sure) and it still gives you a nice warming glow, even if you can’t use its original function of cooking bread.
Wheels? Too convenient! Try tiny motorised legs instead
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably wanted a Segway ever since enjoying the performances of Will Arnett as Gob in Arrested Development. What you probably hadn’t considered for a second was replacing the tried and tested wheel element with a load of tiny motorised legs. If you had, then I’m sorry: you’ve been beaten to the punch. Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to the Cajun Crawler:
YouTube Video of the Day: Synchronised face dancing
Here’s a video to make you glad that none of your friends class themselves as ‘experimental media artists.’ In his latest video, Daito Manabe hooks up four (presumably former) friends to his face visualiser – a device which transforms music into electrical pulses that stimulate the facial muscles.
Gang smuggles 1,638 gallons of vodka across Russian border through massive pipeline
How far would you go out of your way to get cheap vodka? Personally, I may brave the Tesco value range, but I don’t think I’d ever go as far as the group of Russians and Estonians who created a massive pipeline across the Russian border to avoid import tax.
House of the Dead: Overkill needs to wash its mouth out with soapy water
What with the Wii getting a reputation of having a younger demographic attached to it, it’s nice to see a whole host of publishers doing their level best to tarnish this wholesome image beyond all repair. First we had Manhunt 2 making you act out very blurry executions with the device previously used to groom ponies and make cakes, then MadWorld had us painting our screens with lashings of blood and now House of the Dead: Overkill has been honoured in the Guinness Book of Records for having the most swearing in a video game.
And “by golly”, this “mother-lovin'” game has got a lot of rude words in it. Indeed, the naughty protagonists drop an impressive 189 f-bombs during the length of the exceptionally bloody title. Let me put that into perspective: there is a grand total of three hours worth of dialogue in the game, which puts everyone’s favourite swear-word on an average of one per minute, or 3% of all the words used in the game.
Enough of these and the system may begin to be considered more adult (as distinct from “mature”), but for the moment it’s not giving the Disney games and veterinary sims much cause for concern.
Alan Martin
