The biggest question is why.
And increasingly, the usual answer is "why not?" A couple of technology-related stories caught my eye today and caused me to ask both the question and the answer.
A common axiom for inventors is the one about building a better mouse trap. Well, someone has done just that, coming up with a mousetrap that kills mice using a combination of IR lasers (no, seriously, lasers) and carbon dioxide, which is toxic at about 15% in air. It then sends you a text message when it kills the offending rodent (I shit you not). So you can be cruel to an innocent rodent who is incapable of doing you any harm, and you can abuse your cellphone at the same time. Which means... you... are... a... loser.
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9793681-1.html
The next one is a concept car that eliminates the need to reverse by having a rotating passenger car. It also makes parallel parking easier by rotating all four wheels 90 degrees and driving sideways (seriously, I could not make this up). What I'm curious to see is the brand new traffic violations you would get if this concept caught on.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/motoringNews/idUKNOA83822120071008
I then came across a third unrelated item. Apparently the new Australia tourism ads are causing quite a stir, at least according to Wikipedia. I saw one, featuring a man in a bar saying "your beer won't stay cold forever". I later found out that the reason I had not seen that one on TV is because it had been banned in Canada because the beer shown is not branded, which, believe it or not, violates some of Canada's broadcasting standards. The second part features Aussie model Lara Bingle (in a bikini, which is probably why I remember the commercial so well) saying "So where the bloody hell are you?" Apparently this one nearly got banned as there was some debate if the use of hell as a expletive was okay for primetime in Canada. I thought it was rather strong language myself, at least at first. Then I remembered that the phrase "bloody hell" also pops up in the second Harry Potter movie (rated PG), where it is said by a thirteen year old, no less. There's a certian logic in saying that if a kid can say it in a PG movie than a grown woman should be able to say the same thing on TV.
A common axiom for inventors is the one about building a better mouse trap. Well, someone has done just that, coming up with a mousetrap that kills mice using a combination of IR lasers (no, seriously, lasers) and carbon dioxide, which is toxic at about 15% in air. It then sends you a text message when it kills the offending rodent (I shit you not). So you can be cruel to an innocent rodent who is incapable of doing you any harm, and you can abuse your cellphone at the same time. Which means... you... are... a... loser.
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9793681-1.html
The next one is a concept car that eliminates the need to reverse by having a rotating passenger car. It also makes parallel parking easier by rotating all four wheels 90 degrees and driving sideways (seriously, I could not make this up). What I'm curious to see is the brand new traffic violations you would get if this concept caught on.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/motoringNews/idUKNOA83822120071008
I then came across a third unrelated item. Apparently the new Australia tourism ads are causing quite a stir, at least according to Wikipedia. I saw one, featuring a man in a bar saying "your beer won't stay cold forever". I later found out that the reason I had not seen that one on TV is because it had been banned in Canada because the beer shown is not branded, which, believe it or not, violates some of Canada's broadcasting standards. The second part features Aussie model Lara Bingle (in a bikini, which is probably why I remember the commercial so well) saying "So where the bloody hell are you?" Apparently this one nearly got banned as there was some debate if the use of hell as a expletive was okay for primetime in Canada. I thought it was rather strong language myself, at least at first. Then I remembered that the phrase "bloody hell" also pops up in the second Harry Potter movie (rated PG), where it is said by a thirteen year old, no less. There's a certian logic in saying that if a kid can say it in a PG movie than a grown woman should be able to say the same thing on TV.
posted by Colin at
7:22 p.m.
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