LA Times macabre map of murder!

LA Times helpfully mapping out the murders of Los Angeles.

Anyone that travels, knows that a most vital bit of kit for venturing into the unknown, is of course a map. But how good is your map? Does it give you all the 'essential' information? What information IS essential?

Okay, so you have a highly detailed up-to-date map. It shows the quickest routes, local amenities, train and bus stations, parking areas and probably places of local interest.
BUT! Does it pin point and highlight for you the local streets with the highest homicide rate so far this year, indicating that it may not be in your best interests (so to speak), to use that route just because it looks the quickest?

Well the helpful folks at the L A Times have a helpful page on their website, listing and displaying on a Google map the homicides in Los Angeles so far this year. A 'murder map' if you will.
They describe it as "a visual interface to The Times Homicide Report".

The Times Homicide Report records all the homicides in the Los Angeles area. Information including, the victim(s), the perpetrator(s) (if known), method of murder, location of murder, age, sex and race of victim(s).
Now this is where the fancy murder map web page comes in.

The page displays the total homicides in LA so far this year (362 at time of writing).
Below this number, the weekly toll is indicated and displayed across the months, appearing as a bar graph (as seen in pic above).
By default all homicides are displayed on the map, but websites being the commonly interactive things they are, you are able to tick boxes in a filter to only display specific results.

The filter is split into

• Age
  
• Race/Ethnicity
  
• Gender
  
• Cause of death
  
• Day of week
  
• Killing by police
  
• Suspected domestic incident

Fiddling around with these boxes gets you some interesting results. On the right, under the map, the names of the homicides currently being displayed on the map are listed.
Each name is a link to its corresponding entry in the 'Homicide Report'.

Check out the LA Times Homicide Map here.

Are you feeling your FPS games yet?

Really feel your FPS games with the FPS '3rd Space' gaming vest.

There are those that say videogames are becoming too realistic. Near photorealistic graphics and frighteningly accurate artificial intelligence immerse the gamer ever deeper into his/her gaming experience. But for some, it seems, the realism isn't enough. They require even more interactivity with their games.

Force feedback in games has been around for quite a while now. The feature that makes your controller jump when you fall from a great height or crash your car, or rumbles in your hand after a particularly large explosion.

But the guys at TN Games have taken things a step further to enhance the game experience of the very popular FPS (First Person Shooter) genre of gaming.
They have come up with the FPS "3rd Space" Gaming Vest. A flak jacket to be worn when playing your favourite FPS game.

TN Games explains on its website that:
"The FPS Vest is an impact-generating device designed to enable you to feel the game's action for the ultimate gaming experience. It contains eight active zones that simulate the direction and forces of bullet fire, crushing explosions, and fear-inducing finger taps as they occur in the game."

The vest comes in three varieties: Black, pink and of course camouflage. The vest/game bundle can be purchased for $169. This includes the vest and TN Games very own 3rd Space Incursion game along with Call of Duty 2.

Monkey mind control!

Scientists probe the minds of monkeys

Apologies for the two week gap between this post and the last, but I'm afraid it was due to unforeseen laziness.

Time for some weird news I think!
This story is all over the place at the moment. It's one of those stories that could've been easily made up just for the internet. Another internet myth circulated around as fact. When in actual fact this is (errr) actually factual(ly - sorry couldn't resist).

Some (mad) scientists based at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have managed to hook up a monkey's brain to a robotic prosthetic arm.
The monkey had probes inserted into its primary motor cortex (the part of the brain that controls movement).
Once trained and with its own arms restrained, the monkey was able to use the prosthetic limb to feed itself. Controlling the limb with its brain.

The scientists believe that their research could eventually help amputees and people who are paralysed.

See full story and video: BBC news

Baby Queen - We're out of Pampers

Baby Queen sing We're Out of Pampers!

We all know Queen's big hit song - We Are The Champions. But did you know the song was written and performed when all the members of Queen were just ickle babies?

Back then they originally composed it as "We're Out Of Pampers", but as the band grew in maturity they decided the song needed updating with more relevant lyrics. And so "We Are The Champions" was born.
Another tune composed back in their baby days was a little song named "Another one bites the rusk", which I understand, also got the updating treatment.

Below is some archive footage of Queen as babies performing the song in its original form.

Inject some fun into your writing!

I'm not sure how practical this is, but it's a nice weird idea.
This is a Syringe Pen. A fully working pen in the shape of a syringe, that comes supplied with red liquid to replicate blood. While the pen itself writes with normal black ink.

Apparently this item is popular with medical professionals. In fact, if you are a medical professional, particularly a nurse, then you may find the site this came from quite useful.

The site is called Nifty Nurse and is apparently run by actual nurses, so they claim to "understand the needs of today's nurses and student nurses".
They can supply you with nursing tools, kits, traditional fob watches, stethoscopes and sphygmomanometers (hmm, I think I shall name my next pet that).

But more importantly, they can supply you with a super-dooper Syringe Pen for £1.49 or the equally silly, but maybe not as cool looking, Bone Pen, also a mere £1.49.

Dog owners may want to avoid this one though, as you may end up having to keep retrieving it from a shallow grave in the garden, (the pen that is - not the dog. Although maybe eventually the dog, haha).

Knit your own authentic vintage clothing!

Okay, here's another post I'll be filing in the 'Weird arts and crafts' section.
I suppose it's not really that weird, except for the fact that the eyes of the poodle in this pic, start to freak you out after a while. And this poodle is/was intended as a pram toy.
Imagine waking up as a small baby and have this demented mutt giving you 'evils'.

So let me explain. This is Poppet the knitted poodle (pictured left). Now, I know some of you may still be traumatised by a previous post about 'painted poodles'. But I assure you, this post will make you feel warm and fuzzy.
Maybe not on the inside but certainly on the outside. That is of course if you decide to follow the directions and make yourself some 'cool' vintage knitwear.

Poppet the poodle can be found at Vintage Purls. A site dedicated to knitting which has a 'Free Patterns' section.
In this section there are several vintage clothing knitting patterns, circa 1920's to 1950's, for men, women and children. Alongside some miscellaneous items like children's pram toys or tea cosies.

All the patterns are free to download and are in PDF format. You will need Adobe's free PDF Reader to view these files. If you don't already have it installed, then I definitely recommend doing so, as it is a popular and useful format used by many websites.

I myself wasn't really interested in the knitting side of it, I just find old photographs and images interesting. Also I was intrigued by the knitted bathing suits made with "coupon-less thread".

Thrilled to be in prison!

Here's a video that is of course not new. In fact it's probably safe to say that it's an internet classic.
But seeing as I haven't yet posted it on here, I feel it definitely deserves a spot on Weird Wonderful Web.

A lot of people, on first seeing this video, thought it to be fake. As in, not a real prison and/or not real prisoners.
But subsequently there have been some documentaries filmed at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) in the Philippines to try and gain some insight into why these prisoners, many of whom are violent rapists and murderers, will prance about to 80's pop.

The documentary that stands out for me though, was Channel 4's - First Cut: Murderers on the Dance Floor. If you live in the UK, I believe you can still get to see it on 4OD.
Outside the UK I'm not sure how you'll find it, but it's worth checking out.
The Wiki entry for the Cebu Thriller video briefly mentions said documentary and its investigation of abuse claims. The film tries to discover how the prison governor Byron Garcia gets these criminals to dance, and slightly more sinister, what happens to those that refuse? And why have so many of these tough criminals now got Byron Garcia tattoos?

Despite all that, this video (along with the prisoner's other dance routines) is certainly entertaining.