Urine controlled video games become a reality

Utilising infra-red technology, a company has developed a fully working solution to play video games in a toilet with urine acting as a controller. The unlikely combination of video games and urine has been made possible by a company called Captive Media.

So far the company has rolled out the specially designed video games within bars, and claim that some products have seen sales increase by as much as 50% as a result of the urine controlled games.

The toilets integrate infra-red sensors which can then control the on-screen game depending on where the urine lands. This technology could also be integrated into pub quizzes.

Check out a news clip here 

WTF NEWS - Toilet is woman’s home for 932 days

A SINGAPOREAN woman spent 932 days on the toilet as she felt “someone” was holding her down and preventing her from leaving,China Press reported.

The woman, 58, was said to be suffering from depression. Her husband Ong Kean On, 64, with the help of the police and ambulance staff, managed to send her to the Institute of Mental Health for treatment.

Ong said his wife had not left the toilet since May 25 in 2009 and that she ate, drank, and slept on the toilet.

He added that she refused to leave the washroom and complained that “someone” threw stones at her and also that water was dripping on her.

The daily reported that her condition had improved after she received treatment at the institute and that she had not insisted on sitting on the toilet after returning home.

Canada’s most vulgar city on Twitter

Studying more than 1 million tweets, a survey conducted by tbk Creative found the Peel Region locale to be the most vulgar Canadian city on Twitter.

"Brampton the Bad has been identified asCanada's most vulgar city for tweeting more four-letter profanities than anyone else," explains Carola Vyhnak in a Toronto Star story. "Those "f" and "s" words appeared in 1.41 per cent of all tweets over a one-month period."

The survey focused on Canada's largest 15 cities (in terms of population), but there's a catch.

"We didn't look at what cities were tweeting the most (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, etc. likely win based on volume), but rather, referenced what cities held the greatest percentage of vulgar-related tweets vs. total city tweets," reveals Andrew Schiestel in the survey. "This gave us a percentage."

But before you make a plea for Bramptonians to clean their mouths out with soap, there's another variable to consider. In order to be a guilty tweet, the sender must have included both the vulgar term and the mention of the city's name.

"This means, not every tweet came from the City or its citizens, but instead were simply tweets that mentioned the city name and the vulgar word," explains Schiestel.

Perhaps the city of Brampton isn't quite the most vulgar city as much as it is the most vulgarly discussed Canadian city on Twitter. But, all semantics aside, @Torontosoul can't find reproach in the people of Brampton.

"If I had to live in #Brampton I would swear a lot too."

(tbk Creative image)

Pagination

strongest solar storm in more than six years is already bombarding Earth with radiation with more to come. flare brings chance to see northern lights

A huge solar flare -- the largest since 2005 -- may increase the chance to see the aurora borealis, aka the northern lights, this week.

The particles from the eruption, which occurred Sunday, began hitting Earth on Tuesday morning.

Michael Bakich, senior editor of Astronomy magazine, said Tuesday this may create displays of the northern lights for several days.

Geoff Chester, spokesman for the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., said the best chance of seeing the display will be Tuesday night. To observe the shimmering sheets of light doesn't require a telescope, or even binoculars.

"Go out just after dusk and look to the north," Alan MacRobert, editor at Sky & Telescope magazine, said Tuesday.

The flare is the latest evidence the sun is becoming more active, emerging from a period of several year when there were few sunspots or solar flares to be seen.

The disturbances usually work on an 11-year cycle, with peak activity occurring every 11 years. Chester said in the past few years there's been minimal solar activity.

But there's increasing evidence this is changing.

Bakich said the observatories that watch the sun have seen an increase in prominences in recent week -- the loops and columns of solar matter that can be seen along the sun's edges.

And Chester said there have been two sizeable solar flares this month. The larger one erupted on Earth's surface Sunday.

Chester said the biggest solar flares are given the classification of X. This one is slightly less than that category.

X-rays traveling at the speed of light arrived on Earth eight minutes after the flare appeared, Chester said. There were also proton ejections that can interfere with space satellite electronics, he said.

"The buildup on the outside of satellites IS? like static electricity," he said. "Unless you find a way to disperse them, they can fry electronics."

On Tuesday, the final arrival from the solar glare -- the particles that are part of what's called a coronal mass ejection -- began about 10 a.m., Bakich said.

The particles, while not dangerous to humans, can interfere with some telecommunications and radio systems. Lt. Paul Vance, spokesman for the Connecticut State Police, said Tuesday that because of prior preparations, the state police had not had any communications problems.

Paul Estefan, emergency management director in Danbury, said he was not aware of any communications problems either.

But the planet's magnetic poles pull the coronal mass ejection particles toward the poles. There, they collide with particles in the Earth's upper atmosphere. Those collisions create the lights of the aurora borealis.

Generally, you have to be in the far northern latitudes to see the aurora displays. But after major solar flares, people farther to the south can see them -- sometimes as far south as Arizona.

And Chester said the only way to see them is to go and look.

"It's going to be a clear night," he said Tuesday. "There's a possibility you could see something."

Contact Robert Miller

This handout image provided by NASA, taken Sunday night, Jan. 22, 2012, shows a solar flare erupting on the Sun's northeastern hemisphere. Space weather officials say the strongest solar storm in more than six years is already bombarding Earth with radiation with more to come. The Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado observed a flare Sunday night at 11 p.m. EST. Physicist Doug Biesecker said the biggest concern from the speedy eruption is the radiation, which arrived on Earth an hour later. It will likely continue through Wednesday. It's mostly an issue for astronauts' health and satellite disruptions. It can cause communication problems for airplanes that go over the poles. (AP Photo/NASA) Photo: Associated Press / NASA

Wife of Italian ship captain furious! (Costa Concordia)

The wife of the captain accused of grounding the Costa Concordia cruise ship said in an interview published Tuesday she was outraged over the way her husband had been portrayed by the media.

Captain Francesco Schettino has been blamed for causing the January 13 disaster in which at least 16 people died when the liner carrying 4,200 passengers ran aground off the coast of Italy and capsized.

"My husband is at the center of an unprecedented media storm," his wife, Fabiola Rossi, told French magazine Paris Match. "I cannot think of any other naval or air tragedy in which the responsible party was treated with such violence ... This is a man hunt, people are looking for a scapegoat, a monster."

Schettino - who has been charged with manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship - has been branded a coward in Italian newspapers, after a recording of his conversation with a coast guard agent during the disaster was leaked to the press and widely circulated on the Web.

Asked if she was angry about his treatment, she said "wouldn't you be?"

He is "someone determined, firm and lucid. He is able to analyze situations, to understand and manage them. At home he is organized and meticulous, and otherwise he is a friendly and funny person who earns people's esteem," Rossi added in a version of the interview published on Paris Match's website.

In the recording with the coastguard, Schettino sounds bewildered and out of control as he is ordered back onto the ship and threatened with arrest.

Schettino's lawyer, who says his client admits partial responsibility for the disaster, is seeking to widen the investigation to include third parties with whom he was in contact, notably from ship owners, Costa Cruises.

The company, a unit the world's largest cruise ship operator Carnival Corp, has suspended Schettino and declared itself an injured party in the case. It has said "unfortunate human error" by Schettino caused the disaster.

(Reporting By Nicholas Vinocur; Editing by Ben Harding)

Facebook Timeline mandatory rollout: You have 7 days to scour your past

The time to edit your online persona is now

Facebook is the virtual home to more than 800 million active users, so any change to how the network operates is a big deal. And nothing could be bigger for the social hotspot than completely revamping everyone's front-facing profile page, and that is exactly what is happening today. Starting this morning, the new Timeline feature — that up until now has been an optional switch — is now mandatory.

The Timeline differs from the default profile pages we know and love in several ways. Now, rather than showcasing only your most recent posts, your personal front page can be scrolled back months or years at a time. Most importantly, this change can offer visitors a glimpse at your entire social networking past, all the way back to the day that you joined up. The revamp can be both a blessing and a curse for seasoned social networkers, as it can produce a bit of pleasant nostalgia, but also drag up some of your less proud public moments.

Left untouched, your Timeline may remind of you of breakups, job troubles, or even a few unfortunate party photos that you have long since buried. Depending on your settings, these black marks on your digital past could allow new followers — including friends or business associates — to see a side of you that was better kept tucked away.

Privacy is already a hot topic for Facebook users and the network's litany of sharing options can be difficult to navigate, even for the most experienced users. The company isn't oblivious to how the Timeline may drag up some unwanted past events, so a short buffer zone is in place to allow you to modify your online persona before making its new debut. You now have until Tuesday, January 31 to erase any past Facebook scars you'd prefer to hide.

The mandatory Timeline rollout will undoubtedly catch some by surprise, but you don't have to fall victim to the ghosts of past updates. Take some time to review your social networking history and don't hesitate to prune anything that you wouldn't want on the front page of a local newspaper, because as of right now, the clock is ticking. Or, of course, you could always jump ship to Google+instead.

Costa Concordia disaster sparks idea to boost Rome economic crisis...but is it a good or bad idea?

ROME (Reuters) – A coast guard officer's "Get back on board damn it!" order to the fleeing captain of the capsized Costa Concordia liner is being printed on T-shirts by a company hoping to inspire Italians to rescue their country from economic crisis.

Italians have made a hero of coast guard officer Gregorio De Falco for his angry exchange with skipper Francesco Schettino -- who has been blamed for the accident and is now under house arrest accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship.

Stefano Ramponi, owner of the Lipsiasoft web agency that is producing the T-shirts and selling them on the Internet for 12.9 euros ($16.63), said they had become an instant hit both in Italy and abroad.

"We have had a lot of requests from all over the world, from Brazil, Hong Kong, also from Germany and France, the UK. Everyone is asking us for it," he said.

He said he had been criticised by some people for making money out of the January 13 disaster, in which 11 people died and 21 are still missing.