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Gadling presents a collection of weird amusement parks including Diggerland where both adults and children can "ride in, and drive, different types of construction machinery including Dumper Trucks, Mini Diggers and Giant Diggers (all under strict supervision)."
A huge US email spammer has been arrested and if convicted faces a maximum of 65 years in prison and a fine of up to $225,000.
Robert Soloway, 27, was arrested in Seattle, Washington, a week after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of identity theft, money laundering, and mail, wire, and e-mail fraud.
Between November of 2003 and May of 2007 Soloway "spammed" tens of millions of e-mail messages to promote websites at which his company, Newport Internet Marketing, sold products and services, according to prosecutors.
[via]
Google’s Street View feature for Google Maps enables users to see certain parts of several big US cities through panoramic images. Much like Google Earth, people are trawling through the different images that Google have taken in a bid to find the funny and strange ones. Mashable has compiled a top 15 sightings and this site has been compiling more on a daily basis.
Anyone wanna guess why this driver decided to try and park in the tiniest of spaces and then proceed to dive into a building? [via]
In a twist on the 'foil-covered' prank, these people decided to gift wrap almost everything in pink this house. [via]
A 'top psychic' from south Wales has been sent to Portugal to help with the search for Madeleine McCann.
According to Diane Lazarus, she already knows where Madeleine isn't, the type of people she's with, how they've changed her appearance and that she will be returned safely.
If I was the parents of Madeleine, there would be no chance that I would listen to the words of a psychic. I don't believe a word that they say and if you do listen to them you risk building up false hopes or indeed having your hopes smashed. Just take a look at Sylvia Brown (wikipedia) and see how wrong she can be.
An interesting documentary about one of the world's most stressful jobs - the air traffic controller. [via]
British researchers have written a report in the journal Animal Behaviour about army ants of Central and South America that repair their 'roads' by throwing their bodies into rough spots to make it smoother.
They found that the ants match their own bodies to the size of the hole they want to plug. Several may plunge together to fill in bigger holes.
"We inserted planks drilled with different sizes of hole into the army ants' trails to see how well different sizes of ant matched different sizes of pot hole. Indeed, they fit beautifully."
I have just got back from a short break in The Black Country (Dudley, England). Whilst I was away I thought I would try to continue blogging using just my phone and my 3G connection. I knew it would difficult but it proved to be extremely difficult.
My setup included a Nokia E61i, Newstouch RSS reader, Opera Mini, built-in Notes app, e-mail, the S60 web browser and the Services browser.
I started on Sunday looking for interesting things to post. I used Newstouch but I quickly found that it had limitations. It's only capable of bookmarking 10 articles at a time which meant that if you wanted to save more than that number you would have to email the link to yourself - which is what I had to do.
So I ended up sending a bunch of articles to myself using the phone and then downloading it. The emails contained links which when clicked, opens the Services browser and navigates to the webpage. The problem with the Services browser, and the S60 web browser, is that it's very limited. You can't copy text from the page and you can't easily get the address of the page. That means that if I wanted to quote from an article I would have to type it myself. Also, if I wanted to link to the article I would need to copy it from the email.
To compose the post I would have to use either a new email message or Notes. I decided to use notes. Typing out posts was painful particularly adding HTML for links but compared to my old Nokia N80, it was a lot easier using the QWERTY keyboard on the E61i. Once completed I then copied and pasted the post into an email message and sent it to Typepad.
The whole process could take as long as half an hour for a relatively short post with a few links. If you wanted to add an image the process would take even longer. Images bring a whole new set of problems. Resizing them is not possible so you have to use an image host like Imageshack which can resize images as you upload. This is useful but you have to stick with preset sizes.
Also, as you all know, I post quite a few videos, many of which are Flash based. At the moment phones aren't powerful enough to support Flash or large videos. That means, whilst on the road I would have to alter the content that I post.
At the moment, mobile blogging seems restricted to short personal messages that don't require any formatting or pictures taken using your cameraphone. Technology such as mobile AJAX, which browsers such as the S60 web browser, Mobile IE and Opera Mobile support, could help improve how you can post to your blog but I think the size of mobile devices will continue to be the limiting factor.
SMS Tech of Australia has introduced a touchscreen wristwatch phone. The phone is quad band, supports Bluetooth data and voice, can run J2ME applications and has 128MB of storage that can be used to play MP3s and display MP4 videos.
It comes with a built in stylus but with only a 1.5" screen I can't imagine it being very usable.
Only 500 will be made and it will cost a not very cheap US$820. Link
An 1839 daguerreotype camera, ancestor of modern photography, was sold at auction in Vienna Saturday for nearly 600,000 euros making it the world's oldest and most expensive commercial photographic apparatus. Link
Gadling has a collection of some very messy cars.
Saks Fifth Avenue says its new shoe department is so big that it's getting its own ZIP code.
The Manhattan store is revamping its shoe department, and when it moves from the fourth floor to an 8,500-square-foot space on the eighth floor in August, customers will be able to send mail to 10022-SHOE.
The retailer worked with the U.S. Postal Service on the new ZIP code — but only the last four characters, which aren't necessary when mailing something, are specialized. The rest of the neighborhood shares 10022. Link
The world's largest beverage maker on Friday kicked off the holiday weekend by creating a 10-ton ice cream float to break a world record the company set nearly a decade ago.
An official from Guinness World Records confirmed the 3,000-gallon float, made of Vanilla Coke and ice cream, set the new world record.
A tanker from the Atlanta-based company's syrup plant pumped a non-carbonated mixture into a specially made 15-foot-high glass containing a device that carbonated the beverage. Workers dropped buckets full of ice cream into the top of the glass by hand. Link
I wonder if those ships had any people on them when the twister hit?
After two years of constantly hearing noises and wriggling in his ear, a man has had a colony of mites removed.
"For years I had no idea what was wrong. I had been hearing continual bubble and squeak noises in my ears and it was worse at night. Sometimes I would get up in the morning and think I would be lucky if I had got any sleep.
"And there was movement. That was the worst - the itch. Many times during the day and night I would stick my fingers and cotton buds in my ears to try and relieve the itch. It was unreachable."
The 49-year-old twice visited his doctor, who flushed his ears out with warm water. There was no respite.
He experienced short-term relief when a nurse suctioned his ear out.
"Then I read an article on tinnitus - about noises in your ears - and I thought, 'I am getting older, that's what I have. I will just have to learn to live with it."'
As a last ditch attempt late last year he visited Tolbecs Ear Centre in Hamilton. "A nurse there took one look and called in her boss and others. Then the microbiologist got called in. They were all quite excited," Mr Balvert said.
"There were about a 100 of them. It was a well-stocked breeding ground."
Ms O'Leary used suction to remove all visible mites and eggs.
Link [Thanks Kent]
Animals at a zoo in Illinois have been enjoying feasting on cicadas which have started to emerge after laying dormant underground for 17 years. Link
A bus takes out a cherry picker that's working on a motorway.
An awesome looping machine controlled with a Wii controller. [via]
Quickly make your own web 2.0 button with MyCoolButton. See also: web 2.0 stripe generator [via]
Diners in Italy are flocking to a prison restaurant run by Mafiosi, robbers and murderers.
Serenaded by Bruno, a pianist doing life for murder, the clientele eat inside a deconsecrated chapel set behind the 60ft high walls, watch towers, searchlights and security cameras of the daunting 500-year-old Fortezza Medicea, at Volterra near Pisa.
Under the watchful eye of armed prison warders, a 20-strong team of chefs, kitchen hands and waiters prepares 120 covers for diners who have all undergone strict security checks. Tables are booked up weeks in advance.
[Image via]
Pictures: Inside the prison restaurant
Only in San Francisco would you find zombies walking the streets. [via]
Google Calendar has gone mobile and can be accessed from your mobile phone. By visiting calendar.google.com on your mobile you can access an agenda of upcoming events, complete with details like date, time, location, description, and guest list. Of course it's not as full featured as the desktop version but is still handy.
I've been using Goosync for a while which syncs Google Calendar with my phone. You have to initiate the transfer but it's a great way of importing events into the phones built in calendar. [via]
Pictures of North Korea always fascinate me. This slideshow shows photographs taken by two photographers who visited the capital, Pyongyang three times. [via]
Intel has announced what could possibly be the world's thinnest laptop. Code-named Intel mobile Metro notebook, it is less than 0.7 inches thick—about one-quarter of an inch thicker than a Motorola Razr, making it the world's thinnest notebook. And at 2.25 pounds, it's also one of the lightest small-sized portable computers.
It is not known exactly when the laptop will be released or how much it will cost. BusinessWeek has more images of the laptop. [via]
Anyone for a zebra steak? It actually tastes quite nice. This is the menu from The Farmer's Daughter restaurant which is well known for it's exotic meats.
Update: I should point out that I was at this restaurant tonight. I ate the zebra again but also tried pigeon and wildebeest. I didn't like the pigeon and preferred the wildebeest to the zebra.
The above image has not been photoshopped. Trafalgar Square has actually been covered in turf.
More than 2,000 sq m of turf has been laid as part of Visit London's campaign to promote green spaces and villages in the city.
The grass will cover the square for two days during which visitors will be able to soak up the sunshine in specially laid-out deckchairs or enjoy a picnic.
Video from 1960 of Joseph Kittinger jumping from a helium balloon at an altitude of 102,800 feet. Kittinger freefell for 4.5 minutes, reached a speed of 714 mph, and endured temperatures as low as -94 degrees F. The Life magazine cover above from August 1960 shows him shortly after jumping from the balloon. [via]
The Lada showed the 4x4 who's boss.
If you live in the UK, Cadbury is giving away a free sample of Bourneville Deeply Dark Chocolate. The sample are limited to 150,000 and I'm not sure how long the offer has been on for.
I received a tiny sample in a DVD rental today. I'm not sure if the sample that they are giving away will be the same size as the one I received or a larger piece.
