A must-have gift for your professor
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working on a high-tech device with seemingly a multitude of uses: a boredom detector. A talker, via a wearable camera and software that measures facial expressions and movements, could know whether he has lost touch with a listener (via signals from eyebrows, lips, nose, etc.). The device was designed for the autistic, but would be useful to anyone underskilled at being interesting. So far, the software is said to be accurate 64 percent of the time.—BBC NewsAnd you thought your neighbors were loud...A woman who made herself a minor celebrity in Japan by constantly screaming insults and blaring out music while beating bedding on her balcony, was sentenced to a year in jail for causing physical harm.
Miyoko Kawahara, 59, kept up the assault on her neighbors' eardrums daily over a period of two and a half years, forcing at least one nearby resident to seek treatment for insomnia and headaches.
Kawahara, known nationally as Mrs. Noisy,\ is likely to be released in about three months.
—Reuters Poor excuses, bad ideasGary Peel, 62, who was battling an ex-wife over alimony, tried to blackmail her into silence. He told her that unless she relented, he would shock her parents by giving them decades-old nude photos of him with the ex-wife's younger sister. However, Peel forgot that the sister was allegedly only 16 when the photos were taken, and he has been charged with possessing child pornography.
—Belleville News-Democrat
An 18-year-old Arizona State University student, arrested at Hayden Library for masturbating openly while watching Internet porn, explained to police, ""To be honest, the Internet connection at my dorm isn't good enough.""
—ASUWebDevil.com
Food inspectors shut down the Hawally bakery in Kuwait City after finding dough stored in a toilet, which the owner explained was so that the humidity would keep it moist.
—Kuwait Times
Bryan Palmer, 21, and Peggy Casey, 31, were interviewed by police investigating a burglary in South Windsor, Conn., in March, but were released. Detectives changed their minds, though, and were futilely searching for them when the pair showed up at the police station to innocently ask how the investigation was going.
—Manchester Journal Inquirer
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