This could be the first good flash mob idea in years.

fireclown: Astounding! Does it have a GPS dealiwhatzit as well?

No, sadly - after all, cellphone GPS works by triangulating cell towers. iTouch can't hear cellphone towers, so it can't triangulate position from them - instead, it does something totally crazy: it uses a database of local WiFi spots that the Google Streetview cars created.

You know Google Streetview? When those cars drove around, they catalogued every wifi network they drove through. Including, like, the one you use at home to keep your laptop online.

So when you do GPS using Google Maps on the iTouch, this is how it figures out where you are - by looking up what wireless networks are nearby and saying "oh, you're probably about here". It's not terribly accurate, especially because people occasionally buy new routers and change their SSIDs and stuff.

Yesterday's News (new window)

Gordon Bennett: My god.

This one quite literally looks to be inflatable.

That's Orit Fux, the Israeli Pam Anderson.

Khazar-Khum: Gordon Bennett: My god.

This one quite literally looks to be inflatable.

That's Orit Fux, the Israeli Pam Anderson.

Or it? No, I would say that it is definitely Fuxed.

Footy Badgers, 2010 update (new window)

Vampires



They DO exist.

While this may be the first documented case of a serious vuvuzela injury, frequent tooters have already reported grossly swollen "vuvuzela lips."

And the inappropriate chortling has begun.

Google Street View of Nelson Mandela Stadium

When you see it, you'll shiat brix.

Hitler and the vuvuzela at the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-Ln_rqPpPk (new window)

seventypercent: ...and?

Finish the sentence, subby.

WHAT IS SUBBY TRYING TO TELL US?

"Vuvuzela related injuries on the rise, say proctologists"

I watch soccer with the TV on mute.

I really, really hate vuvuzelas.

This, my friends, is what football is supposed to sound like (new window, safe for work and ears)

That is the sound of the game in Europe, the sound that FIFA claims would oppress South African culture if the plastic hornets were silenced.

/bzzz

TheyCallMeSirr2: Last year, the New England Journal of Medicine told the cautionary tale of a 13-year-old boy who tooted his tuba so hard he busted a salivary gland.

I lol'd so hard

This: fireclown: Astounding! Does it have a GPS dealiwhatzit as well?

No, sadly - after all, cellphone GPS works by triangulating cell towers. iTouch can't hear cellphone towers, so it can't triangulate position from them - instead, it does something totally crazy: it uses a database of local WiFi spots that the Google Streetview cars created.

You know Google Streetview? When those cars drove around, they catalogued every wifi network they drove through. Including, like, the one you use at home to keep your laptop online.

So when you do GPS using Google Maps on the iTouch, this is how it figures out where you are - by looking up what wireless networks are nearby and saying "oh, you're probably about here". It's not terribly accurate, especially because people occasionally buy new routers and change their SSIDs and stuff.

It worked fairly well when a friend of mine and I tried it out last week while driving through Brooklyn, but that's a fairly densely populated area, so your mileage may vary.

Gordon Bennett: I really, really hate vuvuzelas.

This, my friends, is what football is supposed to sound like (new window, safe for work and ears)

That is the sound of the game in Europe, the sound that FIFA claims would oppress South African culture if the plastic hornets were silenced.

THIS (new window), my friends, is what football is supposed to sound like. :p

This: No, sadly - after all, cellphone GPS works by triangulating cell towers

Actually, cellphones all have a GPS chip built in these days. Some carriers even allow you to use it as you please.

MaxxLarge: Ashtrey: Has anyone has a vuvuzela shoved up their ass yet? You know, against their will.

Were I watching soccer, I fear
If that thing was blown in my ear?
The folks all around
Would hear a new sound:
The horn as its blown from the rear.

Are you some kinda limerick wizard? Time and time again, you astonish me.

FrigginAmazing: Are you some kinda limerick wizard? Time and time again, you astonish me.

He's some kind of idiot savant,
who has just one trick,
you might call it his stick,
of which I've grown sick.
and I already can't be arsed to finish up anymore.

Well, I guess I now have another reason to not watch or support soccer.
Can't wait for the NFL draft

I love the world cup, but the FIFA president needs to have his ass kicked for not banning that bloody horn at the farking world cup.

Culture my ass.

FrigginAmazing: MaxxLarge: Ashtrey: Has anyone has a vuvuzela shoved up their ass yet? You know, against their will.

Were I watching soccer, I fear
If that thing was blown in my ear?
The folks all around
Would hear a new sound:
The horn as its blown from the rear.

Are you some kinda limerick wizard? Time and time again, you astonish me.


MaxxLarge is truly a treasure
With wit and renown in great measure
There's naught he can't say
In A-A-B-B-A
And to read them aloud is a pleasure


However...



It's really not that hard to pen
Great limericks again and again
If you've the rhymes
To do it two times
You can do it, I'm sure, to no end

Gridlock: Hitler and the vuvuzela at the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-Ln_rqPpPk (new window)

That is beautiful.

A Saffer I work with brought one in the other day. We held the sound meter about half a metre away and got 123db. These things are loud. Some bright spark has been importing them into New Zealand and selling them on our version of eBay. Some idiots are bidding up to $100 for these things! It's a plastic funnel, for crying out loud (did I mention loud?) And yeah, hard on the lips.

Letters are already coming in to the newspapers from people saying they won't buy season tickets for the rugby if they aren't banned.

I don't know about you, but I ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzZZZZZZZZZZZZz

It's a Kazoo Trumpet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazoo (new window)
Playing

While blowing is the term typically used to describe the technique required to play a kazoo, a more accurate term would be humming into the kazoo. Blowing with the lips closed around the mouthpiece of the kazoo will not make sound - one must vibrate air from their lungs by humming in to the instrument in order for the kazoo to make any sound. Increased air flow and harder blowing will result in a more effective and authoritative sound.
======


Kazoos (by Mystery Guitar Man)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oau9gtG5Om8 (new window)

FUNK ON ME played on a Vuvuzela
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFrrdSGz_Lw (new window)

// Kazoo Trumpet. That is all.

Always thought those were oil funnels that people liked to toot back when I was a kid. Go figure.

Article is dead on about trumpet players. I blew myself out rehearsing for a concert, ended up with bleeding lips. Blah