Wow, every time I think we have it bad in the USA, something like this comes along.

So- in the UK- there is an expectation of privacy in a public place? As was already said by #1- they break that thousands upon thousands of times a day with their surveillance society.

Come on- what kind of a mess is made when you "open" the package with a toothpick? I guess for tofu it -might- quickly pop around it and leave a nice ball, but I really doubt it could do that for pudding.

I'd hate to be afraid of opening my food. If you have to wear protective clothing and goggles to open it, and potentially have to clean up after it- no real savings there, environmental or otherwise.

Wow- finally a name for a disease I've suffered from for most of my life... I wonder if I can get some form of disability benefit? :)

And then, my favorite- Beaver, UT.

Thanks for posting the Flickr links Bottlekid! I've to a pic almost exactly like the first, but it's sitting on a backup drive somewhere.

I don't have a picture handy, but in Flippin, AR you will find The Flippin Church of God!

I generally hate advertising with a passion, but have to admit- this is pretty cool. I don't have one of those little peep hole thingys though, and it would look ridiculous attached to my front door's window.

My big concern would be the adhesive. It would have to be strong enough to hold the thing to the door in varying weather conditions, but not so strong as to damage the door's finish.

As for the issue brought up by @EASY2PANIC- they could probably ring the bell to draw your attention to it. I suspect most people would be pissed if that happened though.

Wow, now we can be just like the USSR, Germany, and other such countries of the past: "Papers please...(!)"

Hopefully this won't fly. If it does- it will only be a matter of time before it becomes common-place.

Actually, a more recent reference would be something like the society of Dark Angel.

I have to agree with others... If I don't have a reasonable level of access to Oregon's laws- than I shouldn't be held accountable to them under the whole "Ignorance of the law..." philosophy.

Laws should be public record and should be easily accessible if those they apply to are to be held accountable to them.

Democracy is supposed to be government by and for the people. People vote on, and therefore should retain ownership of the laws passed by that government. How can you copyright something like that?

I have to admit- when I first heard of these- I wanted one for my property. I live on a dark corner and teens used to like hanging out around my yard, despite being asked several times (nicely at-first) to bugger-off.

But- I've heard several recordings of the sound, as well as the copy-cat "secret" ring-tones that were really hot a year ago. I'm over 40, and I could hear it quite clearly. So- I really don't think this works as well as advertised. I also have to agree that the cost of the thing is a total rip-off. If a local business used one of these- they will guarantee I won't patronize them, and I'm sure other adults that can hear the noise would do the same.

My ultimate solution was new flood-lights outside. Very low-tech, but a lot cheaper and it worked.

Did they actually think an "A-bomb" was going to fit in a briefcase? Or- for that matter- that a terrorist would actually LABEL a briefcase containing "a bomb". This is just insane.

Unfortunately this is probably happening in every urbanized area in the country.

One of the biggest problems is the actual value of the homes has been artificially high for many years now. "Crappy" poorly-built houses popped up in developments everywhere. Most of them start falling apart after a few years, immediately lowering their value, which combined with the declining economy leaves the banks holding notes on properties that aren't worth anywhere near what the notes are worth.

I had a new house in a development near Denver that after four years had a leaky roof, crumbing foundation, cracked and sinking patio and deck, along with creaky floors and windows that didn't open right. Hard to sell something like that anything close to what it was originally purchased for. Fortunately I was able to unload it in a pre-forclosure arrangement.

I agree with what someone else posted earlier- it would make more sense for the banks to allow people to continue to live in them. Either cut or eliminate the interest for a given time-period, and hope the market turns around in that period. It keeps people in the homes, reducing blight, which in the long run will benefit the neighborhood and their bottom line.

I used to make things like this when I was a kid. It actually went over as what it was when I was in-school- a prank/joke. Nobody complained and nobody considered it to be an act of terrorism.

I stopped when it occurred to me that it would be extremely dangerous for someone with a heart condition or something similar. I'll note too that at the time- devices like this were available at retail from stores like Spencers. I don't believe they are anymore.

I didn't even know there was such a thing as a prosthetic anal sphicter. You learn something new every day on BoingBoing. :)

The news media as of late has been all over problems like this in hospitals. The sad thing is- if she were in a US hospital and this happened- she would still have to PAY for the surgery and the prosthetic, at least until she started calling lawyers.

The "Laws" of robotics only apply to autonomous ones, and really- are only an ideal. I suspect military robots already violate them on a daily basis, although supposedly ones that fire weapons are not "autonomous".

Can Futurama-style Suicide Booths be that far away now?

"...male private area."? Someone actually used that term? Oh wait, Kentucky. Never mind.

Seriously though- what exactly where these supposed to look like? Rocket ship is a pretty big stretch. It really doesn't look like anything else.

Others have said similar, but I wanted to chime in...

I'm kinda disappointed at some of the "tough shit" posts here. These people didn't necessarily KNOW the trouble they were getting into. Believe me- new home salesmen in particular a few years ago should have the same reputation as a lot of car salesman. You could walk into any development anywhere with terrible credit and dubious income and they would put you into any home you wanted. Builder's buy-down incentives and variable-rate mortgages with no-money-down made it relatively easy. They all sold people on the "American Dream" of home ownership. Was this a mistake? Of course- but it's more the fault of the banks and builders that did it than the people who were enticed by it.

It's important to keep in-mind too- everyone expected housing prices to continue to go up (even though real estate has been artificially high in many parts of the country for years) and at least hoped that interest rates would stay low. The majority of people don't "expect" that the economy is going to tank. They also have a reasonable expectation that their wages will increase as time goes on, which also didn't happen for most.

There are a lot of people in really bad situations right now- and just callously blaming them for it is wrong. The blame lies with the banks and other corporations who were responsible for allowing the situation to happen to begin with, and with the government for their complete lack of any real economic plan (short of bailing out said banks and corporations, and their multi-millionaire board members).

And- just TRY renting somewhere with bad credit. It doesn't happen. You can live in a cash-only run-down motel, but you are probably safer and better off on the street or in a tent on a vacant lot. You can't even get into a trailer park without good credit anymore.

I literally dread flying now, which unfortunately I have to do several times a year. I've had a nice few months off for Winter, but have to start flying again in April.

I've considered showing up at the airport in a hospital gown and flip-flops (which of-course I would STILL need to remove to be x-rayed). I'd also still need my laptop, which I sure has hell am NOT going to put in checked baggage.

I used to work for an airline and flew several times a month. I used to actually enjoy flying. Too bad it has turned into such a hassle.

I've "heard" this is a good series, although it starts off a bit on the cheesy (even for porn) side.

As already said- Mythbusters did this. It's certainly a much, much older idea.

Beyond that- I suspect any sound capable of extinguishing more than a candle is going to cause permanent damage to any structures around its source, as well as any living thing close-by.

I remember back in the mid-'80s taking a tour of an active-duty battleship while in the Navy. It used huge electro-mechanical computers for the fire control of its big guns. They took up a substantial part of the ship itself, and were definitely "old-school" even at that time. But- according to the officer showing us around- modern computers weren't any more accurate, so they had no reason to replace them.

I agree- displays are one thing, presentations are another.

Really though- it's nothing that couldn't be fixed by a small piece of black electrical tape. I'm surprised stray signals from remotes being used on the floor legitimately don't cause problems like this anyway. I remember awhile back when I worked at a Sony store and ALL of the TVs apparently used the exact same IR code for Power off/on. You could literally shut off every TV in the store with one push of any TV remote's Power button. It was very annoying.

To #25:

As sad as it is- you are probably right. It's one of the few things that have kept me at my current job. As health insurance here costs more-and-more while covering less every year- it is becoming more of a problem.

If I were on the "No Fly List"- I'd simply commission one of the local high school students to get me a fake ID under a different name.

I can't believe they are still using a ridiculous list of names (which I believe is all it is- no descriptions or any other qualifying information) to provide us with "homeland security".

If only there were a terrorist named "Mike Smith" or some other really common name.

TSA is a joke, and apparently the Administration isn't getting it.

Didn't the Pope support Hitler at that time too?

In any war- industries in warring countries are naturally going to support the war effort. We don't like to admit it- but war is big business. Some may choose not to support it, and I feel that is admirable, but almost all large corporations do- it is too profitable to pass up. This is really old news.

Looks cute. It's probably at-least 20' too short with no approach, and a step-up?

I think it would be cool just to have a working pinsetter though.

It was a public street! How can someone complain about having photos taken of them in PUBLIC?!

We've lost a LOT of rights in the US, but I didn't know the UK was that much worse. There at least used to be a legal rule (IANAL) that one cannot have any expectation of privacy while in a public place. I thought this was fairly universal, and not restricted to the US.

The wording of this is a bit misleading...

After actually reading the information about this product- this makes sense. It has nothing to do with whether or not you can access your own files. They simply won't allow you to share them with anyone else. Their system allows file sharing over the Internet for other files. They just don't want to be sued by the RIAA and MPAA, or by an idiot that shares their media files and gets sued.

In short- if YOU plug this drive into your network- YOU can access all of YOUR files using YOUR login credentials from anywhere. That's pretty much what you want from NAS anyway. There are lots of other options if you want to plug a drive into the Internet and let anyone access it. If you really want to do that- the folks at PirateBay would probably like to talk to you, with the RIAA and MPAA close behind.

You can do more for less money with an older or cheap bare-bones laptop, a couple of 500GB SATA drives in USB2 enclosures, and Open Source software anyway.

WD is one of the few companies I'll still buy drives from, and I don't think they have done anything deceptive or wrong here.

Must be a recent change. I did work for the Army a couple of years ago and they were using Websense. Probably why BoingBoing is suddenly blocked.