Death by Roses

Aug 1979: Mary A. Koch collapsed and died while at work soon after receiving a bouquet of roses as a wedding anniversary gift from her husband. Medical examiners suspected she had a fatal, allergic reaction to the roses.

Detroit Free Press - Aug 30, 1979

While the death from roses was strange enough, it turns out that her mother had died earlier "under similar circumstances."

Waterville Morning Sentinel - Sep 1, 1979

Posted By: Alex - Sun May 05, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Death | 1970s

The Bromo Seltzer Tower

The building's home page.

The original tower was topped by a 51-foot revolving replica of the blue Bromo-Seltzer bottle, which was illuminated with 596 lights and could be seen 20 miles away. Due to structural concerns, the bottle was removed in 1936.

Posted By: Paul - Sun May 05, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Architecture | Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough | Regionalism | Advertising | Twentieth Century

Reconstructing shredded paper money

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority visitor center sells souvenir glass containers full of shredded paper money. Each container (costing $100 HKD) is advertised as containing 138 complete $1000 HKD banknotes.

Researcher Chunt T. Kong set out to determine whether he could use "computer vision" to reconstruct the shredded banknotes. If he could, this would mean that for an investment of $100 HKD he would be able to reconstruct notes worth $138,000 HKD.



He determined that, yes, in theory the banknotes could be reconstructed. But he encountered a few problems:

First, the souvenir containers often contained far fewer than 138 notes. Some had as few as 20 notes in them. He found stones hidden in some of the containers. This, he complained, was false advertising. He noted, "it appears that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has broken the law."

The second problem: "even though the shredded banknote pieces could construct a complete banknote, the serial number may not have come from the same banknote, and there is a high chance that it could not be exchanged for real money."

He didn't address how all the little pieces would be stuck back together. With scotch tape?

But, of course, it was all just a theoretical exercise. Though he says that, having informed the Hong Kong Monetary Authority visitor center of what he did, they're now no longer selling the shredded money.

More info: "The possibility of making $138,000 from shredded banknote pieces using computer vision"

via New Scientist

Posted By: Alex - Sat May 04, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Money | AI, Robots and Other Automatons | Computers

Crazy Yogi

Posted By: Paul - Sat May 04, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Animals | Anthropomorphism | Music | Cartoons | 1960s

Miss AI

Entries are now being accepted for the world's first "Miss AI" contest.

One of the organizers of the pageant offered the following justification for it: "Considering real beauty pageants are criticised for dehumanising women, lets dodge that bullet by having contestants which aren’t human to begin with!"

More info: euronews.com



The contestants will be judged by a panel that consists of two humans and two AI models. They don't explain how the AI models will make their decision or cast their votes. I assume the human creators of the AI models will be the actual judges.





Although this may be the first "Miss AI" contest, it won't be the first computer-generated beauty queen. As we've previously posted, back in 1964 engineers at California Computer Products unveiled "Miss Formula," whom they described as "a computer's idea of how the perfect female should look."

While the technology has advanced, the basic idea remains the same.

Tampa Tribune - July 31, 1964

Posted By: Alex - Fri May 03, 2024 - Comments (3)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests | Technology | AI, Robots and Other Automatons

The 1967 Human Be-In

The Wikipedia entry.

Posted By: Paul - Fri May 03, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Ceremonies | Drugs | Parades and Festivals | Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers | 1960s

Firmatron Facial

"literally shocks your age away"

"A model is given a 'Firmatron' facial by an operator wearing special gloves to transmit electrical impulses to facial nerves." New York Journal-American - Dec 2, 1960

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - June 28, 1961

Chicago Tribune - Apr 9, 1961

Posted By: Alex - Thu May 02, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues | Inventions | 1960s

Blindfolded Sewing

Do NOT try this at home!

Posted By: Paul - Thu May 02, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Domestic | Injuries | 1950s

Aspirin-Induced Musical Hallucinations

A 1985 letter in the New England Journal of Medicine reported the unusual case of a 70-year-old woman who kept hearing music playing in her head, particularly the song "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling." After ruling out other possible causes, her doctor eventually suspected the music might be due to the high doses of aspirin she was taking. And sure enough, when she reduced her aspirin intake, the music stopped.

I would never have thought that aspirin could cause musical hallucinations!

Tampa Bay Times - Apr 2, 1986

The letter itself is behind a paywall, but I was able to find a brief article that the woman's doctor (James R. Allen) wrote about the case in the magazine of the Minnesota Medical Association.

Minnesota Medicine - Nov 2008

Posted By: Alex - Wed May 01, 2024 - Comments (5)
Category: Medicine | Music | Psychology

Mystery Gadget 110

What is the purpose of this machine?
The answer is here.

Or after the jump.



More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Wed May 01, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Technology | 1920s