What? Are you stupid?

Our society has gotten totally over-dependant on being able to go through life with their brains turned-off. It's called "common sense" - use it, people...

Don the Magic Juan knows his bling and it ain't this CRV!

This was spotted in the parking lot of the local Bally's workout center by my friend Ed. One side of the CRV has some pimpalicous chrome wheels. You'd expect a matching set on the other side right? Nope. Just the stock wheels from the factory!

I'm not sure of the motivation here -- I would not think that you'd bother buying fancy chrome wheels and tires if you knew you could only afford two, but then again, I seen worse.

Click below for a larger image.

This CRV has a tame side and a side with attitude!

Snapped by one of my buddies, this confused Corolla seems to think it might be a Mustang. Or something.

Look closely at the hood and notice the not-so-small hood ornament. I'm not sure if it's bolted-on or just glued, but I've got to admit it's a strange placement for a Mustang type ornament. I wonder perception this guy is trying to achieve -- maybe it's funny like having a set of bullhorns on the hood. Then again, he might be serious and thinking it actually looks cool.

Whatever the case, this is more proof that even a smallish homogenized town like Fort Collins, CO has its share of weird automotive modders and nuts. Click below for a larger version.

Allright - maybe it's not a big crime and actually I find it more funny than anything. I live in Fort Collins, CO which is a smallish college town in northern Colorado. The town is very often rated a "top place to live" in some major list every year. For example, the last list, produced by CNN Money, declared the town the #1 place to live.

So, I found it amusing when I saw the car in the photos below. This old Explorer has been sitting on a corner that I drive-by daily for over a month. Presumably, it's for sale although you wouldn't know it due to the lack of obvious signs. However, from time to time, I've seen people who stopped and were inspecting it. Nothing out of the ordinary.

That is, until this past weekend. Apparently, the stock wheels that the Explorer had are a valuable commodity. As I drove to work on Monday, I saw the now-common sight of the white car sitting on the corner. As I approached it, however, I noticed that the wheels were missing. Somebody stole the stock wheels and left it sitting in the dirt!

As if that isn't funny enough, apparently the genius(es) who perpetrated this heinous crime in the fine city of Fort Collins, weren't paying enough attention and let the car fall onto the jack they were using, which can still be seen sitting under the front "wheel". I guess that nothing is free and they paid for the wheels with the jack.

For more Colorado car craziness, check this article.

As if there was any doubt in your mind that America's legal system is bloated, over-complicated and full of corruption, here is some more proof: someone actually applied-for and received a patent for building a tin-can and string telephone. The type kids have built and played with for decades. The telephone that pretty much anyone alive can tell you about.

Now, you don't have to worry about Johnny Lawyer knocking on your door because your kids built one of these fantastic inventions in their treehouse because the patent has expired. However, it should make you think about just how stupid the legal system has become that someone would even consider paying to file such a ludicrous patent.

It's my understanding, and IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer) that a patent idea should be a non-obvious way to build, design, or create something. It should be novel, at least at the time of the filing (we have to allow for this because over time, things that appear to be "magic" today will be commonplace in 20 years). A patent describes the method, technique, or apparatus in such a way that someone reasonably skilled in the field or art should be able to understand the concept in sufficient detail to recreate something similar to the described idea.

In this case, on February 17, 1978, two Illinois "inventors" applied-for and received the patent for the string and tin-can telephone. Now, again, IANAL, but it seems to me that children have been building these "devices" for decades, so there is (or should be) plenty of prior-art which would precede this concept, thus causing the patent office to reject the idea. The idea, at least in 1978, was not novel or ingenious. The people reasonably skilled in the field of tin-can telephones are 8 year old children. Can you see the stupidity?

Maybe this patent filing is simply the result of the "inventors" having too much time and/or money and they wanted to see if they could get such a ludicrous patent issued. I'm sure that, if they actually tried to press for intellectual property infringement in court, the patent would be ruled invalid, but still...