Andrew Hogan, a leading Tasmanian optometrist and education director of the Optometrists Association of Tasmania, is warning that the fashionable emo haircuts and hairstyles – you know, the ones with long lopsided fringes that sweep or hang across one eye – can cause long-term damage to eyesight. Children and teenagers are particularly at risk.

Although the trendy styles are extremely popular and many people find them to be unique and stylish, any cut or style that obstructs your vision with your hair can result in amblyopia, commonly known as lazy eye.

Hogan explained, “If a young emo chap has a fringe covering one eye all the time, that eye won’t see a lot of detail,” he said. “And if it happens from a young age, that eye can become amblyotic.”

While birth to seven-years-old is typically the age when visual development is most vulnerable, new research indicates that vision can still be affected at later stages, including into the teenage years.

And the longer you wear the hairstyle obstructing your vision, the weaker you are making that eye, and the higher the potential risk.

In addition to the concerns of damage to their eyesight, others are expressing concern that the hairstyles can cause postural problems as well, due to the constant tilting of the head to accommodate for the small window of sight.

Despite the health warnings though, it’s hard to imagine the potential dangers associated with the cuts to make any difference whatsoever. A generation that’s concerned with expressing their personality and emotion through such dramatic personal style is unlikely to be deterred by the seemingly unimportant matter of future complications.

Most tweens and teenagers don’t think that far ahead, and if they do, they just assume it won’t happen to them. Remember, this is the age when youth feel nothing applies to them and they’re invincible. Hopefully they won’t have to pay for that short-term thinking with their vision and posture.

If I had to guess though, I’d probably say that in about 10 years we’ll see a lot of lazy-eyed former emos walking around.

(Via The Mercury)

Trendy Haircuts May Cause Lazy Eye In Youngsters. More at Buzz Patrol

This reminds me of that Simpsons Episode where Homer Simpson went to an all you can eat Seafood restaurant. They ended up putting him in a window and letting customers pay to see him eat.

The Simpsons really did predict everything, didn’t it?

Man Wants More Food After Downing 6 Pieces Of Fish, Protests Restaurant’s All-You-Can-Eat Policy. More at Buzz Patrol

Ever want to jazz up that boring white T-shirt of yours?

Pop over to Hurley and they’ll show you how to turn your plain tee into this awesome ripped skull t-shirt.

(Via Hurley)

HowTo Make Your Own Ripped Skull T-Shirt. More at Buzz Patrol

This print ad for a Taiwanese Cosmetic Surgery Centre is doing the round on a Chinese social networking site called Weibo.

The poster was posted by Jeffma on May 4th and it currently has over 51,138 forwards and 4,073 comments.

The top text reads: ”The only thing you need to be afraid of is how to explain it to your children.”

What do you think of the poster?

Taiwanese Double Eyelid Surgery Print Ad Is Just Wrong. More at Buzz Patrol

This has to be one of the craziest daredevils I’ve ever seen.

Watch Marcelo Gutierrez riding down the stairs of Monserrate Mountain in Bogata, Columbia with his mountain bike as part of the RedBull Devotos de Monserrate 2012 race.

I feel motion sick by just watching the video.

Crazy!

Crazy Downhill Mountain Biking In Monserrate. More at Buzz Patrol

'Los tocayos Carlos' – Hernandez and DeLuna looked so alike that they were sometimes mistaken for twins.

An extensive study undertaken by the Columbia Law School has published some startling revelations about the execution of one particular Texas resident, a man named Carlos Deluna who was executed in 1989 for a murder that it is highly unlikely he committed.

The study is being published by the Columbia Human Rights Law Review in its spring edition. The journal has cleared all other articles to make way for this revelatory study and has even doubled in size to include all of the content.

Entitled ‘Los Tocayos Carlos: An Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution’, the study was carried out by Professor James Liebman and 12 of his students and was researched for six years, during which Liebman and his pupils conducted numerous interviews with police and residents of the area, examined evidence from the case and unearthed some startling facts that seem to prove that the state of Texas did in fact execute the wrong man.

Carlos Deluna was just 20 years old when he was arrested on 4th February 1983 from the vicious murder of a young woman called Wanda Lopez at a gas station named The Shamrock in the South Texan town of Corpus Christi. Lopez had been stabbed through her left breast with an 8 inch lock-blade buck knife, severing an artery which caused her to bleed to death.

Carlos DeLuna

Deluna claimed mistaken identity from the day of his arrest until the day of his execution in 1989. He was adamant that the murder had in fact been committed by another man that he knew, a tocayos (which means namesake in Spanish) Carlos Hernandez. Deluna claimed that Hernandez had a violent criminal past and that he had been with him prior to the attack. As well as sharing the same first name, Hernandez and Deluna also looked uncannily alike – they were the same height, same weight and similar builds. In fact, the two men looked so similar to one another that people often believed them to be twins and even Deluna’s sister and Hernandez’s lawyer had trouble differentiating between the two men.

At the trial Deluna explained to the jury that he had gone for a drink with Hernandez – who he claimed to know for approximately 5 years prior to the fateful day that Lopez was murdered. Deluna said that Hernandez went over to the Shamrock to purchase something but he took longer than expected so Deluna went over to see what the delay was.

Then Deluna claimed to have seen Hernandez inside the station grappling with a woman, Deluna who had already had a criminal record for sexual assault (but had not been known to possess or use a weapon) panicked and fled the scene. He claimed to have been terrified of getting in trouble again; however he was arrested hiding under a truck just 40 minutes after Lopez was murdered.
Prosecutors at the trial however ridiculed Deluna’s defense, they claimed that police had in fact looked for Carlos Hernandez after Deluna told them he was at the scene of crime but that they could not locate him and did not believe that he existed. They described him as a figment of Deluna’s imagination, a ‘phantom’ that just did not exist.

Professor Liebman took up Deluna’s case four years after he was executed by lethal injection, as part of a project intended to prove the flaws in the death penalty. Liebman had a private investigator start the hunt for this alleged figment of Deluna’s imagination and in just one day the investigator found undeniable evidence of his existence. The investigator managed to trace a woman who was related to both men, she gave them Hernandez’s birthday which enabled them to uncover the shocking history of his violent criminal past. He had been arrested a shocking 39 times, 13 of those were for carrying a knife, however, Hernandez never went to prison. Liebman believes that the only possible justification for this is if he actually acted as a police informant, he said it would be difficult to comprehend it otherwise.

This is where the case against Deluna starts to fall apart completely…Hernandez had a long history of violent behavior towards women and had even been arrested twice over the murder of another woman. One of these arrests was made a few years before the trial and the other whilst Deluna was on death row, yet the connection between the two men was never made. He repeated bragged about being a murderer and told numerous people that he had killed Lopez – joking that his tocayo had instead been punished for his crime.

In October 1989 – just a few months before Deluna was executed – Hernandez did end up going to prison, this time it was for the attempting to murder a woman named Dina Ybanez – his weapon of choice of course was a knife…

The details I have highlighted in this article are just a few of the discoveries made by Liebman and his students in the case that almost unquestionably prove that Carlos Deluna was executed for a crime he did not commit. One of the hardest things I find to believe about it all is that the police claimed to have no knowledge of the other Carlos. It is almost impossible to imagine that they could not find any record of this notorious criminal living in the same small town. Surely a more thorough investigation could have been carried out, if they’d looked hard enough, they should have been able to find him and then, maybe the death of an innocent man could have been prevented.

Liebman hopes that the evidence he has presented in the study will make many other states think about repealing the death penalty. All of the evidence Liebman collected has been placed on the internet and is open to access from the public.

In the Guardian article about Liebman’s revelatory study, he said: “We’ve provided as complete a set of information as we can about a pretty average case, to let the public make its own judgment. I believe they will make the judgment that in this kind of case there’s just too much risk.”

The wrong Carlos: how Texas sent an innocent man to his death (Via Guardian)

The Intriguing Case Of Carlos Deluna – The Man Executed Instead Of His Lookalike. More at Buzz Patrol

Having the maiden name of Kennedy myself, I’ve grown up my entire life acutely aware of both the fame, wealth and power, as well as the scandal and tragedy that’s associated with the famous family and its name.

President John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Less than a year later in June of 1964 his younger brother Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy was in a plane crash that broke his back, punctured a lung, and caused internal bleeding, as well as killing the pilot and an aide on the flight. Senator Robert F Kennedy was assassinated on June 6, 1968 after winning the Californian presidential primary.

The list goes on and on…

Today yet another piece of news in the ongoing legacy that many refer to as “The Curse of Camelot” has been added to the list.

Mary Kennedy (originally Mary Richardson), the former wife of Robert Kennedy Jr., was found dead today in her home in Westchester County, New York at the age 52. The cause of death has not been determined yet, but it is already being reported as an apparent suicide.

Mary Kennedy was the second wife of Robert Kennedy Jr. (the third of Robert Kennedy’s eleven children) until they filed for divorce two years ago in May of 2010. He is now currently dating actress Cheryl Hines.

Mary and Robert were married for sixteen years, and had four children together: Conor, Kyra, William and Aiden. The couple originally wed in April of 1994 (a month after he divorced his first wife in the Dominican Republic) in a traditional Roman Catholic ceremony, and Mary gave birth to their first child three months later.

The following statement was released by Mrs Kennedy’s family after the news of her death:

We deeply regret the death of our beloved sister Mary, whose radiant and creative spirit will be sorely missed by those who loved her.

Our heart goes out to her children who she loved without reservation.

No matter what your views on Robert Kennedy Jr., his estranged wife, or the rest of the Kennedy clan may be, 52 is much too young. May she Rest In Peace.

(Via The Daily Mail)

Robert Kennedy Jr’s Ex-Wife Found Dead In Apparent Suicide. More at Buzz Patrol

Leave it to the Japanese to create a robotic butt.

“Shiri” – Japanese for buttocks – is the name of a robotic artificial humanoid buttocks that responds to physical stimulation (such as slapping, caressing, and poking) to simulate emotional expression via the use of artificial muscles. That is, the robo-butt tenses, twitches, and protrudes in ways that are supposed to express the emotions that it “feels” in response to different forms of touch.

Watch the above video and be prepared to be flabbergasted.

We’re not sure what the practical uses are, other than the obvious. So yea, for those who want the feel of spanking a butt and want a realistic response, or maybe just want to feel the twitch and shiver as you run your fingers across the fleshy curves, then yea, Shiri’s perfect. (Perverts!)

But seriously, it is a major step forward in creating realistic robots that can mimic human emotions and responses.

Tokyo’s University of Electro-Comunications, responsible for this latest robotics advance, calls Shiri “a buttocks humanoid robot that expresses various emotions with organic movements of the artificial muscles.”

The video demonstration states the two main purposes of the project are: 1) the “innovative use of robotics technology and its purpose,” and 2) “to raise the argument as to what perceptions will be manifested in the minds of people who communicate with Shiri.”

So basically, as people interact with Shiri, and Shiri interacts back, they want to know what emotions you perceive Shiri to be feeling based on those muscle responses. As the butt twitches, tenses, or pushes itself outward, will people interacting with it perceive those movements as expressions of fear, surprise, delight, or something else? It’s definitely unexplored territory, but will go a long way in establishing whether individuals can read and accept simulated emotions from robotics, and takes us a step closer towards developing realistic, convincing humanoid robots.

Shiri is the work of researcher Nobuhiro Takahashi, who is also reportedly working on self-hugging rigs, and a kissing simulator of some type. So we can obviously see what angle he’s shooting for with his robotics research.

Hey, maybe even robots need a little love.

(Via CNET)

Japanese Robotic Butt “Shiri” Responds To Slaps, Caresses, And Pokes. More at Buzz Patrol

Whatever.com’s John Scalzi posted a brilliantly insightful piece yesterday where he used a computer game analogy in an attempt to describe why straight white males have it much easier in life than other many other people in society.

He felt compelled to write the piece in an attempt to explain certain things about the way life works for ‘straight white males’ without using the word ‘privilege’ – which he claims had them worrying more about the actual word and its various definitions, rather than focusing on its significance.

He said: “the challenge: how to get across the ideas bound up in the word “privilege,” in a way that your average straight white man will get, without freaking out about it?”
This is where the computer game analogy comes in…He asks his readers to imagine life (in the western world) as something akin to taking part in a massive role playing game similar to World of Warcraft. In this role play the majority of the ‘quests’ you undertake “involve the acquisition of money, cell phones and donuts, although not always at the same time.”

He calls this game ‘The Real World’, and explains that once it is installed on your computer you then have to go about customizing the settings to suit your playing style and choosing your difficulty setting. This is where he makes the point that ‘straight white male’ is the lowest possible difficulty setting you can select and elaborates that this is because: “the default behaviors for almost all the non-player characters in the game are easier on you than they would be otherwise. The default barriers for completions of quests are lower. Your leveling-up thresholds come more quickly. You automatically gain entry to some parts of the map that others have to work for. The game is easier to play, automatically, and when you need help, by default it’s easier to get.”

He continues to point out several other examples within the computer game analogy that further illustrate his point and then gets to the fundamental message. In the real world (i.e real life – not the fictional role playing game of the article) you don’t actually get to choose your difficulty setting. It is handed down to you from that omnipotent computer in the sky. Simply put, his conclusion is that if you happen to be a ‘straight white male’ then basically “you’ve caught a break” in life.

His article quickly had people rushing in to leave their comments, with many completely identifying with the message that Scalzi was trying to get across. At 800 comments he turned off the stream, because as he rightfully assumed, the comment stream on a subject matter such as this would have to be carefully regulated.

Scalzi’s post is insightful, thoughtful and is an incredibly interesting read. His analogy is a brilliant one and he certainly gets the point across that ‘straight white males’ definitely have it easier than the rest of us!

Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is (Via Whatever)

John Scalzi – Being A Straight White Male Is Like Playing A Game On The Easiest Setting!. More at Buzz Patrol

There’s a popular saying that says, “Everyone has the perfect plan for a bank robbery, and the perfect idea for a restaurant,” or something along those lines. In regards to the first, it’s not to say most people would ever seriously consider such a crime, but we’ve all watched enough movies and heard enough stories where we think we know what the best way to do it would be.

So it makes you wonder if Monday’s bank robbery of a Chase branch just blocks down the street from Barnard College as President Barack Obama delivered a commencement address was pure brilliance, or utter stupidity. Whatever your line of thinking, one things is for sure, they definitely had a lot of guts.

Why? Well, President Obama’s visit to Barnard meant most of the available police presence in the area would be occupied at the event, stationed around the campus. So it may seem like the perfect time to commit a robbery, striking when the police are busy and unavailable. But choosing a location so nearby to where that huge police presence was perhaps was a little ballsier than most.

You see, Barnard College is located on 117th and Broadway, and the Chase branch that was robbed was just down the road on 112th.

To get a better idea of the proximity, take a quick look at this Google map of the distance between the two locations.

So as the president was speaking just five blocks away, with the majority of the the police force of the Upper West Side of Manhattan right down the road, but very few left patrolling the streets, a man walks into the Chase location, passes a note to the teller, and exits minutes later with his ill-gotten loot, clear to make an easier getaway due to the lack of the available response from authorities.

Had they chosen to respond though, it wouldn’t have taken long for over half of the local force to pounce given how close they were. But, this man took a gamble that they wouldn’t leave the event (and the President) unprotected, and as it turns out, he was right.

And apparently this isn’t the first time such robberies, timed to coincide with the appearance of politicians sapping local resources, has occurred. On August 4, 2004 in Davenport, Iowa five bank robberies took place in a single hour while presidential candidates Senator John Kerry and President George W. Bush held competing rallies during their 2004 presidential election campaigns.

It’s unclear whether those robberies were committed by the same suspect, though given the time and proximity of the locations it’s theorized that at least three of them may have been connected, so it’s entirely possible.

So this leads me to the next leap in my line of thinking. Do presidential campaigns and election rallies lead to more crime? Are we less safe when politicians grace our cities with their appearances? Because you would think if they really want to do what’s best for the people, as they profess in their platforms, that they wouldn’t suck up the resources that are meant to protect us and keep us safe, allowing for other crimes to slip by so easily, just because they’re visiting.

Just saying.

(Via HyperVocal)

Is This The Most Brilliant, Or Most Stupid Bank Robbery Ever?. More at Buzz Patrol