posted 06-04-2011 12:13 PM                    

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By Jim Forsyth Jim Forsyth – Thu Jun 2, 7:13 pm ET

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – Don't get on the bus in Ft. Worth, Texas, if you're not properly dressed.

The Ft. Worth Transportation Authority, known as "The T," has implemented a new policy that prohibits any passenger from boarding a bus with "saggy" pants that expose the person's underwear or buttocks.

"Riders don't want to see a person dressed like that on a public bus," Joan Hunter, communications manager for The T, told Reuters on Thursday. "Our customers think it's disrespectful."

The saggy pants look has been around for more than a decade, tracing its roots to prison attire because inmates are not issued belts. It spread to the rap and hip-hop music community, and from there became a popular symbol of freedom and cultural awareness for many young people.

Hunter said the new saggy pants policy is simply an extension of the dress code that The T has had for years, which has long required shirts and shoes.

"A lot of different people ride the bus," she said. "And many of them told us it's not a good idea to have your pants below your buttocks."

So up went signs in city buses, reading "Pull 'em up or find another ride."

Hunter said a Ft. Worth City Council member is looking for a donor to pay for billboards that carry the same message.

She said the decision on whether a potential rider's pants are inappropriate is up to the discretion of the bus driver.

The first day the policy was in place about 50 people were removed for improper pants, Hunter said.

Some passengers have complained that The T is trying to dictate what they can and can't wear, Hunter said, but overall reaction has been positive. She pointed out that many Ft. Worth-area schools have a similar policy.

"Following this rule is actually easier than following any other clothing policy we have," she said.

"All you need to do is pull your pants up before you get onto the bus. You don't have to go home and get a shirt or get a pair of shoes. Then, after you get off the bus, you can dress however you want."

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posted 06-07-2011 04:21 PM                       

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Wronged homeowners repossess bank
U.S. couple shows up with moving truck, court order to seize bank assets
The Associated Press
Posted: Jun 7, 2011 11:03 AM ET
Last Updated: Jun 7, 2011 11:03 AM ET

Months after Bank of America wrongly foreclosed on a house Warren and Maureen Nyerges had already paid for, they were still fighting to get reimbursed for the court battle.

So on Friday, their attorney showed up at a branch office in Naples with a moving truck and sheriff's deputies who had a judge's permission to seize the furniture if necessary. An hour later, the bank had written a check for $5,772.88.

"The branch manager was visibly shaken," attorney Todd Allen said Monday, recalling the visit to the bank last week. "At that point I was willing to take the desk and the chair he was sitting in."

After the moving company and sheriff's deputies get their share, the Nyerges should receive the rest of the money this week, ending a bizarre saga that started when they paid Bank of America $165,000 cash for a 2,700-square-foot foreclosed home in Naples in 2009.

About four months later, a process server knocked on their door and handed Warren Nyerges a notice of foreclosure.

"This is a big mistake," he recalled saying. "You must have the wrong house. We bought a foreclosure and don't have a mortgage."

That started 18 months of frustrating phone calls, paperwork and court hearings. Whenever Nyerges called the bank, representatives told him to "come up to date" with his payments. When he called 25 different law firms, no attorney would take the case. When he went to court, the lawyers for the bank filed incorrect motions and were woefully unprepared for the hearings.

"It was mind boggling," said Nyerges, a 46-year-old retired police officer. "To try to unscrew the screw up, it's not as easy as it sounds."

Eventually the Nyerges found Allen. They fought the foreclosure and won, proving that they owned the home outright.

During his research, Nyerges heard that his name got transposed from purchase agreements onto the prior foreclosure.

"I don't know if that is a fact, because no one really had the facts," he said.

In September 2010, a judge ordered Bank of America to pay the couple's $2,534 attorney fees. But by last week, the bank hadn't paid up, so Allen got a judge's permission to seize assets.

In an email to the Associated Press on Monday, Bank of America spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens apologized to the couple about the "delay in receiving the funds."

"The original request went to an outside attorney who is no longer in business," she wrote.

The law office of David J. Stern, which handled the Nyerges' case for Bank of America, told judges across Florida in March that it will end its involvement in 100,000 foreclosure cases.

The Florida attorney general's economic crimes division is investigating three law firms, including Stern's, over allegations that they created fraudulent legal documents, gouged homeowners with inflated fees, steered business to companies they owned and filed foreclosures without proving the bank actually had legal interest in the loans.

According to employee testimony filed with Florida authorities, Stern's employees churned out bogus mortgage assignments, faked signatures, falsified notarizations and foreclosed on people without verifying their identities, the amounts they owed or who owned their loans.

The attorney general is also looking at whether Stern paid kickbacks to big banks.

This isn't the first time that Bank of America has tried to foreclose on a property that was owned by a person without a mortgage. In 2009, a Fort Lauderdale man named Jason Grodensky bought a home in cash from Bank of America in a short sale. But in court, the foreclosure case continued and a judge ordered the property to be sold. Bank of America acknowledged the error and rescinded the foreclosure.

Allen sees the Nyerges case as symbolic of the foreclosure crisis. Courts are backlogged, and banks and their attorneys aren't scrutinizing foreclosure paperwork.

And Nyerges said he's still upset with Bank of America.

"They couldn't even spell our name right in the apology," he said.

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posted 06-07-2011 08:25 PM                    

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nintendo has introduced the world to the Wii's touchy new big brother: the Wii U.

The Japanese gaming giant on Tuesday unveiled the Wii video game console's successor, which will broadcast high-definition video and feature a touchscreen controller that can detect motion and interact with what appears on a television display.

"Up until now, home console games had to occupy the TV screen in order to be played," said Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. "The new controller for Wii U, with its 6.2-inch screen built in, means you won't need to give up your gameplay when someone else comes in the room and wants to watch a TV program."

The white touchscreen controller, reminiscent of Apple Inc.'s iPad and other tablet computers, can broadcast standard-definition video but also features a directional pad, microphone, dual analog sticks, speakers, two pairs of shoulder buttons and a front-facing camera, which can be used to make video calls.

The console itself will use proprietary high-definition optical discs, 1080p HDMI output and internal memory that can be upgraded with USB and SD technology. No other technical specifications were provided.

The prototype controller was demonstrated during the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the gaming industry's annual convention, in several ways: displaying a player's inventory in a "Legend of Zelda" game, offering an alternative way to play a chasing game, being used as a shield from incoming attacks in a first-person shooter game and showing the image of a teed-up golf ball on the ground before it was struck to a putting green depicted on a TV.

The controller was also shown being used to browse the Internet both on a TV and the controller. Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America president, noted that the touchscreen controller is not meant to be a portable gaming device and that the system is dubbed the Wii U because its "unique, unifying and maybe even utopian."

Nintendo said the Wii U will be released between April and December next year and will be backward-compatible with Wii games and controllers.

"Smash Brothers," ''Darksiders II," ''Batman: Arkham City," ''Tekken," ''Assassin's Creed" and "Metro: Last Light" were among the titles announced that would be released for the system.

The price for Wii U was not revealed.

The unveiling of the Wii U comes after two years of slumping sales for Nintendo's Wii, which remains the overall top-selling home video game console against Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 and Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3. Those consoles already feature high-definition graphics and added motion-sensing capabilities similar to the Wii last year with their respective Kinect and Move camera systems.

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posted 06-08-2011 09:08 PM                       

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KFOR-TV

6:38 p.m. CDT, June 8, 2011

STILLWATER, Okla. -- A divorced couple in Stillwater is behind bars accused of a strange crime. The pair allegedly tried to fake the man's death to escape arrest warrants and so he could start a new life as a woman.

The couple is now charged with false reporting of a crime.

Investigators say the pair lost custody of their children after their underage daughter caught the ex-husband having sex with a blow up doll.

Late last month, the ex-wife Heather Davis told police she dropped off William Davis at his favorite fishing spot in Lake Carl Blackwell.

Just hours later, Heather claimed William went missing.

When the alleged lakeside disappearance story quickly unraveled, police say Heather came clean.

According to court records, she admitted, "William told her he would give up his parental rights to their children and get a sex change if she assisted him in the faked death."

"He had some outstanding warrants and there was visitation issues. So the plan was to report him missing so he could get a sex change operation. Then he could return to the family with a different identity," Stillwater police Captain Randy Dickerson said.

The couple's neighbors had plenty to say about the ill-conceived custody plot.

"Why give up your kids and mess that up to help him out? I'd have told him to jump in a lake somewhere," RC Cox said.

"That's crazy and to do this for a sex change? That's a bit ridiculous," Rhonda Williams said.

Once in jail, Heather allegedly claimed, "She went along with the plan because she wanted William out of her life."

A day after Heather's arrest, William turned himself in to police.

At first he claimed he had been robbed at the lake and that's why he disappeared.

Later he admitted that wasn't true.

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posted 06-26-2011 12:24 PM                    

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By Zach Honig posted Jun 24th 2011 7:05AM

Would you feel comfortable driving down the highway with a Temporary Auto Pilot (TAP) behind the wheel of your next Volkswagen? A new technology proposed by the German automaker won't take you from A to B automatically, but it will help out with more simple driving, so you can take your hands off the wheel while cruising down the highway at up to 130km/h (about 80 mph), for example. The system pairs Lane Assist with cruise control, and can be overridden by the driver at any time. The TAP system's Pilot Mode uses radar, laser, camera, and ultrasonic sensors to maintain a safe distance between vehicles, start and stop in traffic, and slow down before a bend. Speed is set by the driver, who you'll need to remain aware of your surroundings in case you need to take over control -- so don't get too comfortable poking around the menus on that AppRadio just yet.

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Lytro: The camera that could change photography forever



[quote]Have you ever taken a picture that would have been great if only it were in focus? Of course you have. So have we, countless times. But those days may soon be past all of us with the introduction of Lytro, an entirely new kind of camera that allows users to completely change the focus of a picture after the shutter clicks. And, according to AllThingsD, this next-generation camera will be available before the end of the year.

The secret behind the Lytro camera is a new type of sensor that gathers much more information about the light coming into the camera than the sensors found on all other types of digital cameras. Rather than record a finite amount of information about the light in a photograph, as is the case with other camera sensors, the Lytro sensor records the entire “light field,” which is made up of “all the light rays in a scene,” according to the Lytro website. This includes the color, intensity and direction of the rays of light. Other cameras simply record all the light as a single amount of light.

With this vast amount of data, the focus of a photo can be fully adjusted to match a photographer’s desires, using a computer, in the same way one might use Photoshop to adjusts hue, brightness or contrast on a regular photograph. This means never having to worry about whether auto-focus centered on the right part of a picture, and it makes capturing fast-motion much easier.

The Lytro sensor’s sensitivity to light also makes it possible to take photos in very low-light conditions without the need of a flash. It also makes it possible to take 3D-like photographs with only a single lens, and without the need for glasses to see the immersive effects.

Of course getting into the camera-making business isn’t a cheap endeavor. Not surprisingly (considering the truly astounding capabilities of the Lytro technology), the company has so far managed to raise $50 million from a variety of investors.

“Lytro’s breakthrough technology will make conventional digital cameras obsolete,” says Lytro investor and well-known venture capitalist Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz, which has invested in Lytro. “It has to be seen to be believed.”

According to Lytro founder and chief executive, the first Lytro camera “will be a competitively priced consumer product that fits in your pocket,” and will be available for purchase by the end of this year. To reserve a camera now, simply visit Lytro.com and enter your email address.

To try out Lytro’s focus-shifting capabilities, just click here.
[quote]

posted 07-02-2011 11:16 AM                    

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We recently chronicled ways that robots are already becoming human and subtly hinted that this would someday lead to the destruction of humanity.
"But Cracked!" some of you said, "The development of intelligent, humanoid robots doesn't mean that they're actually dangerous or Terminator-like in any way! ERROR! ERROR! MUST REBOOT." (Note: We are implying that you are secretly a robot.)
Well, let us now detail five real technologies that, according to our calculations, are 100 percent certain to drag us into a nightmare future infested with killer machines shaped like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
#5. Drones That Can Think

Getty
You've probably heard about Unmanned Aerial Vehicles like Predator drones, the pilotless aircraft the CIA loves sending to places like [REDACTED], [REDACTED] and of course [REDACTED]. The evolution of the UAV's role is similar to that of all robots -- they were originally created for noncombat reconnaissance missions, but over time we just couldn't resist strapping missiles onto them and teaching them how to kill. President Obama alone has ordered at least 192 targeted drone attacks during his term.

Getty

"Hope and change are all well and good, but sometimes you just need to blast a motherfucker."
But really, UAVs are just big remote-controlled planes, with dudes operating them from the ground. What's creepy about that? It's the same as a regular plane, only the pilot doesn't happen to be on board, right? Did we mention that they're now teaching those bastards how to think for themselves?

Via Wikimedia Commons

"LOL, someone drew a dong in the sand."
Right now, the military is developing new AI patterns that allow drones to "recognize the intent of other aircraft" -- that is, accurately predict what they will do next and decide if they should change their flight course based on that info. These drones will be able to connect to air traffic stations and look up information in databases, then cross-reference that data with the images captured by their cameras to get a "read" on the other aircraft.

Alan Radecki

"Hey, you wouldn't want us to trust a dumb machine with big, scary missiles."
The military says this technology isn't meant to be used in battle ... but again, neither were the drones, at one point. If they can teach a UAV how to recognize hostile aircraft, the next logical step would be teaching it how to fight them.

"I learned this from you, dad!"
Now, these future independently thinking flying killbots will surely have oversight from the ground, in the form of a human who can take over control if it starts firing wildly at friendlies. This seems like the right time to mention that we've lost control of military drones more often than you think (sometimes over American soil). When that happens, we have to dispatch a manned aircraft to blow it out of the sky before disaster can strike. Fortunately, that's easy because the drones aren't smart enough to sense the intent of the pursuing aircraft and take evasive action. Which of course is the very ability they're trying to add.

Getty

Cold robotic efficiency is just one more step in the Navy's war on "Top Gunnery."
But even if a drone outright rebelled against its human masters, we just have to wait for it to run out of gas, right? Fortunately, the Air Force is developing new UAVs that will be powered by their own nuclear reactors, so they can stay aloft for months at a time.
Are we being alarmist? Possibly. Are we extrapolating a Terminator-like future based on the shakiest of evidence? Maybe. But we aren't the only ones who worry about this sort of stuff: The British Ministry of Defense recently released a study warning that continued use of military drones could lead to a "Terminator-like reality."

Via Wikimedia Commons

Seriously, military guys. Making super-smart robots and giving them access
to nukes is pretty much exactly the plot of the Terminator movies.
Thankfully, these things are still relatively easy to take down, because it's not like someone has invented such a thing as an "indestructible robot" yet.
#4. Indestructible Robots

Via Wikimedia Commons
One of the main differences between the machines in Terminator and, say, the one you drive to work every morning is how tough those robots are to kill. Guns, bombs, liquid nitrogen -- nothing made a dent. Actual electronics aren't quite that durable; consider the iPhone, which stops working when held at the wrong angle.

Via Wikimedia Commons

But is it malfunctioning ... or refusing to bow down to the human oppressors?
As for robots, we've all pointed and laughed at that video of the robot attempting to climb up stairs, only to wind up dead and broken at the bottom. There are toy robots that can take more abuse than the real ones.
But that's changing. Military and firefighting robots are currently being designed to take impressive amounts of punishment: Take the PackBot, a small tread-wheeled machine that can withstand a 6-foot drop onto concrete and be launched from great distances; or the CHARLI (Cognitive Humanoid Autonomous Robot with Learning Intelligence), which, aside from being super smart, is also being upgraded to be fireproof and waterproof.

Forbes Images

Scientist are predicting this will make him even more of a smug bastard.
Now combine this with what we said before about the intelligent drones. This is the direction we're headed, folks: In the future, indestructible robots will be sent into battle whenever possible in order to avoid risking human lives, which is good news for humans ... as long as those robots don't get smart enough to realize what a terrible deal this is for them.

MilborneOne

"Wait a tic. I have missiles. Why am I listening to these nerds?"
But it turns out that robots meant for scientific exploration are even tougher than military ones: The underwater machines that utterly failed to stop the Gulf oil spill last year were capable of withstanding up to 5,000 pounds of water pressure. NASA's Solar Probe Plus (scheduled for launch by 2018) will tour the sun's outer atmosphere and handle temperatures of up to 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit. For a machine like that, the vat of molten lava at the end of Terminator 2 would be the equivalent of a relaxing bubble bath.

"Ahhhhh."
Another trademark of the Terminators is that they kept going at you even after you chopped them in half -- guess what, that technology exists, too. We have previously mentioned this robotic starfish made by Cornell University, which we thought was remarkable based on its ability to change its movement depending on the condition of its own body. What we need to emphasize is that this ability works even if the condition of its own body is "minus two legs." Seriously, they demonstrate how you can rip limbs off the thing and it will simply reconfigure its gait to accommodate the damage. The newer prototype will almost certainly drag its mangled body across the floor after you think you've incapacitated it, and possibly sneak up on you just as you're telling your sexy co-star how glad you are that the nightmare is over.

Copyright Cornell University

"Our next project is a robotic facehugger."
#3. Robots That Can Learn

Wired.com
If "roboevolution" isn't on your list of the most ominous fake words ever (right after "zombocalypse" and "squeakquel"), it should be, and here's why.
The cutting edge of artificial intelligence isn't just getting creepy, it's also personally threatening to those of us who haven't picked up any new skills since we learned to tie our shoes. Scientists have moved on from robots that follow their programming and are now making robots that learn stuff by themselves. For example, a University of Vermont researcher created a program that allows robots to try different ways to travel until they find the most efficient one. He then built a small model out of Lego pieces and within minutes, his robot learned to crawl, then stagger and then walk upright.

University of Vermont

Humanity will come to regret the day we taught Legos how to walk.
Even freakier is the work of the Fraunhofer Institute, which designed a little robot-making factory that automatically designs robots to fulfill certain tasks and constructs them with a 3-D printer. As of now the robots are pretty simple, but what's troubling to us is that the program sometimes introduces random "mutations" -- arbitrary features not directly related to the task at hand and not foreseen by the designer.

Fraunhofer IPA

Robots that can make more robots. There's no way this could end in screaming and fire.
So these forms of artificial intelligence are already surprising us in small yet significant ways. That's how every insurrection begins, from the machines in The Matrix to the monkeys in the new Planet of the Apes movie. It's only a matter of time before a million of those little shapeshifting robots evolve into Robert Patrick -- that's science.

Getty

Science: Makers of deadly robots, the Gatling gun and (coming soon!) weaponized crotch explodepox.
Keep in mind, though, that progress has been more drastic in some areas than in others. A University of California San Diego robot was programmed to learn how to smile by studying and mimicking human expressions ...

... but as you can see, it still has a long way to go. As of now, it looks about as expressive as Arnold Schwarzene -- OH SHIT.
But still, even if we make smart, adaptable, indestructible robots, it's not like they have the ability to coordinate with each other. For that, you'd need robots to be able to talk to other robots ...

When we say Skynet is coming, we're not talking about the U.K.'s Skynet satellite network: that one's been around since the '60s, and despite its name, it does actually need humans to operate it.
The new SysBrain orbital robots, however, do not.

University of Southampton

"... and then we thought, fuck it, why not embrace the inevitable machine revolution?"
These robots (currently in development) are sophisticated enough to understand simplified English and perform basic reasoning, plus they can send information across the globe with ease. They don't rely on direct orders: instead, they download text documents from the web and "read them to enhance their physical and problem solving skills."

Did anyone else just hear thunder?
Then there's the big one: RoboEarth, an "Internet for robots" that lets them download instructions, share information and even learn from each other. The database can include anything from objects, maps or tasks, which they would instantly learn upon "reading" the downloaded file. In the following video a robot can be seen downloading instructions to care for a bed-ridden patient ...

... but it could just as easily learn how to strangle him to death. Or, if it somehow taught itself how to do that, it could then post the information to RoboEarth, thus letting others find out exactly how many seconds you need to press that pillow against the guy's face to do the job.

"Hey, you know that giant evil robot superconsciousness from Terminator? Let's make one."
So there you have it, robots can now communicate with each other across the planet and share common orders. The chances of every single robot on Earth being connected to the same network seem pretty slim right now -- but ask anyone who was alive 25 years ago if they ever thought there would come a day when practically every computer on the planet would form a massive web of interconnected servers.

Getty

"And one day, this 'Ultranet' will be used to help millions of people masturbate and pretend to kill things!"
But these are still just robots, right? Whether it looks like a gleaming chrome skeleton or a tumbling pile of homicidal Legos, it'll always be easy enough to identify and fight a machine. The whole point of the Terminator films was that the robots looked human, complete with organic tissue. And that brings us to ...
#1. Robot-Made Human Skin

PopSci
The Terminator's artificial skin wasn't just a cosmetic accessory, it was also a huge tactical advantage: the fact that the T-800 didn't always look like a giant C-3PO on steroids allowed it to move freely among humans and eventually sneak up on its prey.

"Oh, it's just another Austrian bodybuilder with a large gun."
When the first Terminator movie came out, the idea of producing humanlike skin and covering a robot with it sounded like pure science fiction, but that's no longer the case. Recent advancements in medical skin grafts have turned fleshy machines into a real possibility: these days, new skin cells are raised over a 3-D structure instead of in a flat petri dish. In other words, we've already figured out how to make skin grow over artificial materials such as metal. You see where this is going?

Getty

Fashionable toasters covered in human skin. Boom.
Fake skin is still pretty expensive and tough to produce, but technology is making this less and less of an issue. For example, a robot-controlled factory in Germany is already mass-producing penny-size discs of human skin for clinical testing -- that's right, there's a whole building full of unsupervised robots fabricating human skin right now.
To be clear, the guys who run that factory have no plans to use all that artificial skin on robots (that we know of). For now, all they have is a monopoly on specialty pizza toppings for Germany's growing cannibal millionaire market. But what if one of those factory robots accidentally falls on the assembly line and comes off looking like a young Haley Joel Osment?

It's only a matter of time before this happens and you know it.
Not that they are satisfied with just growing organic human skin, which of course would have the same weaknesses as ours. Researchers are working on artificial skin made of nanowires that can mimic all of the sensitivity of human skin, but without the issue of bleeding when it gets shot.
The idea is to someday make artificial limbs that can pass for the real thing. But then if you make a person entirely out of artificial limbs, what do you have? A goddamned Terminator, that's what.

Getty

She's three bionic limbs and one positronic brain away from enslaving mankind.
Check and mate.
Fletcher is a freelance writer. His book Triggered is due next March, and you can read more of his brain-thinkings at http://fletchathustra.wordpress.com/.

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posted 08-23-2011 01:54 AM                    

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A 12-year-old girl in Gothenburg was struck by lightning twice while taking a shower during a thunderstorm on Wednesday evening.

After dinner 12-year-old Alice went downstairs in the basement to take a shower when her parents heard her scream.

Seconds prior to the child’s outburst two loud claps of thunder had suddenly cracked outside and the rain began to pour.

Alice had been struck by lightning in the arm but her parents did not immediately understand what had happened.

The child’s mother, Cecilia Svensson, immediately went downstairs and began to help wash her daughter’s hair when Alice screamed for the second timed.

“She screamed again. She was holding the metal shower hose while rinsing off,” Svensson, who at this point still did not understand what was happening, told local newspaper Göteborgstidningen (GT).

A phone call to an expert on the radio provided clarity.

Although nothing else was damaged in the house, the flash lightening must have struck and travelled, live, through the pipes.

“It could have gone badly,” said Svensson, who also said she learned as a child not to shower during electrical storms but that this localized storm erupted quickly.

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posted 08-23-2011 02:38 AM                    

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Despite many crackdowns over the years, camcorder piracy is still alive and bringing the latest blockbusters to the masses. What is perhaps less well-known is that this is not a new phenomenon. There are documented instances of camming dating back to just after World War I. Cammers in 1920 were as cunning as their modern-day counterparts and had to contend with surprisingly sophisticated anti-piracy measures.

Born in London in 1892, John William Cotter began his career in film during 1909. At the age of 17 he became the projectionist at the Palace theater in Woolwich, a job that was interrupted in 1914 by the outbreak of World War I.

During the hostilities, Cotter – who would become more commonly known as Jack – served in the balloon section of the Royal Flying Corps, but he later returned to film. Between 1919 and 1920 he worked briefly for Topical Budget, a silent British newsreel that ran from 1911 to 1931. It would be this company’s rights Cotter would breach in his role as one of the world’s first ‘camming’ pirates.

Sometime between 1920 and 1922, Cotter joined film and newsreel company British Pathé but it would be in the following year that he hit the big-time as a notorious pirate. With London’s Wembley Stadium completed, it would play host to the 1923 F.A. Cup Final, the most prestigious event in English soccer. The opposing teams would be Bolton Wanderers and London’s own West Ham United.

But for British Pathé, who hoped to film the match, there was a serious problem. Rival Topical Budget – Cotter’s former employer – had paid £1,000 to secure exclusive rights to the event. Cotter was undeterred. Fans of West Ham United call their team ‘The Hammers’ and this mental image gave Cotter a cunning plan.

Just as the maVen’s of today may hide their cameras in anything from a drinks cup to a modified wheelchair, as can be seen from the images below Cotter hid his camera in a giant hammer he’d fashioned from wood. He successfully recorded much of the event in true camming style, with plenty of heads and other obstacles in the way.

Cottercam

In his piracy efforts, Cotter wasn’t on his own. Intent on getting some aerial shots of the match Pathé hired a plane. Unfortunately that eventuality had been anticipated by Topical Budget who had painted their company name in giant letters across the top of the roof of Wembley Stadium, perhaps providing the first ever anti-piracy ‘watermark’ in the process.

However, according to a 1933 book by news photographer Bernard Grant, in an attempt to thwart the Pathé pirates even more sophisticated anti-piracy measures were put in place during the previous year’s F.A. Cup Final.

“I saw the battle from the top floor of a high building overlooking the ground, from where I had hoped to obtain some photographs with a long-focus camera, but as I was sharing the position with the well-known film man, Frank Bassill, on this occasion a ‘pirate’ [for Pathé], I was handicapped by the efforts of the defenders [Topical Budget],” Grant wrote.

Amazingly, in addition to sending up an air balloon to block the view, around the ground Topical Budget had deployed multiple heliographs, mirrored devices usually used to reflect sunlight in order to send morse code over great distances. In this case they provided blinding light to ruin filming. But it still wouldn’t be enough to deter the swathy pirates of Pathé.

Heliograph

“At the sound of the referee’s whistle starting the match there came a terrific noise of hammering and crashing at a point away to our left, and we saw the corrugated-iron roof of a building alongside the ground fly off in all directions,” wrote Grant.

“A moment later there appeared, rising through the aperture, two heads which I recognised through my glasses as those of Tommy Scales and Leslie Wyand, pioneers in the production of movie news reels. Steadily they rose higher and higher, turning their handles as they came, as the telescopic tower ladder upon which they stood was wound up by friends in the room below,” Grant continued.

“This happening brought into action the defenders’ [rightsholder Topical Budget's] large mobile ‘stand by’ force, members of which, armed with double-poled banners and flags, dashed off to meet the attack.”

While the pirates were ultimately successful, money was rarely made directly from obtaining footage in this way. The prestige of having the events in future news reels was the important thing to Topical Budget and Pathé.

However, despite the ‘immoral’ act of violating someone’s exclusive rights, there is a very interesting cultural footnote to these acts of piracy.

According to Bioscopic, a site dedicated to early and silent cinema, Topical Budget’s footage of the 1922 Cup Final was completely lost. Without Pathé’s pirate footage, the entire event would have been lost forever.

Furthermore, in order to cut the cost of buying exclusive rights to the 1924 F.A. Cup Final, Topical Budget and Pathé decided to put in a joint bid to film the match together.

“It was turned down,” Bioscopic explain. “Consequently no film exists of the F.A. Cup Final of 1924.”

Come back pirates, all is forgiven.

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posted 08-23-2011 08:23 AM                    

quote: John Wilson

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"If you are going to carry a handgun on your person, use a holster, not your waistband."

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posted 08-28-2011 06:26 PM                    

quote: Randy Stankey

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quote: John Wilson
"If you are going to carry a handgun on your person, use a holster, not your waistband."

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