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Weird Wide Web: Trainspotting, a talking teddy and remembering Hiroshima

All of your essential tech and social media news for the week in one byte-sized portion.

WELCOME TO THE Weird Wide Web – where we take a look at the week’s best offerings in tech and social media news.

Real-time tube map of the week

Some day we’ll have a fully-integrated transport system in Ireland… but until then we can only marvel at the beauty and efficiency of transportation in other countries. Back in June, London’s transit corporation released all information on bus and train departures to the wider public and developer Bruno Imbrizi put together an impressive visualisation of the Tube system. Go on and have a look at it. [via Gizmodo]

image

Educational app of the week

Do you want to know how to brew your own beer, bake up some tasty French madeleines at the blink of a hat, learn how to build a computer or master some slick moves on a snowboard? Well Curious.com has launched an app this week featuring videos on how to do all of these things (not at the same time). It’s only currently available for the iPad but they also have a website that the rest of you can use if you’re so inclined.

Talking teddy bear of the week

It’s going to happen. The world’s first natural talking teddy bear got the go ahead from the Kickstarter community this week with over £68,000 in funding. The creators hope to be shipping the first of these cuddly gadgets by December so if you’re really good, Santy might bring you one…

(Video: Technolog TV/YouTube)

Online exhibitions of the week

To mark the 68th anniversaries of the the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Google launched a number of online exhibits which include photos, artifacts and diaries telling the story of the two tragedies. They’re haunting but definitely worth a look.

image

(Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum/Google Cultural Institute)

View all previous Weird Wide Webs>

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7 Comments
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    Mute Ciaran Dillon
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    Mar 1st 2013, 7:03 PM

    What??? You mean 131 didn’t work… Noooooooo!!!

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    Mute Vincent F
    Favourite Vincent F
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    Mar 1st 2013, 9:41 PM

    Everyone is waiting for 132s

    47
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    Mute Paul Furey
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    Mar 1st 2013, 9:59 PM

    So less buy the 131′s and more buy the 132′s meaning that, overall, the same amount of cars are bought this year.

    Feckin brainless spanners, the gombeens that came up with this. Didnt we all say this would happen.

    *sigh*

    43
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    Mute The Brass Rat
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    Mar 1st 2013, 7:07 PM

    here is an idea. Scrap VRT car sales go up.

    174
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    Mute Alan McCartney
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    Mar 1st 2013, 7:14 PM

    Exactly

    56
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    Mute Diarmaid Mac Aonghusa
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    Mar 1st 2013, 7:18 PM

    Which would reduce our tax base and increase the money we spend on imported goods. If you want to support an industry there are better ones to choose.

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    Mute Mark Hosford
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    Mar 1st 2013, 8:08 PM

    Great for people working in car factories …. Which we don’t have … I’d rather see an incentive to maintain old cars ( using labour in Ireland), than send money out buying new cars …

    59
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    Mute R Neuville
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    Mar 2nd 2013, 1:20 PM

    Daft to encourage purchase of new cars and send €6,000,000,000 out of the Irish economy every year.

    Dafter to use borrowed money to do it and give the banks 9% interest in the process.

    NCT was supposed to prolong the national fleet and prevent wasting money in unnecessary early replacement. Car life longevity is what “smart economies” do: USA 10 yrs avg: Sweden 10.7 yrs avg: Germany 8 yrs avg.

    Do the Irish not get it?

    €6 bn would create a lot of jobs if spent in the Irish economy instead of “exported”!

    —————————————————————
    http://www.CarTaxPetition.net

    9
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    Mute Potato Man
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    Mar 1st 2013, 7:10 PM

    So, fewer people can afford new cars? Well holy jaysus. That’s a surprise!

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    Mute Ucanthandlethetruth
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    Mar 2nd 2013, 7:41 PM

    Just a few things on car sales, As with the UK you should be able to buy a reg for your car making a 99D into a 01C and so on, Motor tax should be scraped and put on fuel with rebates to business users and taxi, haulage etc.. NCT on cars over ten years old should be from the day of the test and not this stupid system of the date of first registration making Jan- April the busiest in the test centres.

    5
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    Mute Brian O' Connor
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    Mar 1st 2013, 7:33 PM

    Is the VRT not illegal in accordance with EU regulations? So we cannot blame the EU for that one.

    68
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    Mute Declan Moran
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    Mar 1st 2013, 8:06 PM

    Seemingly the mobility allowance was illegal too, they were able to scrap that..

    56
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    Mute Ciaran Dillon
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    Mar 1st 2013, 7:10 PM

    It should be noted that we don’t make cars here. Our attempts to prop up and assist the motor trade in this country is madness. We should be actively discouraging the purchase of new cars as cars are one of Germany’s biggest exports. It is one of the best ways for us PIIGS to strike back at the Germans and encourage them to give us the debt forgiveness we so desperately want.

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    Mute Alan McCartney
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    Mar 1st 2013, 7:14 PM

    Do u still have that passat Ciaran….

    30
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    Mute marcoop
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    Mar 1st 2013, 7:22 PM

    Oh my god!…and that’s coming from an agnostic. I always refrain from this question but here it goes….Are you fckin stupid?! Kill Irish jobs put of spite is your suggestion?

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    Mute Ciaran Dillon
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    Mar 1st 2013, 7:23 PM

    I do. Second hand mind so the Germans got that money off some other gorp. I did put ‘new cars’ in the comment mind. Wouldn’t have to be long term, just long enough to have the desired effect.

    18
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    Mute Ciaran Dillon
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    Mar 1st 2013, 7:28 PM

    Who is an agnostic and what’s that got to do with the price of bread?

    Yes unfortunate side effect but I think most would agree that we are sending enough money towards the German economy…

    24
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    Mute Shay Venbollx
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    Mar 1st 2013, 6:59 PM

    Once you go black you never go back

    52
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    Mute Jamie McCormack
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    Mar 1st 2013, 6:40 PM

    black the most popular colour, reflects the mood of a nation..

    44
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    Mute Eamon
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    Mar 1st 2013, 6:53 PM

    Goes well with everything?

    34
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    Mute everlast mccarthy
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    Mar 1st 2013, 9:17 PM

    And it’s slimming ;)

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    Mute Jamie McCormack
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    Mar 1st 2013, 11:40 PM

    also don’t have to wash it as often..

    3
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    Mute Jamie McCormack
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    Mar 1st 2013, 11:48 PM

    why no green cars in the emerald isle? is it because they are unlucky?

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    Mute Michal Rozanski
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    Mar 1st 2013, 6:37 PM

    Most popular colour suits well to the situation on the market…

    43
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    Mute Regonald Timpson
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    Mar 1st 2013, 6:59 PM

    The property tax and water charges may possibly add to that also. We should be cutting our spending instead of new taxes. This would eliminate the need to “broaden the tax base” as Noonan regularly cites.

    38
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    Mute Jim Jameson
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    Mar 1st 2013, 8:47 PM

    Why would I buy a new car? It’s got 4 wheels and drives just like every other car over the last 30 years! It will cost me several g’s, most of it tax and the tax man then rips me a new one every time i fill so I can drive to work to pay his tax bill.

    42
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    Mute Marc Anthony Power
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    Mar 1st 2013, 8:02 PM

    State backed scrappage scheme ?…. anyone? ……. modified first time home buyers grant? …. anyone? ….. guess not. …. government have a short memory. … and very limited imagination or understanding of demand side economics

    31
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    Mute Liam
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    Mar 1st 2013, 8:30 PM

    It is great to see an ignorant idea fall flat on its face.

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    Mute Liam Francis
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    Mar 1st 2013, 9:00 PM

    I think it’s heavily linked to how much people have to spend rather than an extra digit on the number plate. The masses have spoken when it comes to buying new cars, we can’t afford them. Also with engineering and manufacturing so good these days a car will run for years and years without needing to be changed, people know that, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. The whole problem was the fascination of the numbers on the reg plate which lead people to think they needed a knew car when in fact they didn’t; wanted yes, needed, no! We are in a time of needs not wants

    27
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    Mute Sean Gregan
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    Mar 1st 2013, 9:13 PM

    Volkswagen at No 1 possibly as much to do with VW have its own finance vehicle with attractive interest rates as well as a good product range … As long as banks don’t lend or lend at near credit card rates , then car sales will remain in free fall and VRT receipts reducing in line ….

    25
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    Mute tax slave
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    Mar 1st 2013, 11:04 PM

    Personalized number plates would have been a good idea a money spinner and at least those that could afford it would have got some joy from it . . A sort of fun tax for a Change .

    16
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    Mute One-Off Ireland
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    Mar 1st 2013, 7:36 PM

    good news!

    7
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    Mute UnLaoised
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    Mar 1st 2013, 10:02 PM

    We need to see a whole year’s sales data to determine if the trend in sales of new cars is up or down. The new registration system was brought in to do away with the January spike and spread sales out over the whole year (not because it’s 2013 and superstitious wouldn’t like 13 on their reg plates, as several people have suggested.) Many people will hold off till the 132 reg comes out in July. Sales are down in January and February this year compared to last, but that shortfall should be recouped in the latter part of the year.

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    Mute
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    Mar 1st 2013, 11:06 PM

    Car industry in UK kept 13 plates,the first of which were sold today and they are selling multiples of numbers being sold here without any fuss over superstition etc.

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    Mute UnLaoised
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    Mar 1st 2013, 11:20 PM

    131 and 132 reg plates have nothing to do with superstition. Next year we’ll have 141 and 142 plates, and the year after we’ll have 151 and 152 plates. There are very good reasons for it, just as the UK has a split-year registration system too. When we had one year on the reg plate, sales (and new vehicle registrations) were concentrated in the early part of the year. There is a knock-on effect of this in that most NCTs fall due earlier in the year, leading to a backlog in testing dates.

    It just so happened that the new regime started in 2013, and we all assumed that it was a superstitious aversion to the number 13. It’s not. It makes sense to do this.

    14
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    Mute anthony byrne
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    Mar 1st 2013, 8:39 PM

    So they are not attaching the new number plates securely enough ???. They will take some time to catch on, an more and more of them can be seen on the road … Ummm?

    4
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    Mute Rupert Christie
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    Mar 2nd 2013, 7:55 AM

    You can have any colour you want, as long as it’s black

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    Mute Patrick O'Carroll
    Favourite Patrick O'Carroll
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    Mar 2nd 2013, 8:53 AM

    I love red in a car, my last car was a green scoda octava kept breaking down, maybe it was the colour drives a corolla now cant compare.

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