Take a break from the usual product launches and patent trolling sagas, for a glimpse of the lighter side of the tech spectrum. Here's a quick look at all the crazy happenings that occured in the tech world.

• An American woman was banned from her Facebook account for posting photographs of her son participating in the Special Olympics. The social networking website had initially deemed the pictures of her Down’s Syndrome affected son as inappropriate, but later responded with an apology for the “human error”. What the hell Facebook?! This is certainly not in the Olympic spirit, if you ask me.


• A US school suffered losses worth $36,000 (Rs 20,00,000 approx) when a 11-year-old student urinated on a cart-full of Apple laptops. How does one manage to destroy 30-odd MacBooks with urine, you ask? That’s because Apple considers urine as a biohazard. The disclaimer not only invalidates your warranty, but also any possibility of paid repairs. This applies to dog urine as well as cigarette smoke - or rather any other potential health hazard that the Apple Geniuses may tag as a biohazard.


• Facebook now allows you to declare yourself as a potential organ donor. This has been restricted to US only. I presume that’s mainly because if such a thing were to be started in India, the response just might break FB's server farms.


• The good people at Al-Quaeda are known to be ingenious, but this still takes the cake. The terrorist outfit had managed to keep its attack plans and doctrines hidden inside - wait for it - pornographic films. A few uber-dedicated German security experts managed to find Al-Quaeda intelligence encoded in adult videos recovered from the underwear of known terrorists (don't ask). I guess that means watching porn is a matter of national security now.


• You know how these statistical and research-based studies can get rather confusing and contradictory. A latest study now says that power-generating windmills may cause global warming. If I have got it right, this study essentially says that green energy sources aren't, well, green anymore. In the light of this revelation, I believe it's a good thing that India fulfils a major chunk of its energy needs by burning imported diesel and coal.


• Do you think that visiting porn websites is the riskiest act on the internet? Well, think again, because US-based anti-virus vendor Symantec has revealed that your computer is three times more likely to get infected by viruses when you visit a religious website as compared to a browsing a pornographic one. Considering these statistics, I wonder how risky a blasphemous porn website parodying religious themes would be. If you think such websites don't exist, you need to look up Rule #34.


• Now here's a study that doesn't suck. A latest one has just concluded that playing "violent shooting games" makes you pretty good at scoring headshots in real life. If I were a underworld don in Bombay, I would have made sure my henchmen spent less time in the dance bars and more playing Virtua Cop in video game arcades.


• A clerk at a London court found out the hard way that the Ceiling Cat wasn't the only one watching him view pornographic websites on his courtroom computer. A judge spotted Debasish Majumder, 54, watch graphic adult content even as a sexual assault victim deposed in front of the court. He reportedly did it because he was sure no one could watch his screen - a folly that has earned him a jail time of seven months. For his sake, I sure hope no one watches him drop the soap in prison.

Tags : Humour, Weird, Nachiket