A US inventor has come up with a hi-tech way of allowing the deceased to talk from beyond the grave – by fixing video screens to their tombstones.
Robert Barrows says people could leave video messages before they died, to be played to friends, loved ones or the just plain curious from the grave side. —Video diary from beyond the grave (BBC News)
Hmm…. the web story runs without a picture of the invention, and the inventor was speaking on radio, where he wouldn’t be expected to show a sample.
Okay, BBC News, let’s google for Robert Barrows…
Bigfoot — – Major Bigfoot Expedition Seeking Participation From Corporate Sponsors and Journalists
And on “barrows.com”, “An adult male Bigfoot is shown here eating the entrails of some kind of animal….”
While a talented inventor may also happen to believe in bigfoot, an while these may be two different people with the same name, a good reporter ought at least to investigate. Is it any coincidence that “barrows.com” is the home page for an advertising and marketing company? The website proudly displays its 1996 web design aesthetic (gotta love those HTML frames) and is happily “optimized for Netscape 2.0”.
Cf “The Final Curtain” (a hoax by Joey Skaggs, who every year sends out a press release about a huge “April Fools’ Day Parade” — tricking sloppy researchers into showing up with their cameras and notebooks.)
Whoops, my two-year old has just removed all her clothes and marched through the kitchen in a bid for attention from me. I seriously hope she outgrows that stategy in a few years, but clearly I need to log off.
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This makes other guys like me that are named Robert Barrows look like wierdos.
Hmmm... http://www.video-tombstone.com/ I remeber an earlier promotional piece for these "video tombstones". A check to whois shows that the url was registered almost two years ago. US Patent Office now doubles as a free advertising service (or at least filing for a patent is good for free advertising).
Does it really take a good reporter to figure this out?
Update: It looks like the source of all these stories is an article in New Scientist, where the news hook is that Barrows filed a patent for such a device. One doesn't actually have to have a working model in order to file a patent, so some of the other coverage that calls him an "inventor" may be stretching the definition of the term.