The Museum of Failures

Every successful product launch is usually preceded by a string of failures, but we only remember the winners and ignore the failures and pretend they never happened. A new museum is set to open in Sweden that hopes to make this right.

The “Museum of Failures” is the brainchild of Dr. Samuel West, an organizational psychologist, who has spent the last seven years studying failure and success and what people say about both.

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Dr. Samuel West holding the Nokia N-Gage.

“I got tired of all of this glorifying of success, especially within the domain of innovation where 80 to 90 percent of all projects fail,” Dr. West said.

Then, he stumbled into the Museum of Broken Relationships—which collects mementos from failed romances and displays them under glass—while he was on a family trip to Zagreb, Croatia, and he had a light bulb moment.

“I rushed out, and I had this sort of eureka moment that I’m going to start the Museum of Failures. Like, there’s no going back,” Dr. West told NPR.

The purpose of the museum, Dr.West says, is to show that innovation requires failure. “If you are afraid of failure, then we can’t innovate,” he said.

Scheduled to open in June this year, the museum will showcase over sixty failed products and services from around the world. “Every item provides unique insight into the risky business of innovation,” the museum’s website says.

Some of the products that will be on display includes —Harley-Davidson perfume; Bic pens made especially for women; Coca-Cola Blak, a coffee-inspired drink; Nokia N-Gage that was a mobile phone and a gaming console in one; Apple Newton, a personal digital assistant; beef lasagna from Colgate; and more recent products such as Amazon Fire Phone and Google Glass.

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The Twitter Peek, a device for tweeting, launched in 2008.

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Frozen beef lasagna from a toothpaste company.

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The Harley-Davidson’s fragrance, according to Dr. Samuel West, was a “total flop.

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Apple Newton, an early PDA.

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Trump: The Game was released in 1989, based on buying and selling properties.

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The Sony Betamax video cassette player, which lost the format war to its rival, VHS.

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Coca-Cola BlaK was a coffee-flavored version of the soft drink, launched in 2006.

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Bic for Her pen, which was discontinued at the end of 2016.

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Google Glass.

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Kodak pioneered the digital camera in the 1990s but failed to market it.

Weird Stories from 2018

A jaw-dropping video from Hong Kong shows an enormous wild boar scavenging for food by standing on its hind legs and rooting through a dumpster.

In the remarkable footage, the massive creature stands alongside a trio of presumably hungry piglets and can be seen trying to pull a black trash bag from the receptacle.

The video, which has gone viral on social media in Hong Kong, has raised considerable concerns because the animal’s attempt to feast apparently occurred incredible close to an elementary school.

With that in mind, we’re guessing that the question of what to do about the monstrous hog lurking outside the building will likely be the first order of business at the next PTA meeting.

A truly strange video circulating online shows a flute-wielding musician in upstate New York serenading a rather sizeable group of raccoons. The bizarre scene reportedly took place at Brasher State Forest last week and the man behind the music, who has since earned the nickname ‘Pied Piper of Raccoons,’ is named Eddy Lawrence.

In the weird footage of his performance, Lawrence can be seen surrounded by a jaw-dropping number of raccoons as he plays a Native American song on his flute. As this continues, an increasing number of the creatures emerge from the forest seemingly being drawn by the young man’s music. By the time the video ends, there appear to be at least two dozen raccoons gathered around Lawrence.

While it’s easy to appreciate his skills as a musician, one can’t help but also admire Lawrence’s bravery, since he’s clearly outnumbered by the creatures. Considering how close the many raccoons were to him, the young man is lucky that he didn’t strike the wrong note, since the video of his performance may have been more frightening than wondrous should the creatures have gone on the attack.

Tourists vacationing in Thailand were left scratching their heads when they spotted what looked like a bizarre ritual being performed by some strange-looking creatures. The weird encounter was captured on film by a man named Jemayel Khawaja as he and his family were visiting a popular Thai rock climbing destination known as Railay Bay.

While admiring the picturesque scenery of the site, the group was taken aback when they suddenly heard some strange music coming from an area beneath a cliff. Their astonishment was amplified considerably when they saw that the sounds were seemingly coming from some diminutive furry creatures that appeared to be frolicking on the rocks.

Fortunately for Khawaja and company, it turns out that the tourists had not interrupted some kind of sacred ceremony. In fact, they later learned that the ‘creatures’ were actually costumed actors and that the entire show was the work of an artist and performer named Tori Wranes. What, exactly, his purpose was behind the odd event is, like all great art, a mystery.

Numerous residents of a city in Ohio have reported encountering nightmarish raccoons that display unsettling zombie-like behavior!

Authorities at the Youngstown police department say that they have received over a dozen calls in the last few weeks from frightened citizens describing the creatures acting particularly strange.

Specifically, they say, the raccoons stand on their hind legs, bear their teeth, and then topple over to the ground where they lay motionless for a while before repeating the puzzling maneuver.

One wildlife photographer who witnessed the weird antics of the animals said he’s never seen a raccoon behave in such an “extremely strange” way.

Making matters all the more odd is that these incidents have occurred during the daytime, which is atypical for the nocturnal creatures, and that loud noises which would normally scare the animals away seemingly have no effect on them.

While one might suspect that the raccoons are simply rabid, wildlife experts say that is probably not the case and that, based on witness descriptions, the creatures are likely suffering from a disease known as distemper.

And, although humans cannot contract the illness, they warn that dogs can and so pet owners should be mindful of that until the odd outbreak can be contained.

 

 

Traffic Stop in Spain Proves Fruitful as Cops Thwart Huge Orange Heist

Traffic Stop in Spain Proves Fruitful as Cops Thwart Huge Orange Heist

Authorities in the Spanish city of Seville busted a gang of ne’er-do-wells who were attempting to transport nearly 9,000 pounds of stolen oranges in their two cars!

After cops stopped the vehicles for driving suspiciously, officers were astounded to discover that the cars were crammed with hundreds of oranges.

The fruit was so haphazardly loaded into the cars that it actually came spilling out onto the street when police began trying to get to the bottom of what they’d uncovered.

When questioned about how they’d manage to accumulate so many oranges, the suspects coyly claimed that they had been collecting them throughout their travels.

As one can imagine, police found their claims to be pretty unbelievable, considering that there were more than four tons of oranges amassed among the vehicles.

Their doubts were confirmed when it was later found that the fruit was actually pilfered from a warehouse close to the city.

The group now faces robbery charges as well as whatever types of fines come from illegally transporting tons of fruit without the proper paperwork.

Did the Space Aliens Land in NYC?

(CNN) An electrical flash at a Con Edison substation in Queens temporarily lit up New York’s skyline Thursday night in a brilliant blue.

Despite the eerily glowing color, there was no alien invasion.
Instead, the light came as part of an electrical fault that caused an “arc flash,” Con Edison spokesman Bob McGee said Friday morning, similar to lightning. There was no fire, he said.
Earlier, McGee told CNN that a brief electrical fire occurred after a “couple of transformers tripped offline” at 20th Avenue and 32nd Street in Astoria.
Also, McGee said Friday there had been no explosion. On Thursday night, the New York Police Department had tweeted about a “transformer explosion” at a Con Edison facility.
The issue caused a transmission dip in the area, and Con Edison crews responded with the New York Fire Department, the power company said.
The fire department did not enter the premises because the “arc flash” was over when firefighters arrived, McGee said.

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Interesting Marx Toys

Louis Marx and Company was an American toy manufacturer in business from 1919 to 1980. Its products were often imprinted with the slogan, “One of the many Marx toys, have you all of them?” Arguably, Marx was the most well-known toy company through the late mid 20th century.

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The Tallest Statues in The World

Markozen.com's avatarThe MarkoZen Blog

Big statues are very impressive.  The thought and effort that goes into constructing these pieces of artwork is extremely impressive.  What I did not realize when I looked into this subject was the magnitude of some of the great statues in the world.  Some of these creations are truly massive. 

The list below is not the tallest statues in order of height.  The tallest statues are listed here, but in order to make the list more international I have chosen statues from many different countries.  By far the biggest statues are in China and Japan.  29 of the top 40 tallest statues in the world are in those two countries.  A truly world representation is the idea in this post.

Veera Abhaya Anjaneya Hanuman Swami is a statue in depicting Hanuman (Hindu Deity). It is located in the village of Paritala, approximately 30 km from the city of Vijayawada, in…

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