The Odd Side of life briefs

NYC ‘zombie’ finds Long Island cat in Times Square

NEW YORK (AP) — It took a zombie to find Disaster at the Crossroads of the World.

Two years after he disappeared from his Long Island home, Disaster the cat was found this week in the heart of Manhattan — by a Times Square haunted house promoter dressed up as a zombie.

Jeremy Zelkowitz, who sells tickets for the Times Scare haunted house, spotted Disaster early Saturday morning crossing 42nd Street. He snatched up Disaster, a black and white cat who appeared to be well-kept and neat, and brought him to a nearby animal hospital.

“I’m a big animal lover but I have a dog so I couldn’t take him,” Zelkowitz, 22, said Thursday. “The whole situation is very, very bizarre.”

Staff at the BluePearl Veterinary Partners animal hospital scanned Disaster who had been implanted with a microchip, revealing his last known owner: New York City police Officer Jimmy Helliesen.

Helliesen, 51, received a call Saturday morning from the hospital, informing him that his long-lost feline friend had been found.

“I was shocked,” said Helliesen. “How did he get to Manhattan? That’s quite an adventure.”

For years Helliesen has adopted stray cats he finds hanging around his Brooklyn precinct. Two years ago he adopted Disaster after he strayed from the precinct and ended up getting captured by local Animal Care and Control. That’s when Helliesen got him fixed and implanted with the chip.

But six months after living in his Long Island home, Disaster escaped one day through an open window and never returned.

Helliesen never thought he’d get the cat back — and has since taken in eight more cats he’s found around the precinct who need homes.

“Disaster makes it nine,” he said. “My wife has been very understanding.”

Iowa museum finds missing

tortoise in elevator

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — An 18-pound African leopard tortoise who went missing from an Iowa museum has been found alive in an elevator in the building.

KWWL-TV reports that officials at the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque believe the tortoise named Cashew was stolen, but that the thief quietly returned the animal.

The museum says a visitor found Cashew on the elevator floor Thursday. She appears to be in good health.

The museum discovered Cashew was missing Tuesday from an exhibit with a 4-foot glass wall. Museum officials suspected she was taken as a prank or to sell.

Museum officials are reviewing surveillance video to try to figure out exactly what happened and find a possible suspect.

Sheriff sale: Drug trafficker’s $180k Lamborghini

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Looking for a fast sports car with low miles?

Sheriff’s deputies in Reno may have a deal for you.

A 2006 Lamborghini Gallardo that originally retailed for $180,000 is going up for auction April 23 at a Washoe County sheriff’s sale of property seized from a convicted drug trafficker.

Detectives also seized more than $170,000 in cash, a Yamaha motorcycle and a 2006 Mercedes Benz from James Monts in February 2011. He was convicted last year on charges of selling marijuana in Reno, Las Vegas and San Francisco.

The Lamborghini has only 12,000 miles on it. The district attorney’s office said in a news release it has a 5.0-liter engine with 493 base horsepower and goes zero to 60 mph in just over four seconds.

Philadelphia gets ready to play ‘Pong’ on building

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia is getting ready for a supersized game of “Pong” — on the side of a skyscraper.

The classic Atari video game will be re-created later this month on the facade of the 29-story Cira Centre, where hundreds of embedded LED lights will replicate the familiar paddles and ball.

Organizers expect hundreds of onlookers as gaming enthusiasts use giant, table-mounted joysticks to play from afar. The players will be standing on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a site that offers an unobstructed view of the office building from across the Schuylkill River.

“’Pong’ is a cultural icon, cultural milestone,” said Frank Lee, the Drexel University game-design professor behind the concept. “This is my love letter to the wonders of technology as seen through the eyes of my childhood.”

Despite the buzz the idea has received since being announced Wednesday, Lee said it took five years to find people willing to make it happen. He eventually met kindred spirits at Brandywine Realty Trust, which owns the Cira Centre, and at the online news site Technically Philly.

Now, what might be the world’s largest “Pong” game will be played April 19 and 24 as part of Philly Tech Week, the news website’s annual series of events, seminars and workshops spotlighting the city’s technology and innovation communities.

“This is one of the best things I could imagine that could make people aware that there’s something happening here, and bring more people into the fold,” Technically Philly co-founder Christopher Wink said.

Wink estimated about 150 people might play over the two days — most will be chosen by a lottery, but some spots will be reserved for younger students enrolled in science, technology, engineering and math programs.

Among those playing will be 36-year-old Brad Denenberg, one of three winners picked at random during a Tech Week preview on Wednesday. Denenberg, who runs the tech startup incubator Seed Philly, confessed to some trepidation. He said he’s actually not a big gamer.

“My biggest fear is that I’m going to play against some 8-year-old who will destroy me,” Denenberg said.

In today’s gaming era of lifelike graphics — think “Call of Duty” — and colorful characters — think “Angry Birds” — it’s hard to imagine how the pixelated “Pong” qualified as revolutionary when it was introduced in 1972.

The black-and-white arcade game used simple block shapes to simulate two paddles and a ball; the object was for players to hit the ball so their opponents could not return it. A home version paved the way for the game console industry.

At the Cira Centre, the game will be re-created using hundreds of lights already embedded in its north face. The tower stands by day as a gleaming, mirrored edifice in west Philadelphia, but each night it illuminates the skyline with colored, patterned displays. A spokesman could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Lee said he was driving by the building one night five years ago when he was suddenly struck with the idea that the lights could be configured to play the shape-fitting game Tetris.

The concept grew from there. Last month, after finally securing the necessary permissions, he and two colleagues successfully tested giant versions of “Pong” as well as the classic games “Snake” and “Space Invaders.” People might get to play “Snake” on April 24, Lee said.

The effort has been satisfying on a technical level, Lee said, describing “Pong” as “a large-scale interactive, light-based art project.”

But he noted it was rewarding on an emotional level as well, comparing it with the excitement he felt as a boy when he would put the “Pong” game cartridge into the console. And he hopes it inspires a new generation of innovators.

“I hope kids ... will go on to be the leaders, and push technology forward and do wondrous things in the future,” Lee said.