The Fühlometer (Feel-o-meter) has been around for at least a year, traveling to different cities in the world, but not yet reaching New York. The interactive art installation is like a Bat Signal of emotions, changing its face to reflect the mood of whatever city it's in. Laughing Squid explains today, "The system allows to read emotions out of random people's faces. The faces are analyzed by sophisticated software (contributed by the Fraunhofer Institut). The obtained mood data are then stored on a server and processed by the smiley to visualize the emotions in real-time." What do you think ours would read most of the time, and should we have one for each borough? more ›

It's not infrequent to find a crosswalk signal blinking mixed messages, but last week the Daily News found malfunctioning devices all over the place, from Morningside Heights to Times Square to the East Village. This comes a year after Councilwoman Gale Brewer pointed out the hazard... and how long before the apocalypse? more ›

City birds aren't just living in trees and in the nooks of tall buildings... they're also making themselves at home in our traffic lights! The NY Post has a cute story about a family of sparrows that lives inside of a crosswalk signal on the Upper West Side. And the only way they'll leave is if the Department of Transportation physically removes them (which they have threatened to do once they find the signal—location undisclosed!). Urban bird specialist Karen Purcell told the paper, "They are fierce nest competitors. They are able to evict other birds, even native species. They are survivors." Can someone please write a children's book about this little feathered family? more ›

We've been getting more and more tips about broken crosswalk signals showing both the Don't Walk symbol ("Red Hand") and the Walk symbol ("White Man") simultaneously. Today a reader e-mails: "My girlfriend and I have noticed an ongoing problem of the 'Walk/Don't' walk signs actually 'freezing' in place when it gets cold out. Both a bright red hand and a walk sign stay up at the same time, presumably opening the city up to some serious lawsuits should something go awry. We must have seen it about 30 times in the last month, prompting my email." more ›