Hasbro plans on launching a musical toothbrush called "Tooth Tunes" reports the WSJ.

"When pressed to the teeth, the toothbrush renders a recorded riff from a pop star that lasts two minutes -- precisely the amount of time dentists say children should spend brushing their teeth.

How does it work? "The two-minute recording is stored on a microchip no bigger than a dot atop the letter i. Push a button on the toothbrush, and a minicomputer starts playing the song. Sound waves are transported through the transducer to the front teeth, traveling from there to the jawbone and then to the inner ear.

Hasbro is in talks with several recording artists about getting rights to their recordings. Many artists would probably consider a gig in a toothbrush beneath their talents. But others might welcome the daily exposure in their young fans' lives."

Ku: iyashikei-net by Urico Fujii and Ann Poochareon is a networked crying sculpture that allows people to communicate through the interface of tears, a physical output of human emotional expression that has been overlooked, and never made exchangeable with current communication devices.

Two sides, installed at different locations, communicate over the Internet. On Side A, Tear Well allows a sad person to express his/her feeling by pumping a traditional water pump, the water representing her/his tears. The tears are sent over to Side B over the Internet, where teardrop sculptures called KU act as networked surrogates.

As soon as Side B receives the crying signal, KUs start to cry. When a viewer on Side B wipes KUs’ tears, KUs stop crying. At the same time comforting response is sent to the sad person to cheer them up.

PDF presentation.

The INDEX 2005 jury has announced the 100 finalists for the INDEX Awards.

Among the nominees:
Project Unplugged, by Tine Hertz and Maria Langberg, is a portable and flexible textile that converts sunlight into electricity and allows you to carry the energy with you in the shape of a jacket or as a tent.

The solar cell was incorporated in a transparent organdi textile and can be manufactured using industrial techniques such as silkscreen printing. The textile is now printed in pieces of 30x45cm, but by putting the textile-modules together you can create the exact form you need. The designers have also invented a technique which allows the electrical connection simply by sewing the cloth together with a thin copper thread.

LifeStraw, by Torben Vestergaard Frandsen, is a 25 cm long plastic straw/pipe filter which turns dirty water into clean, drinkable water. Sucked up water meets two textile filters that filter out big materials, even clusters of bacteria. Then the water is led into a chamber of iodine impregnated beads, where bacteria, viruses and parasites are killed. The second chamber is a void space, where the iodine can maintain their killing effect. The last chamber consists of granulated active carbon, which role is to take the main part of the bad smell of iodine, and to take the parasites that have not been taken by the pre-filter or killed by the iodine.

LifeStrawTM lasts for one persons annual needs of clean water, nobody needs to die from these diseases.

The original idea was created by Torben Vestergaard Frandsen, but over the years 2 additional persons have been involved in this, Rob

Congrats to Belmer, Javier and Cameron!

Via archinect.

Wow. The Manicouagan impact crater is huge. Apparently it’s one of the largest impact craters still preserved on the surface of the Earth, and was formed during a tremendous impact about 200 million years ago. The annular lake that shows the perimeter is 70 kilometers (43 miles) in diameter. Solarviews.com says:

Although the original rim has been removed, the distribution of shock metamorphic effects and morphological comparisons with other impact structures indicates an original rim diameter of approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles).

Thanks to Mike Scher, Philippe, Keith, Stuart Reid, Andy M, Markus and many others.

Rick Vincent sent us what he describes as ‘The White Snake of Baja‘. Looks like a river, but it is HUGE. You can still see it all the way out here!

By far the most submitted link is to the notorious Area 51. Props go to Andy who was the first of many to point us in the right direction, cheers mate Travis added:

Scroll to the south-west and find that pock-marked stretch of desert. That’s where our gov’t tested nuclear weapons.

This one of several laboratories run by the United States Department of Energy. The large, circle shaped structure is a 3 mile long Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider.

Thanks Chris.

No, not strawberry fields but a huge amount of Cranberry Fields (or bogs) in Massachusetts.

Thanks to “ironcladlou”, “Daniel Drucker” and many more.

Thanks to everyone who commented on the original UFO find, although we’re still not sure what they are, there’s been some interesting developments.

Ian Pottinger and jher were the first to find that there are in fact eight of these “UFO”s over Florida, at the following points

One - Two - Three - Four - Five - Six - Seven - Eight

and Tensus used keyhole to map the points showing that they make a very neat grid.

Yoshino and jher later noticed that the UFOs are not limited to Florida but can also be found over L.A.

One - Two - Three - Foru - Five - Six - Seven - Eight - Nine - Ten - Eleven - Twelve - Thirteen

Things the UFOs are definitely not…

Space debris or another satellite?

Derek & Tensus discovered that the close-up images of Florida are taken by AerialsExpress.com at an altitude of 17,500 feet so are aerial photos and not satellite images.

Marks added to obscure famous peoples homes?

While there’s no doubt the whitehouse photos were processed for security it is very unlikely these UFOs are intentional ‘cover-ups’ due to the neat grid layout.

Water towers?

The UFOs are just too big to be water towers (and there’s no shadow).

Anomaly produced by the stitching software?

Shi Ju says

Definitely they’re NOT marks for picture stitching. In most stitching software (like for making panoramas) the algorithm comes down to finding sharp and contrasting details and aligning those spots with each other.

Things the UFOs still could be…

An alien spacecraft?

It’s still possible!

A weather balloon?

Tm says

The “Grid” is centered around an airfield, common launch points for weather balloons.

Although Klem says

All currently used radiosonde devices (weather balloons) are latex, yellowish beige to transluscent

and Jello adds

The object in question here does not cast a ground effect, therefore does not exist in the air.

A ‘lenticular’ cloud?

Patrick was the first to float this idea and the images he posted do look similar to the UFOs, although it is unlikely clouds would form in neat grids.

Condensation on the lens?

Possibly the current forerunner for most likely explanation, Stuart said…

Condensation inside some sort of housing would be my guess. If the drop were directly on the lens it would be effectively invisible. Put it a few inches/feet away and have the camera shooting with a very deep depth of field (as you would with a small aperture) and it would look just like that anomaly.

Something else?

Possibly one of a Peppermint, baseball, Vogon ship, crop circle, planet, thumbtack, ballbearings, smoke, pond, swamp gas, golf ball, satellite, flying ninja, space junk or contact lens as others have suggested!

A Swiss company accidentally sold the genetically modified seed corn in the US for four years - renewing concerns over GM crop regulation

A technique for mass-producing genetically sterilised fish might one day be used to prevent them breeding with each other or wild relatives

Some believe that genetically modified crops can go a long way towards tackling hunger in the developing world - some say they have no choice

GM bacteria for cleaning up contaminated soil may be closer with the publication of a sewage-dwelling bug's genome sequence

Genetically-modified versions of bacteria naturally present in the vagina can secrete proteins that protect women against the deadly virus

Compelling biotech companies to insert DNA identity tags into their genetically modified organisms would make it easier for regulators to trace material

Genetically-engineered onions lacking the chemical that makes eyes stream would not taste any different

Live-Shot.com allows you to sit at home in the comfort of your easy chair and shoot live bullets at real animals.

No, I am not making this up: an a story about the company appears in the current issue (March 5) of The Economist.

Anyone with an internet connection, anywhere in the world, can log on and shoot real guns in real time on a Texas ranch, killing Barbary sheep,

Blackbuck antelope

or wild hogs

which happen to wander in front of your virtual gunsite.

You pay $300 for a virtual hunt after purchasing your Texas hunting license (obtainable over the internet, of course).

That entitles you to two hours of time and two shots from a 30.06 rifle mounted on a pan-tilt motor.

Most of the site's money, though, is currently being made from people who prefer target shooting (below):

nearly $400 people — some as far away as Germany and Australia – are paying $14.95 a month and $5.95 a session to fire ten rounds at balloons or toy sheep.

They'll even mail you the paper target from your session for $2.95 plus shipping.

Wait till Ingrid Newkirk and her homies at PETA find out about this.

It won't be pretty, I'll tell you that.

Just go to Kaufmann's men's clothing store there and give your crumpled shirt to the friendly attendant.

While you watch, shop or check your email the Dressman will first fill itself with hot air, cold air and steam to reach the size that matches your shirt, then steam, heat and iron your shirt — free!

Way cool.

Or, as Paris might say, "That's hot."

Designed by naval architect Giancarlo Zema, it's a unique four–level house, consisting of, from the top down:

1) The living area

2) An observation deck

3) A boat dock

4) An underwater observation globe

The floors are connected via a winding staircase facing the sea and a glass elevator.

The underwater observation globe comes complete with lighting and "diver lock–out options."

[via AW]

Yes, this fellow implanted an RFID in his hand so he can open his car door more easily, among other things.

...make pretty pictures.

Bacteria have been programmed to behave like computers, assembling themselves into complex shapes based on instructions stuffed into their genes.

The research could lead to smart biological devices that could detect hazardous substances or bioterrorism chemicals, scientists say. Eventually, the process might be used to direct the construction of useful devices or the growth of new tissue, perhaps restoring function to a severed spinal cord.

Many lines of research hold similar promise for controlling biology to build useful things. Predictions do not always come true. What's new about this latest effort is that the bacteria are made to communicate, so that millions or even billions of them gather in a predictable manner.

And there are pictures to prove it.

The researchers programmed E. coli bacteria to emit red or green fluorescent light in response to a signal emitted from another set of E. coli. The living cells were commanded to make a bull's-eye pattern, for example, around central cells based on communication between the bacteria.

continued at...

Sure, go ahead and chuckle at this site featuring hot building codes, off-the-shoulder-asymmetry, and XXX tongue-and-groove orgy action as an extended in-joke for architecture geeks; but if there's one thing eighteen months of Fleshbot has taught us, it's that as long as something has enough curves someone somewhere is jerking off to it.

Architecture Porn (gravestmor.com - thanks M.)

Ever since I met Alex Theory at a Planetworks party, I've wanted to work with his music. Today I can finally say I have.

Last week I visited Alex in his studio out by Ocean Beach and got permission to set video to "Oasis", the title track of his next album. I took high-resolution renders of my favorite Electric Sheep from Generation 165, and edited them to follow the lines and structure of the song.

I am pleased to share with you the result: "165 Star Oasis". The video is at full resolution, totalling 100 megabytes in divx format, and is available by bittorrent:

http://spotworks.com/bt/165-star-oasis.torrent

The visuals are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 2.0 by Scott Draves, and the music is All Rights Reserved by Alex Theory.

MEAT ART by Victoria Reynolds



En el interior del cuerpo humano

The Beehive- hat



Tall-Tail' Egg
An egg in China has been found with a tail. The egg, found by chef Wang of at his restaurant in Anyang city, Henan province, is normal size, but has a tail that is 3 cm long. It is not known why the egg has the tail reports Dahe Daily. Wang says he wants to hatch the egg and see what will come out.

Kitten Born With Two Faces

Fly Catcher
The fly catcher is an electronic fly-swatting device based on the idea of the Venus fly trap. The Fly Catcher is not just a talking point, it actually does the job.