Top 20 Strangest Gadgets and Accessories

This is interesting. Techblog has a list of the Top 20 Strangest Gadgets and Accessories.

Included is a Pot Noodle stove, a gas powered blender, a headlight DVD player, a rat race clock, a radio toaster, the human head shaped knifeblock (hey, I featured that) and lots more.

My personal favourite is the Brief Safe.

“Leave the “Brief Safe” in plain view in your laundry basket or washing machine at home, or in your suitcase in a hotel room - even the most hardened burgler or most curious snoop will “skid” to a screeching halt as soon as they see them.”

A prude lists 10 revealing scenes we didn't need to see

A self confessed prude writes a review of the most eye gougingly bad nudity moments in film. Plenty of mentions of Sharon Stone's "sex kitten" and Robin Williams' hirsute buttocks.

I'm with her all the way.

It's also just bloody funny.

Aspire to Learning Air Guitar

Yanked from Ohgizmo.com

Eric Clapton wannabes have strummed the classic riff from “Layla” on imaginary Fenders for decades. Now, thanks to a virtual-reality rig developed at the Helsinki University of Technology in Finland, air guitarists can finally hear themselves jamming. You don't have to rely on other music but instead make your own with the Air Guitar Technology. Combining virtual reality and motion capture, the computer follows a pair of bright orange gloves on your hands as you jam out. It then translates this onto a virtual guitar which then makes noise/music.



You are probably thinking "Oh No! I don't know how to play a virtual guitar. I just learned my air guitar." Cool thing is that you don't even need to know how to play. The computer takes the combination of your movements and interprets what guitar-playing technique and style you’re trying to imitate. It only plays the notes that fit together so it won't sound like total crap. This has got to be the greatest news these people have ever heard in their lives.

Air Guitar.

DEA Agent Who Shot Himself In Foot Demonstrating Gun Safety Sues

A Drug Enforcement Administration agent who stars in a popular online video that shows him shooting himself in the foot during a weapons demonstration for Florida children is suing over the tape's release, claiming that his career has been crippled and he's become a laughingstock due to the embarrassing clip's distribution.

According to the lawsuit, Paige was making a "drug education presentation" in April 2004 to a Florida youth group when his firearm (a Glock .40) accidentally discharged. The shooting occurred moments after Paige told the children that he was the only person in the room professional enough to carry the weapon.

The accident was filmed by an audience member, and the tape, Paige claims, was turned over to the DEA. The drug agency subsequently "improperly, illegally, willfully and/or intentionally" allowed the tape to be disseminated.



As a result, Paige--pictured above in a still from the video--has been the "target of jokes, derision, ridicule, and disparaging comments" directed at him in restaurants, grocery stores, and airports about his accidental discharge. Paige, who writes that he was "once regarded as one of the best undercover agents, if not the best, in the DEA," points to the clip's recent airing on popular television shows and via the Internet as the reason he can no longer work undercover. He also notes that he is no longer "permitted or able to give educational motivational speeches and presentations."

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0411061foot1.html

Wot I ave bean reeding

Caught up with my reading a bit, anyway. Read a few comics this week, but can't be bothered to review them all, so I've just picked out a choice few, including Marvel Zombies, New Excalibur, Apocalypse/Dracula and Young Avengers.

I also finished reading the first of the books I bought the other day, Two for Texas by James Lee Burke. An enjoyable, if fairly light read. More of a long short story than a novel really, it could have done with a bit more meat on its bones. Basically two escaped convicts, one old one young, exit a Louisiana hell hole of a prison and move south into Texas ending up with Sam Houston's near the Alamo. The historical detail is nice, there's some delightfully descriptive phrases and the writing is solid, but there's a tendency to skip over detail rather too quickly. The fall of the Alamo is covered in a couple of pages when it would have been nice to get a more detailed description. Similarly, the main characters only seem roughly sketched out. I see that it's been adapted as a movie, which probably works well, and as a taster of the writer's work it's solid, but I would have liked a little more fleshing out of the action, characters and historical detail. Not bad though.

( Comic reviews cut for minor spoilers. )