Zubbles were invented in 2005, but they have been in commercial limbo until now. Kids and adults can now buy two bottles for $15 at the Zubble web site.

Bubbles are the most popular toy on Earth—even bigger than Lego—with 200 million bottles sold annually. Stainless colored bubbles where believed to be chemically impossible, but inventor Tim Kehoe spent 15 years and $3 million making his daydream a reality. Hopefully, they will work out for him, because I like zubbles. I like plain bubbles too. And I love Bubble Toes:

[Zubbles via Discovery via Infoaddict—Thanks Rosa!]

I am not a cyborg, but I am getting closer and closer to being a terminator. My back is already full of titanium, and I've got a radio-controlled device in my abdomen that feeds medication into my spinal canal. If the trials go well, I hope to get my chance at being the female Hardiman with the ReWalk system. You can start calling me Ripley when that happens.

It is when I read these things that I become fully aware of both my limitations and the tiny dimensions of any troubles I think I may have. Go read Sarah's interview at BBG. [BBG and Sarah's Blog]

MLAS—named after Maxime Faget, the designer for the Aerial Capsule Emergency Separation Device in the Mercury program—is an alternative abort launch system concept developed by a team of NASA engineers, working in parallel with the Constellation program team. It won't replace the Orion abort system, however, but according to NASA this concept has serious potential for future missions:

MLAS is of potential interest because it is theorized to have aerodynamic performance benefits, weight savings and be relatively simple in some spacecraft applications. Much of the potential gains would be accomplished by eliminating the launch abort tower, which also means eliminating the attitude control motors.

[NASA]

That's exactly what Jay Leno does: He scans the part in a NextEngine 3D Scanner in about 20 minutes at a 160,000 dots per inch resolution. Then he prints the resulting 3D model in plastic using a Dimension 3D Printer. It takes three hours to get the plastic model, which then he uses it to create a mold that will produce the actual car piece in metal.

You can read more about the process in Jay's own words at Popular Mechanics. [Popular Mechanics]

Whenever you run the Billy Mays Caps Lock program, Billy will speak one of his trademark phrases. But that's not all. If you order it right now, we'll double the value! You will get the Billy Mays Caps Lock program and a Billy Mays icon in your system tray. When you are done using the Billy Mays Caps Lock program, just click on the Billy Mays icon and select Exit. And that's not all!

What if you don't want to exit the Billy Mays Caps Lock program but you want to temporarily use the actual caps lock key instead of having Billy Mays tell you how he will make your whites whiter? You got it! For the same price, our Billy Mays Caps Lock program includes a special mode that will activate the caps lock whenever you hit the shift key at the same time!

What is the price for the Billy Mays Caps Lock? That's the best part: It's completely free! Just click on the link and download it!

Seriously, like Rosa told me today: "Oh! There's finally a use for the caps lock key." Someone make a Mac version of this, pronto. [John Haller—Thanks Rosa]

• Real world object identification: This function will let you point at any object and obtain information about it after the iPhone recognizes, using either the object itself—like a painting—RFID tags, or barcode scanning. Alternatively, you can just search the object up in Google. It's not like it's hard to read a tag or enter a name.

• Face detection and recognition: Similar to the face recognition feature in iPhoto, this can be used for security access. In other words: We are doomed.

• Text message filtering: If you are offended by the cursing in my twitters and SMS, the new filtering system will save your ears from bleeding, you **************** *******.

• Smarter text messaging: There are two patents about this. One allows you to check if text messages fail to reach someone in a group. The other informs you if you have received any messages (mail, text, or voicemails) from someone before you try to contact them, just in case you have received what you wanted before initiating the contact. Paranoids and control freaks rejoice.

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• Voice changer: Since I sounds like Daffy Duck, this is my favorite new feature by far. Now I would be able to sound like Sean Connery in every single call. Or, apparently, Oprah. I can go either way. [USPTO patent on object recognition, USPTO patent on face recognition, USPTO patent on SMS via Unwired Review]

Most GSM-based cellphones suffer the same problem: No matter how fast they are at download, they will upload at only 384Kbps, or less, as you can see in our iPhone 3GS network test. This is because the hardware doesn't support the HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access) standard, created by Nokia—the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) refers to this standard as Enhanced Uplink.

Some would say that this is not needed because Enhanced Uplink—which runs at 1.4 and 1.9Mbps—is not supported by AT&T yet, but in Europe there are networks that already support this standard. I would imagine that users of the popular JesusPhone would love to upload their photos and videos to Facebook and YouTube as fast as possible.

On the other side, with AT&T still struggling to get 7.2Mbps off the ground and most of the other networks having problems and slowdowns everywhere, I would be happy if they all just managed to actually deliver their advertised download speeds. [PC World]

On Friday 3rd July, I received a really lovely mad gift for my birthday (which is on the 5th) from Jonathan Ive and Jody who works with him at Apple - a perfect model of an Ipod but as you can see slightly bigger than usual. Jonny knows I like strange things; as the real thing gets smaller, he sends me a giant version!

Oh, those crazy designers and their crazy presents. Paul, you should send Jon and Jody one of your Mini bags. One the size of a real Mini. [Paul Smith via Macenstein]

This is my (second) Paul Smith wallet. And this is the Mini bag, which I use to tote my MacBook Pro, camera, and spare t-shirts and underpants in trips.

Thankfully it's just a promo and there won't be any Office 2010 movie. It was created for Microsoft by Dennis Liu, who also did the how to pretend you are working video. [Thanks Dennis]

A symbiotic suit will allow Bertrand Piccard—the pilot and one of the cofounders of the project—to sleep on his seat at any given time, If anything goes wrong or any flight adjustments are needed, the computer will use the suit to wake him up.

With a 262.5-foot wingspan—that's longer than an Airbus A380—the Solar Impulse will travel at an average speed of 43.5mph at a maximum altitude of 39,300 feet. [Computer Weekly]

Yes, it reminds me of Disneyland Epcot's Future Land exhibits, except that this time it seems that we are really close to get there. And yes, a quarter million miles is a big commute from Earth, but hey, I hear that some people come to work in NYC from New Jersey. It can't be much worse than that. [National Geographic]

Check the rest at Deputy Dog. [Deputy Dog]

As you can see in the video, the user interface in the 7.2Mbps HSDPA Rachael—which is rumored to have a Snapdragon processor, an 8-megapixel camera with auto-focus, and 3D acceleration—is extremely sleek, making full use of the touch interface, with pretty widgets everywhere. It also appears to be heavily oriented to social networks like Facebook and Twitter. I like it enough to make me want to ditch my iPhone—if it had equivalent apps to the ones I use, that is.

People were discarding already Sony Ericsson—myself included—but if they release this on time, bug free, and with this interface, they may have an opportunity to become the leading Android smartphone. [Esato via Boy Genius Report]

If the information is true, North Korean hackers launched an offensive using denial of service attacks against the Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission, and Transportation Department's web sites, which were down at some points during July 4 and this week. These attacks have been confirmed by US officials, although the origin hasn't been clarified by the US government yet.

The hackers simultaneously attacked South Korea's government sites too, including the Blue House—the equivalent to the White House—and the Defense Ministry. The South Koreans are claiming that the DoD attacks used 12,000 zombie PCs in Korea, and 8,000 in other parts of the world.

Can I say these guys are fucking bunch of morons? Oh wait, I did already. [Yahoo News]

You can see it at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex, England. [Judah via Dezeen]

Come on. I bet he just clicks a button, and everything transforms into that chair. Then, he spends the day commanding battleships and air drones and playing World of Warcraft with his President buddies as level 120 wizard. [Big Picture]

Created by writer Christian Bök, the illustration shows all the 25 ways to combine two 4 x 2 Lego bricks. I don't know about you, but I love some poetry, science, and bricks in my morning cereal. [Poetry Foundation via Brothers Brick]

Not surprisingly, it looks like an elongated notebook inside. One that uses a lot of tape to hold those cables tight in place.

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Now the question remains: When the hell is this coming out? [Blogeee—Thanks Martin]

How big are 20 million four-drawer cabinets? As big as the Sears Tower? I have a hard time visualizing that. Strangely enough, I don't have any problem visualizing 52 tonnes of pepperoni pizza. [Mozy]

His name is JJ Hendricks, and he beat the previous game selling price record—which was also for one of these—by a $2,500 margin. Only 26 gold-painted cartridges were made and given to the winners and runner up of the Nintendo World Championships. [JJ Hendrick's account of the events via Offworld via Kotaku—Thanks JJ]

Nobody knows if the real PAK-FA will look anything similar to any of these three models, but we will probably discover it sooner than later: The Sukhoi PAK-FA will replace the MiG-29 Fulcrum and the Su-27 Flanker in the Russian Air Force, with a first flight initially projected for this year.

What we know for sure is that new Sukhoi fighter will directly compete against the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II. I, for one, hope that they never have to engage in combat. [Duler via The Dew Line]

Jesus Diaz: Would the LRO return images of the moon landings when it flies over them?
Grey Hautaluoma (NASA Headquarters, Office of Public Affairs): Yes, it will. We don't have a timeline yet for viewing the Apollo sites, but it will be in the near future.

There you have it. Soon we will have photos showing the remains of the Apollo Lunar Modules, also known as LEM (Lunar Excursion Module.) Built by Grumman Aircraft Engineering, the Lunar Module was 20.9-foot tall, with a 14 feet diameter and a landing gear span of 29.75 feet.

However, the Lunar Reconnoissance Orbiter will only be able to take photos of what is known as the Descent Stage, the bottom part of the LEM that housed the main propulsion system. This part was left on the Moon's surface, while the Ascent Stage launched after each mission to rendezvous with the Command Module orbiting around the Moon.

Other remains left on the Moon include the Lunar Roving Vehicles, used in the Apollo J-class missions: Apollo 15, Apollo 16, and Apollo 17. Since they are 3-meter long, the LRO will be able to distinguish them as well.

Of course, the conspiracy theorist will say it's all Photoshop and 3D now. I wish I can do like Buzz Aldrin and smack each and everyone of them.

In fact, at a 1.3-inch diameter and weighing only 1.2 ounces, the Pierre Junod Eris Planetary Sphere Watch is so small that you can use it as a pendant. Definitely smaller than the planet it takes its name from, which is 2,500 kilometers in diameter and 27% more massive than Pluto.

The only thing massive about this dark sphere is its price tag: $450. [Watchismo via Technabob]

This version is allegedly more stable than PurpleRa1n, fully compatible with Cydia and Icy, UltraSn0w, and probably many other annoyingly misspelled programs with 1s and 0s in their names.

You can download the new version for Windows, Mac, and Linux using a Torrent client. [Torrent via Twitter]

Designed to help the planning of the next lunar missions, NASA's LRO will take the most detailed photographic map of the Moon yet, distinguishing features only 3 meters (9.8 feet) wide, which is better than JAXA's Selene and way clearer than NASA's own HD-upscaled images from the 1966's Lunar Orbiter 1.

In theory, that's enough resolution to see the lunar landing sites, so I guess we can expect to see a badly parked rover as soon as the spacecraft passes over it.

Only the Apollo astronauts and Selene—which sent close-up images just before crashing—have relayed photos with more detail than these. However, these weren't taken from orbit.

The rest of the instruments on board the LRO are doing fine so far: On June 19 the Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector—which will look for potential water ice deposits—and the Cosmic Ray Telescope—to test the moon's radiation environment—were activated. Both are working perfectly.

In the next days, NASA will turn on and calibrate the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter—which will create a three-dimensional topographic map of our satellite—as well as the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment—prepared to check the temperature of its surface—and the Miniature Radio Frequency—that will create images of permanently-shaded craters. Another instrument designed to measure "starlight to search for surface ice"— the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project—will activate when all the other instruments complete their calibration process. [NASA]

We will have to wait till August to see if the complete cellphone looks as sexy as the teasers. And hopefully, they won't use a dumb cellphone inoperative system. [Electric Pig]

So if you go to Sweden, remember to take the trash down the stairs. Trust me here, there are other—and much better and enjoyable—things to die for in this country.

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I've spent all morning mesmerized by these videos—created by a bunch of extremely smart people at the University of Nottingham—which explain the most common symbols in physics and astronomy so any moron like me can understand them. And if you like physics and astronomy, you should probably do exactly the same. [Sixty Symbols]

Charlie Sorrel at Wired argues correctly that Apple will be damned with 17+ apps no matter what:

The problems for Apple are clear. By setting itself up as a guardian of the store, Apple can't win. Any time a controversial application is approved, or non-allowed elements are snuck into an application post-approval, Apple is blamed. If these apps are pulled ahead of time, Apple is called out as an evil censor.

However, that doesn't mean Apple should ban the 17+ app sex-related category to avoid conflicts. There are plenty of adult-oriented applications that won't allow for this kind of dynamic content. But then again, the fact is that any application that allows you to upload pictures and share them could be used to do exactly the same. So where should Apple stop, then? Should they ban any app that can be used to publish pictures or videos? Shouldn't the developers—and the users—be responsible about this and not Apple.

The problem for Apple is probably not a legal one, but one of public perception, with people and mainstream assuming that—just because it runs on the iPhone—it is Apple's app. I'm afraid that, if they want to keep the market fully open, they would have to find the public image battle instead of just pulling the applications that allow for this kind of behavior. [GadgetLab]

And still, I want it so badly. It was designed by the genius of Mauricio (Tony) Harion, from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. A place that I hope to visit soon, just to play it this game with this man, who I'm sure will be a future Nobel Prize. Hasbro, come on, get your act together and license this ASAP. And with ASAP I mean right now. [Coroflot]

This is a canopy raft, an enormous set of nets held together with inflatable tubes that act as an structural frame. It can be placed on top of forests so people can camp, accessing the ground below using a hole and ropes. Apparently, the are so light that the trees don't get harmed at all.

To place them on top of the trees they need a ship capable of handling such a large volume. In this case, they use the AS-300, the world's largest thermal airship. [Gilles Ebersolt via Deputy Dog]

Someone from NASA has sent us this unique video of shuttle Atlantis: A time lapse of the shuttle getting ready to be mounted on its 747 mothership at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, just before returning to Florida. I just can't believe how complex and laborious something that is conceptually so simple could be.

It's just sad that many people take for granted the hard and complex work that the boys and girls at NASA do to keep the much-needed space exploration going on with a meager budget.