This is Barbie Foot, an art installation by Chloe Ruchon presented at the DMY Berlin Design Festival 2009. [Design Boom via Born Rich]

Stuelke—a medical student and artist—started this project back in the summer of 2007, using the four-slice General Electric scanner at Cornell. He uses the scanner when nobody is using it for more serious tasks than capturing the most intimate guts of these mundane objects. Stuelke then processes the resulting DICOM images—the standard file format in radiology and tomography—in an iMac, using a software called Osirix.

The results, as you can see in the gallery and the videos, are at times surprising, at times spooky, but always beautiful. [Radiologyart—Thanks Don]

Believe it or not, this is not the first time Mattel has released Star Trek Barbie dolls. In 1996 they released Ken and Barbie dressed up in Federation gear to celebrate the TV show's 30th anniversary. Expect them in April.

In the meantime, get the only doll that counts: El Señor Presidente! [Entertainment Wise]

The Barbie Digital Fingernail Printer, slated for release this fall, can print any one of thousands of designs directly onto your fingernails. Requiring only a clear base coat of prep and 15-20 precarious seconds as a machine inks each nail, according to KidsTechReview who tried it out at CES (how did we miss this???) it actually works:

Once you’ve selected the design, and even customized it some with orientation, darkness and so on, the printer sets to work printing on your nail...the end result is impressive. It takes some getting used to though. The first nail was a little misaligned, and it feels a little funny when it’s printing, but it won’t be long before kids are making fantastic nails. If you love the design, put a layer of top coat on and the design should stay on for many days. If not, a little rubbing wipes off the design and you can try again.

It's rumored that if Mattel has success with the still unpriced Barbie Digital Fingernail Printer, a Barbie Tramp Stamper should be announced shortly thereafter. [KidsTechReview and YouTube via Craziest Gadgets]

Note: I know that many won't consider dolls having sex NSFW—I don't—but in case you are a prude version of Bender, be aware that this contains explicit material.

The movie seems weird, sexy yet disturbing. For sure, it's beautifully made by Michael Sullivan, using stop-motion animation and digital photography. If you are in New York, you can go and see the dolls used in the production, as well as clips from the film at the Museum of Sex in Manhattan. [Underwire]

Called the Barbie P520, this clamshell phone is in no way sponsored by Mattel. Undaunted by its lack of authenticity though, the box advertises with the doll's silhouette, the logo, and even a tag line declaring it the “Barbie Music Phone.” It's not too bad for a fake phone spec-wise, packing a 1.3MP camera, up to 2GB of expandable memory, two sim cards, MP3 and MP4 support and Bluetooth into a 60 x 63 x 21mm frame.

AND it's got a touchscreen. The fake Barbie Music Phone, at $113, costs about $30 more than Mattel's MP3 player but, considering what it comes with, it's a much better deal for your hipless-big-boobied-doll-loving nieces. [Shanzhaiji]

The following objects are no-nos:
• Blogger, Orkut and Facebook The first of these surprises me, as Iran has the fourth largest community of bloggers in the world—even Ahmadinejad has one. (His latest entry reads "My package from Amazon arrived today—although it took its satanic time. Canceled cabinet meeting and the Ayatollah and I hit the games room all morning. GTA IV FTW." ) Anyone who wants to start one up has to inform the authorities, however.
• Celebrity magazines "Using photos of artists, especially foreign corrupt film stars, as instruments to arouse desire, publishing details about their decadent private lives, propagating medicines without authorization, promoting superstitions," goes the explanation.
• Boots and hats Only when worn by women, although I suspect that the Village People's steel toe-caps and leather cap might not make it past the "Down With This Sort of Thing" crew.
• Neckties Although they're not averse to slipping a length of rope around miscreants' necks, I guess a skinny number with piano keys down the front is just taking it too far.
• Breasts on mannequins Some shop windows display clothes on showroom dummies with mastectomies that look like they've been done with an ax and covered with flesh-colored duct tape. Yeah, lose that image from your brain now.
• Western music The artist worst hit is, apparently, Kenny G, so for that let me just say Viva la Revolución!

What, no gadgets banned? Wrong. camera phones are off limits. High-speed internet, too. The reckoning is that denying these items will allow citizens to remain in a state of moral purity. The state has even invested in US-built software that can scan images and files sent by phone to ensure that the morals of its citizens remain pure. And, in a way, they've got a point. Can you remember life before broadband? Yeah, it wasn't pretty—half an hour to open a single hi-res image. Porn traditionalists who like basic missionary sex must have been dying as they strained to see what was going on below the protagonists' expressions of ecstasy as the pic revealed itself, millimeter by agonizing millimeter. Not quite the skin smorgasbord Westerners now enjoy.

Nuclear reactors aside, what does the Iranian gadget freak get to play with? LG, apparently. The Korean electronics company is big in Iran, which gave it the green light last year to produce five cellphone handsets in collaboration with an Iranian manufacturer. LG stuff is advertised all over the place. Switch on the (silicone-free) Iranian music channel and you'll find the commercial breaks clogged up with plugs for LG's RoboKing robotic vacuum cleaner.

Whoah there! So, Barbie is about to be sacked, but autonomous vacuum cleaners are totally fine? Mullahs! Ahmadinejad! Do you not realize what you are doing? Now, I'm no great defender of Barbie (as a kid, I read war comics, climbed trees and played Doctors & Nurses) but these robot vacuum cleaners may be more of a threat than the blonde, pneumatic doll. In the grand scheme of things, I would think Barbie is a more traditional symbol of womanhood than a robotic floor cleaner that does the drudgery of housework, freeing the ladies of the house to dream of getting jobs, drivers licenses and other sorts of trouble. Are you sure you've got the correct target?

Anyone want to make me one for Hello Kitty? [Instructables]

These BarbieGirls MP3 players are bizarre for more than their creepy doll shape: Apparently they are designed to teach your kids about exclusion and peer pressure. When you plug the $59.99 device into the included dock, they unlock exclusive content and chat rooms that only other kids with dolls can access, making them a My-First-Country-Club gadget as well as a portable music device. And yes, it gets even worse.

The 512MB of internal memory and SD card support players that will also have additional "outfits," which will unlock even more chat rooms. One can only assume that buying even more accessories will get you into even more exclusive chat rooms, until you end up virtually discussing the merits of jelly over peanut butter with the daughters of world leaders and A-list celebrities. [New York Times]

Oopsy Poopy Barbie Doggie [Consumerist]

Target Needs To Fire Their Website Copyrighter [Consumerist]

Barbie Doll and Tanner Scooper Dog Set [Entertainment Earth, via Random Good Stuff]

The Tyco R/C N.S.E.C.T. (pictured above) is the sequel to last year's toy of the year. Imagine having a remote-controlled insect the size of an Xbox walking around your house. The front mandibles can actually grip items, be they enemy robots or beer cans, for the older boys in the audience. It shoots foam darts out of its body, leading to massive casualties. Expect videos of N.S.E.C.T. battles to become commonplace on the Interweb. $99.99, this July.

The Tyco R/C Airblade looks like something out of Apocalypse Now (or, for the learned, Heart of Darkness). It's a three-wheeled hovercraft that actually floats just above the (flat) surface, zipping to and fro quite nicely. What's more, plop this baby in the water and watch as it tears up the joint. Recommended for kids 8+, including drunken college students. $79.99, this July.

Mattel's also got a line of Superman toys with your child's name on it. Pictured here is the Superman Returns Inflato-Suit, which you put on like a t-shirt. Activate the battery-operated fan and BAM—instant muscles, no tiring trips to the gym needed. Useful in fending off bullies, girls. $21.99, available now. There's also an action figure that does action figure stuff: sound effects, "action" poses, etc. $24.99, available now.

Continuing with the movie tie-ins, Cars represents yet another Disney + Pixar license to make money, which Mattel also has covered. The most impressive of which is the Cars Fast Talkin' Lightning McQueen Vehicle. On the underside of the car's body is a series of buttons that you use to program the car's movements. Press forward, left, backward, right, forward and it'll move thusly. Just don't put it on a ledge or anything, or it might fall. Not that that happened during the demo or anything. $34.99, available now.

Lastly, Mattel has a incredible number of Barbie and Barbie-ish girls toys on the way. Since I would wager that many of the readers here aren't too interested in Barbie (or at least shouldn't be), I'll keep this somewhat brief. There was one impressive item, the Barbie Let's Dance doll ($54.99, this September), which uses RFID tags embedded inside a wrist band to mimic a child's dance moves. Raise arm up, Barbie's arm goes up; spin around, Barbie spins around. Did John Biggs put on a dress and spin around during the demonstration? Hmm, to tell or not to tell. – Nicholas Deleon

Mattel

You can use me to make and receive calls with Bluetooth 1.1 compatible mobile phones. I have no wires. I work within a 10 meter radius of your phone so you can leave your mobile in your pocket or a bag. You turn me on/off, receive calls, make calls and pair me with other devices by pressing in the small of my back.

I m not sure if this means you ll have to talk into her feet or something, but apparently it'll work with any Bluetooth-compatible phone. There's even a USB dongle sticking out of her so you can recharge her. It's not for everyday conversational use, but I bet you don't want to be talking into Barbie's ass everyday either. And if you do... you're our kind of people.

Post Pokia Bluetooth Star Trek Barbie Handsfree Headset [eBay]