OK, so you're out there on your ops, and you want to pick up chatter from enemy radio. You don't want to look suspicious, so you pull out your pipe and pretend to pack it with tobacco. You can't actually light it, because inside this pipe-shaped countersurveillance radio is a receiver, batteries and a bunch of other stuff that won't take kindly to smoke and embers. The device's neatest attribute is its lack of earpiece. Instead, you'd bite down on the mouthpiece, and hear signal through bone conduction.Once you've gathered your information, you can stash your film and other goodies into a dead rat. Or, if you think rats are icky, you can put your data into a brick or a rock. Here's one actual "concealment" brick with a cement cap:Since there's always a risk of getting caught, smart guys wrote down their info on water-soluble paper, and stored it in thermoses. A thin layer of glass separated the paper from water; when the bad guys came close to apprehending the agent, he'd just drop the thermos and the glass would shatter. There'd be no sign of the paper, and the contents would then be drinkable—if you didn't mind all the broken glass.

Earlier on, guys would wrote down data in exploding notebooks, but I imagine the practice was curtailed when they drew a little too much attention, especially in phone booths, airplanes or gas stations. Note: The instructions tell you to remove the safety when you start using it, not just when you need to blow it up. If your data-dumping apparatuses didn't get you out of trouble, you're lucky you've got an Escape & Evasion Rectal Suppository Tool Kit shoved up your ass. That's right, that tool kit is rectal, and goes up presumably far enough that the man with the rubber glove (you know the man) won't find it. Hopefully you'll be able to get to it when you need to saw, drill, ply and file your way out of a Siberian prison camp. Escape futile? Or just having an upleasant time with the whole suppository tool kit? If you planned ahead, you got the agency to provide you with a definitive way out. Though not common, "L-Pills" containing "lethal" substances were issued from time to time, and stashed in pens. U-2 spyplane pilots carried something slightly different, a needle, hidden within another larger needle (you know, so you don't prick yourself), tipped with something nasty called "saxitoxin." All of this CIA tech and much more like it is covered with great depth and hair-raising anecdotes in Spycraft, a new book by Robert Wallace and H. Keith Melton, reviewed by us, and available for pre-order at Amazon.

(Click on the image to access the huge version—remember to zoom in if your browser auto-scales it.)

It all first started in 1947, when LEGO bought their first plastic injection machine. The brick was not invented then but took final form in 1958, when the shape of the stud-and-tube brick was patented. Since then, LEGO sets have been going through dozens of iterations, from the younger version, DUPLO, to the most sophisticated LEGO TECHNIC and LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT sets, going through all the different themes of LEGOLAND and, of course, the most successful line of all times according to LEGO, LEGO Star Wars.

LEGO brick curiosities

• There are about 62 LEGO bricks for every one of the world's 6 billion inhabitants.

• Children around the world spend 5 billion hours a year playing with LEGO bricks.

• More than 400 million people around the world have played with LEGO bricks.

• LEGO bricks are available in 53 different colors.

• 19 billion LEGO elements are produced every year.

• 2.16 million LEGO elements are molded every hour, or 36,000 per minute.

• More than 400 billion LEGO bricks have been produced since 1949.

• Two eight-stud LEGO bricks of the same color can be combined in 24 different ways.

• Three eight-stud bricks can be combined in 1,060 ways.

• There are more than 915 million combinations possible for six 2 x 4 LEGO bricks of the same color.

• 7 LEGO sets are sold by retailers every second around the world.

• The LEGO bricks sold in one year would circle the world 5 times.

• 40 billion LEGO bricks stacked on top of one another would connect the earth with the moon.

• LEGO bricks are so much more than just toys. They are used in classrooms from preschool to university level to teach everything from math, language skills and science to engineering and technology principles.

• The LEGO brick has inspired generations of innovators, like Jonathan Gay, inventor of Flash.

• World-renowned author Douglas Coupland believes the LEGO brick represents a "language in itself."

• A January 2008 Google search produces 57.6 million references to LEGO bricks.

• There are 55,600 LEGO videos on YouTube.

• Google co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, used LEGO bricks to build the external low-cost and expandable casing for 10 4GB hard disks when they were busy developing the Google search engine (today, they have reportedly been used in Google's college graduate recruiting exercises to test potential candidate's creative horsepower).

The first LEGO I remember—which I shared with my brothers and which my dad built for us, obviously without being able to contain his excitement—was a huge fair wheel, yellow. I don't even know where that set is anymore, but I remember the armless minifigs. Or perhaps I'm dreaming. The very first LEGO we got, and which I remember building clearly, was the LEGOLAND Space Galaxy Explorer, which came along with three other sets, including a Rocket Launcher, the Space Shuttle and the Mobile Tracking Station. Do you remember your first LEGO set? Tell us in the comments. [LEGO in Gizmodo]

But first, the bricking. Was this done on purpose? Lam doesn't think so. Jacqui at Ars believes that the firmware was completed weeks ago, and the bricking is unintentional. It doesn't matter what the intent was: They didn't go out of their way to stop it, which is almost as uncool. Principles aside, this situation won't affect lots of us, since the majority of us don't have a reason to unlock. But bricking it entirely is something they should work really really hard to avoid, even if it costs them some revenue share from AT&T. My main concern is for the safe development of Apps that so far have done nothing but made the iPhone better.

"Users who make unauthorized modifications to the software on their iPhone violate their iPhone software license agreement and void their warranty." That photo above is what Lam's iPhone looks like now. Does this mean Lam's warranty is in the shitter? Because he didn't unlock my iPhone and nothing he did can't be fixed with a system restore. Going after the hacks, which have changed the iPhone from a good product to a great phone? That's idiotic.

There is a good side to all this, provided we can get Apple to make firmware that doesn't brick iPhones. The press release also mentions the feature updates via the firmware, like the Wi-Fi Music store. This is historically how the PSP firmware updates were made as "must haves" for owners. Unlocking an iPhone isn't nearly as appealing if it means you don't get the benefit of new features. So, if anything, the unlocking cat and mouse game should push Apple to make a lot more innovation, and quicker. A good thing, when you consider that the best iPhone innovations in the last few months are not the web apps or official Apple updates, but the third party hacks.

Apple has discovered that many of the unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet cause irreparable damage to the iPhone's software, which will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed. Apple plans to release the next iPhone software update, containing many new features including the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store (www.itunes.com), later this week. Apple strongly discourages users from installing unauthorized unlocking programs on their iPhones. Users who make unauthorized modifications to the software on their iPhone violate their iPhone software license agreement and void their warranty. The permanent inability to use an iPhone due to installing unlocking software is not covered under the iPhone's warranty.

The bite-sized drive is small enough to attach to your keys (via the strap) yet packs a full gig of storage space. It's available in six colors for $59 a pop, so you better be a real Lego fan to splurge on one of these. – Louis Ramirez

Note: That's $59 Australia Dollars, so roughly $49 USD, plus $4 shipping worldwide.

Product Page [Zip Zip]

So, I'm very happy to find this classic moto styled brick phone with a GSM SIM slot inside. And the china-import even has MP3 ringtone support, a speakerphone, SMS, a color screen, and other modern niceties. It is 3/4 of a pound, and nearly 8 by 2 by 3 inches in size, though. At $170, it's a steal, when you think about it per pound. One wish — I'd like a shoulder strap, and a chiropractor on speed dial number 1.

Stat smather, post jump.

* GSM Network GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900 * CSTN, 65K colors LCD Display * 128 x 160 pixels, 29 x 35 mm Display Size * Speaker phone * Screensavers * Wallpapers * Polyphonic (32 channels), MP3 ringtones * 500 Phonebook entries * Call records: 10 dialed, 10 received, 10 missed calls * SMS Messaging * Java MIDP 2.0 * English and Chinese English languages and text input * T9 text input with Chinese Pin Yin * Calendar * Calculator * Alarm Clock * Rechargeable battery * Dimensions: 195 X 41 64 mm (7.69 X 1.63 X 2.5 inch) * Weighs 12.5 oz. (including battery)

–Brian Lam

80's Brick Cellphone [Thanks Curtis!]

What we like most, however, is that designers encased a real light bulb in the block of acrylic– like you've trapped a great idea, and now it's your bitch 3 hours a night. – Mark Wilson

Product Page [via inhabitat]

Product Page [Via Dealhack]