The brainchild of Japanese interactive media artist Mio I-zawa, this thing is flat-out disgusting. I mean, it's certainly well-made, as I guess the whole point is to look like a real, biological entity, but damn. It looks like something out of a Cronenberg film. I'll stick to using iStat Pro to monitor my CPU, thanks.

[Mio I-zawa via Pink Tentacle]

The Meat Museum isn't really a museum at all, but rather the personal collection of one meat-obsessed man named Brad Coram, one that he keeps in his office. I'll let him tell you the story in his own words.

About 5 years ago at a ultra-boring Oil and Gas trade show in Bucharest, Romania a colleague and I decided that we needed to start a collection of some common type of souvenirs from the counties that we travel to for business. There was a little shop just outside of the run-down communist looking trade show pavilion and we were immediately drawn to the horrible cans of meat. Two of these cans became exhibit numbers one and two of the Meat Museum. Since then we have recruited a number of additional 'hunters' and have over 110 cans from more than 30 countries.

I have even had customers send me cans from their home countries after hearing about the museum or after seeing the display in my office. We have had roughly 15 cans either confiscated at customs in various countries while in transit, or removed from courier packages and confiscated that way.

So far none of the cans or glass jars have ruptured but I live in constant fear that if one goes off it will start a chain reaction and will detonate the whole exhibit. Most are faring okay with the exception of a can of Russian cow (I think its cow) on which the top is starting to bulge, and some pigs feet in a glass jar that I think some air must
have gotten to.

There is also a 'gift shop', (admittedly in it's infancy) that has a pack of 'I Love Meat' stickers, a Spam T-shirt and a 'chick-can' apparatus for inserting an open beer can into the backside of a chicken prior to cooking.

People often ask me what the best exhibit in the collection is. Not an easy answer, as I love them all but I do have two favorites: One is a glass jar of pork(?) from Poland. It's is not the pork that I love but the photo of the 1970's porn star dude and his portly wife out having a 'Piknik' with the family. Another show-stopper is the sheep's head from Iran with the saying 'Healthy Food - Healthy Society' on the label. I couldn't agree more.

Tough economic times, a slow down in the Oil and Gas sector, and damned video conferencing have slowed the travel (and thereby meat hunting) considerably since last year but the collection continues to grow however slowly. I'm off to Southern Germany next week and undoubtedly will find some good huntin' there… Those Germans eat some sick shit and bless them, they have no issue with eating it out of a can!

Amazing. Although I'm a little bummed that you haven't eaten any of these, Brad. I mean, with that Sheep Head staring at you every day, I don't know how you haven't given into the temptation yet.

Being on death row is lonely, so having a TV is important to your sanity. Godwin's was on the fritz, so he decided to multitask by trying to fix it while using the commode.

The last stupid decision of his life was to bite down on an exposed wire in the plugged-in TV while sitting on the metal toilet. He was electrocuted instantly, making his own kind of electric chair and saving the state the trouble.

Machines Behaving Deadly: A week exploring the sometimes difficult relationship between man and technology.

The ball shot out at 70MPH, striking Anderson in the skull. He wasn't knocked completely unconscious and was surprised to discover his head swelling in instead of out. This was because he had multiple skull fractures that were causing blood to collect in his brain. Bad news.

Surgeons had to relieve the pressure in his skull to keep blood from entering more parts of his brain. Because seven areas of his brain had collapsed, there was a fear that permanent brain damage could result.

Now, 7 years later, Mitchell is one of the top players on his high school baseball team, batting a .455 with a .714 on-base percentage.

An impressive recovery and comeback to be sure, but he's got to know that somewhere out there is a pitching machine that wants to finish the job. Watch your back, Anderson. [News Journal Online]

Machines Behaving Deadly: A week exploring the sometimes difficult relationship between man and technology.

He stepped to the microphone to sing backup to lead singer Maggie Bell. During a part of the song that didn't require him to play guitar, he reached up and grabbed the mic. Bad move: it was ungrounded.

He was electrocuted by the microphone, which had a supreme amount of electricity flowing through it. Because his hands were wet and he was standing in a puddle, the current shot right through him. He died instantly in front of thousands of fans. He was 27 years old.

Maybe buying your kid a guitar wasn't the best way to keep him safe and off the streets, eh?

Machines Behaving Deadly: A week exploring the sometimes difficult relationship between man and technology.

He pressed the buttons and inserted his cup, waiting for his beverage to brew. But instead of dispensing coffee, the machine rumbled and shook before exploding in Yogesh's face. It sent shrapnel and scalding coffee grounds into his head and chest, killing him instantly.

He had just wanted an energy boost, but the coffee machine had other plans. Maybe relying on the heroes at Starbucks to do such dangerous work isn't such a bad idea.

Machines Behaving Deadly: A week exploring the sometimes difficult relationship between man and technology.

He had multiple primitive video cameras pointed at him to capture this amazing feat. The video shows Reichelt standing on the edge and staring down for a long, long moment. Obviously, he was nervous about what he was about to do, but knew that there was no turning back once he had gone that far. Anyways, what a wonderful publicity stunt it would be!

When he leapt off the edge, he plummeted straight to the ground. The jacket was supposed to open up and allow him to float gently to the ground, but it failed to perform as he intended.

His parachute jacket turned out to be a failure of an invention. But Reichelt inadvertantly invented something else that day: taking videos of yourself doing something wildly idiotic and hurting yourself in the process. It's something that took a long time to really catch on, but it's safe to say that Franz was truly ahead of his time in this regard.

Machines Behaving Deadly: A week exploring the sometimes difficult relationship between man and technology.

Nokaidoh, on his way to do his rounds at Christus St. Joseph Hospital in Houston, Texas, struggled in vain to free himself as the elevator moved upwards. Stuck between the vice-like doors of the elevator, he was decapitated when the elevator moved to the floor above.

This was the end of Hitoshi's troubles, but just the beginning for the woman who was already in the elevator when it stopped at the second floor. She helplessly witnessed the entire thing and was trapped for 20 minutes with the head before she could be rescued. She had to undergo psychological counseling for months after the incident.

20 minutes. Think about that. Makes walking up a flight of stairs not seem so bad, doesn't it?

This is just more proof that machines have been attacking us for quite some time now.

Machines Behaving Deadly: A week exploring the sometimes difficult relationship between man and technology.

SquishBot is a program to develop a new class of soft, shape-changing robot. The goal is to design systems that can transform themselves from hard to soft and from soft to hard, upon command. Another goal is to create systems that change their critical dimensions by large amounts, as much as 10x. Such robots will be like soft animals that can squeeze themselves through small openings and into tight places.

Sweet mother of god. This is terrifying. [Boston Dynamics via Boing Boing Gadgets]

[eBay via Boing Boing]

And that's what it is: A really smart giant dog. Big Dog—which is being developed by robotics company Boston Dynamics—has some of the most advanced artificial intelligence and navigation systems in the planet. In fact, US Army officials are stunned by its programmed behaviors, which make Big Dog extremely helpful in the battlefield.

Big Dog can run along soldiers, walk slowly, or lay down to be loaded or unloaded, all while being aware of the terrain around it. No matter what happens, or how hard it's hit, the robot maintains its course like Captain America, but without falling on the ground under any circumstances. The only way to get him off its path is by a major direct hit, which could mean a rocket or President Obama's defense cuts—although, since it is low cost and not a Cold War-era weapon, it probably will survive the crisis.

Even while they are not yet ready for actual battlefield action, the US Army has high hopes for this beast. They see it as the most effective way to carry all kinds of material, reducing the weight that soldiers have to tug along, freeing them to move faster and be safer.

Right now, they only need to make Big Dogs quieter—they still buzz like a billion angry bees—and increase their autonomy. If there are no unforeseen problems, they will get into the battlefields in just a few years.

With drones now taking over the skies, it's only a matter of time before a Big Dog 2.0 arrives. In fact, many analysts are already pointing at the possibility of bi-pedal robots fighting alongside soldiers or replacing them entirely. Science fiction authors have imagined this scenario many times, from Terminator to Metal Gear Solid 4, in which "geckos"—the two-leg Velociraptor-like fighting robots shown in this video—are clearly inspired by Big Dog's biological design.

For all the technological terror they inspire among anyone who sees them, however, they can't match the hilarious spoof that some troupe did a while ago. Sadly, the idea of Big Dogs, Terminators, or "geckos" taking over the battlefield—or the world—is not funny at all.

The lamp's name is Frankie, and it's shaped like a skull with some sort of horrifying modification over where the mouth should be. The eyes are interchangeable LED or halogen bulbs, allowing you to choose just how intense the stare from this thing is gonna be. The whole thing weighs 11 pounds, and is probably expensive due to the fact that you need to contact the artist for pricing. No thank you. [Fernando Akasaka via CoolHunting]

The alleged explosion came from the gas cylinder that was in the base of the chair, the part that allowed the user to adjust the seat up and down. The canister gets compressed when you sit on it, but can it actually create enough energy to make the seat cushion explode like that and kill a man? I doubt it, but this is what people are reporting.

In other news, I am working from a beanbag from now on. Sweet merciful crap. [Anorak via The Daily What]

In a bizarre incident that will surely lead to litigation (or an out-of-court settlement), a skier at Colorado's ritzy Vail resort was left dangling upside down and pantsless from a chairlift last Thursday morning. The January 1 mishap apparently occurred after the male skier, 48, and a child boarded a high-speed lift in Vail's Blue Sky Basin. It appears that the chairlift's fold-down seat was somehow not in the lowered position, which caused the man to partially fall through the resulting gap. His right ski got jammed in the ascending chairlift, and that kept him upended since his boot never dislodged from its binding.

Fifteen minutes. Good lord. And I'd like to know how this kid is ever going to look his dad in the eye again after watching his nakedness dangle shinkingly in the cold in front of a mountain full of winter sports enthusiasts for a quarter of an hour. Good lord. [The Smoking Gun]

The $226 Blood Bucket Lamp (our name) celebrates the holidays with flowing crimson that's in the perpetual state of just almost spilling all over your floor. Sure, you could pretend that it's supposed to be paint—there's a bucket and everything. But when you wake every night in a cold sweat, your face glowing red from the nightlight...well, we told you so. (After all, there's good reason we don't watch those gross iPod nano commercials after ten.) [Blood Bucket Lamp via Rinkya and Crunchgear]

Yikes. To make you feel better, might I suggest revisiting the adorable bionic puppy? [Environmental Graffiti via io9]

[NeoWin via CrunchGear]