The Price: $289

The Verdict: Probably the best lamp we've ever used. The light is a bright white, which is both inviting and soothing. The upper "room light" is bright enough to illuminate an average living room—no small feat for a desk lamp—so it's definitely more than enough for bedrooms and offices. The lower task light is plenty bright enough for any detail work you want to get done, from studying to hacking your PSP. The extra outlet on its base is plenty useful for any other devices you need to plug in, and the base itself is HEAVY. No mere stiff breeze would knock this over; it requires a stiff shove from a man who could do with skipping a meal.

The lamp comes with a 3-year fixture warranty and a 2-year bulb warranty. For $289, it's not a cheap lamp, but it's a quality lamp. If we had unlimited money, all our lamps would be Berkeley Lamps. Science + Lamps = Good. [Berkeley Lamp]

Update: A reader says this is from the BBC documentary The Power of the Planet – Atmosphere. [Today's Big Thing]

The vast majority of scientists will agree that the electromagnetic fields given off by small gadgets are far too weak to attract lightning strikes. Plus, there has been a marked increase amount of thunderstorms experienced across Russia this year—so there is definitely a reason to chalk this up to coincidence more than anything else. That is, until you see this. [CNN]

It makes sense for the shift, what with Taser not exactly getting great press for its shocking weapons and IEDs being a pretty big problem for troops in Iraq. And by aiming at the base of the windshield of a car, it can short it out without frying it, stalling it but not rendering it undrivable, which would be a big plus for stopping vehicles at checkpoints without completely destroying them. And they should be ready in 5-6 years, which is a pretty quick turnaround for new weapons. Between these and lasers, we're going to be fighting comic book wars in no time flat. [Danger Room]

Our wallets are far too bruised after Valentine's Day to actually buy a Lichtenberg figure, but as they look so cool, we'll give this a try. We totally understand that this sounds like a project your third grade science teacher may have tried to get you to pull off, but it's cool if you aren't forced to do it for homework—hurrah! Hit the link for the video, and be sure to let us know how you get on. [Popsci]

The Price: $9.99

The Catch: It's probably the shortest adapter out now (bottom), being neither twisty like the Griffin and Helium Digital, or really long like Belkin's (top). In fact, it's pretty much the only adapter that's not bendable.

The Verdict: if you're looking for an adapter that's as small as possible by sacrificing the bend-ability of Belkin's adapter (it makes the Smartphone Experts' adapter easier to break), this is for you. Sound quality on par as Belkin's when tested in our iPod docks and car adapters, and the short length makes it fit nicely into our pants pockets. It's fantastic if you want something to sit on your car's tape adapter all the time, if you're looking for something to go walking or jogging with, the rigidness of this adapter poses a risk for breakage. Be aware of that when purchasing.

[Smartphone Experts]

The Verdict: Mediocre speeds (~6MB/s), quirky drive formatting, limited sharing options, and the mandatory use of their drive mounting utility means this is more suitable as a network drive to share smaller chunks of data rather than a device to use for moving around big files.

The Catch:

Only one computer can be in write mode, and it needs to be formatted as FAT32 for Macs and PCs to both be able to access it, which takes a big chunk out of your performance.

The Performance: Filling up that 750GB (about 699GB when formatted) when sending data at 6MB/s means you're going to be sitting there for quite a while. You mount the drive like a normal drive on your Windows and Mac using their drive utility application, which is usable but not great. Unfortunately you can only have one computer mounting the drive as read/write, and the other 19 have to mount as read-only.

Formatting the NAS was a pain as well. Vista could only format the drive as NTFS, and not FAT32, so I couldn't use it as a shared drive between Mac and Windows. After some back and forth with tech support, we finally installed a newer driver and got Vista to format FAT32—which turned out to be not a great idea, because FAT32 on large-sized drives is much slower compared to NTFS.

The NAS also occasionally randomly disconnects, and you'll have to reboot both the NAS and your computer in order to get them both to reconnect. Not something anyone really wants to do.

The Price: $119 for 80GB all the way up to $329 for 750GB

The Recommendation: Slow performance thanks to the non-Gigabit Ethernet means you don't want to use this as storage you access often (get another internal drive or a USB drive), but if you have a repository of music or files a lot of people need to access, this could be for you.

[Newertech]

The Verdict: Sturdy build (slip-proof surface) and lots of charging tips allows you not to have to sacrifice quality for convenience. Oh, and it's reasonably priced too, which makes this a definite buy if you've got multiple gadgets to charge.

The Catch:

You still have to buy individual charging tips, which are sold separately. It's also somewhat bulky, but considering that it's four chargers in one, it's quite reasonable.

The Performance: It charged our phones and MP3 players in just about the same time as it would take with a standard charger. Most devices fit neatly onto the slip-proof tray, but large devices such as Nintendo DS Lite may require some arrangement.

The Price: $49.95 for the base unit, $5.95 for each charger tip.

The Recommendation: If you have a lot of stuff to charge (phones, MP3 players, DS Lite, whatever), get one of these. At $49 + $24 (for four tips), you'll save lots of space and have a nice station for all your electronics to boot. It doesn't charge quite as many devices at once as the Chargepod charge station, but each tip only costs $5.95 instead of $9.95.

[Gomadic]

The Verdict: Decent call quality, thin but solid build, nice red and black finish, but the half-QWERTY SureType is a bit tough to use.

The Catch:

Instead of a standard dialpad like regular phones, the Blast has a SureType two-letters-per-key typing scheme. It's a bitch to use at first, but gets slightly better after you get used to it. Whether you're willing to put in the effort is up to you.

The Performance: Calling and basic functions are there, but the menus don't look that great. It may be faster than T9 once you get used to the keyboard.

The Price: $99

The Recommendation: There aren't all that many other choices on T-Mobile, so if you're looking for a slider and you like texting (and don't mind putting some effort into learning the Suretype system), this could be the one for you. Plus, it's nice looking and thin.

[T-Mobile]

The Verdict: Great build quality, fast charging, and overall convenience makes the price a non-factor when you need to charge multiple batteries simultaneously.

The Catch:

It actually charges only one battery at a time, but holds onto two so it can charge the second one in series after the first one's done.

The Performance: Charging took around the same time as a standard charge in our MacBook Pro (when not in use). Conditioning takes all night, but actually added a couple percentage points to our batteries (judged from CoconutBattery). If you put two drained batteries in when you go to sleep, they'll be done by the time you wake up.

The Price: $149 for all types of Mac laptops (MacBook, MacBook Pro 15/17, PowerBooks, iBooks)

The Recommendation: If you have the need to carry and use multiple batteries in the same day, pick up this charging station. If you've only got one battery, you can accomplish the conditioning yourself on your own laptop by carefully charging and draining your battery.

[Newertech]

The verdict: Works exactly as advertised. Fits all headphones with no audible sound quality loss.

The catch:

It's mf-ing gigantic. It's longer than the iPhone is wide, and can't really be used in tight pocket situations. But it does have a flexible center, which means you won't be able to break it easily.

The performance: Worked great on my car's tape adapter. No audible sound degradation when plugging a set of headphones into the iPhone and plugging through the Belkin adapter.

The price: $10.95

The recommendation: As the first and only headphone adapter for the iPhone out now, you've got no choice. You have to buy this if you want to use non-skinny headphones on the iPhone. The huge size doesn't matter in the car or at home, but sucks when you put it in your pocket.

[Belkin]

The verdict: Pretty comfortable for racing games, because it allows you to use just the sides of your thumb to gently nudge the car left or right.

The catch:

It's not great for anything but racing games, because the plastic attachment on the bottom makes pressing down hard on the stick slightly more uncomfortable. Kontrolfreek is working on an adapter for other genres.

The performance: Good. I don't know if it made me any better at PGR, but it did make turns more comfortable since the grooved sides fit my thumb quite nicely.

The price: Pack of 2 for $9.95, or pack of 4 for $17.50.

The recommendation: If you're a racing fan who doesn't want to pony up for a racing wheel, this is a very cheap alternative.

[kontrolfreek]

It's not the kind of crack your average teenage boy dreams about in his bedroom, is it? Aguinaldo was taken to the hospital, but is expected to be out today as his injuries are not thought to be too serious. Up until yesterday's incident, it was thought that lightning preferred iPods to other gadgets. [Globo.com - thanks, Andre]

Not at all useful to bloggers, these lightning detectors (which use FM and GPS receivers to detect EM waves emitted from lightning) will allow storm chasers, farmers, and Travis Hudson to stay safe in the case of a lightning storm. Or when Captain Marvel is around. Seriously, that guy's an asshole. – Jason Chen

Nokia Phone will Detect Lightning [PCWorld]

Image Credit

We're not sure how well this works, but it's probably useful than relying on your own eyesight to tell you whether Storm's coming. Yes, we're talking about the X-Men character. She's very angry. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Strikealert via Gizmodude]

But what happens when a TV show puts it to the test—with one of their very own inside the car?

Hint: the funny part is when the host dies.

What Happens When Lightning Strikes Your Car [uberreview]

Those silly storms, all they do is sit up in the sky and plot the destruction of the world. On this past Fourth of July weekend they have declared themselves anti-iPod fanboys by punishing Jason Bunch, a 17-year-old Colorado teenager, whose iPod was struck by lightning while he was mowing the lawn. The lightning traveled the path of the earbuds all the way to his hip where the iPod was located. The iPod has a hole in the back and the cheap earbuds dissolved into a liquidy goo. He was placed in intensive care and was sent home earlier this week.

According to the Denver Post report, Bunch was listening to Metallica. I'm generally not one too falsify information, but there is a chance that Bunch's Metallica MP3s were not legally purchased. Could Lars Ulrich be the second lightning man?

Lightning clouds may be evil son of a guns but there had to be other factors playing a role in this mystery. The plot thickens even more when Bunch was surprisingly able to make his way inside the unoccupied house and call his mother, who was out of town, even though he was vomiting and bleeding from the ears.

So, we have an evil lightning cloud hitman, a possible second lightning man and a heroic iPod fanboy saving this kid's life. This mystery is far from over, stay tuned next week when our top forensic scientists pointlessly blow up ballistic gelatin with a tesla coil to unravel this mystery. – Travis Hudson

Lightning zeros in on teenager's tunes [Denver Post]

"This rare phenomenon is a public health issue, and education is necessary to highlight the risk of using mobile phones outdoors during stormy weather to prevent future fatal consequences from lighting strike injuries."