I'm not going to say I don't love the look of these proposed buildings—they are a noble attempt to put environmental relevance and soulfulness in front of sheer density and speed of construction—but damn if they don't appear to be freakishly devoid of privacy.

The building that MAD itself designed barely has so few enclosures, they must be planning to install bathrooms in the elevators. You can see it in the foreground above, and in the gallery below, along with three equally transparent concepts from BIG (which looks like a Wii), Emergent (which looks like it was designed by the Master Control Program) and Rojkind Architects (which looks like it was drawn by a Parkinson's sufferer).

You only start seeing some semblance of privacy when you get to this would-be Podling village by Serie:

There are 11 buildings total, all with seductively nouveau designs, some even fit for people who are modest, mecha fat and/or coyote ugly. To get a better sense of how they harmoniously fit together, hit the links. [MAD via designboom and Dezeen]

While obviously the city is made of nonobtanium and/or kryptonite, the idea of a self-contained town, using each spike of the star for a different purpose is, interesting. At least, interesting enought for megalomaniac urban planners in planet Krypton and myself. [MAD via Dark Roasted Blend]

Actually, with the USB port right on the back, this wheel could make for a pretty snazzy DIY add-on to existing hardware. If only it were mini USB, the modders could really have some fun. Pick yours up for $20. [Brando]

• Throwbot: A small camera on wheels that can enter rooms where a gunman might be hiding
• SkySeer: a UAV with a camera meant for urban police work
• PepperBall: Think paintball, but with pepper powder
• Bola Ball: A bolo that cops would use to trip up assailants (proved a tad hard to master)

The piece covers some sweet demos, like Raytheon's Active Denial System pain ray (which we've mentioned), the TigerLight pepperspray-shooting flashlight, and a blinding laser cannon meant to "visually dissuade" assailants.

At the end, the author and Heal visit to the HQ of one of the most successful non-lethal weapons: MAD, or magnetic acoustic device. It's not new, but it's only now being explored as a device for police forces. It's a sound projector that can shoot audio up to a mile in distance, and when it projected the sound of .50 cal machine-gun fire, the author says it sounded like it came from a gun "the size of a backhoe," and mentioned that all the birds in the vicinity took off in fear.

The link will give you a digest of the piece; I think you'll need to find an actual paper copy to read the full story. (What's up with that, New Yorker?? No love for the internet?) [New Yorker]

Traveling in the UK, we were appalled by such invasion of privacy, but the Brits seem to be getting used to it. But not the MAD group. They plan to increase their camera destruction activities this summer, vowing to take down every one of the things in the entire country. Drivers who are not actively slam-dunking the camera boxes will be encouraged to cover up their license plates on certain days, too, in a mass act of passive-aggressive civil disobedience. There's something sneaky about these cameras that we just don't like, and we wish these disobedient citizens well. Let's just hope nobody gets hurt. [Speedcam]

As you can see from the top images, August is a quiet month in the world of vending interiors. July, however, on the left, was mad crazy, with all the products moving one place to the right. In case you don't know what his arrows mean, Mr Terada also writes down the changes, rather like a chess game &mdash C3 to C4, C4 to C5, etc etc.

When he goes away on business trips or is too busy to document the life of his favorite machine, it is up to Mrs Terada to keep the vending machine vigilance. And fellow OCD sufferers vending-machine enthusiasts will be pleased to know that next month will be All Change, as October is when cold drinks are swapped for hot ones. Mr Terada's red Photoshop pencil will be busy. [Jihan via Kilian Nakamura]

Those crazy cats at Tokyo's University of Science have come up with a muscle suit. No, I'm not quite sure what it's for either. Is it to wear under a suit to give you the illusion of being buff and studly? Or is it to develop your muscles? Nope, apparently it's to help you lift things (although if the only objects you're going to lift while wearing it is a set of dumbells, then you might as well ditch the suit and concentrate on the weights, dumbass). The suit only weighs 3 kilos, but you'll need to carry around an air compressor and regulator with you. – Ad Dugdale

Muscle Suits [Danny Choo via Ubergizmo]

With all the classic games—Frogger, Street Fighter 2, Galaga, Pac Man—this stick seems almost necessary to play old games like they were meant to be played. – Jason Chen

Mad Catz Xbox Live Arcade Retro Stick [GameStop via Kotaku]