Nah, it's one of the many art installations sprinkled over the dusty playa at Burning Man 2009. This year's theme is Evolution: A Tangled Bank. Safe travels if you're a weekend burner headed to the Blackrock Desert, and don't forget the distilled white vinegar to neutralize that alkaline playa dust!

One year later (and having travelled around three continents since), that stuff is still turning up in random places like my hiking shoes. [San Francisco Chronicle]

After 26 years of trying, Parker finally managed to solve the Rubik's cube that confounded him. Now, you may be thinking that he only occasionally picked up the puzzle, slowing his progress—but the reality is that he obsessed over it day after day, night after night.

'I cannot tell you what a relief it was to finally solve it,' the 45-year-old from Portchester, Hampshire, said. 'It has driven me mad over the years – it felt like it had taken over my life. I have missed important events to stay in and solve it and I would lie awake at night thinking about it.

'I have had wrist and back problems from spending hours on it but it was all worth it. When I clicked that last bit into place and each face was a solid color, I wept.'

Seriously. His wife claimed that it was like three people were in their marriage. When she met him, he was already obsessed with the cube. And she still married him? What a saint.

Oh, and you know this is a record. A spokesman for the World Cube Association, said it was 'definitely the longest it has taken' to finish the cube. Now that is a true champion. [Metro]

Part of the joy of the original was that you could twist and turn it with your fingers, and then heartily fling it out of the window when your frustration levels got too high, and still most likely fish it largely intact from your yard when you wanted to play it again. You can of course do that with this version, but I suspect its myriad of buttons (required to let you twizzle each virtual "segment" around) wouldn't survive the impact.

You can at least play a couple of other digital games on this: a kind of Russian roulette minehunter for multiple players, a tic-tac-toe game and what could turn out to be a pretty difficult Simon-like game. But in general—nah. Some classics should be left undigitized. [RandomGoodStuff]

Don't waste your $20 on this toy later this summer when it is released.–Travis Hudson

Product Page

Artist Site [Spy.org.es via Not Cot via uber review]

I don't think the cube actually spins anymore.

Instead, the Revolution features 6 games that seem to focus on reflexes: like "Light Speed" and "Rapid Recharge". These concepts may be a lot of fun, but from the videos on their site this glorified Bop It is a Rubik's in name only. Further evidence: children are having fun playing it! Does this piss off anyone else?

Available for $19.99 this summer. – Mark Wilson

Product Page

Product Page [USB Geek via Coolest Gadgets]

The cameras in its eyes scans the cube for a few seconds before using the kitten-crushing arms to solve the puzzle. Maximum solve time is 50 seconds, no matter how mixed up the cube is. – Jason Chen

RuBot II Solves Rubik's Cube [Robots via MAKE via Boing Boing]

Sounds rather gimicky, useless, and I bet annoying after a day or two. What gets me interested in this gadget is the potential for futuristic Rubik's cube action. Now that chinese kids can solve the original Cube in like 11 seconds, don't you think it would be sweet to reinvent the game where the colored squares change every 30 seconds? Me neither. I'm terrible at these things. You?–Brian Lam

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Glow in the dark Rubix Cube speaker [Tokyo Mango]

Rubik's Sudoku [Cool Hunting]

Product Page [Via Uber-review]