Scary
”Medical Manikins Freak Us Out
Meet the manikins (not to be confused with mankinis), medical dummies (spelled "manikin", apparently) used to train future doctors on how to do the bare minimum to keep you alive that the HMO will pay for. There are all types, from the sexy Overweight CPR manikin to the Deluxe Child Crisis manikin. My favorite is the Multi Man CPR manikin, because it reminds me of last weekend. Vote on your favorite, then report back here and we'll compare notes. Next week we'll feature Manikin II: On The Move. [Medical Mainikins on Oobject]Real-Size Alien Statue Guaranteed to Kill You at Night
Standing 7 feet 7 inches, this ultra-realistic alien statue made of steel, resin and rigid foam—with transparent dental acrylic lips—is designed to kill everyone who tries to break into your house with the sheer power of pure fear. The only bad this is that, most probably, it will also kill you when you go to the fridge in the middle of the night. As you can see in the nine-image gallery, the detail is amazing.
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An MP3 Player Only the World's Ugliest Dog Could Love
Leave it to obscure Chinese manufacturers to come up with the CJ7 Dog Doll MP3 Player—a device so hideous it looks as if it was spawned in the fires of hell. Outside of its appearance, the device features 1GB of flash memory, a built-in loudspeaker and a conveniently placed USB butt port. It will only set you back $18.67, but that is still a high price to pay for a device that will surely give you nightmares. [DealExtreme via anythingbutipod] More »After Losing Nukes, Air Base Fails Inspection: Security Caught Playing Games On Cellphones
After losing track of six nuclear warheads last year, you would think that the crack security team at Minot Air Force Base would pull it together for their much anticipated nuclear security inspection. Unfortunately, you would be mistaken. Inspectors from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency failed the security wing based on a number of infractions—including an incident where an airmen was observed playing video games on his cellphone while standing guard at a "restricted area perimeter" during a simulated attack.
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apple
iPod classic Firmware Update May Damage Headphones
Some iPod classic owners who installed the recently released 1.1 firmware are reporting that their iPods are sending electrical pulses through the headphone jack and docking port, even when the units are turned off. The pulses, estimated to be 500mv worth of DC, may be enough to damage equipment that is plugged in. More »
scary
FBI Wiretaps Shut Down:The Feds Weren't Paying the Bills (and Other Frightening Things)
Here is a comforting thought for you. Apparently the FBI has routinely failed to pay telecom companies for providing phone and internet lines that they had been using for wiretaps and other super-secret surveillance. This has resulted in at least one company cutting a foreign intelligence wiretap until the bill is paid. More »Precocious Kids Mess with Tracks of an Oncoming Train
These kids messed with the tracks of their local express train and got it to go off its normal tracks. I don't want to spoil this video for you, so just watch it. Trust me, it's worth it. It's another one of these great videos in the spirit of yesterday's flying car clip, of which I cannot get enough.ElmoSapien: The Scariest Robot Ever
Holy shit. Robots Rule developed a new Elmo personality for the ElmoSapien, essentially turning the RoboSapien we love so much into an Elmo doll that haunts our every waking and non-waking moment. To install it on your own RoboSapien—although we don't know why anybody would—just download the instructions, sound files, and follow the guide on their site. Christ, why not make a GoatseSapien instead? That's the only way this could get any worse. [RobotsRule]1200-Feet High Zip Line the School Bus for Colombian Kids
There's a South African zip line that claims to be the highest one in the world. But how about this one that takes Colombian kids from their hillside village to school? Well, faced with one minute of eyeball-spinning terror 1200 feet above the jungle, or a two-and-a-half hour hike, which one would you take? [Spluch]
US Soldiers to Get Brain Microchipped to Measure Vitals
The Department of Defense is pursuing a brain-implantable "biochip" that will measure/relay a soldier's vitals on the battlefield (and off). We don't know much from a technical standpoint about the chips, other than they are about the size of a grain of rice and will have the ability to, at minimum, measure oxygen levels in tissue. But the technological breakthrough involved has little to do with the electronics.
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Robotic Piggy Bank Eats Money, Gives Me Nightmares
cellphones
Washington, D.C., Wall St. Brought to Their Knees by CrackBerry Outage
While we reported on the BlackBerry service outage (and subsequent magical restoration) earlier, what we didn't note was that it apparently threw Washington, D.C. into sheer chaos. Reuters was on the ground: "I felt like my left arm had been amputated," said Joe Shoemaker, communications director for Assistant Senate Democratic Leader Dick Durbin of Illinois. It was, in a word, "crippling." More »
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