The lucky buyer who took a load off for Seattle was Butch Behn, owner of Racecar Supply in Rochester, Wash. He plans to use two of the units at the South Sound Speedway. The other three will be resold or reused later. "It'd probably be good to have a couple around for spares. We get pretty busy at the track sometimes," he said (double entendre, anyone?).

The article over at the USA Today mentions nothing about whether or not the fine city of Seattle refurbished these things before sending them along. From the sounds of things that might be OK, as they were used for anything but nature's call. [USA Today]

In theory, the toilets' self-cleaning mechanism is capable of spraying down the whole interior with water jets and detergent every day, but the drainage systems quickly became clogged with trash, rendering them completely useless. Drug fiends and prostitutes were also fond of the 20-minute auto-locking doors, but the depravity quickly became too much for everyone, says the NYTimes:

“I’m not going to lie: I used to smoke crack in there,” said one homeless woman, Veronyka Cordner, nodding toward the toilet behind Pike Place Market. “But I won’t even go inside that thing now. It’s disgusting.”

[eBay via NYTimes]

Given the questionable aerodynamics of a baby strollers and human skeletons, something tells us that the goal isn't necessarily to win...at least in the traditional sense. [Hazardfactory and Flickr via bbGadgets and Hack-a-Day]

"Never in your life have you ever swallowed anything and it's still sticking out of your mouth, but once you do it, it's easy," he said of the device. It consists of seven fiber optic cables in a capsule about the size of a painkiller, with a 1.4-mm tether that allows the doctor to move the camera around and pull it back up once the exploration is finished.

Testing starts at the Seattle Veterans' Administration hospital next year. Once given the thumbs-up, the reusable gadget (disinfect, rinse, repeat, I guess) is expected to be used in the fight against oesophagal cancer. Normal endoscopes are considerably bigger and can only be swallowed after the patient has been sedated (and liberally greased up, probably).

[CNN]

Then it was my turn... I walked to the front, where she had me raise my right hand to swear that I would tell the truth, whole truth & nothing but the truth. She asked if my name change was to defraud creditors, I said no. She asked if it would be detrimental to anyone else, I said no. She Then asked if I was indeed changing my middle name to that of my childhood hero, I smiled & said "Yes Ma'am." She said, "Then I do order & decree that your name be changed from Jason Michael Burrows to Jason Megatron Burrows" with a HUGE grin. There were quite a few chuckles from the courtroom... I was handed the paperwork & I split. =)

Cesar from Zune Insider gets a Microsoft-sanctioned field trip to Souped Up Cafe tonight to show off the Zune to the nose-breathing masses. If you're in the Seattle area and want to feel what the Zune is like before it's on store shelves November 14, head down there to 7900 E Green Lake Dr N, tonight by 6:30 PM.

If you do go down there, take some pics and videos and send it over to us via tips at giz. Also be sure to tell Cesar that we know where he lives, so he'd better send us that review Zune soon. – Jason Chen

Attention Seattleites: See Zune in Person [Zune Insider]