The official answer, to this official question:

The Freedom Tray is a tribute to the world class manufacturing and dedication of the hard working people of this country. We are proud that the Freedom Tray is completely made and manufactured in the USA with US-made materials. Also, as the name implies, the tray provides you the freedom to live an organized, spill-free and uncluttered life without changing your day-to-day routine.

In other words, yes. It also holds drinks, fries, chicken, or drink-fries-or-chicken-shaped-things, has legs sometimes, and is basically a small plastic folding table with rubber bands, which costs $20. I now yield the floor to the ever-so-slightly not American-sounding Ewa Mataya Laurance:
Being in your car, watching TV, boating, camping, at the game, the race, or serving up burgers at the tailgate party! This stuff belongs in our constitution, somewhere. Along with a coupon for the Freedom Tray. [Wonkette]

The bag you see above isn't actually the core component of interface device—that'd be the sensor tile at its base, which generates and monitors a magnetic field. Any disturbances in the field—that's where the bag, filled with some kind of magnetic substance, like iron filings, comes in—can be translated into movement, whether it be simple X/Y gestures around a flat plane, or more complex gestures that take into account prod pressure. Technically interesting, but I feel like this concept needs a little something extra:

[A researcher said] making a device that could switch between an input and output device would be challenging. While moving ball bearings using magnetic fields shouldn't be too hard, "[moving] ferrous fluid bladders would be trickier," he says.

WHO SAID ANYTHING ABOUT OUTPUT? Consider this, mouse jockies: a few years from now, your Intellipoint might be an actively pulsating pouch of magnetic fluid. John C Dvorak, 1984:

The nature of the personal computer is simply not fully understood by companies like Apple (or anyone else for that matter). Apple makes the arrogant assumption of thinking that it knows what you want and need. It, unfortunately, leaves the "why" out of the equation - as in "why would I want this?" The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse'. There is no evidence that people want to use these things. I dont want one of these new fangled devices.

Just replace "mouse" with "undulating sack of ferrofluid" and then tell me I'm crazy. Anyone? [Technology Review]

To help the Windows team prepare for this legendary occasion, Domino's delivers stacks of its American Legends pizzas to Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond the day before the Windows 7 launch.

What?! Holy crap, who are these people who are paid to set stuff like this up? It makes me want to cry.

Also, I'm hungry. Maybe I'll order a pizza.

As per the instructions by the gentleman on Reddit who found this anomaly, "click forward." And as per my instructions, click forward again. And again, and again, and again. Again!

Then sputter a little prayer in Latin, exorcise your laptop, slaughter a baby goat, whatever you have to do to help this man escape this fiery, oddly typographical abyss, which never ends. (Except for when it does, somewhere around East Pittsburgh.)

Update: Reader Chris Walker desperately clawed at the walls of the fiery nothingness for quite a while, and eventually found his way out. This is the first thing he saw when he came out?

Glorious. [Reddit]

The experiment ran thusly: A mule was strapped with dynamite, which was connected to a detonator. The very same switch that controled the detonator was connected to the camera, so as to trigger an exposure during, or slightly after, the poor animal's head was a-sploded. And verily! An 1881 issue of Scientific American recounts the horrifying event with bizarre earnestness, excerpted in the gallery:

[Stereoviews via Things Magazine via Metafilter]

Created with direct input—tons of music, artwork and story advice—from the man himself, "Hi, How Are You" is a 3D, cell-shaded platformer with tilt controls. As with virtually everything Johnston has created in the last two decades, it's surreal, a little childlike and tinged with religious imagery, but it's far from sloppy: Johnston's teamed with some serious developers to make a game that is genuinely playable, even if it's often inexplicable. Hi, How Are You is a dollar, available now. [iTunes]

You see, it's a big rubber mouth. And when you crank it up, it makes a creepy laughing sound! But of course! I mean, why wouldn't you make such a thing?

But I guess here's the thing: despite the pure randomness of this thing, there's something somewhat appealing about it. I mean, the combo of the obviously precision engineering to make something so, well, whimsical? That kind of combo could only come from Japan. Which is why, despite the quirks, we can't get enough of it. [YouTube via Adam Savage]

What, you didn't believe me? [DealExtreme via Nerd Approved]

Global Gaming Factory X is, in their words, the "biggest network of internet cafés and gaming centers in the world," making this story even more bizarre than it appears. This is sort of like GameFrog buying Demonoid, or, I don't know, Laser Quest buying Empornium. Odd, is the point. For the supreme WTF aspect of this whole thing, here's their plan:

We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site

Yes, you read that correctly: the Pirate Bay wants to pay content providers, or in other words, cease to be the Pirate Bay. This is alarming to fans of the site, obviously, because any conceivable system by which content owners could be paid would drastically change the nature of the whole thing, from a "Pirate Bay" to an, I don't know, iTunes? Unbox? Napster? This, and the future-tense wording of the announcement (the deal is set to close in August) is enough to make you think the whole thing is a hoax, but then you see TPB's semi-defensive, semi-groveling, generally defeated statement on the matter. All this trial, retrial, grandstanding and election business seems a little silly now:

Yes, it's true.

News reached the press today in Sweden - The Pirate Bay might get aquired by Global Gaming Factory X AB.

A lot of people are worried. We're not and you shouldn't be either!

TPB is being sold for a great bit underneath it's value if the money would be the interesting part. It's not. The interesting thing is that the right people with the right attitude and possibilities keep running the site.
As all of you know, there's not been much news on the site for the past two-three years. It's the same site essentially. On the internets, stuff dies if it doesn't evolve. We don't want that to happen.

We've been working on this project for many years. It's time to invite more people into the project, in a way that is secure and safe for everybody. We need that, or the site will die. And letting TPB die is the last thing that is allowed to happen!

If the new owners will screw around with the site, nobody will keep using it. That's the biggest insurance one can have that the site will be run in the way that we all want to. And - you can now not only share files but shares with people. Everybody can indeed be the owner of The Pirate Bay now. That's awesome and will take the heat of us.

The old crew is still around in different ways. We will also not stop being active in the politics of the internets - quite the opposite. Now we're fueling up for going into the next gear. TPB will have economical muscles to let people evolve it. It will team up with great technicians to evolve the protocols. And we, the people interested in more than just technology, will have the time to focus on that. It's win-win-win.

The profits from the sale will go into a foundation that is going to help with projects about freedom of speech, freedom of information and the openess of the nets. I hope everybody will help out in that and realize that this is the best option for all. Don't worry - be happy!

I fully expect more clarifying information about this deal to come out soon, since TPB's interests are actually quite wide, the owners are still smarting from their recent court defeat and the whole thing just feels so strange. [GGFX—Thanks, everyone!]

I'll let Brando's stream-of-consciousness pitch speak for itself:

It's not ONLY a Normal Power Extension Bar, Slot your Sim Card and works as a Spy Ear! Slot the Sim Card inside this Power Extension Socket place it under the table and start your spy work! It is a Real Power Extension Bar support with 8 sockets. Also, the device can be recharged, it can still work for spy ear even not attach to the power outlet. You can place it ANYWHERE without notice by others!!

$66. [Brando vie Redferret]

Adam sent me some files last night, and I think he may have uploaded one of them to the site. Now there are all these requests for me to input my information. Will that fix the site? I entered some in. I hope it works.

Now to check my account balance.

Uh oh.

According to Asus CEO Jerry Shen:

...internally we have one team dedicated to studying voice recognition. Touch and gesture input is universal, whereas language is not universal...The first Eee PC or Eee Top products implementing voice-recognition and features will be ready by Q3/Q4 2009 – with our dedicated development team working with third parties in both Japan and the US and reporting directly to me. So this is something we will see very soon...

Hmm, it's a fine idea for home (if it works). But I'd rather not be talking to my netbook at Starbucks. [TechRadar]

The Alcohol Shot Gun fires 1 oz of delicious booze right into your mouth (or onto your face, as it would probably turn into after a few rounds). It's the perfect way for you to turn a night of drinking into an awkward show of your aggressiveness and homoerotic tendencies. Party on, dudes. [Urban Trend via Slippery Brick]

It sounds strange but driver faces are getting thinner and thinner which leads to a louder noise when contact is made with the ball. Tests conducted with clubs from manufacturers like King Cobra, Callaway, Nike and Mizuno revealed surprisingly high decibel levels. In fact, the Ping G10 hit over 130 dB when swung by a professional golfer. This kind of research is why some experts are recommending that players wear earplugs while on the tee.

Personally, I like the sound of a booming drive off a titanium driver. It's an audible cue that I have made good contact. Although, the sound always seems less intense when I am the one hitting the ball as opposed to standing in the vicinity of another golfer. Still, at least one person has been documented in the British Medical Journal as having suffered hearing loss as the result of using a King Cobra LD driver 3 times a week over the course of 18 months.

Is this something avid golfers should worry about? I'll get back to you on that when I see Tiger Woods using a hearing aid. [BBC via Neatorama]