Yeah, Japan again. We love you guys, but what’s with these things? The above image shows a poor lady being paid to demonstrate the Face Slimmer Exercise Mouthpiece. You put it in there and say vowels repeatedly, allegedly exercising the muscles in your face and getting rid of wrinkles and sag.
But why does it have to… look like that? You and I know what this looks like. The kids don’t know. But we know what’s going on here.
It’s as cold as a witch’s tit round these parts and extremities tend to suffer the most. Enter the heated gloves, which should make scraping ice off your windshield in the glacial weather just a little less painful. They’re powered by Lithium-Ion batteries and have 4 temperature settings. The lining is from 3M and there’s leather in the palm for grip and comfort. Water proof yet breathable, these gloves will cost a pretty penny: $159, thankfully reduced from $199.
Back in the early days of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg asked artist David Choe to paint the interiors of their offices. Instead of cash, Zuckerberg offered stock options which Choe wisely accepted. Fast forward a few years and Facebook is filing for an IPO which analysts say could value the company at $50billion. If Choe then chooses to cash in his options, he will net around $200million. Yeah, a fifth of a Billion dollars!
Choe is a very talented artist and we’re happy he’s about to get that kind of payday. Unlike Apple’s Ronald Wayne who sold his 10% of the company for $800, Choe was wise enough to keep his stock until now. Watch the below video where he and Zuckerberg interact on a mural he’s working on.
We have this Irish bar in town where they serve chicken wings covered in a sauce made from the Ghost Pepper, also known as the Bhut Jolokia. It’s the world’s hottest, so when you order these, you have to sign a waiver saying that you won’t, like, sue the place if something goes wrong. Really. So my friend tried them and within the first bite was running to the washroom in shock, where a waiter was already waiting with lots of milk. Once the pain died down a couple minutes later, he apologized for his reaction, at which point he was informed that he shouldn’t worry. Not only was this very normal, but many people actually vomit right at the table within the first bite. So, my friend’s reaction wasn’t that bad.
Keep this little anecdote in mind when you order Timmy’s Great Balls Of Fire. There’s Ghost Pepper powder inside. And they’re also coated with it. They are rated at over 1 million Scoville units. To put things in perspective, a Tabasco pepper (used in the sauce of the same name) rates around 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville units. And police grade perpperspray starts around 2 million, so these candies are getting close.
Remember how in the movie The Matrix, humans were used as energy sources by the machines? I personally thought the idea was inefficient; why not make batteries or something? But still, it appears that we are now the machines and have been able to rig a poor cockroach up with electrodes and squeeze out some measurable amount of electricity. “Maximum power density reached nearly 100 microwatts per square centimeter at 0.2 volts. Maximum current density was about 450 microamps per square centimeter.” It’s the chemical within the roach that power this particular reaction. And if you want the gritty details of how it was done, just hit the jump for a fuller description and links.
So you get to the party and want to get noticed. Right? What better way than to be donning a pair of shades that light up? But of course, it would be annoying if the light would shine in your own eyes; no one wants that. But the GloSpex are different. The company’s developed a way for the entire lens area to light up and project the light only forward, leaving you to see clearly as if there was no light at all. They do this by trapping said light in clear plastic, using a principle called total internal reflection. The light is then bounced off of some light diffusing pixels which have a reflective backing, allowing for not only one way light emission, but for the display of images or logos. Think of this as the evolution of those light-up T-Shirts you’ve undoubtedly seen at clubs.
The best part is they’re only $20 for a set, if you pre-order right now on the Kickstarter page. They’re going to get funded as they’re at 50% of the $10,000 goal within a couple hours of re-launching. So go ahead and get yours now.
If you watch the above video, you’ll get a grasp of what you’re witnessing: the birth of the very things that will one day haunt our minds, and hunt our bodies. In our quest for progress, we have reached the stage where the University of Pennsylvania’s General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception lab have developed tiny flying robots capable of complex formations. Sure, right now the video is simply jaw dropping; seeing 20 of these hand sized bots fly around doing figure 8s, and passing through window frames is impressive. But that loud droning noise is a stark reminder that one day these very same bots (or even smaller ones) could be coming in through your windows, with intentions unknown. Never forget that if the technology exists, someone somewhere will find a way to put it to bad use.
Until then, we build our forts and we study the enemy. By watching the video.
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By David Ponce
By David Ponce
