This isn’t quitethe coolest pet entertainment hack we’ve seen, but it sure comes close. The LaserPup is a little device that you mount on your ceiling. It’s got a buzzer plus two servos that move a laser pointer around, all monitored via a webcam and controlled through a web interface designed to be used on an iPhone. It seems like it could totally be a sellable product, but at the moment you have to build your own… You can find a bunch of helpful instructions at where else but LaserPup.com.
No word on how many stuffed bears gave their lives to make this coat, or how your children will react if you wear it, or how much it costs. But, damn… Who comes up with this stuff?
The same people who brought you the headless chicken duck lamp, apparently:
Um, can I have some of whatever you guys are on? Please?
It’s been a long time coming, but finally, there is a physical trophy that those of us who are awesome at fantasy gaming can proudly display in our homes. This rug is the pelt of, um, one of these things (maybe), except of the vegetarian cave dwelling variety without sharp teeth or eyes. A terrifying and foul beast, it does 2d4 bite damage and has a cold resistance of 5, but is vulnerable to fire and piercing weapons. If you manage to kill one, you can skin it, but it costs 1200 gold pieces to turn it into a +3 rug of impressing your dorky friends.
Of course, this monster skin is just as fake as whatever pride we fantasy gamers take at our imaginary accomplishments. It’s hand made out of felted wool and polymer clay by Joshua Ben Longo. The only real bit is the price: a monster skin rug costs $1200 to $2500, depending on size.
According to the resident OhGizmo marine biologist, the thing in the video above is what’s called a siphonophore. Although it looks like one single totally bizarre alien fish thing, it’s actually a colony of different individual invertebrate animals that live together as one single organism. Some of them sting, some of them glow, some of them digest, and some of them push it around and look all tentacley. Each part has become dependent on the other parts working together, making siphonophores a sort of weird hybrid between individuals and a single animal. That’s pretty cool, I guess, I just really hope I don’t ever find one crawling up out of my toilet.
Somehow, an intrepid reef shark on display at a resort in the Bahamas was able to escape her pen by jumping over an 18 inch wide, foot high wall. She landed on an adjacent waterslide (called “The Leap of Faith”) and made it all the way down to the bottom, presumably doing whatever the shark equivalent is of shouting “wheeee!” the whole time. Right before splashdown, one of those automatic thrill-ride cameras snapped the above picture.
Unfortunately, sharks and chlorinated water don’t mix very well, and although resort staff were able to rescue the shark from the pool and return her to her tank, she died shortly thereafter. Oh, and the resort wasn’t open at the time, so there was nobody else on the water slide… But if there had been, this would have taken the concept of “thrill ride” to a while new level.
Cats know where it’s at. All they seem to do is sleep, eat, sleep, stretch, get you to pet them, lick themselves, and sleep. I’m not sure what exactly they’re good for, besides being warm and fuzzy while making you feel jealous and somehow inferior at the same time. It seems like the Chinese have figured it out, though: cats are USB compatible. Simply jam your peripherals into kitty’s spine, or its mouth, and you’re good to go. If you want to see something really messed up, I might suggest plugging a couple USB Humping Dogs into it. Just picture that for a second and you’ll see what I mean.
In order to get smooth and stable video, the pros use several thousand dollar Steadicams. After watching this video, I think a chicken might be more effective. While Steadicams rely on high inertial mass to keep them from jiggling around, the chicken possesses superior technology in the form of a gyroscope (probably its inner ear) and compensating motors (the muscles in its neck). It’s able to instantaneously compensate for any movements of its body to keep its head just about perfectly stable. So all you really need to vastly improve your spastic videography is a willing chicken, a little helmet with a camera mount, and something to keep the chicken looking where you want it to look. Something like, I dunno, a girl chicken in a bikini or something. Brilliant.
Food chains are rather nasty things. We don’t like to think about it much, but you know all those cute little fuzzy wuzzy soft and cuddly animals like bunnies and gerbils? They exist primarily to get EATEN by bigger animals with NASTY SHARP POINTY TEETH. GRRRRRR!!! The sooner your kids learn that, the better they will be able to survive in the wild, so why not be pragmatic this holiday season and get them some Food Chain Friends.
Food Chain Friends come from a far away planet called Daro, which exists much like Earth did, some 200 million years ago. They come in sets of five, and cutely feast upon one another. For example, the Frokol eats the Vextie eats the Fergel eats the Skoodle eats the Zezzel, which gets by on Floober Tree Moss. Get it? No? Well, if you can fit one into the mouth of another, odds are it’s lower on the food chain and therefore lunch.
They’re friends. They eat each other. It’s a complicated relationship.™ Food Chain Friends come in two different sets, and are available for about $50 at FAO Schwartz among other places.
Yes, I know, your dog is the best dog ever and you just have to know what he’s doing all the time and share that information with the rest of the known universe. Well, get yourself a SNIF tag and you can do just that. Hooray. The SNIF tag uses and accelerometer to guess what your dog is most likely doing (walking, running, napping, licking itself, etc.) and then transmits the information wirelessly to the SNIF base station, where you can monitor your pet real time through the SNIF website and post updates to your twitter account every 30 seconds. If your dog is out of range, the SNIF tag stores the information, which you can retrieve by docking the tag with the base station later. You can compare the activity levels of your dog with other dogs of the same size and breed, and see how your pooch stacks up to the competition.
In addition to activity monitoring, SNIF tags also contain a unique ID. When your dog meets another SNIF tag equipped dog, the tags exchange IDs through RFID, and your dog as made a “friend,” who you can check out later by accessing your dog’s social network via the SNIF website. And hey, if the owner is cute, “you have the choice of becoming friends, or maybe more.” Um, right. The big downside to the SNIF tag that I can see is that it’ll just provide conclusive proof that your dog is much more fit, and has a lot more friends, than you. Oh well, you knew it all along.
The SNIF tag starter kit costs $200 for a limited time here, and it costs $89 a year to access some unspecified “premium” online features. An extra perky user review of the SNIF tag (OMG it accessorizes and lights up!) after the jump.
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