Daniel Deutsch made a lifesize working replica of the Star Wars landspeeder. Deutsch’s masterpiece is 1:1 scale and was built with “a custom aluminum chassis, fiberglass body, and an electric drive system that hits lightspeed at 25 mph.” It is driveable, but there’s no word on whether or not this landspeeder is street legal. Even if it’s only able to make trips around the driveway, it’s still way more useful than that DIY Jabba the Hutt we wrote about a few months back. Read more to see photos of the landspeeder under construction and posing with a puppy.

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Supertouch just posted their latest dispatch from the international urban street art scene. French artist JR traveled to Rio de Janeiro’s famous favela street slums and created a massive art installation by placing huge portraits of local residents on the sides of buildings. Based on some of the close-up shots it looks like JR made this happen by pasting up individual pieces of paper with small photo sections on each of the buildings. Read on to see more pictures of this incredible artwork

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Alvin, the submarine operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, has been used since 1964, but it’s finally getting an upgrade. Currently, Alvin can dive down to a maximum depth of 2.8 miles, but new replacement, which is costing $50 million to build, will be able to go over four miles underwater. With the added distance Alvin can explore 99% of the ocean floor compared to the paltry 62% of the deep scientists have previously been able to reach by submarine.

Alvin 2.0 has also been pimped out with more windows, a larger cabin, higher top speeds, and new batteries that will allow the sub to operate for up to eight hours instead of six. Submarine construction is difficult, because diving four miles deep subjects subs to nearly five tons of pressure per square inch. To survive the pressure, the wall of the “personnel sphere” on the new Alvin will be three inches thick, which is an inch thicker than the wall on the old model. I guess when it comes to submarines, size really does matter!

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Music Skins (a.k.a. GelaSkins) collaborated with streetwear label Lemar and Dauley to create a line of covers for laptops, iPods, iPhones, and plain old cellphones. All of the skins are emblazoned with Lemar and Dauley’s rainbow skyline logo. I dig the skyline drawing on the skins, but I don’t see why anyone besides a major label whore would want two other dudes’ names on their electronics.

These Lemar and Dauley skins are made with specialty 3M vinyl that’s less than 2mm thick with residue-free adhesive that allows for worry-free removal when you want a new look for your gear. Music Skins also has downloadable wallpapers so you can match the screen of your device to it’s skin. After the jump, check out more photos the Lemar and Dauley line for Music Skins.

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Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin may be working the whole naughty librarian vibe, but she’s apparently having a little bit of trouble with the internet. After John McCain revealed that he had chosen the Alaskan governor as his running mate, editors discovered that several new users had spent hours leading up to the announcement making 30 flattering edits to Palin’s Wikipedia entry. While some Wikipedians gave the pro-Palin editors awards for their work, many others made accusations of internet sock-puppetry. Editing on Palin’s page has since been restricted.

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Fashion designer Jeff Staple recently had dinner with a couple of the guys from InCase in Las Vegas. During the meal Staple got a sneak peek at one of their new iPhone 3G cases for Spring ‘09. He snapped this picture of the case, which seems like it’s made with brushed aluminum.

As long as it’s scratch-proof, this case would be great and highly secure. A laptop case with a similar design would also be very cool.

According to Staple “metallic Silver is just one of many many flavors coming soon from the InCase camp.” I wonder if they’ll actually be releasing that bukkake iPhone case in the spring too.

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Thunderbirds, the gadget packed British 1960’s sci-fi puppet TV show, may be coming back on the air. Gerry Anderson, who created the show with his wife Sylvia told reporters that he’s in talks to bring back the series 32 years after it’s last episode.

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Are the ladies not impressed by your old school flash drive or classy wine cork USB drive anymore? Crooks and Castles has the solution. They’ve designed a badass flash drive that’s encased in a machine gun bullet. Nobody will mess with you when you’re carrying your files around in this thing.

Hypebeast spotted the 1GB bullet USB drive at a trade show and it doesn’t seem like it’s available to the public yet. I think the bullet flash drive will be a hit if they decide to put it on sale. Wearing this thing around your neck would be the perfect way to proclaim your undying love for Counter Strike, gamers will go nuts for these

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Nixon is planning to release a watch made from recycled skateboard decks. Part of Nixon’s Rotolog collection, the RePly watch features a colorful wristband and a stylish analog display. Skateboard enthusiasts are bound to go nuts for this thing even though it’s not waterproof and the colored stripes look pretty ridiculous. Nixon hasn’t announced when the watch will actually go on sale.

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Finally a controller only the great Andre the Giant could comfortably handle.  Inspired directly by Kyle Downes’ NES coffee table, Matt LaBoone worked all summer on this impressively gigantic SNES controller. I can’t imagine having a group of friends sitting around this thing each contributing their part to one button as they mash away while playing Street Fighter 2.

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