Gearfuse

The Wiimote is much more of a versatile tool than I think even Microsoft could have imagined. People have hacked the Wiimote to create some zany and awesomely practical mods. But I think “lawnmower control” is a new one.

The Casmobot Lawnmower is navigated using nothing but a hacked Wiimote and the crafty engineering by several scientists at the University of Southern Denmark. The mower syncs with the Wiimote via Bluetooth, allowing the user to control the cutting edge, the direction of the mower and even allows you to set a autopilot mode, in which the mower only mows within a designated area.

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When I think of famous side profiles the first person I think about is Alfred Hitchcock. A team of scientists at the University of California at San Francisco “injected light-sensing and communication genes from various bacterial species into Escherichia coli.” That’s right, the poopy virus.

The scientists then projected an image of Hitchcock onto a plate of bacteria, leaving an etched image of the famed director in the petri dish. Eventually, the team plans on creating color imaged by adding special color-sensing genes.

Link

It might seem like some sort of lazy fantasy, but a Japanese astronaut recently tested out a pair of J-Wear anti-bacterial, flame retardant, antistatic, and water-absorbent briefs which are supposedly wearable for weeks at a time.

Astronaut Koichi Wakata says he wore the panties for about a month and received nary a complaint. That’s great that they can use them in space, but when will they be available for more practical use, such as playing WoW for weeks at a time without changing my clothes (I’m pictured above after one of my WoW marathons. Warcraft is great for my tight abs.)

Link

The fine gents over at De Capo Press were nice enough to send me a review copy of “Why Does E=mc2? (and Why Should We Care)” by renowned physicists Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw. Cox and Forshaw attempt to accomplish what Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan attempted decades ago. And that is to make physics, and specifically, Einstein’s theory of relativity and the concept of spacetime, accessible to the non-scientific mind. And with mixed success, the scientists have done their job.

Cox and Forshaw start at the beginning. It soon becomes clear that Einstein’s relativity would have been impossible without the discoveries of scientist’s work from centuries in the past. Beginning with Aristotle and continuing all the way up to the days of Hermann Minkowski, the authors develop a thorough picture for the creation of an equation. The process of Einstein’s discovery is outlined based on the discoveries of the past.

Continue reading after the jump.

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Is the world ready for cyborgs? Apparently not, as witnessed yesterday by the “death” of pop singer Michael Jackson. I have a source that was very close to MJ and word on the street is that his death was actually a CPU failure. Apparently, the model engineer Quincy Jones implanted in the 1980s, the THRLR-116 was meant for only 10 years of full-time use. After all the plastic remodeling done to keep Michael from overheating his RAMDISK and CPU, the effort ended up being a failure as Michael collapsed at his home with “Black or White” sputtering from his prosthetic lips.

Instead of a burial, Jackson’s body will be taken to a government research lab in Palo Alto, CA where scientists will conduct what’s known as a “cyber autopsy” to determine how the CPU ultimately failed. It’s a sad day for the world of pop music and an even sadder day for the world of robotics.

Link

Attention, scientists! For a whopping twenty five bucks, you can be the proud owner of ThinkGeek’s latest toy: The Bacteria Growth Science Kit. It comes with a petri dish, an eye dropper, pipettes, test tubes and packages of Agar. Remember Agar? It’s that stuff that you’d use in science class as a kid to grow bacteria, which is exactly the aim of this kit. That shit loves to grow with Agar.

Link

Atomically, DNA and its components are about as tiny as we can get before we enter the realm of “I don’t know what the hell I’m looking at here.” So you can imagine how “nano” we’re talking here when we mention a nano-sized box, made of DNA, which can only be opened by a specific DNA strain. Now THAT’S security.

Danish scientists at the Aarhus University Center for DNA Nanotechnology created a 3D box made of DNA. The box’s lid can only be opened when a specific strain of DNA is introduced as the key. What could science possibly use such a tiny box for? Targeted drug delivery, for one. These nano boxes could one day course through your veins, seeking a specific piece of DNA to open its latch and spread its love, just like your mother.

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Twitter is causing a hubbub across the globe as the next step in communication and social interaction. Your Twitter URL is now considered to be as sacred as YourName.com. For many, this is totally justifiable. Creating and promoting your online “personal brand” on Twitter is quickly becoming the modus operandi of the modern business man.

Can you really and truly be one with your brand if you don’t advertise your online lifestyle during your offline time? StickyTwits Bumper Stickers allows users to stick their Twitter URL right on the bumper of their cars for the world to see during their daily commute. Choose your own color scheme from their four varieties and order your own for $14.95.

Link (follow me here)

Queen Oprah is on Twitter and she’s gaining like 34254435 friends a second. Didn’t she get murdered by Tom Cruise or something? Does this count as the first resurrection on Twitter ever? The account was a placeholder, but is now active. Oprah’s world domination is imminent.

Link (oh hai, I’m on Twitter too)

A few days ago, an ingenious Twitter account mysteriously appeared online. The owner of Twitter profile OfficeChair engineered a rig which allowed his office chair to send a tweet  to Twitter everytime he passes gas while sitting in the chair. And boy, does he pass gas plenty. But how did he do this and how could you do it yourself?

You’ll need to pick up a few supplies and have at least some sort of sufficient tech DIY knowledge, but as long as your brain (and later, your ass) is intact, you too can make your own tweeting office chair.

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