Gearfuse

Have you been looking for that special gross-out prop for Halloween? I think you might have just found it. It’s not a cockroach, but it does have a shitload more legs. $27.

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Whatever happened to a good old-fashioned fly swatter? I blame that damn rap music.

A fly will certainly know it’s facing impending doom when you cock your insect-targeted Glock in its direction. The Fly-Goodbye Gun features some sort of vacuum and internal tube adhesion system. While it does look pretty hardcore for a tool designed for small insect control, it’s really a kitten in disguise. A catch-and-release container allows no harm to come to the fly, other than a little scare perhaps.

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We like art. Whether it be fusing plastics together, or building an impressive LEGO display inspired by Terminator, art is art. Especially if it’s art inspired by robotics, like these City Foundry Bots. Graphic designer and illustrator Juan Carlos Federico creates some fascinating digital collages that resemble living creatures gone robotic. They’ve ditched their organic ways for a body of scrap metal, spare parts, and recycled junk.

The art line is called “Restatos” and shows some almost life-like art pieces that look as though you actually could build them from the parts and pieces shown in the art. In fact, you probably could! Check out the link to his website to see more of his work.

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There are plenty of robots that are a hell of a lot more useful then Swashbot. Hell, there are a lot of robots that are even cuter then this mini-insectoid, yet there is something alluring about the DIY SwashBot. A certain charm, if you will.

Constructed using spare R/C helicopter bits, including four servos, a receiver, a battery pack, LEDs, and a little exoskeleton, the SwashBot strolls around like it owns the joint. Even if it doesn’t have the agilty or wisdom of other robots, it’s hard to deny a robot as adorable as this. Hit the jump for videos of SwashBot in action. (more…)

Much of the newest level of Big Brother-type surveillance seems overly paranoid for my taste, and this just takes it to a whole new level of suspicion. Scientists at Georgia Tech have been dabbling with an idea which is the best thing since Bird’s Ass View. The prospect of producing cyborg SpyBot moth’s, which are implanted with surveillance equipment in their larval stages of development.

The problems start when the moth makes its way out of its larval webbing. How do you control where the moth goes? Scientists are working on an answer for that exact question, with the best idea centering around some bizarre brain control which would take control of the insect’s flying route. — Andrew Dobrow

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