Gearfuse

Is this a museum? An art installation? Absolutely not. This is an airplane and its destination is Switzerland. Swiss Airlines is offering up gorgeous work cubicles for its fliers who need to get work done in style. Need Internet? No problem. A little TV for you, sir? Of course, of course.

While my boss, Steve Rufer, will gladly visit me in America using Swiss, I’m forced to crawl into an over sized duffel bag. He then sneaks me back in the cargo hatch of the plane and throws me salted peanuts during the 10-hour flight. Oh what a life!

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Two doctoral students, Martin Vuagnoux and Sylvain Pasini from the Security and Cryptography Laboratory at the Swiss Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, have discovered a potential threat to security that declares keyboards “unsafe to transmit sensitive information”.

By monitoring signals produced by keystrokes, the researchers were able to reproduce what had been typed on 11 different keyboards using a variety of different attacks. One specific attack worked as far away as 20 meters from the keyboard. The next time you find yourself exchanging top secret information with someone on the Internet, you best watch what you type; the KGB could be monitoring your keystrokes.

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Who would have thought that a watch belonging to one of the most brilliant minds in history, Albert Einstein, would go for so cheap? This Swiss watch owned and operated by the famous patent clerk, himself, will be sold at an auction next month and could earn around 20,000 to 30,000 dollars.  That’s pretty cheap considering its previous owner.  There’s nothing special about the 14-carat gold watch in design, but it’s got Einstein’s name on it. That alone should attract many interested buyers.

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The creator of LSD, Albert Hofmann, passed away this week at the ripe age of 102. After discovering the drug in 1938, the Swiss chemist accidentally got some on his finger in 1943 and experienced what is suspected to be the first LSD trip in history. After seeing a major surge in LSD during the 1960s and ’70s, it still remains popular among the youth counterculture, hippies and pretty much anyone with time on their hands, money and a taste for exploring alternate dimensions.

So let’s assume you’re celebrating the life of Hofmann this weekend through acid. You’ll want to stock up on some of the following gadgets and toys for when it really kicks in (about 90 minutes after ingestion):

The Medusa Underwater Lamp will make your eyes roll ’round while you float in your pool contemplating how Jesus was born.

Shit, maybe you’re really serious and took a whole blotter sheet and some 2-CE along with it. Better use these Lava Lamp Shot Glasses to soothe your mood before you freak out.

One time, Andrew and I took a bunch of acid and tried to play soccer. After holding the ball for 45 minutes and tearing about how much he missed his first cat, Duff, he immediately suggested we skip the field and rock out with this LED Jump Rope. We programmed it so it’d spell out “GOD IS IN THYSELF” while Andrew hopped and hopped across his driveway.

If you prefer to relax and listen to ambient music while tripping, you absolutely have to procure one of these sweet bathtubs.

Be careful when ingesting LSD. Objects may be larger than they appear.

Lastly, take care my friends. Especially when visiting outer space.

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Though the fundamentally awesome concept of time and space appears intriguing to both stoners and astrophysicists, only one of two groups can afford this particular watch. Designed by Swiss watchmaker Romain Jerome, the Day&Night watch offers (wait for it) only two modes of time: day and night.

The Wall Street Journal explains how it works in exceptional detail:

The watch features two tourbillons — devices that overcome the ill effects of earth’s gravity on a watch’s accuracy — connected by a differential mechanism. Instead of hands, the watch has a “contemplative tourbillon operation whereby the ‘Day’ tourbillon operates for 12 hours to symbolize working life, while the ‘Night’ tourbillon takes over afterward to represent an individual’s private time.

Call me crazy, but ridiculous price aside, I love the concept that this watch is going for. The idea of transitioning time twice throughout a 24-hour period is appealing and would make for a wonderful way to segue into the evenings. If you’re looking to get one, I apologize. They sold out in a mere 48-hours.

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We half expect a big metal arm to eject out of this watch and suck us inside or something into its alternate universe. Independent Swiss brand, Hautlence, unveiled their newest design. The HL line carries such features as mechanically visible retrograde minutes and a jump hour display which has a blurred overlay until the correct number fills the screen.

The casing is available in a choice of titanium 88, white gold, and pink gold. Inspector Gadget has already ordered his. If you buy this watch and start having anvils fall dangerously close to your head, we’ll be forced to say “told ya so”. — Andrew Dobrow

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