Recycled scrap-lumber bedframe

"Cory Doctorow: At €7,450 this bed-frame made from recycled and cleverly fitted lumps of scrap lumber is more the kind of thing you admire than the kind of thing you run out and buy. That said, the idea is cool enough to try out in a home workshop. Link (via Cribcandy)

[link] :

Cyclops: Brain-Frying Killer Robot?

" 'Cyclops' was just one of the new and fantastical prototypes from a group of young designers being showcased as part of the Leading Edge Design exhibition in Tokyo last weekend. Taking the form of a towering pillar of metal, Cyclops — now having been in development for a few years — is a robot that scans the area in front of it and detects movement. Its 'eye' constantly adjusts its focus and attention on different moving objects in the vicinity, giving it an almost curious, humanoid nuance even though it looks anything but. A computer screen showed us what the robot was seeing, complete with a red marker on each human object in the scene, picked out by the robot's software.

The designers weren't on hand to say specifically what the intended use of the robot would be, but I'm betting if you strapped a brain-melting raygun to this thing you would have a pretty devastating killing machine. I, for one, welcome our new mono-eyed overlords.

[link] thanks Gizmodo!:

Iqua UFO Bluetooth Headset/Table Ornament

Iqua has released a Bluetooth 'headset' that is not really a headset, but a tabletop conference calling system. Plop it down on the coffee table and start the 3-way calling action, because that's what Iqua has in mind for the UFO. It features a nice LCD that displays the time and date as well as caller information, and has Skype compatability, too, which is awesome. Battery life, you ask? Apparently up to 8 hours talk time on a full charge, with 220 hours standby time. Not too shabby. Complying with Handsfree and Headset Bluetooth profiles, the UFO can be paired with up to eight devices, one at a time. It retails for $150 and is especially useful if you have to do conference calling a lot and are an avid user of Skype.

Iqua UFO Bluetooth Headset [Mobile Whack]"

thanks Gizmodo: "

Celestron SkyScout Is Almost As Cool As A Pink Floyd Laser Light Show

"When I was a kid it was enough to stick those glow-in-the-dark stars and planets on the ceiling. At first, I tried to do a scale model of the universe but realized there was no scale that would make any sense in my bedroom. I got a bit older and turned the ceiling into a Van Gogh Starry Night-inspired trip-o-sphere. A month later, it became clear that the Starry Night was even dorkier than the scale model of the universe, and that I would never be able to convince a girl to come over and listen to my Pink Floyd albums, anyhow.

Puberty would have been different if I'd had the Celestron SkyScout. This gadget is about the size of a video camera and becomes your own personal planetarium. Just go outside into the freezing night and point the SkyScout to the sky at a specific star or object, and you'll get commentary on that particular object. Up to 6,000 objects are pre-programmed into the SkyScout, so expect to be entertained for hours.

One day, it might even play Pink Floyd.

The SkyScout won a Best of Innovations honor from the Consumer Electronics Association.

thanks Gizmodo:

Mobile Chic = Old Handsets

The other day as I headed out of the Versace store at the mall, I felt like I was missing something to go with my sequin-beaded, pre-torn shirt-and-jeans ensemble. I needed an accessory that screams chic, but is retro and old school. Then I found these DIY mobile handsets that I could customize yourself with paints and glitter! Like, totally! I pictured how good my ass would look with a bright orange, glitter-ridden phone handset hanging from the pocket and liked what I saw. The handsets come in all kinds of fashionable colors like white, pink, blue, and lime. Using a cellphone adapter, you plug in your handset to start talking like it's 1965 all over again. Regular models go for $2,500 while the baby model goes for $750. Or you could Google around a little, get some paint, and do it all for under $40 by yourself. But you have more money than taste, admit it. [link]

'Old school' headset for mobile phone [Akihabara]"

Mobile Chic = Old Handsets

The other day as I headed out of the Versace store at the mall, I felt like I was missing something to go with my sequin-beaded, pre-torn shirt-and-jeans ensemble. I needed an accessory that screams chic, but is retro and old school. Then I found these DIY mobile handsets that I could customize yourself with paints and glitter! Like, totally! I pictured how good my ass would look with a bright orange, glitter-ridden phone handset hanging from the pocket and liked what I saw. The handsets come in all kinds of fashionable colors like white, pink, blue, and lime. Using a cellphone adapter, you plug in your handset to start talking like it's 1965 all over again. Regular models go for $2,500 while the baby model goes for $750. Or you could Google around a little, get some paint, and do it all for under $40 by yourself. But you have more money than taste, admit it. [link]: "

Team Maps Dark Matter In Startling Detail

"Clues revealed by the recently sharpened view of the Hubble Space Telescope have allowed astronomers to map the location of invisible 'dark matter' in unprecedented detail in two very young galaxy clusters. The team's results lend credence to the theory that the galaxies we can see form at the densest regions of 'cosmic webs' of invisible dark matter, just as froth gathers on top of ocean waves, said study co-author Myungkook James Jee, assistant research scientist in the Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy in Johns Hopkins' Krieger School of Arts and Sciences." [Link]

This is the snapshot of the computer simulation of the dark matter Universe. These filamentary structures are called "cosmic webs" of dark matter. (Image courtesy of Johns Hopkins University)

Wireless USB Hub is Near

"Wisair is working on a USB wireless hub which will consist of a wireless dongle and the hub itself.  If it's reasonable enough, I'll be one of the first to sign up.  I have quite a few USB devices that connect to my laptop (probably around 10 or 12 using 3 hubs), so it'd be nice to get the wires off my desk: Not much else is revealed except the..."Link:

Coffee Jump-starts Short-term Memory

Just in, to help you remember where you put your keys drink more coffee. Interestingly enough, I remember being told several years ago that caffeine and ciggaretes increased memory retention as well. At least one of those components is still socially acceptable these days.

"Caffeine exerts a positive effect on short-term memory and reaction times, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)." [Link]:

Hopping Microbots for Mars Exploration

"Penelope Boston and Steven Dubowsky have received some bling-bling in the form of a grant to design hopping microbots for NASA. A rover would deliver hundreds of these miniature robots to the Mars surface for exploration purposes. The small spheres store up muscle energy and release it causing it to hop into various directions. The microbots would be able to analyze the surface material and map out the planet.

Hopping Microbots for Mars Exploration: