Japan is going to start tracking their defense officials through hi-tech, James Bondish means—GPS-enabled phones. After a retired defense official admitted to playing hundreds of free rounds of golf (bought by a defense contractor) while on the job, officials of the officials have gotten upset, and decided that members of the defense ministry need to be accounted. For now, the compromise is that defense officials will carry special phones in times of emergency only, which seems like a fair compromise. But that's not stopping those crying over spilt golf.
One anonymous official went on record saying:
We're not children.
And then he totally didn't add:
But the baby leash is acceptable, because you can still golf in it. It's just tough to play with a clunky mobile in your pocket.
Ever thought of getting yourself a permanent pair of Star Trek Vulcan ears? A day trip to the plastic surgeon can get that done for you. This body modification is said to enhance the music listening experience, but then, you have to go around looking like Spock to enjoy that questionable benefit. Done under local anesthesia, the plastic surgeon uses existing ear cartilage and skin to extend the top of the ear, and after three to four weeks, it's healed up enough for you to convincingly start telling people to live long and prosper. But what if your new ears make music sound worse? There's no word on how difficult it is to reverse the surgery. Maybe there's a way to test out the effect before you take the plunge. -Charlie White [Plasmetic]
Ladies, are you getting bored on your way to work? Commute in various stages of ecstasy with this Erotic Car Seat Seduction Massager, letting four areas of your posterior know in no uncertain terms that there's a whole lot of shakin' going on. Plug it into your car's cigarette lighter, and as you manipulate its handheld intensity control, it'll keep "your most treasured pleasure points" alive and kicking until you arrive safely at the salt mines.
Sure, there are plenty of car seat massagers on the market, but this £59.99 contraption is explicitly designed for m'lady's pleasure. Now you can add one more distraction to your morning commute in addition to talking on the phone, eating breakfast, listening to the radio and applying makeup: taking a ride on the hootchie koochie vibration train. Just let us know which motorway you take to work before you purchase one of these poontang shakers, and we'll alter our route accordingly. -Charlie White [Love Honey, via Shiny Shiny]
Apparently, piracy (real piracy, not the BitTorrented variety) is all the rage off the coast of Somalia. The pirates, who probably don't have peglegs or parrots but I picture them that way anyways, hijack ships and hold them and their equipment for ransom, sometimes killing crewmembers in the process. It isn't pretty. But the US Navy and Coast Guard have a trick up their sleeves: robotic boats.
Yep, the 30-foot-long Protector, which is autonomous and comes mounted with a big ol' machine gun, could help wage war on the scourge of the high seas. Rather than going up and spraying a pirate ship with bullets, as you might imagine, it would take a more responsible route. As pirates love to put out fake distress calls and then ambush any responding ships, the robo-boats could give warning to the responding boats, keeping them out of harms way.
There's no word on if or when the US military will acquire these robot boats, but I'm sure they see the benefit of a robot vs. pirate engagement as much as we do. [Popular Mechanics]
When it comes to recycling, we tend to think about our food wrappings, empty beer tins and wine bottles. But what happens to all those sex toys?
UK sex toy retailer, Love Honey, has been running its aptly-named Rabbit Amnesty for some time now and has revealed that just over a tonne of much used and loved sex toys have been donated for recycling. The video - not all that exciting - shows a whopping number of them being recycled.
Of course, it doesn’t mean the users of sex toys are greener than other folk, just that they get 50% off the price of a new bedroom friend.
If you have a much loved [a.k.a abused] little friend that needs to be retired, you too can take the Rabbit Amnesty pledge.-Martin Lynch
Yep, DVD burners are still on the radar, despite the HD media noise.
LG and Samsung are both vying for the ‘world’s fastest’ claim this week for DVD burners. LG’s external USB 2.0 DVD burner, the GSA-E60N [see photo above] claims that it can burn DVD+/-R at 20x. This is indeed fast.
The Samsung drive, the SH-S203N, is an internal drive and touts the ability to burn DVD+R dual layer discs at 16x – the fastest yet by 30-40%. It can also manage to burn DVD-R DL at 12x and single layer DVD+/-R discs at 20x.
Both support LightScribe technology and both will cost around £40 when they launch here sometime this month.-Martin Lynch
Hi-fi specialist Denon has been jumping head first into the consumer digital audio game in recent months and its latest offering sets out to be the radio for all occasions.
The S-52DAB Networked Audio System Table Radio features DAB/FM radio, a CD player, concealed iPod dock and, to top it all off, in-built Wi-Fi to stream over 7,000 Internet-based radio stations or music from your PC/laptop to the radio. Phew!
The radio can decode the usual MP3 and WMA formats, but also AAC, WAV and FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec). You can also attach USB sticks or storage devices and yes, there is, an alarm. The audio quality should be no slouch either thanks to four internal, tuned speakers with long-throw drive units and bass radiators.
Of course, at £500 the radio that can do it all and do it well doesn’t come cheap, but you get what you pay for.-Martin Lynch
It’s been a while coming but Nintendo has knocked Sony from the top spot in the console software market for the first time. And it’s unlikely to be moved anytime soon, according to iSuppli.
In the third quarter Nintendo reaped the harvest from the glut of Wii and DS games launched, with global revenues for for both consoles topping $1.2bn – up 31.4% on Q2. In comparison, Sony managed to earn $1bn from sales of gaming software for the PS3, PS2 and PSP devices – virtually unchanged from Q2.
Microsoft, in third, posted software sales of $317.8m in sales of Xbox and Xbox 360 software for the same period – up from $271.9m in Q2.
“Nintendo is likely to maintain its lead in this area, as it expects by the end of 2007 to ship about 200 additional titles, adding to the more than 150 games already released, many from outside publishers,” predicted David Carnevale, vice president of multimedia content and distribution at iSuppli. “Company software sales should be further boosted by the addition of a new flagship title for the Wii, dubbed Wii Fit, which encourages players to engage in full-body exercises using Wii Balance Boards, performing activities including yoga, push-ups, aerobics and stretching.”
Wii software alone is expected to sell to the tune if $1.1bn in Q4.-Martin Lynch
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
