It’s an interactive exhibit designed by Different Futures for the Sensapolis fun park. Inside you’ll find such things as a 3D theater, a lab, alien breeding ground, a medical center and a warp-core. Pay attention nations of the world. Especially you U.S.A. This is how you need to treat your kids. I propose we have one in each state. It’s too damn awesome for words.

[PSFK]

It needs to be able to core through a meter of possibly hard, icy soil to get at the pockets of hydrogen concentrations for study — and its wheels are the key. The dynamic platform allows the Scarab to move over slopes and jagged landforms, and acts as a stabilizer when the 'bot goes belly-down to drill. The Scarab will move along slowly, as its radioactive isotope power source only produces about 100 watts — or the power of your average light bulb — to keep the robotic rover moving and thinking. The good news? That source also lasts about 10 years, so it'll have plenty of time to do what it needs to do.

The Scarab is about to undergo field testing at a volcanic range in Hawaii to see if it's up to the task of exploring dark lunar craters. If it does well, it may win a golden ticket from NASA to head to the moon and start its studies. Click Continue for a snippet from the Discovery Channel detailing CMU's Scarab autonomous prospector.

Our friends at Switched have managed to get their hands on the new BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220, and here's what they think of it in a nutshell.

If you are a heavy e-mailer and text-messager, but can't bear to carry around an ugly, bulky BlackBerry Curve or 8800 Series (and are too cool to user the very-three-years-ago Pearl), then this phone is for you. Despite its use of the slower EDGE (2.5G) network for data, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 probably the best-performing and most full-featured flip phone out there, essentially delivering all the features of a smart phone (e-mail, browsing, media player, document editing, etc) in a traditional clamshell body. Sure, the iPhone does a lot of that, too (minus the document editing), but not everyone loves a touchscreen. Besides, at $149.99 plus a wide variety of affordable plans from T-Mobile, the Pearl Flip delivers serious bang for the buck for anyone needing a mobile upgrade in these troubled economic times.

Sounds like a pretty good deal at that price, eh?

Add a comment | From: BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 Hands-on | Visit Ubergizmo | Good deals

BoingBoing Gadgets' John Brownlee owns a budgerigar – "Humbert Humbird" – so it's no surprise that he loves the SureFlap, a cat-flap which keeps unauthorized kitties out. Similar to the age-old pet-door design which detects a magnet hanging from a cat's collar, the SureFlap instead reads an RFID tag buried in Tiddles' epidermis.

This sounds brutal, until you remember that many pets carry embedded ID tags already. After purchase, the flap is put into learning mode and – unlike kitty, who will have to be tempted through the door with a bowl of snacks – it will obediently read the RFID tags of any cat passing through. From then on, only authorized felines will be granted access. The door can remember up to 32 cats simultaneously, enough for even your eccentric spinster aunt.

We love the neatness of the arrangement, and if you have the kind of cat that refuses to wear a collar, this may be the only way to go. My cat, now in a retirement home in Yorkshire, hates collars. In fact, whenever I tried to make her wear one, she would spend the rest of the day walking backwards, trying to reverse out of it.

Of course, Brownlee doesn't own a cat, and therefore has no need to put in a cat-flap in the first place. But remember, this is the man who named his pet bird after literature's most famous pedophile. He cannot be trusted. £76 ($130).

Product page [SureFlap via BBG]

Like last week there are 2 ways to win a $50 Amazon voucher, leave a comment explaining why you voted for whatever and/or tell (not spam) a friend via the Email a friend link about the contest you’ll be entered into another draw. Results and draws will take place next Tuesday, good luck and have a fantastic weekend folks.

Mini-Catamaran

“Do you want to let a cat out of the bag…and then go sailing? Check out this ‘Mini-Cat’ which is a great stop-gap until you can afford to buy a full-size one!”

The full post can be found on Zath.co.uk.

Electronic Drum Kit Shirt

The Electronic Drum Kit Shirt features actual playable drums and an embedded speaker with volume control, not just a pretty picture. Even better: since there’s 7 drums in the design, each of them makes its own sound, so with a bit of talent anyone can carry a tune right on their chest.

The full post can be found on S2999.

SteriPEN UV water purifier: drink from anywhere

Everyone loves to travel, but one dilemma faced by backpackers and adventure enthusiasts alike, is finding clean drinking water. Enter the SteriPEN, a portable water purifier that will ensure you won’t poison yourself when you’re thirsty.The SteriPEN uses ultraviolet light to destroy waterborne microbes (including 99.9999% of bacteria) from all sources of water, be it from a forest stream or a particularly dodgy-looking overseas hotel tap.

The full post can be found on Gaj-It.

Sharp Unveils Solar-Powered 52 inch LCD TV @ CEATEC

Sharp has unveiled the television at CEATEC and while a commercial version is not yet out and neither do we have a commercial name for it, this will surely set the ball rolling for solar powered LCD technology

The full post can be found on Eco Talks.

Waterproof Helmet From Evolution Lynk

The only trick to protect your head against all odds in these fun sports is to ensure safety to your head via this waterproof helmet.

The full post can be found on Lifestyle Buzz.

Waterproof MP3 Player

The new Speedo AquaBeat is an actual MP3 player that is water proof and you can listen to it while your either training to win some gold metals or just hanging by the pool. The headphones are designed to keep your ears dry while letting you listen to your favorite tunes in the pool. Incase you drop your MP3 player the Speedo AquaBeat actually floats for easy retrieval .

The full post can be found on gadgetblvd.com.

The Real Transforming Robot Car Toy

Forget those stale transformers action figures, now you can have the real thing. This remote controlled robot car can transform from a car, into a truck, and finally into a robot that rolls on only two wheels instead of four. The robot car will run for up to 30 minutes on a full charge of its rechargeable battery. Recharging the battery takes approximately four hours. It has a range of 100 feet from the remote control which requires a single 9 volt battery. If Optimus Prime had a little brother, this would be him.

The full post can be found on Robots Rule.

19-in-1 Micro Cool Tool

The Micro-Max is a great pocket toolkit that is easy to carry on your keyring, glovebox, purse, backpack or laptop bag. It is precision crafted from solid stainless steel and features a quick release mechanism that locks onto any keyring. So convenient you’ll forget you’re carrying it until you need it.

The full post can be found on RGS.

Bulletproof Handkerchief Keeps You Safe

This stylish bulletproof handkerchief is meant to keep you safe and looking good at the same time. Created out of kevlar, you can now attend your next party knowing that this hankie will keep your heart well protected from stray bullets.

The full post can be found on Coated.com.

NES Box - Super Mario Bros 3 External HDD Enclosure

What could be cooler for an external hard drive than a Super Mario Bros 3 NES cartridge hard drive. It was made using a 250GB SATA hard drive with 8MB of cache, and a Super Mario Bros 3 NES cartridge, it runs from USB power so there is no need for external power.

The full post can be found on Geeky Gadgets.

Wood Meets Laptop Technology

The Asus Eco book is a neat piece in natural bamboo brown with 1 GB of Ram, and is priced at $2000
The full post can be found on Gadgets n Gizmos.

Thanks to all the sites for their submissions now over to you guys for voting (don’t forget to leave a comment with your reason for a chance to win a $50 Amazon voucher) and tell a friend about this contest to possibly win another $50:

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If you write for a gadget themed blog and wish to be included in next weeks contest check out the CGOTW instructions page.

I'm strictly a Gucci Loafer man. The prized shoes never leave my feet -- I even have little waterproof "shower cosies" for them. But if I was into old-fashioned lace-ups, I might want to turn them into equally stylish slip-ons with these Yankz Sure Laces.

The Yankz are swap-in replacements for your regular, manual, fasteners. The elastic-core laces are threaded as normal, but once you have the right fit they are locked off with a couple of plastic widgets. That's it. The woven outer core stops slippage, and – even though they let the shoes slip on and off without untying – they should be strong enough for hiking boots.

Evan Marks over at Cool Tools has been using them for years and loves them. I never even knew they existed until now, for obvious slip-on shoe related reasons. I do, though, have a collection of corsets which I sometimes have trouble wriggling out of when the, erm, cleaner goes home early. I might check these out, although I don't think the neon-colored laces will really match the shiny black rubber girdle.

Product page [Yankz via Cool Tools]

According to Amazon, the 5 most wished-for items when it comes to electronics are a portable GPS, a solar gadget charger, an iPod Touch, a pocket camera and a wide-angle zoom lens. 

Here’s how we compare to the average Amazon shopper nationwide:

What is with all the iPods? Nationwide, the typical Amazon electronics shopper is obsessed with Apple and has three types of iPods in the five most wished-for items (and eight out of the top 20 spots).

One notable tidbit: Everyone loves Canon cameras. Eight of the top 20 items on both the national and O.C. wish lists are Canon camera products. One possibility is that Amazon frequently offers rebates and discounts on Canon products, including this current offer.

While Amazon provided the data to me, they had no one who could tell me the conversion rate of how many items on a wish list do get purchased. That left me questions such as: Do people really want that many iPods?  Do wish lists get fulfilled? Should I be investing in Apple and Canon stock?

What’s on your wishlist?

After the jump, see the top 20 items in Orange County’s wish list v. national rankings:

Post from: Alt+Save with the Gadgetress

What’s on O.C.’s Amazon wish list?

According to Amazon, the 5 most wished-for items when it comes to electronics are a portable GPS, a solar gadget charger, an iPod Touch, a pocket camera and a wide-angle zoom lens. 

Here’s how we compare to the average Amazon shopper nationwide:

What is with all the iPods? Nationwide, the typical Amazon electronics shopper is obsessed with Apple and has three types of iPods in the five most wished-for items (and eight out of the top 20 spots).

One notable tidbit: Everyone loves Canon cameras. Eight of the top 20 items on both the national and O.C. wish lists are Canon camera products. One possibility is that Amazon frequently offers rebates and discounts on Canon products, including this current offer.

While Amazon provided the data to me, they had no one who could tell me the conversion rate of how many items on a wish list do get purchased. That left me questions such as: Do people really want that many iPods?  Do wish lists get fulfilled? Should I be investing in Apple and Canon stock?

What’s on your wishlist?

After the jump, see the top 20 items in Orange County’s wish list v. national rankings:

Post from: Alt+Save with the Gadgetress

What’s on O.C.’s Amazon wish list?

Presto 02970 Professional SaladShooter Electric Slicer/Shredder, White