I love this cute little plushie fish that attach to the side of your monitor like an algae-gasping catfish until your screen gets dirty, at which point it can be plucked off and used to squishily squeegee your monitor free of grime. They also come as spiders and caterpillars, but I think the fish is the best one. Only $7.

Animal Screen Cleaners [Perpetual Kid via Geeksugar]

This foldable laptop charger by Yogen Max translates nervous foot tapping into usable juice. Or it will, once it gets knocked out of the prototype phase. Fair enough, but someone should really figure out how to charge a laptop on snark already. It's the gadget blogger's dream product, our electronics charging equivalent to the perpetual motion machine.

Easy Energy [Official Site via Oh Gizmo]

Whenever a bunch of relatives gather around a table with copious amounts of alcohol, it is only a matter of time before things turn ugly. This year, try and let the anger and frustration out by throwing your food instead of fists and insults. Not only is it effective, it is a lot of fun too. The following ten gadgets will help give you the edge in the event a turkey war breaks out. When the dust settles, only you will be left standing. Then again, that could be the tryptophan kicking in.

Zing Launchers: Arm this spring loaded spoon with all of your unwanted vegetables and unload a broccoli barrage on that weird cousin with the lazy eye. [Perpetual Kid via Link]

Desktop Trebuchet: If the spoon-a-pult doesn't provide enough firepower, upgrade to this miniature trebuchet. Load it up with a wad of mashed potatoes covered in gravy a let 'er rip. [Firebox via Link]

Condiment Pistol: Now that you have the big guns working, it is time to get in there with some small arms. This oversized cartoon pistol will allow you to blaze your relatives with extreme tomato-flavored prejudice. [Firebox via Link]

Liquor Pump Gun: Even the adults can get in on the act with a pump-action pistol that attaches to your favorite spirit bottles. Although, shooting your alcoholic father-in-law with a pricey bottle of Crown Royal is probably not the best strategy. [Budk]

High-Powered Potato Gun: Speaking of adults, this southern belle has a thing or two to teach you about making high-powered potato guns (not to mention those strange feelings you get "down there" whenever you see attractive women in their underwear using guns).

The "Moaster" Toaster Cannon: Tinkerer, toast aficionado and genius Freddie Yauner designed the "Moaster" to be the highest popping toaster in the world. Apparently, the CO2-powered system can pop toast an astonishing seven feet into the air. Imagine harnessing that power for evil by aiming that nook-and-cranny death machine at your enemies on the other side of the table. [Freddie Yauner via Link]

Pickle-Pult: So your sister decided to invite one of her best friends over for Thanksgiving dinner. Little does she know you had a "thing" with this friend a few months back. At one point she told you that it was "like throwing a pickle down a hallway." Show her what that is really like by unleashing the terror of a screaming pickle projectile. [Archie McPhee]

Marshmallow Blaster: Ahh...time for dessert! This pump-action blaster can shoot soft, sugary confections between 40 and 50 feet. [Hammacher via Link]

Bow and Mallow: Perhaps you prefer to dispense with guns for a more traditional hunt. The Bow and Mallow can pelt your prey up to distances of 30 feet just by pulling back on the bowstring. [Are You Game via Link]

Pie Cannon: Those bastard relatives of yours are on their heels! Time to end this battle with a swift and decisive action. Roll in a pie cannon like the one seen here and victory will be yours.

Bonus: Sometimes the enemy just doesn't know when to quit. In that case, the use of extreme force may be necessary. Stuffing up a turkey with thermite is like a Thanksgiving a-bomb. [OObject]

Filed under: Robots

Caption contest: cat driving Roomba -- is not so impressed, actually originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Filed under: Robots

Caption contest: cat driving Roomba -- is not so impressed, actually originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

And who drinks out of a test tube anyway? God didn't create scientists from the dust so they could sip out of something other than Klein bottles.

Cocktail Chemistry Set catalog page [Perpetual Kid via Uncrate]

A common problem for bicyclists, and in particular for bicycle commuters, is the traffic loop sensor. These are the devices which detect the presence of vehicles to control the sequencing of traffic lights at many intersections. Often, they are installed in figure-eight slits cut into the pavement near a traffic light.

The way they work is to detect the slight change in inductance of the loop of wire buried in the slit caused by a large metallic object (such as a motor vehicle) above the loop. The problem for bicyclists is that traffic departments often feel compelled to set the sensitivity of the electronics behind the loop rather low, so that false detections are avoided. This can make it difficult for a bicycle (a relatively small metal object) to make its presence known to the sequencing circuit. The result is a lot of frustration for a bicyclist trying to get a green light or left-turn arrow. This can be especially frustrating at streets with low traffic (often where these sensors are used in the first place), as one waits for a motor vehicle to come by and trip the sensor. Sometimes one must resort to laying the bicycle down on the road surface above the loop with the hope that the extra metal presented to the loop will cause detection. Sometimes it doesn't work, and sometimes frames aren't made of metal.

Various devices have been patented in order to address this problem. Some are a little impractical, and some don't work with modern loop sensor circuitry. One patented solution (see USP 5,652,577) has the bicyclist laying down a big piece of metallic foil or screen right on the road surface!.

Christ, what you American bicyclists have to put up with. Here in Zembla, every street has bike paths, bicyclists are respected and feared in equal measure and there are even traffic lights for bikes only. Do I amaze you?

Loop Sensor Activator [Plan Bravo via Core77]

If you thought last week’s Lemans was as basic as graphics could get on the Commodore 64, I’m afraid you ain’t seen nothing yet. While Omega Race might not be at the absolute bottom of the barrel when it came to pushing the C64’s graphic capabilities, it’s still pretty far down there. Even with the ability to choose any 2 color scheme you preferred, instead of the default black and white scheme pictured above.

The game was often compared to Asteroids for obvious reasons, but I think Omega Race changed things up enough to make it a worthy alternative. I mean sure you were shooting at ‘droid’ ships that broke apart instead of asteroids that broke apart, but the game screen was surrounded by a force field that everything (except your laser blasts) would bounce off. In Asteroids everything would wrap to the other side of your display whenever they went off-screen, but Omega Race was more like a game of interstellar pool. Except that when your ship hit the surrounding force field you could never really predict what angle it would bounce off at.

But I always thought that the most challenging part of Omega Race was that your ship never lost momentum. So if you wanted to come to a stop for any reason, you had to spin around and thrust in the opposite direction. (That’s what she said.) But this extra challenge also facilitated my ’secret’ technique. When the game started I would rotate my ship until it pointed towards the top of the screen before giving it a boost. Then, because of the perpetual momentum and force fields, the ship would continually bounce up and down across the screen allowing me to swivel and strafe at the enemies whenever I had a clear shot that wasn’t blocked by the high score board in the middle of the screen. While it might not have been in the true nature of Omega Race, it resulted in some pretty decent scores. And since the game had no final ‘goal’, the high score was all that mattered.

[ Moby Games - Omega Race (C64) ]

From Lutec's website, it appears to be an investment scheme, with many appeals to buy shares. The most interesting claim in pursuit of that goal is that no physicist or engineer has ever looked at their figures and said it doesn't work. Enter BBG commenter Mac, who claims he's an engineer who has looked at Lutec's numbers and says it doesn't work.

I am a professional engineer in Australia. In September 2006 I was supplied with a summary of calculations by a potential investor to Lutec Australia, John Christie's company.

The summary had diagrams and calculations showing how this worked.

The calculations were, to put it politely, fundamentally miscalculations. For example, they calculated the energy taken out of the battery as 'Ampere Hour Rating' of the battery multiplied by the battery voltage drop over the time of the test.

Another basic mistake was that they did all kind of 'chopping' of a sine wave, then used formulas to convert 'Ipeak' to 'Irms' on the assumption that it was a non-chopped sine wave.

They are just two of the many, many mistakes in the calculations.

I know that my comments to the investor were passed back to them, as I was emailed John Christie's response.

I have no objection to them believing that they have invented something new. However, the claim that no engineer has looked at their figures and said it doesn't work is incorrect.

Mac makes clear that this is his professional opinion and not that of his employers.

Here is something made of Lego that works in similar fashion to Lutec's machine. Amazing free energy!

Another day, another investment scam promoted by clueless TV journalists. Science is fun! In this case, Sky News Australia fluffs a perpetual motion machine, which purports to generate more energy than it uses.

"We don't need to prove the claims," says one of the pushers. "... no physicist or engineer has looked at our motor or our figures and says it doesn't work."

Would it be too geeky to play spot the logical fallacy? Home of the magical fuel-additive pill company that hoodwinked sports stars and politicians alike, Australia seems particularly vulnerable to this sort of escapade.

Australian Perpetual Motion Machine Runs on Snake Oil [Wired:Gadget Lab]