Each Roadkill stuffed animal comes packed in its own see-through body bag, complete with all of its plush and squishy guts pouring out of its body. They even throw in a death certificate and an “I heart Roadkill” bumper sticker in each bag.  The smashed menagerie includes Twitch the Racoon, Grind the Rabbit, and Splodge the Hedgehog (Sonic’s long-lost cousin?). There’s also Pop the Weasel, who’s not stuffed at all – rather a flat rubber door stop. (You can read their obituaries here.)

UK readers can find the entire series of squashed Roadkill toys over at the RoadkillToys website for £25.00 each. Live in the U.S.? The guys over at Charles & Marie are selling Roadkill animals for $40 (USD) each.

The Galactic Suite will look more or less like these artist renditions. Before customers can get to these glorified pods, they’ll have to undergo an eight-week training course, which will be conducted on a freaking tropical island. Then they’re off to the shuttle for the day and a half trip to the pods. Galactic Suites Ltd. Xavier Claramunt compares the pods to a mountain retreat, because there’s no staff there. But the shuttle will be docked with the pods the whole time, meaning the astronaut-pilots will be staying with the visitors, who by the way will wear velcro suits that stick to the walls of the Suite. Stay in a space hotel and be like Spiderman in one go. Damn you rich people.

Claramunt et al claim that a “billionaire space enthusiast” has invested $3 billion in their project, and that they already have 43 people on the reserved list. I hope these customers donate millions to charity too. I mean I know it’s their money, but come on. Whether the hotel will be operational in 2 years or in 5, space tourism will eventually take off and there will be takers, but these outrageous prices just makes me think how misplaced our priorities can be sometimes. But as I always say, it’s your money, so do what you want with it. If you’re interested, you should check out the company’s website for more info.

[via Yahoo! News via DVICE]

Okay actually the 2009 Baltic Robot Sumo Cup wasn’t illegal; in fact it was sponsored by major robotics companies like iRobot and ABB. 60 robots participated in 3 categories – Mini Sumo, 3 kg Sumo, and of course Roomba Sumo. But it was really held in Lithuania. And Roombas really do sneak off at night. They meet with other miniscule warriors and oshitaoshi the circuits out of each other. True story.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Of course the only move that these robots have is “push”, but I’m sure ten to fifteen years from now, when Roomba v. 10.10 or something will be out, and it’ll look like a human, only with 4 arms and missiles for fingers, we’ll all look back to these pioneers, and curse iRobot for coming up with the darned things, because obviously we’ll be the ones who are cleaning the Roomba’s homes at that point. So enjoy their limited functionality and their silent yet comedic fights, because it won’t last long folks. It won’t! What was I talking about? Oh right, android tennis! Awesome stuff.

[via BotJunkie]

If you’ve seen the trailers before then you’re probably familiar with the graphics, but I believe this is our first glimpse at the HUD and controls of the game. Also, BIG-ASS SWORD!

I don’t know why this dude and his MegaBastard Sword only appears at the very beginning of the game – although it seemed like whoever was playing could control Sir Huge Sword here, note that the HUD is absent – but according to 1UP’s Kevin Gifford, players will be able to customize and  swing huge swords. But of course, even heroes have to start somewhere – here’s the puny little fight stick the king gives the hero as he starts on his quest:

According to the same 1UP article that I linked to above, players will be able to choose from three archetypes – the Hero, the Prince, and the Adventurer. If you like none of those three, you can make your own hero, dot by dot, and even customize its animation. Going back to the footage, here’s the world map, which is very reminiscent of Link’s Map in the first Zelda, except that this one is pseudo-3D:

All in all, the game does have a very old school feel, but the cute graphics will probably lure in kids as well. Gamersyde is have bandwidth problems so they’ve disabled embedding for now, meaning I can’t post the video here, but all you have to do is go here to watch the high quality version, and here for the low quality one. You can also download the video if you want.  The Japanese version of 3D Dot Game Heroes just dropped this week; a North American release is coming, but we don’t know when exactly.

Acousticom’s Sound Egg is an acoustically-insulated pod, loaded up with a 5.1 surround sound system. In addition to the 5 precisely positioned satellite speakers, there’s also a hefty 10-inch subwoofer right under your seat. Talk about some serious rump-shaking. The guys at Acousticom claim the speaker system offers solid frequency response all the way from 20Hz up to 20KHz. As you can see from the photo below, you’ll still need to B.Y.O. home theater system and amp, but the chair has all of the speakers built-in.

Originally created for audio testing and home theater demonstrations, the Sound Egg is designed to provide a completely enveloping audio experience, that’ll have you never wanting to head out to the theater again. At least not when you’re by yourself, since there’s not really a good way to have multiple people share in the Sound Egg experience at the same time.

Ready to sit inside a giant egg and chill out to the latest blockbuster movies and video games? Don’t care for red and grey. No worries – the Sound Egg’s outer shell is available in 7 different colors, and you have 11 choices for the sound-deadening foam lining (a few colors cost $25 bucks extra). You can sit your butt in your very own Sound Egg for $1450 (USD) over at Acousticom’s online store.

I shudder to think of it.

Actually, there’s no telling just what Jimmy Buffett’s brand might be used for in a gaming sense, but one thing is fact: Margaritaville has been trademarked for use in video games. I’m calling it now: nothing good can come from this. I’m almost pleased there aren’t any more details available. The truth will probably be too horrible to contemplate, and right now, I’m contemplating a lot.

[via Joystiq]

That said, the TwitterPeek does have a lot going for it: it has a scroll wheel and a back button, a large, colored screen, a raised and illuminated QWERTY keypad, a battery that lasts 4-5 days and can be charged in 2 hours, plus nationwide coverage (US only) that doesn’t depend on WiFi. But no browser. Those of you who are familiar with the Peek Pronto know that although it doesn’t have a browser either, it reads PDF, docs and pictures.

So Twitter addicts, is the TwitterPeek just the thing that you’ve been waiting for? Or will you stick to your Twitter apps on your phones and computers? If you said yes to the first question, head on to Amazon and get the TwitterPeek for either $100 (USD), which comes with 6 months of free service (you’ll pay $8/month after 6 months), or $200, which comes with lifetime wireless service. It comes in two colors, grey and aqua (or Twitter blue).

Update: PC Mag has reviewed the TwitterPeek and gave it 1.5 stars for its poor controls and very limited functionality. Apparently it makes even the simple act of reading tweets a chore. Wow. (via Gizmodo)

[via Engadget]

Auto-modder Edd China of Cummfy Banana has fabricated these ridiculous motor vehicles, fashioned to look like ordinary furniture. In addition to the speedy bed pictured above, he’s also built an oversize office desk on wheels, complete with multiple swivel chairs.

But his pride and joy is the “Casual Lofa,” which was once listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the “world’s fastest furniture”. The Lofa is a motorized sofa that tops out a speed of 87 MPH. (Edd beat his own record sofa speed in 2007, by getting a sofa to drive 92 MPH – go figure).

If you happen to live in the UK, you can get a chance to take a ride on all of these vehicular monstrosities thanks to a special “day at the races” tour package that lets you experience them all.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The guys over at IWantOneOfThose are now offering the World’s Wackiest Racers package, which includes rides on all three of these oddball pieces of furniture, as well as a funky double-decker car. The 3 hour experience is conducted with a group of up to 6 participants, and will set you back £99 (appx.$163 USD).

Baby and Me comes with a doll, but not just any doll. This doll features a slot for the Wii remote so that the game can track feeding, playing, and excessive shaking motions. Watch for the sequel: Chiild Protective Services and Me. The game also features Balance Board support so that you can rock baby to sleep.

Just remember to remove the baby before you take on something else, like Wii Sports boxing.

[via 1UP]

It is a clock after all. Although I think it could also be looking to get high. It looks like it’s getting more and more desperate by the hour too.

[via The Presurfer]

Other than the color of the base stone, I’d say these 4.3-inch tall Lady Liberty drives from Super Talent are pretty accurate 1:421 scale replicas of the real thing – other than the fact that they get their bluish-green hue from dyed rubber instead of weathered copper verdigris. I suppose it would have been pretty hard to make a copper USB drive with a little tiny staircase and people inside. But I bet it could be done. Then you’d have to leave it out in the elements for 200 years to get that perfect patina.

The drives are available in 4GB ($14 USD), 8GB ($19.50) and 16GB ($34.45) versions over at Amazon. As an added bonus, you’ don’t have to take a boat ride and then wait in line for 3 hours to see what’s inside this version.

Alice is Dead is an episodic adventure that starts off in the rabbit hole with Alice’s grisly corpse and the staple of all adventure games, a witty narrator who comments on everything you click. In fact, everything here will be familiar… but it’s all twisted just a little to the left of normal.

This first episode is quite short, but even so, there’s a walkthrough available for the desperate, so there’s absolutely no excuse not to try to figure out what happened to Alice, and whether or not there’s a way through that blue door. You know you want to open it. But can you? Go give it a shot. After all, it’s free.

[via The Escapist]

As you can see from the pictures, AIDA has its own set of facial expressions, to help it “establish an affective bond” with the driver. I guess it is more pleasing to interact with something that has a face, as opposed to talking to the air like the Hoff used to do with KITT, but won’t it become a distraction?

What I like about AIDA though is its ability to familiarize itself with the needs and habits of a driver, like one’s usual destinations, or how one drives. It will then combine that information with real-time data like traffic or weather, stuff that may not be immediately available to the driver, to give hints and tips:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

What do you think? Will AIDA be a helpful companion, or a nagger that you won’t be able to kick out of the car?

[via MIT via Popular Science]

ClearView makes a list of rules based on a program’s “normal” behavior. When something causes the program to deviate from those rules, ClearView “comes up with several potential patches designed to force the software to follow the violated rules… If additional rules are violated, or if a patch causes the system to crash, ClearView rejects it and tries another.” And it does all of that without any human intervention. As a test, ClearView was tasked to babysit Firefox while the browser was attacked via ten different methods. On average, ClearView came up with a patch within 5 minutes of exposure to an attack. How’s that for customer service. If you’re tired of having programs die on you, read the full article at Technology Review. It may just make your day.

[via Slashdot]

The sit-down electric YikeBike tops out at 20km/hr (appx. 12 MPH). An electric chainless drive powers the bike up to 10 kilometers (appx. 6 miles) on a quick 30 minute charge. While that’s not a ton of range, it’s certainly enough for most urban commuters to get to and from work. It’s also great for short haul travel from public transportation sites like trains and buses.

And thanks to an innovative lightweight folding carbon composite frame, you can carry the YikeBike up to your office during the day for a recharge (and to protect it from theft on the street). The whole thing weighs just 9.8 kg (appx. 21 lbs.) which means it won’t break your back carrying it around either.

If you can get past the annoying song in this commercial, the YikeBike actually looks pretty cool…

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Here’s a better (and far less irritating) video that shows off the YikeBike being put through its paces on a variety of challenging terrains. It’s surprisingly agile, given its unassuming looks.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Expect the YikeBike to start shipping sometime in 2010. Final pricing hasn’t been set yet, but it’s likely to run between €3500 and €3900 (appx. $5180 to $5772 USD). You can reserve one now with a €100 (appx. $148 USD) deposit here.