As a kid (and semi-adult...which is what I am now at age 27), I always thought the Chuck E. Cheese animatronics were just plain creepy and at their very core were powered by the souls of the undead demons which love to prey on small children and puppies! However, it seems that people are taking the one demonic possesed creations and actually using them for good...or at least fun!

I'm sure they are still creepy...but at least they have a beat that I don't mind being creeped out by!

Chuck E Cheese bots modded to play hiphop

Whereismyrobot sez, "There is a movement of Chuck E Cheese and Showbiz fans that are buying the old robots and setting them up in their homes or garages. Some program them for good, while the creator of this video obviously programmed these for evil. This is a lot better than indie bands ironically covering rap songs." Link (Thanks, Whereismyrobot!)

posted by Cory Doctorow on July 30, 2007, 05:47 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Comments (1) | Quote this article on your site | Views: 251

Yet Another BoingBoing.net Lift!!!

I thought this was pretty sweet! Not because of the half-naked chick holding the bag (though that didn't hurt)...I was interested in the actual method used to make the bag. Some sort of laser-cut leather that is interlaced and self-supporting...no STITCHES! That is some ingenuity, especially on a bag of this intricasy!

TSA's gonna love this: The Pursuader, a machinegun-shaped handbag

Designer James Piatt, whose work we've blogged here on BoingBoing before, writes in to share word of something new that is sure to win a girl new friends at airport screening lines. James says:

One of my new handbags is the Pursuader that resembles a machinegun with a cel phone compartment in the clip. The other is the Chesterton. Both bags are consructed with a process I developed by interlocking laser cut leather. There is no stitching.

This link contains a gallery with glamour photography of the new bags. I haven't decided if the photos are anti or pro-totalitarianism. The first shot is of a military parade of girls sporting Pursuaders and the second involves a sexy girl posing in a pile of potatoes. The submarine pictures are also fun.

Links to detail pages for each bag: Pursuader ($289), Chesterton ($220). BB readers have written in the past with tales of being stopped by law enforcement when they carried Mr. Piatt's brass knuckle handbags ($75, also shown in this image set), and I don't doubt that the new designs might be unwise to wear in any number of circumstances. Proceed with caution.

Previously on BoingBoing:

Purse shaped like Paris Hilton's dead chihuahua

Brass-knuckle purse said to land wearer in airport security hell

Purses: the better to kick your ass with

posted by Xeni Jardin on July 30, 2007, 10:39 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Be first to comment this article | Quote this article on your site | Views: 857

Wow...freaky info about labotomies! If only we could convince certain populations of the world that a labotomy is like a "permanent high" that makes you care and worry free!!! Which is true...we just leave out the parts that you are basically retarded after that point as well!!  I like it!

History of the lobotomy

The Neurophilosophy blog has a concise and interesting history of the lobotomy. First performed on people in the 1890s, it involves destroying parts of the brain or, at least, slicing some of the connections in the prefontal cortex. After United States neurologist Walter Freeman imported the technique from Europe and "refined" it with surgeon James Watts, the procedure became frighteningly common. During the middle of last century, there were 40,000 lobotomies performed in the US alone.

From the article:

The Freeman-Watts Standard Procedure was used for the first time in September 1936. Also known as "the precision method", this involved inserting a blunt spatula through holes in both sides of the skull; the instrument was moved up and down to sever the thalamo-cortical fibers. However, Freeman was unhappy with the new procedure. He considered it to be both time-consuming and messy, and so developed a quicker method, the so-called "ice-pick"lobotomy (photo above -ed.), which he performed for the first time on January 17th, 1945.

With the patient rendered unconscious by electroshock, an instrument was inserted above the eyeball through the orbit using a hammer. Once inside the brain, the instrument was moved back and forth; this was then repeated on the other side. (The ice-pick lobotomy, named as such because the instrument used resembled the tool with which ice is broken, is therefore also known as the transorbital lobotomy...)

Freeman's new technique could be performed in about 10 minutes.

Link (via Mind Hacks)

Comments (2) | Quote this article on your site | Views: 164

I love big toys! It doesn't get much bigger than this!

Giant Andes-scaling truck will install Alma array

This custom-built, 28-wheel truck was created by the German firm of Scheuerle Fahrzeugfabrik to scale the Andes bearing 115-tonne antennas that will form the Alma array in the high-altitude Atacama desert.

Look, it's basically a metastasized Hot Wheels toy. I haven't had my pulse so quickened by a truck since I was seven.

The vehicles will have to haul their heavy cargo safely from the 2,900m-high Alma base camp, where the antennas are assembled, to the array site, which lies at 5,000m - about half the cruising altitude of a 747.

The vehicles must therefore be extremely powerful, as the journey will make extraordinary demands on the two 500kW diesel engines.

Because of the low oxygen content of the air at 5,000m, vehicle operators will need to wear portable oxygen canisters. The backrests of the driver seats are shaped to allow the driver to wear his oxygen tank while driving.

Link (via Gizmodo)
posted by Cory Doctorow on July 31, 2007, 05:51 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Comments (2) | Quote this article on your site | Views: 158

Below is a direct lift of a BoingBoing article...Bright Idea? I kind of like it...wish I would've thought of it!!!

Books shaped like cigarettes

Tankbooks are novels printed to look like cigarette packs:

Tank is launching a series of books designed to mimic cigarette packs – the same size, packaged in flip-top cartons with silver foil wrapping and sealed in cellophane.

TankBooks pay homage to this monumentally successful piece of packaging design by employing it in the service of great literature. Cigarette packs are iconic objects, familiar, tried and tested, and over time TankBooks will become iconic objects in their own right. The launch titles are by authors of great stature – classic stories presented in classic packaging; objects desirable for both their literary merit and their unique design.

Link (Thanks, Stu!)

posted by Cory Doctorow on July 31, 2007, 06:52 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Be first to comment this article | Quote this article on your site | Views: 94