Closed Coke Cans Not Allowed At Air Force Base Due To GPS Threat

Wow, I think they should just get the new robot to target Coke cans with pepper spray. J 

You may recall the story about Coca-Cola's bizarre summer promotion where they're sticking soda can sized (and weighted) GPS-enabled phones into Coke cans. The idea is that the winners of the promotion opens the can and discovers the phone. They press the big red button and are immediately connected to prize central, who will use the phone to determine the caller's location and send out the prize brigade who will show up with your winning car or stereo or whatever. There's just one problem. Sneaking a device that transmits your location into a secure military base is a big no-no. So, security folks at a variety of Air Force bases have now been instructed to open up all entering Coca-Cola cans heading into conference rooms in secure areas. Coca-Cola execs point out that this is a bit silly. The so-called sodaphones don't transmit or receive a damn thing until someone pushes the red button. However, Air Force officials just want to be safe, and they promise that winning cans will be returned to their owners after they've left secure areas. Well, cross off the possibility of the US military opening fire on the Coca-Cola prize patrol.

[Techdirt]

ImagiNail NailJet Pro

My teenager is going to want one of these… sheesh! 

The ImagiNail NailJet Pro is an inkjet printer that can print images directly onto all ten of your fingernails in less than seven minutes. You can choose from a number of preloaded images and photos, or bring in your own from home. The possibilities for tackiness are endless.
Read - Product Page [ImagiNail via BoingBoing]

[Gizmodo]

Tiny Hard Drive Manufacturers Turn Up The Heat

This looks cool.  I would LOVE to have 100Gig on my smartphone… 

According to The Inquirer, Japanese companies are rapidly increasing production of their small hard drives as, unsurprisingly, the demand for tiny storage that will fit in portable electronics increases rapidly. Toshiba is planning on ramping up production of its tiny 0.85-inch hard drives to a rate of almost 200,000 a month, while Hitachi will increase its 1-inch drive production to two million units per quarter. Global hard drive markers shipped 260 million units in fiscal 2003, 80 percent of which went into servers and PCs. The remaining percentage, which goes into home electronics, are expected to grow by 50% each year -- I'm betting it will be even greater than that once the manufacturers can get enough tiny units into the channels. Two years from now there won't be a single smartphone announced without a hard drive.
Read - Toshiba to ship 200,000 a month 0.85-inch hard drives [TheInquirer]

[Gizmodo]

Homegrown PVC flamethrower

Hehe… Fire!  Fire!!!  J 

God bless the Something Awful Forum Goons. If it weren't for them, we'd have to get our homemade flamethrower (and BTB) fix from the morgue like everyone else.
Read - Homegrown PVC flamethrower (56k image heavy) [SomethingAwful]

[Gizmodo]

Air Force PreggoRobo Guard Bots

Oh what I could do with one of these. J  And it has a minibot too! Hold the phone!! This sucker is right near Pensacola!!! TechnoD, go see if you can get some pictures of one of these things eh? Just move slow and don't make any sudden movements. :) 

Bless the maker, I think this Air Force patrol robot is giving birth to a smaller, tracked robot. Oh, it is! That's it, I don't care if this guard bot can shoot missiles or distinguish between hostile or friendly targets; hell, it could kill us all on a lark for all I care. Military robots giving birth to smaller robots? Let's order dozens immediately.
Read - Air Force testing robots as security guards [MSNBC]

Related
Inside Sarcos Exoskeleton Lab [Gizmodo]
Pekee Mobile Robot Platform [Gizmodo]
SpyBot Wall Climbing Camera Bot [Gizmodo]

[Gizmodo]

Hippocampodrome

I send you this link just because I like the term Hippocampodrome.  It is my word of the day.  And, if I remember that I first saw it with a white background, I am actually exercising!  Yippee!

<snip> 

I want a way to exercise the hippocampus.  So far, I have been doing Google searches for phrases like 'hippocampus activation' in order to discover research.  Particularly, I have been looking for research that shows increased neuronal activity or blood flow to hippocampus using fMRI or PET.  My theory is that, if you practice the things which increase activity in the hippocampus, you will develop your hippocampus.  I have good basis for this theory, I believe.  Here is what I have found so far.

</snip>

[Better Living Through Software]

Motorola Officially Announces MPx220: Leaked Press Releases Do Come True

Ooooh baby!  I want one of these BAD! 

So I guess I should probably mention that Motorola finally officially announced the MPx220, right? I mean, there might be something that we didn't already know about it, even though we already knew it was going to be a quad-band, Bluetooth-enabled, 1.3-megapixel camera-having, Windows Mobile 2003-running clamshell. How about the fact that the MPx220 has 44 tiny divots on its front cover? Needed a high resolution image for that, didn't you?

I'm not trying to be cynical, though; it looks really nice. Nice enough, in fact, to perhaps pick up while we wait for the MPx300 to arrive.
Read - Motorola Releases the MPx220 Mobile Smart Phone [MobileMag]

Related
Motorola MPx220 Press Release Leaked [Gizmodo]
Motorola MPx220 Amateur Porn [Gizmodo]

[Gizmodo]