Creepy Japanese Toy

RIP Steve Jobs

RIP Steve - Big love from the Owl who only recently got a good bite of the Apple.

Jack White Makes A Guitar Out Of A Bottle, Some String and A Small Dirty Plank.

David Attenborough Duet With Bjork!

Okay so I lied a little, its not a duet, David Attenborough, the voice of all things nature, narrates Bjork's innovative new app, which is a part of her new record, Biophilia. Each song on the record will have an app which features “an interactive game based on the song’s scientific and musical subject matter”.

The Google+ Project - Possible Facebook Killer ?

Is this a possible facebook killer? I certainly think it has the potential to be...

Human Cat Ears That Move With Brainwaves

A Japanese company by the name of Neurowear has created a new fashion item. It is a novelty hair band that is shaped like cat ears. These cat ears are called "necomimi" according to wired.co.uk it "features sensors that pick up on brain signals and convert them into visible actions -- in this case by wiggling the cat ears."

Who knows maybe in the future they will try develop these applications of technology for the disabled etc to improve their communicative abilities. Here is an advertisement for the necomimi which is cat+ears in English.

Playstation Vita

Use Any Materials To Make A Guitar

Praxis released a new design for guitars as well as a philosophy for guitar creation too at Maker Faire 2011. The guitars they presented looked like pieces of art. They are made to be modular with swappable parts, you can make anything into a new guitar as in the video they released demonstrates wherein a chemistry book is used part of the body of the guitar.



For more details on these guitars and how to get your hands on one, go to their site at http://www.praxisguitars.com/

3D Transistor - Intel's Tri-Gate Transistor Takes Care of Business

In accordance to Moore's law, transistors have continued to become smaller and smaller, leading to computing and communication devices becoming smarter, faster and more efficient. After a decade of research the newly perfected Tri-Gate Transistor demarcates the arrival of a new generation of computer technology will be able to continue evolving. The following video from Intel gives some jovial cgi insight into this:

Meet Numi - The $6400 Toilet Throne

So with the impending release of the Kohler NUMI $6400 toilet I thought I would post a link to it so you could see if you think it is worth the hefty price tag. Personally I think it is one step away from having a machine to push your sh1t out for you, but maybe this is just the old fashioned thoughts of a man from the Shanks era. Either way this toilet is due for release soon and unfortunately its target market is probably already sh1tting its pants with excitement.

Top 10 Weird Mice

Well seeing as it has been a while since we posted in the gadget section of this blog I thought it was just about time we had a top 10 weird mice blog post. The specifications for this post are a combination of aesthetic randomness with tasty functionality. 

10. Sony VN-CX1: Skype Mouse Phone

9. Busty Mouse

8. Aircraft Mouse

7. Acrylic Mouse

6. Mus2 Cursor Mouse

5. Mouse Mouse

4. Washable Mouse

3. Wowpen

2. USB Warmer Mouse

1. The First Computer Mouse

Exoskeleton Suits - Not Just a Load of Pants

After years in development Israel-based Argo Medical Technologies finally unveiled their Robo-aid for paraplegics. The device has been titled Rewalk and is composed of an exoskeleton that allows its user to sustain movement and carry out tasks such as climbing stairs. Although it is being marketed as a device for injured soldiers the mainstream possibilities are quite interesting. Unfortunately it is unlikely such a device will be available for you in the near future, unless you fit into the following categories: soldier of sympathy, wealthy or willing to allow yourself to become the subject of experimental testing.

Even though the device was officially unveiled in the UK only recently at the Naidex product fair at the National Exhibition Centre, it was been available to see on the net since 2008:

There are many other variations of this technology and it is something that has been trying to get its feet off the ground (excuse the pun) for a long time. Personally I think the Japanese variation of this made by the rather comically named CYBERDYNE company. Their robot suit HAL (another comical ref here) offers the same leg mobility as the Rewalk, but has the same technology being implemented on the arms. Thus, giving its user increased lifting capacity also. The suit is also available for domestic renting, which makes it a little bit more accessible. The following video gives some context to the device:

If I was to chose one of these suits it may be apt to chose the more basic one that solves the direct problem at hand i.e. lack of leg mobility. However, as a society that always wants more and is hungry for technology I would advise towards HAL, although I can't say I'm not influenced by its close similarity to favourite film Casshern ;-)

If Happiness Were a Hat

Like many of you I have strolled through many a department store. You may have noticed that when meandering  through the hat section, a cloud of happiness and joy taints your vision and before you know it, you are gooning about with your companion trying on a selection of hatty all-sorts. The toffy-nosed chortling of the elderly ladies trying on hats next to you cause you to chuckle and gall and without warning you’re all fanning about with more and more hats and indulging in the millinery delights. But lo! Be warned I have discovered why hats make us feel so unexpectedly happy!

They have all been fitted with the following device that delivers extreme pain to the frowning model. Upon each dosage of pain a smile quickly ensues to prevent further pain caused by the frowning facial muscles. However since its creation in 2009, the Happiness Hat has undergone further modifications to supply pain on a less crude, more subconscious level and has subsequently been fitted to every at ever made! So next time you’re with your friends trying on hats, just ask yourself the question, why are we all so happy?

Real Dolls for all you Lonely Hearts

For all of you lonely single people out there who don't have a significant other to make moist with gifts and enjoy card exchanging, while hallmark drops you to your knees and fucks you in the ass, there may be a very sexy alternative for you to enjoy. When we were merely sprouts on the end of a semen's tale and floating matter in an egg waiting to unite, the sex doll was enjoying pleasuring people all over the world and offering the lonely a taste of a real artificial person. In recent years these sex dolls have evolved. Stemming from the parody and frightening mockery that they endured during the 90s, the sex doll became a place of comedy and often found company flapping out the window of a speeding limo window at some stag's raging party, in which their inflatable friend was left to the wind, in favour of some greasy toothless slut with cotton plugging her infected gum sockets. SUCK ON THAT!

This dreadful treatment and the financial downturn of the sex doll market led to a new breed of doll entering the market and after ten years of constant reform and development these beauties have managed to hold their ground as a dominant force to be reckoned with. Some even becoming the primary breadwinners in their homes. The following clip from the Adult Entertainment Expo gives an insight into the history and current manufacturing of these Real Dolls:

After watching such a video it may put somewhat of a seedy light on these sex dolls. There are some of you out there saying Valentine's Day is not about the sex it is about the LOVE. Well you will be glad to know that many lonely hearts out there have been filled with the love that they have for their Real Dolls. The documentary Love Me, Love My Doll exposes examples of this love to the world:

So for those of you feeling lonely this Valentine's Day why not give up on the whole dating scene, skip the dinner and the courting and do some extra shifts at work. Then when your extra cash comes in go out and order your own doll and start developing a relationship straight away. It's grim to think that this is what Hallmark has brought us to, but desperate times call for desperate measures. 

eCoupled Self-Cooking Soup and Light-Up Cereal Boxes

Last year I got very excited about wireless charging technology being confirmed as a reality for the domestic market. At the CES show last week the people at Fulton Innovations exposed their adoption of this technology and how they have managed to appropriate this to change not only the way food items are displayed, but also how we interact and engage with these items.

The following video not only demonstrates their wireless charging technology, but also gives us a demonstration of how they have managed to print this coil onto packaging. This is made visible through the light-up Cheerio box that they go on to explain not only lights-up, but offers a whole plethora of interactive possibilities. They give insight into these by explaining that when the product enters the home it can not only achieve this same effect on a similar charging shelf at home, but it also has the capacity to appear on your inventory on either your computer and/or any wireless device. From here you can catalog your items by expiry date and have access to things such as nutritional information.



This technology obviously appears to be ground breaking, lets just hope it doesn't become another site of limitless e-waste.

Alongside their light-up cereal box design, Fulton Innovations also demonstrated their unique self-cooking soup that works with their eCoupled wireless electricity. The aim of this Capbell's soup design is for the user to be able to pull a tab from their soup and press one of three buttons that decides what temperature they want it to be. Then after placing the soup on a eCoupled wireless charging unit their food will quickly begin to cook itself.

Although quite gimmicky, this application of eCoupled technology does find itself hitting on two very futuristic concepts, that if adopted by Supermarkets may just find themselves entering your life as quickly as the microwave managed to become a mainstay in contemporary eating culture. For this reason both the gadget heads and the obese would like to salute the people at Fulton Innovations for making the dream of self-cooking food a reality and for condemning diets to be distracted by flashing lights and app functionality.

Next up is a digital apple by Apple designed for the wealthy and the healthy ;-) :

Robotic Urinal: Saviour of TURD?

In the last few years we have seem many failed urinal advancements turn to piss. The people at  TURD (Transnational Urinal Research and Development) have spent over a decade trying to lure men out of their cubicles and into a more cost effective open air environment. The first major shift to the urinal format was introduced in the Vatican for market based product testing. The aim of the project was to target Christian conservatism and pipe it through the common respect held towards Nuns. The following product was implemented for a short stint Vatican-wide. 

For a brief period this project worked and they had a huge effect on overall bathroom etiquette and cleanliness. Unfortunately the products were disbanded after some Catholic nut got it into his head that it was infact mildly offensive to both Nuns and their Religion in general. So the products were zipped up and left to rot in the bowels of the Vatican. 

To respond to this issue TURD spent the next couple of decades developing products that carefully displayed humorous respect to gender objectification in a bid at making the outside world realise that they were not being offensive they were just 'having a laugh'. The following products ensued.

After the release of these products TURD turned to shit. After an internal investigation it was discovered that a senior executive falsely named R.Mutt (after an artwork by Marcel Duchamp) was taking the piss. The group has since been holding itself in, waiting for that perfect product to redeem them and they may have just found it. Integrating their urinal skills with recent technological advancements they have poured the remainder of their money into a robotic urinal. The device will not only unzip, hold and flick, but it will also anonymously record the users actions and stream them as premium live pornography. With the possibility of this huge product flow TURD may have just reached the point where they are no longer pissing in the wind.

USB Necktie Cooler

Here at MRHP we like to keep our eyes peeled and squishy for gadgets that not only take you out of a tight squeeze, but possibly leave a nice tip afterwards (good prostitute etiquette). One of these so called gadgets seems to have made its way into the buying path of Japanese businessmen and from there it hopes to bring its unique offering of USB powered randomness to the rest of the world. 

The product seems to have been born from its slogan that asks a very simple question. Feeling hot under the collar at work? Well if that is the case then spit your card numbers all over the screen because the busy little men at the Japanese company Thanko have introduced a USB powered necktie that not only offers office breeziness at an affordable price, but also brings with it a perfectly formed silicone Windsor knot that is sure to impress your boss.

In a world where computers seem to be taking over, I think it is a very apt statement for this generation to have an electronic leash strapped around their necks and attached to their computer. If this is the price of feeling mildly cooler, strap one on quick because we lost our agency along time ago anyway. If not then congratulations you are clearly not astute enough to realize the irony that you are reading this on a computer.

The Nubrella - A Bizarre Weather Accessory You Never Knew You Needed

After scowering the interent I came across what some people are considering the latest advancement in weather protection technology. On first inspection the device seems to be just another one of those unnecessary modifications of an already tried and tested model. For those of you concerned with wind inversion you will be glad to know that the Nubrella promises that "it can not and will not invert any wind". FINALLY!

The device is hardwearing and is supported by a very robust frame. It glides into the market as a real threat to the long standing umbrella format. At $50 each and with such a unique fashion statement to make it would not be a stretch of the imagination to believe that it won't be long until these completely takeover the tired umbrella format and reign in a new era of hands-free weather protection.