Actually it's a high-resolution picture of the sun taken by NASA's Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope. And no, the sun didn't just sprout an arm and it isn't scratcing its head - that's a solar flare. Link (via digg)

China has successfully tested a home-grown Maglev train in Chengdu:

The test train can hold 60 people and travel up to 100 miles per hour, Xinhua reported, citing Zhang Kunlun, deputy director of the School of Electrical Engineering at the Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu.

The cost of the Chinese maglev train is low, and it is suitable for urban traffic, Zhang said.

"The successful test of the train shows that China has mastered the technology of low-to-medium speed maglev trains," he was quoted as saying.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/05/01/china.maglev.ap/index.html

Wired News has a fantastic collection of "Gadget for the Lazy". Shown to the left is "The Bird 2.0".

Other gadgets include:

- A Bugle emulator
- Ice cream turner
- Shoe mops
- Electric fly swatter, and more...

http://blog.wired.com/lazygadgets/index.album?i=3

More at Irdel (via digg)

This spoof on The Police's Every Breath You Take is done by Columbia Business School for its Spring 2006 Follies, featuring imitation of its Dean Glenn Hubbard who lost the Fed Reserve chairmanship to Ben Bernanke. (via NY Times DealBook)

Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center created this unmanned 'crusher' all-terrain-vehicle for the Army:

Since Crusher and its predecessor do not have to accommodate human crews, their novel designs offer unequaled ruggedness, mobility and payload-carrying capacity compared to manned vehicles in their weight class. Crusher's hull is made from high-strength aluminum tubes and titanium nodes protected by a steel skid plate that can absorb shocks from impacts with rocks or tree stumps. Its unique suspension enables it to move smoothly over extremely rough terrain and overcome obstacles like large ditches, man-made barriers or piles of boulders. It can carry more than 8,000 lbs. of payload and armor. Electric motors embedded in each of the vehicle's six wheels are powered with a hybrid system that uses a turbo diesel generator to recharge its batteries. Its top speed is currently 26 miles per hour.

Link

Ron fitted his VW Beetle with a 1350-hp GE Model T58-8F helicopter turboshaft engine. When he fired up 26,000 rpm jet, the fiery afterburner comes to life.

The cool thing is that the car is perfectly street legal! It still has the regular gasoline engine for everyday driving.

So, what's next for Ron?

Why a jet-powered Honda Metropolitan scooter for his wife, of course!

http://www.freewebs.com/jet_beetle/ | SF Gate Article | SF Gate Video

This Lego contraption can throw a CD disc at such high speed that it would break apart upon impact.

Link (via TechEBlog, Thanks Steve!)

Neatorama reader Kacie suggests that we check out Alex Grey:

This guy is a major psychedelic artist. His works are marvelously individual. However, common themes can be seen throughout several of the works. I recommend "Gaia" -- see in the background the Twin Towers with two planes flying overhead? He painted that one in 1989.

Link (Thanks Kacie!)

What does your roomba do when you're away from home? Probably something similar to Kara and Amit's roomba - it goes cleaning the streets of New York, ride the subway, buy cupcakes, play on a swing ...

Link (Thanks Amit Gupta!)

From the website:

Some people will try to tell you that the human skull is just filled with mushy brain matter. This is clearly not true! This fabulous design lets you know the truth – inside every little boy’s brain there is a platoon of toy soldiers! Maybe other boys and girls have some different things in there (like My Little Pony, or Transformers), but this little tyke is playing Armies, all, everyday.If you want to get all political/philosophical perhaps it’s also a statement about childhood exposure to violence and the normalisation of war in the 21st century. Or maybe Jeremy’s just plain insane with too much time on his hands. Either way, People Like Us like it!

http://www.peoplelikeuscollective.com/tshirt.php?id=5 (Thanks Jeremy!)

This video game controller was inspired by the SegaSaturn game "Death Crimson," also known as the worst game ever made (it received a score of 1.0909 out of 10 according to user reviews). So, just like Ed Wood's movies, Death Crimson became a cult favorite.

The controller is functional, but it is hard to weild - but it doesn't matter since the first time you play Death Crimson, your survival expectancy is just 30 seconds.

Link (via Insert Credit and TechEBlog)

Simply enter your planet of choice, asteroid or comet composition, size and velocity and see what happens.

Link (Thanks Tim Mosley!)

If you like this one, see also The Matrix Ping Pong (Thanks Sahan!)

To develop a super-solider of the future, researchers at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition are looking at tongues.

Yes, tongues:

By routing signals from helmet-mounted cameras, sonar and other equipment through the tongue to the brain, they hope to give elite soldiers superhuman senses similar to owls, snakes and fish. ...

The device, known as "Brain Port," was pioneered more than 30 years ago by Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rita, a University of Wisconsin neuroscientist. Bach-y-Rita began routing images from a camera through electrodes taped to people's backs and later discovered the tongue was a superior transmitter.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/04/24/tongue.sight.ap/index.html (Thanks David R!)