I want a pet dinosaur… Stuff finding cures to incurable diseases and saving lives and all, what geneticists SHOULD be doing trying to make pint sized dinosaurs for us. In the meantime, I’m happy to bide my time with a mechanical AI one: this little fellow is called Pleo and “is capable of expression. He can feel joy and sorrow, anger and annoyance. When Pleo is tired, he will become drowsy and go to sleepóeven dream. Two or more Pleos will recognize one another. Be careful though. They can transmit colds to each other. Achoo! Pleo even sneezes!”. There are some pics of a prototype at www.notcot.com, this is probably my favourite because you can get some sense of it actually having personality. AMAZING!



There’s a tattoo making kit for kids on the market, they are washable and I think it looks pretty fun, but it’s got a bit of a “Shock Horror” reaction from some as if it will encourage kids to real tatts. It was picked up by BoingBoing on the weekend and since then the Amazon link doesn’t work anymore, so I’m wondering if they pulled it. The Kmart link was still working at time of writing.


Open up your very own pretend play tattoo parlor. This easy-to-use tattoo maker kit includes an electronic tattoo pen and funky stencils. Using soft, safe pulsating action, the tattoo pen creates realistic, washable designs with dramatic effects. Requires two AA batteries not included.

In the attempt to make Zune appear cool by association, some talented artists have been commissioned to do some lovely pieces: https://www.zune-arts.net/. My favourite is a the tale of a little girl and a robot redeemed by music by Bent Image Lab (the background music is brilliant, “Dirty Laundry” by Bitter:Sweet. You can listen to it on their MySpace). Tokyo Plastic also do a very cute little video.

And finally, an animal video - this time a Japanese TV experiment on which cat can carry the heaviest fish:

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