Hasta La Gadget!

Like many of you out there, I can’t wait until Star Trek: Into Darkness hits theaters next Summer. In the mean time, I have to be satisfied with other forms of Trekkism to keep my mind occupied – like this clever Starship Enterprise model, made from a defunct hard drive.

Actually, it was made from an old hard drive, bits of a dead mother board, and a laptop keyboard by geeky crafter Daniel Shankalonian. The drive platters make the perfect primary hull and bridge of the trusty old NCC-1701, while I don’t quite recognize what parts make up the warp nacelles and engineering section of the ship. The model also comes with a matching stand, made from a hard drive case and some busted headphone parts. Fascinating, Jim.

This isn’t the only U.S.S. Enterprise model that Daniel has built. This one is actually “version 2.1,” and he’s also got recycled part models of the U.S.S. Kelvin and Klingon Bird of Prey up for sale at the moment. There’s also an awesome X-Wing Fighter if you’re more into Wars than Trek. You can check out all of his nifty models over on Daniel’s Etsy shop.

I tried to think of the most harmless thing. Something I loved from my childhood. Something that could never ever possibly destroy us…

This Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man is not here to demolish your city – in fact he’s here to help you save money, so you can start rebuilding it.

This 20-inch-tall (51cm) Stay-Puft piggy bank isn’t quite as tall as the one in Ghostbusters, but it is big enough to hold plenty of loose change and to stop around on your model railroad set. It’s actually not the first Stay-Puft bank ever made, but it’s substantially taller than the previous model, and when you’re dealing with marshmallow men, bigger is always better.

The Stay-Puft piggy bank is coming from Japan’s Blister Direct in May 2013, and will sell for ¥ 9,800 (~$119 USD). So start filling your current piggy bank now, so you can order this awesome new one to replace it with.

Most of the time a shipping error is a pain in the ass for you. Maybe you get the wrong thing, maybe you don’t get anything. Sometimes though, it can be a huge boon, like when Best Buy accidentally sends you five iPads instead of one and then says “You know what? Keep ’em.” More »

Alt-week takes a look at the best science and alternative tech stories from the last seven days.

While some refer to it as a lonely planet, we prefer to think of it as unique. Where else can you find such diverse biology that dates back millions of years, that also has a space station hovering delicately above it. A planet where several millennia of human evolution gave birth to the comedy animated gif? Precisely. One of a kind. This is alt-week.

Continue reading Alt-week 12.08.12: The oldest known dinosaur, lighting up a space station and the black marble

Filed under: Misc, Science, Alt

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It’s not often that you hear that Apple and Google—both fighting for utter smartphone dominance—have teamed up on anything, but reports from Bloomberg say it’s the case. And they’re both going in on a half a billion dollars worth of Kodak patents. More »