Hasta La Gadget!

The Death Star may be well on its way to Kickstarter success, with £224,596 pledged out of total £20,000,000 goal, but its construction won’t go unopposed. Rebel forces have rallied to crowdfund a means to oppose Imperial tyranny, in the form of an X-Wing fighter and a pilot trained to use it to take down any moon-sized space stations that may end up floating around in the void.

The project’s creators are seeking $11,000,000 in funds to finance the development of a single X-Wing, and to train a pilot to use the fighter to deliver its deadly payload. Let me take this opportunity to volunteer myself to wear the orange jumpsuit, since I’ve logged countless hours on the X-Wing and TIE Fighter simulators that LucasArts wisely issued back in the 90s in anticipation of this exact scenario.

If somehow I’m not picked to be the first X-Wing pilot, then at least I hope to be considered for the entire X-Wing squadron that project creators Simon Kwan and Ed Dean hope to put together if they can manage to hit their stretch goal of $4,458,672,683. For backup, should the project achieve 13 million Galactic Standard Credits, the team will also fund and build the creation of a Corelleian YT-1300 freighter, which certainly came in handy when the Rebels took down the second death start in our distant past during that far-flung galactic struggle we all know so well from the re-enacted documentaries created by George Lucas.

While it’s likely true that the galaxy needs an X-Wing or two, I’m a little skeptical about this project’s ability to achieve its goals, for one reason: the conversion rate for Galactic Standard Credits is all wrong. The GSC was estimated to be worth around 0.62 USD back in May 2012, which means that that 13 million stretch goal would translate to around 8.6 million USD – under the total funding amount required to make the project successful in the first place.

That’s just crazy, and it definitely doesn’t give me any confidence in the ability this project’s creators to get the job done. If you can’t handle basic galactic currency conversion, how do you expect to manage planetary defence? There’s a lot of math involved.

BOSTON — The Boston fire department says an 11-year-old boy has died of carbon monoxide poisoning after being overcome as he sat in a running car to keep warm, while his father was shoveling snow to get the car out of a snow bank.

Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said the boy was helping his father shovel the snow in the Dorchester neighborhood Saturday but got cold, so his father started the car and the boy got inside. MacDonald said the car exhaust was covered by a snow bank, causing the fumes to collect in the vehicle.

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With all of the people we meet in business and our personal lives, sometimes it’s hard to leave a lasting impression. Sure, you could do something outlandish, like juggle kittens or something, but they’ll probably just think you’re nuts.

Instead, most of us just like to leave behind a calling card of some sort. But paper business cards are so easily buried in a drawer or tossed in the trash that they’re not that effective. What you need is the CallingCube.

This inventive object is a actually a calling card, printed onto a small cube using 3D printing technology. Just pick your color, provide text for the sides, your logo or graphic – and the designers at CallingCube will do the rest. Of course, you’ll get a proof of your design before they’re printed too.

They’re available in a variety of colors, and will definitely leave an impression wherever you leave them. I certainly wouldn’t throw away a business card this cool. It’d probably be sitting on my desk somewhere.

Keep in mind that CallingCubes aren’t exactly cheap. 20 of the suckers will set you back $99 (USD) – about $5 per cube – though there are substantial discounts for ordering more. An order of 240 cubes runs $799, which works out to about $3.32 per cube. They are also offering an additional $50 off orders of 80 or more cubes until March 1st, 2013. For 5 bucks, you can order a sample CallingCube to get a sense of how they feel in your hand.

That all said, you’ll still want to keep some cheap business cards around and save these for your most important contacts.

[CallingCube]

Courtney Stodden, everybody’s favorite teen bride, has just completed the music video for her debut single, “Reality,” and we have your exclusive first look at the finished product.

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What’s this? Two Q*bert posts in a week? Yeah, you got me. I guess I’m on a roll.

Remember how Q*bert used to let out that weird stream of gibberish expletives when one of his enemies got him? Well, one electronic musician decided to build himself a gadget which solely swears like Q*bert.

The Mr. @#?%! obscenity generator uses a variety of audio chips, including the classic Votrax SC-01A analog speech synthesizer. It was made by Count Funkula, using entirely parts that were available back in 1982, at the time the arcade machine came out. Check out some of the wondrous obscenities that stream forth from the orange guy’s proboscis…

Man, that little dude can swear like a truck driver. You can check out the schematics and read more about how Count Funkula built the Mr. @#?%! obscenity generator here. I’ll give you a hint – it doesn’t involve dropping balls and coiled-up snakes on anything.