Hasta La Gadget!

Etsy is a great place to find wonderful handmade crafts, and every once in a while I come across something I can honestly say I’ve not seen before. What we have here is some of our favorite sci-fi, movie and video game characters – all transformed into fat cats by Kathleen over at Fat Cat Crafts.

Oh, and these aren’t just any overweight felines, no. The cats of Fat Cat Crafts all function as pincushions, so if you’re into sewing, you can keep your spare needles and pins in them. (Or if you just want to put a voodoo curse on your cat.) My favorite has to be the highly-detailed Boba Fett fat cat (Boba Fatt?), complete with jet pack, though I do like the sound of  ”Shat Fat Cat” rolling off of my tongue too…

Among Kathleen’s other handmade creations are Han Solo, Darth Vader, Princess Leia, Mario, Luigi, Doctor Who, Obi Wan Kenobi and Indiana Jones (complete with pipe-cleaner whip) – all in fat cat form.

Prices range from $17 to $23 (USD) for the geeky fat cat pincushions over at Fat Cat Crafts’s Etsy shop.

Apparently, sheep herding is big business in some parts of Switzerland and elsewhere in the world. The problem for Swiss shepherds is that wolves are making return to the area after being gone for about 100 years. That means that their previously safe sheep are now coming under attack and being killed by wolves.

Researchers from the country have now developed a system that can monitor the heart rate of the sheep. The system has been proven to work effectively by noting increased heart rate when a wolf attacks a flock of sheep. The heart rate sensor system can be integrated with a collar that would be able to text shepherds when sheep are under attack.

The researchers expect to be able to test the new collar, which can also spray wolf repellent, sometime next year. I wonder how the system would differentiate between increased heart rate due to attacks or simply a male sheep staring at a female sheep.

[via Phys.org]

We’ve seen some LEGO Angry Birds in the past, and that was certainly geeky in an awesome way. Another LEGO fan has constructed some birds, and this time the birds aren’t angry at all. These birds are more realistic, sort of like sculpture, only made out of those  square bricks we all know and love.

I’m not sure what would be more difficult to do using LEGO, making large sculptures or making sculptures that are much smaller that still get the point across. I would think a large sculpture would give you more freedom to choose bricks whereas you are more limited when building something small. Either way, I don’t think I’d be able to build anything large or small if it didn’t have instructions that came out-of-the-box.

The person who constructed these LEGO birds is a British artist Thomas Poulsom. The birds are ones native to England and include Bobby Robin, Kingsley Kingfisher, Billy Blue Tit, Penelope Puffin, Gloria Goldfinch, and Woody Woodpecker. Those names sound made up to me, but what do I know about British birds. The artist plans to build birds from other countries as well. Here’s Barney the barn owl:

If you like these LEGO birds, head on over to Cuusoo and show your support. Perhaps one day they’ll be made into kits you can buy.

[via Wired]