Hasta La Gadget!

I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t take a bath with the Alien queen or her babies. But if you do encounter their nasty saliva and get all grimy from fighting them, you need to clean up once it is all over. Might as well get squeaky clean with some soap shaped like H.R. Giger’s Aliens.

This creepy set of four Alien soaps comes from Etsy seller TheHalloweenQueen in a variety of scents, and includes two queens and two babies. Aren’t they adorable? Well, they are until you drop one in your suds and can’t find it again. Then it attacks you underwater and lays eggs in your skin or just bites your butt.

If you’re willing to risk it, this set is very affordable at just $4(USD).

Imagine a world where Disney’s most-beloved princesses actually existed; a world where they would have access to the Internet and maintained a presence of various social media networks. Like Instagram, for example.

That’s one thing the folks from B for Bel were musing about, which prompted them to come up with this fun gallery of Instagram posts from the Disney princesses.

From home-cooked food to gowns and gowns to selfies and photos of palaces, this gallery has it all. These images are essentially grabbed from the movies these princesses starred in, but the captions make all the difference. Check out the full series in the gallery below.

[via io9 via Nerd Approved]

Sometimes, the right accessories make a person’s outfit come alive. Other times, it’s the accessories being worn that’s actually alive, and that’s the case with Cecilia Valentine’s “Fur is Alive” series.

Her pieces are composed of bulky but hollow 3D-printed pieces that look plain on their own. If they might remind you of animal cages, then you’re spot on, because they were actually designed with that purpose in mind.

Cecilia’s pieces might seem trivial, but they’re really not, because they were conceptualized with a strong message. On her website, she explains that the conceptual line “examines the exploitation of animals in fashion” and was not meant to be worn. She adds:

The designs incorporate living animals in an attempt to harness the true beauty of natural forms in a way that exposes the harsh reality of the fur industry, which is still widely accepted despite years of controversy. Fur is meant to be alive, and murdering an animal for the sake of design or beauty should never be tolerated.

In case you’re wondering, the bird was edited into the photo, while the hamster was “given many treats in return for his help.” Neat-o, and I definitely agree with Cecilia’s stand on the fur industry.

[via inhabitat via Neatorama]

There’s something that continues to intrigue me about Steampunk style. I think it’s the idea that technology could be driven by steam power instead of electricity. And while these speakers aren’t actually driven by steam, they’re still pretty amazing.

This pair of Empire Steam speakers was handmade by Airhammer Industries. Each octagonal cabinet is made from MDF with a copper veneer, copper edging, and brass and bronze details. They’re extremely substantial, as is evidenced by the large 1.5″ thick granite top on each one, and an approximate weight of 125 pounds per speaker.

Inside of each 36-inch-tall speaker is a pair of Vifa 1″ silk dome tweeters, a 5″ Pyle midrange, and a 15″ Goldwood downward-firing subwoofer for cranking out the bass while you watch The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen on your steam-powered television. Maximum power per speaker is 400 Watts RMS @ 8 ohms.

While these speakers are glorious, they’re not exactly cheap. All of this craftsmanship and audio tech will set you back a whopping $12,600 (USD) for the pair. I wonder how much they would have cost back in the 19th century?

Most people mean well when they give you directions. However, they often give pretty confusing directions that might get you lost when you try to follow them.

Turning these hand-scrawled directions into an art project, though, is New York conceptual artist Nobutaka Aozaki.

His piece is called Here to There and his goal is to make a map of Manhattan using handwritten directions and maps that he asked for from strangers.

Aozaki walks around the streets dressed in a souvenir baseball cap while toting a Century 21 shopping bag around, posing as a tourist. He then approaches random people to ask about directions on the part of the map he’s working on.

Aozaki’s goal isn’t to create an accurate map (those already exist and his method doesn’t really lead to this end), but rather, he wants to keep track of his daily routine and create a mapped diary of sorts for that.

So if you happen to live around that area, take a closer look at the people around you. Who knows? You might actually run into Aozaki himself.

[via Spoon & Tamago via Colossal]