Hasta La Gadget!

With October here, Halloween is nearly upon us and it’s high time that you get to carving your geeky jack-o’-lantern. This year we ran across some really cool zombie-themed pumpkins and some of them are downright creepy.

One of the things I like about these carvings is that they all appear to be made exclusively from pumpkins. I can only imagine how long it took to carve some of these, particularly the heavily detailed faces of some in the pictures in the gallery.

I think the creepiest is the pumpkin that is turned on its side. It looks like some sort of demented zombie piranha. I also particularly like the one that’s carved to look like a zombie hanging from the end of a noose. The detail work on that carving is incredible. Which one is your favorite?

[via Coolpumpkindesigns]

I think you know by now why it’s important to brush your teeth regularly. Those two minutes each morning and night might just save you from a future of missing teeth and dentures. But now there’s a new toothbrush of sorts in the market that promises to cut your brushing time down to six seconds per session. I’m not kidding.

It’s called the Blizzident and it’s a 3D-printed toothbrush that’s customized for your specific dental configuration. It costs $299(USD) to get one made, because it’s custom nature means that you can’t just pick one up at a store. You’ll have to get a dentist to make a 3D impression of your teeth, which is scanned into a 3D file and sent off to Blizzident.

They will then get to work on your custom toothbrush. The Blizzident has soft bristles all over, so instead of moving the brush, you just have to bite and chew for six seconds to get a deep clean around every tooth in your mouth – as well as your tongue. It’s recommended that users get a their Blizzident replaced annually. After the initial brush, it’ll cost $159 for replacements.

You can get more information about the Blizzident on their website.

[via C|NET]

Skee Ball machines are a lot of fun. There is something just so satisfying in the act of rolling a ball and watching it bounce into a target. I played as much Skee Ball as I could when I was a kid. Everytime we went to an amusement park I spent the whole day playing. Good times.

So it’s no wonder that I love this project from instructables user fungus amungus. He loves Skee Ball as much as I do, so he jumped at the chance to make a DIY version. He had some help from the folks at Because We Can who did the design and fabrication of the machine on a Shopbot CNC machine.

It is made almost completely out of plywood. The score board is triggered by a bunch of optical sensors and controlled by an Arduino. He set it up to score more like an arcade game rather than your typical Skee Ball game. The top score so far is 7,777. With that sort of score, you’d think he’d have enough tickets to get the biggest stuffed bear behind the counter.

I’m sure you’ve bought fruit or had some at home when it was still wrapped snugly in the box in its foam rubber packaging. I remember my cousins and I fighting over who got the stretchy, accordion-like stuff whenever an adult would grab an apple or pear from the box, because it was a toy to us, not trash.

Getting inspiration from this same packaging is Japanese designer Keisuke Fujiwara.

I’m sure his chair’s designs look more than familiar to you, because they resemble that stretchy fruit packaging I was just talking about. The structure, the way the fibers cross and intersect with one another, and the shape of the chair screams “I was inspired by the foam rubber packaging that protected your fruit while it was in transit!”

Apparently, they also feel like the rubbery packaging too, because the chairs are described as being “pillowy soft” and “moldable.” They’ll also “wrap around” anyone who sits in them, making for a very comfortable piece of furniture.

[via PSFK via TAXI]

I think one of the coolest things LEGO has ever done was to launch the LEGO Cuusoo website. This is the place where you can go to vote on DIY LEGO builds that could eventually become kits you can actually go to the store and purchase. Last time we talked about this was when the Goonies LEGO set turned up on the website.

This time out it’s another 80s childhood favorite of mine with an E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial LEGO kit complete with flying bicycle and little brown alien.

The guy behind the LEGO kit says it would have about 575 pieces, including the medical van, Elliott’s house, hooded scientists, Gertie, Michael, and a pack of Reese’s Pieces. There’s even E.T.’s Speak and Spell and Elliott’s bicycle, complete with a basket for E.T. to take flight in.

The kit is up on the Cuusso site right now if you’d like to vote for it. If it happens to make it through to the next round, we might be able to buy one down at the local Walmart someday.

[via Geekologie via Nerd Approved]