Lost in Tokyo from Mark Bramley on Vimeo.

Some parents bristle at the idea of buying their children weapons for Christmas.  Others see no harm in arming their offspring, and a wonderful new toy from the good folks at Hammacher Schlemmer should top their Christmas list.

Say hello to our little friend. The Double Barreled Marshmallow Crossbow.

Ideal for for mid-range battle, this is the double-barreled crossbow harmlessly shoots marshmallows up to 30′.  When the string is pulled back and released, an attached plunger compresses air in the firing chamber, launching mini-marshmallows from one barrel at a time. Up to 25 mini-marshmallows fit in each magazine, enabling rapid fire. The twin magazines are dishwasher-safe.  Said to be for kids ages 6 and up, it retails for a little over $36.00.

If a more conventional single barrel marshmallow weapon is more your taste, see their Standard Shooter and Pump Action Blaster. (Targets sold separately, but truthfully, wouldn’t you rather shoot your unsuspecting relatives?

See you in hell.

With hand warmers insulating the interior of a modified takeout box to protect their i Phone and camera from the severe cold and 150 mph winds, this father and son team did what we all probably tried to do at one time or another. They sent a balloon off as far as it could go.

The helium balloon quickly journeyed upwards and was about 19 miles up before popping due to the low pressure.  After popping; the “capsule” made its way  back to Earth at 150 mph even with a parachute.  (Imagine if it had hit someone, or maybe landed on the interstate!)

A note was tucked inside offering a reward to whoever found the gear and returned it, but they caught the GPS signal and found everything dangling from a tree 30 miles from the launch site.

This is not a hoax. Next time they plan to send the kid.

Apparently Mr. West has recently discovered Twitter and is prolific in sharing his never ending flow of wisdom, social commentary and unfettered stream of consciousness.  So random and odd are some of his “tweets” that he’s quickly become a widely followed scribe.

On their own, the “self-absorbed one” puts out  entertaining bits of fluff…but paired as a caption to a random New Yorker cartoon, the result is gold. Kanye gold.

Click on the cartoon for more.

Paolo Bacigalupi has expanded upon his earlier short fiction work, “The Calorie Man” ( Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winner, Hugo Award nominee, 2006) and “Yellow Card Man” (Hugo Award nominee, 2007) to create a darkly complex and mesmerizing post-petroleum future.  It’s not so much a cautionary tale as it is an urban nightmare filled with decay, poverty and genetic terrorism. Set in a very crowded and apparently, sinking Thailand, the novel moves about with varied, compelling perspectives.

At the risk of sharing too much about the book, the overall premise is this…

Environmental destruction has exceeded Al Gore’s worst nightmare.  Ecological mainstays have collapsed and the world’s food supplies are in grave danger (the source of actual calories becomes  a monetary staple making world economies dependent on basic sustenance).  In a vicious cycle, Calorie conglomerates offer sterile seeds at high prices while bio-engineered “accidents” unleash horrific diseases and insects obliterating competing foods and driving up the costs of seeds, let alone food.  The world’s calorie markets become a dangerous, high stakes business.

The novel has ghosts, plague, bio-engineered sex dolls, Gestapo-like military police, roving chameleon-like tigers, political intrigue and all under a suffocating jungle heat.

Go out and get “The Windup Girl” by Paolo Bacigalupi, and treat yourself to a mesmerizing reading experience.

On Tuesday, Playboy Enterprises Inc. launched a website that will be cleaned up and safe to browse.  Even conscious of the implied message that their name and logo conjure, the site will go by a more palatable name.  TheSmokingJacket.com. (More like Hef, less like the Girls Next Door)

TheSmokingJacket.com will contain no nudity instead go with  humor to reach Playboy’s target demographic, men 25 to 34 years old. They also tend to send a lot of cartoons and jokes online.

“A lot of our audience logs on (to Playboy.com) after work and we saw that we were missing a golden opportunity to reach guys when they’re online the most: when they’re sitting at their desk, not working, sending e-mails to their friends,” said Jimmy Jellinek, Playboy’s editorial director.

The site, named after one of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner’s favorite pieces of clothing (silkpajamas.com was taken), won’t include the long interviews or in-depth articles found in Playboy. Think People magazine but more fun.

The site will still tease. This is still Playboy, after all and man doesn’t live on dirty viral jokes and Axe ads alone .  There will be  some pictorials that are relatively tame by comparison to the parent online magazine Playboy.com. the Playboy archives with photographs like those from the 1983 Playmate Playoffs, in which bathing suit-clad women competed in games such as a tug-of-war. The idea that you can just forget about the site while at work is somewhat foolish as well. The large print article headers still boldy declare that they can provide you with “7 Signs You’ve Given Up On Getting Laid”.

“The ideal is to be … the go-to site for those who are bored at work,” said Matt Gibbs, the lead producer of the site.

Because “Playboy” is just the kind of word that has companies putting up firewalls to keep their workers’ minds on their jobs, the only thing in the name that suggests Playboy is behind the site are the bunny ears inside the ‘o’ in “TheSmokingJacket.”

The site will be updated continually in the hopes that men will return to it throughout the work day.

We return with a pleasant little drive down San Francisco’s famed Market Street.  Filmed about two weeks before the great 1905 earthquake.  It’s hard not to be fascinated by this window into the past. The chaotic traffic patterns and curious looks as you pass by people long gone.

The soundtrack is provided by French jazz/pop group, Air.  It really works.

Enjoy.

Why not just run a screensaver on a plasma TV?  The Winscape goes one better.  If you wear a corresponding IR necklace or a Wii (see baby’s necklace in the video below), the software tracks your position and changes the view. Walk up close and look down and it all looks pretty realistic. Walk over to the right, and you’ll see a little more out the left side of the window. This isn’t like those weird eyes in a painting that seem to follow you. This is high tech mimicry that is all yours for between $2500.00 to $3000.00