It's Friday. In Sydney it has been raining since the early hours of the morning. And on top of that, it's a slow news day. So to keep you guys entertained, I thought I should share what can only be described as some of the most disgusting creatures in the world today, courtesy of Popular Science. Some of them are a bit "meh" (a weird looking mushroom?), but I challenge anyone to watch the Bot Fly video and not want to throw up. That is wrong on every level of the word.

Possibly NSFW, but only because it's so disgusting you'll be gagging and shouting "no!" at your computer screen. Hit the link for all 12.

[Popular Science]

Daniel Pon needed to make a steampunk mouse to accompany his tricked-out keyboard and monitor, so he got to work, and perhaps a little carried away. The end result is impressive. And kind of nauseating.

Read More »

I know there are people out there that are into bugs...Jame Gumb (aka Buffalo Bill) and Gil Grissom for example—but this crap is just gross. Nonetheless, if you are a budding entomologist you will probably get a kick out of this USB mouse with a giant green beetle forever preserved in a plastic tomb. Also available in spider and starfish versions. [Scientificsonline via TRFJ via Boing Boing Gadgets]

Read More »

Okay, not really, my desktop won't fit in my bathroom, but you people really are disgusting. At least according to a survey sponsored by Nokia, 53 percent of Americans have taken a work-related call or email in the bathroom. (Our own results were actually worse.) It doesn't reveal exactly what else they were doing in the bathroom at the time, but it's probably better that way. I mean, just thinking about it makes me wanna wash my hands. So the next time somebody hands you their phone to check out this amazing new app, you better make sure it's amazing first. [Gadget Lab]

Admit it. At least once, during a long road trip, you've pulled over at a gas station, filled the tank, grabbed a US$5 bottle of Desani and, just as you were leaving, inhaled a particularly saltilicious scent. Scanning through the aisle, you see its source. Hot dogs. Preservatives with a side of meat. And they are spinning on their rollers with all the gloss of a sports car unveiling. Just for a moment, you think of what could be should you be willing to sacrifice intestinal comfort for the next week. Recreate the magic at home with this US$40 Automatic Hot Dog Grill Roller. And don't even think about those taquitos, either. [AJ Prindle via bookofjoe]

Read More »

What wonderful times we live in. If you've got some funky stuff going on down below, a good way to diagnose exactly what's happening is to swallow a pill-sized camera robot to have a looksie. Only problem is, those things have trouble swimming upstream, if you will, to stay near the specific trouble spot. Carnegie Mellon university researchers have potentially solved that problem with a new capsule bot that uses tiny feet covered in hairlike adhesive projections to anchor the 'bot at a specific point, without damaging sensitive tissues when it's time to get unstuck. All the same, I really just don't know if I want anything anchoring to my intestines, ever. More including a quick video over at: [Technology Review]

Read More »

After spending US$5 million of the city's tax dollars on high-tech, self-cleaning public toilets and then watching them quickly devolve into disgusting havens for just about every urban deviance imaginable, the city of Seattle is trying to cut their losses by vending all five of them on eBay where they can be yours for US$89,000 each, discarded crack pipes not included.

Read More »

Binaural sound recordings can be creepy enough, but knowing that they may have originated at this Otokinoko ear-mic might just make them unbearable. The concept of binaural microphones is elegantly simple: record sounds from the positions of human ears, creating the illusion of 3d sound at playback. This blue beast makes that concept very explicit, and like the binaural head mic before it, will rarely be able to record anything but people screaming "OH GOD WHAT IS THAT?" in glorious 3d. If that seems like something you might be interested in, the Otokinoko Binaural Mic is available now for US$3,899.

Read More »

Remember the canned cheeseburgers? Now you can make yours even more yummylicious with canned 100% US bacon, cooked and ready to eat. Actually, forget the burger: make your own bacon sandwich using two additional layers of bacon instead of bread. Each can contains all the vitamins and minerals you need to keep a healthy life while pretending to work in front of the computer, and you can even use the remaining fat to polish iPhones and assorted gadgets.

Read More »

When we saw that 24-carat solid gold iPhone last month, we thought it was too tacky gold for everybody except for Mr. T. Apparently we were wrong. Twenty people have bid 55 times to plunk down real money—and at least two are willing to pony up over two grand—for this gaudy slab of soon-to-be-outdated tech. Or, as our new intern said, "Maybe Chamillionaire has 20 eBay accounts, and we've been overestimating his understanding of how an auction works." Either way, it's a sad state of affairs. [eBay]