Hey America! Remember Sam Joe the Unlicensed Plumber, the bald idiot that the McCain campaign ineffectively used as a prop during the waning days of the election? Sure you do. Well, he's milking is unearned public exposure by schilling for some company selling DTV converter boxes to the elderly and uninformed. It's both sad and funny at the same time, like a dog falling down the stairs. [Gawker]

That's right kids, five hours. That's not a lot of time. I hope you didn't leave it until the last minute... But even if you did, you can still come up with some impressive way to share the Gizmodo love with the rest of the world. Just check out our original Gizmo-grow post, get your hands on the hi-res logo and get it out there. Just make sure to send your entries to competitions@gizmodo.com.au before 5pm today, otherwise you'll have put in all that effort and won't have the chance of winning the TV. We'll be announcing the winner on Monday - Good luck!

[Gizmo-grow]

We're presented with an interesting conundrum this fine afternoon. Exhibit A: A new study says unhappy people watch more TV. Exhibit B: People dealing with the switch from analogue to digital TV are probably the most unhappy TV watchers on the planet right now, next to anyone who's been hoodwinked by the HDTV department at Best Buy. There was even a NASCAR wreck this week because of digital TV. So, if we use the powerful forces of logic on this little puzzle, we can deduce that the digital switch is making analogue TV owners unhappy, which makes them want to watch more TV, which they soon will be unable to do because the signal is about to get cut off. There have been wars started for less, so we anticipate come February 2009, the world is going to end, three years earlier that predicted. Take THAT, Mayans!

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Like the Nanoscope hack before it, the iPod Nano TV magnifies the screen of your iPod while built-in speakers amplify the sound—making it seem as though you are watching a tiny, retro television. It even has a VHS combo style to complete the effect. It seems kind of pointless if you ask me, but it might be a great way to introduce 21st century technology to Grandma without shocking her system. The mini-magnifying TV works with any third generation Nano and will be available for soon for about $US23. [Thumbs Up UK via GeekAlerts]

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CNN's holographic election coverage is fancy pantsy, but how did they manage to send 3D 360 degree footage of virtual correspondent Jessica Yellin from Chicago all the way to the station's election centre in NY? As Arthur C. Clarke says, Magic. A magic made possible from technology Vizrt and SportVu with the help of forty-four HD cameras and twenty computers. Here are the details.

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50 years ago this month NASA rocketed into existence, and to celebrate this fact NASA-TV is streaming its special retrospective show "50 Years of Exploration: The Golden Anniversary of NASA" in HD format today at 1pm and 8pm EDT (and again tomorrow at 10am and 2pm). Check it out: it's presented by none other than Neil Armstrong, and it'll remind you how frickin' astonishing the achievements of the Agency are, despite its recent rockety woes. [NASA-TV]

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Tonight is the season 2 finale of Mad Men. Will Don continue to revel in the shirtless, poolside-martini-sipping, Lolita-tinged free love of euro-riche California? Return to Betty's arms back home in the 'burbs? Or will everyone be stricken simultaneously with lung cancer and cirrhosis of the liver? While you wait to find out, dress your iPhone/iTouch or desktop in one of these beautiful vector illustrations by designer Dyna Moe--there's a new wallpaper for each episode of this season. Ah, when men wore hats. [Dyna Moe on Flickr]

TV host and noted technologist Oprah Winfrey has a favourite gadget, but it's a secret! At least until she announces it on her show, which will probably happen today. But that wasn't soon enough for BGR, who dug and dug and scraped and view-sourced until they found their answer in a tag list, buried in an XML file from Amazon's teaser page:

Oprah Fridays Live, gadget, favourite things, favourite new gadget, kindle, kindel, kindle device, amazon.com, edgar sawtelle, obc, oprah's book club, Cristina Ferrare, Mattie Stepanek, money, economy, savings, dollars, recession, cooking, meals for less

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The 10th installment of arieScope's annual Halloween short film just might be its best. TiVo is the star of the show this year, and the video does a good job of exposing its dark side. At first TiVo just wants to get to know you—learn your preferences to create a customised TV-watching experience. Careful though—TiVo is sensitive. Friendship turns to an obsession, obsession leads to jealousy, jealously leads to cat murder and cat murder leads to...well, you'll see. Bwahahahaha! [ariescope via Zats]

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Further evidence that media's placating massage fingers mine even the deepest jelly regions of our brains, a new study has claimed to prove the long-thought notion that the type of TV and film exposure during youth drastically affects the colour of dreams, even much later into life. In the study, only 4.4 percent of those who grew up with colour TV reported dreaming in B&W, but those who were raised on Howdy Doody and other monochrome entertainments had colourless dreams nearly 25 percent of the time.

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