The toys appear to be passive, in that they aren’t motorised, and rely on the micro-tides in your water bottle to propel them—along with their waving, limp tentacles—to and fro in your water bottle, and at six dollars they’re hardly expensive. On thing: although you can be fairly comfortable that these little guys won’t lay eggs in your intestines, it seems like we’ve got a sort of ship/bottle scenario here. If they’re small enough to fit into your Evian bottle, aren’t they small enough to come back out and choke you to death? [Bandai via Newlaunches]

First it was Beats by Dre headphones in the locker room, now it’s Flip Minos awkwardly distributed onstage at the MVP crowning. By the looks of it, Delonte West is pretty used to the Santa LeBron treatment—he’s still waiting for the Range. [Sporting News]

[Streetview - Thanks Michael!]

There’s not much else known about this newly registered trademark filed with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office except that it has something to do with:

Video game software; Software for computer games; Optical disc recorded video game software; Optical disc recorded computer game software; Optical disc recorded game programs for hand-held typed electronic games with liquid crystal display

Oh, what could it be? It sounds like it could be a trademark for the EULA or privacy section of DC Universe Online, the Sony-developed DC Comics MMORPG. Or something related to that game. How else is Sony thinking it can register the name Badman in any kind of trademark filing and get away with it? [USPTO via Kotaku]

Despite the fact that the whole idea of a motorised barstool conjures up images of drunken racing leagues, obtaining one is as simple as Google search. So, my guess is that this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. [610WTVN via Fark and Newark Advocate]

Chinese officials have reported a UFO sighting while they were on an aeroplane and, in case anyone thought it was just a case of baijiu-induced hallucinations, they snapped pictures of it too.

In a report from Xinhua, the government-sponsored news agency, a group of journalists and officials were on a Southern Airlines flight in late February when one of them noticed an unusual luminous object travelling alongside their vessel.

After excitedly pointing it out to everyone around him, one journalist managed to snap a few photos before the object suddenly changed directions and swerved north east. The witnesses debated whether it had been a plane – but later, another plane did appear and everyone agreed that it looked nothing like the unidentified object they’d just seen.

Altogether, the alleged UFO sighting lasted about a minute. Any idea what it could have been? Aliens? Solar flares? AMERICAN SPIES?! [Xinhua]

After his debut, Daito Manabe decided it was time to torture four of his friends by connecting them to his Face Visualiser—a player which stimulates facial muscles using electrodes. The resulting video is funny.

The first video was good, but this one is even better, specially their reaction at the end. Clockwise, these four guys are Muryo Honma, Setsuya Kurotaki, Motoi Ishibashi and Seiichi Saito, and they all probably hate—in a good way—their friend Daito for making them look like hyperactive anime characters.

As you can see, the faces are perfectly choreographed thanks to the electrodes stimulating their faces, following the sound beats. [Pink Tentacle]

I found him on Kotaku as part of what appears to be a promo shot for some Call of Duty title on the Wii. And I had to check the photo a few times through the morning, just to assure some nagging part of my brain that even though I’ve written for Kotaku and been behind the scenes with Activision, no, I’ve never posed for an Activision photo shoot.

Even now I’m just beginning to be convinced, and only due to my diligent study.

He has my hair (both the curly mop on my head and the Ben Affleck from Chasing Amy wannabe thing on my face), but there’s something almost imperceptibly off. He has a stronger jaw that drives his visage to appear confident, fierce even. While you can see me on the right, tentatively trying Wii Music for the first time, you see other world me, confident me, attacking COD like I’m going to kill the TV.

Would this oddworld me win in a bar fight, a round of Wii Sports, or an IQ test? Would my wife find him attractive? None of these possibilities are all that fun to contemplate.

In the digital realm, you become accustomed to copies. Be it Bittorented MP3s or your Mona Lisa desktop wallpaper, a copy of almost anything is accessible in moments that’s indistinguishable from the real thing. Seeing a copy of yourself doesn’t feel nearly as convenient. It’s startling, and it calls to question, just how original am I after all? Just how “me” is my me?

I also don’t own red shoes, though after seeing this photo, that’s a situation that I clearly must remedy.

Photoshaper can be used by anyone with a digital camera and an Internet connection. Basically, the service will take any digital photograph you can send them using their web site, creating a 3D image out of it.

First, to create the 3D information, Photoshaper analyses the photograph, converting it to black and white. It then uses the resulting picture as a guide to create the 3D layers: Darker tones correspond to thicker parts of the plate, while lighter tones correspond to thinner parts.

The plate is made then using a 3D printer, which lays down multiple layers of resin like an inkjet printer. The resin layers solidify instantly, allowing for more to be printed on top, constructing the 3D out of multiple paper-thin surfaces.

The result is a slab of white resin with a weird, rough surface. When you look at it straight on, it resembles a negative of the original image, but much less defined than a real negative. However, when you look at it through the light, the image appears magically in front of you, with a spooky effect.

At least it is spooky for me. I don’t know about you, but this freaks me out. [Sh rugged apeways]