An intrepid young man in Japan — whose website I believe is named "Psychodrive Over Boost!?"; We'll be renaming BBG to something similar now — has fashioned a beautiful one-off rubber band gun. It's the same basic design as wooden rubber band guns, but this one has a working safety and is far prettier. (And heavier!)

(Thanks, Matt!)

If your time-travelling hunting expeditions have netted you a fortune in apatosaurus ambergris, feel free to pick up one of these ornamental "Unnatural Selector Ray-Blunderbuses" from none other than Weta Workshop, New Zealand's most famous prop house. They're only making 50 — and the least expensive number edition is $4,500. Everything works...except the ray.

Unnatural Selector product page [WetaNZ.com via Gadget Lab]

UAVs aren't just for soldiers and horny lab assistants anymore: the Draganflyer X6 will put a remote-controlled, auto-stablizing flying camera platform into your hands for just $15k. A mount on the bottom can hold a variety of cameras, including video, still, and thermal imagers. (Anything, really, but I just wanted to mention thermal so I could imagine flying through Humboldt County and picking out the grow rooms.)

The X6 has a fancy four-axis remote with an OLED screen inside, but its onboard computers make it relatively simple to fly. Dual motors on each of its three arms keep the X6 flying even if a motor — or even a whole rotor — go kaput. And a built-in GPS system lets you punch in lat-and-long coordinates and kick back while the X6 does the spying for you.

It also packs into a handle travel tube.

In short: I want one. If only I didn't think I'd be shot by police and citizens alike if I started flying one around Manhattan.

Draganfly product page [Draganfly.com via Technabob]

According to Pentagon researchers, the next 9/11 bloodbath on American soil might be plotted out in World of Warcraft... and that's making some politicians very nervous.

Danger Room's Noah Schachtman has a great write-up on a presentation recently made by Dr. Dwight Toaves of the National Defense University on how a meatspace terrorist attack might be plotted in a virtual world.

[T]wo World of Warcraft players discuss a raid on the "White Keep" inside the "Stonetalon Mountains." The major objective is to set off a "Dragon Fire spell" inside, and make off with "110 Gold and 234 Silver" in treasure. "No one will dance there for a hundred years after this spell is cast," one player, "war_monger," crows.

Except, in this case, the White Keep is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. "Dragon Fire" is an unconventional weapon. And "110 Gold and 234 Silver" tells the plotters how to align the game's map with one of Washington, D.C.

I find this objectively fascinating, though I struggle to see how it is more useful than any of the other methods of communication a terrorist group might use to plot an attack. That this could happen in a "virtual world" is what is causing brow-mopping in Washington: the implication for the technologically Luditical is that terrorists have somehow tapped into a commercially-available, programmable virtual-reality mass murder simulator. But just as an FPS isn't a primer on how to actually shoot a gun, World of Warcraft isn't anything remotely resembling a terrorism simulator. TSA agents are not MOBS. A virtual world is, at best, a method of communication indistinguishable from email, IRC or web forums.

The sage word of reason comes from Steven Aftergood, an analyst for the Federation of the American Scientists: "Could terrorists use Second Life? Sure, they can use anything. But is it a significant augmentation? That's not obvious. It's a scenario that an intelligence officer is duty-bound to consider. That's all."

Pentagon Researcher Unveils Warcraft Terror Plot [Danger Room]

Mustard Hamsters explores Loring Air Force Base, a decommissioned facility packed with derelict military technology.

Living at MSSM for two years, I was about three miles from the decommissioned Loring Air Force Base, but I had no car and never really had the chance to get out there. This weekend was graduation weekend for the class of ‘08, and as an alumnus my friends and I planned to meet up at the old stomping grounds for the ceremonies. Much to my delight a friend offered to bring me over to the base to explore. We went twice during the day and found some really great and cool stuff.

In its time, it was the largest Strategic Air Command base and stored more weapons and fuel than any other air base in the nation. It even had its own ski slope.

Visit to LAFB [Mustard Hamsters]

In a recent edition of The Straight Dope, Cecil Adams tackles unlife's most pressing question: how would the military fight off a zombie invasion? But first he reiterates this timeless personal advice from a classic guide:

In The Zombie Survival Guide (2003), which remains the definitive and possibly only treatment of the subject, Max Brooks recommends for hand-to-hand combat something that can efficiently slice zombies into bits, a two-handed Japanese katana (samurai sword) being ideal. (Also receiving high praise are the compact yet deadly WWI trench spike and the much larger and deadlier ancient Shaolin monk's spade.) Brooks says forget about chain saws — no matter how cool they are, they just aren't reliable enough and require fuel, which may run out at a critical juncture. Firearms are a good choice if used properly — you need to aim for the head, rather than waste ammunition on the body. Even a zombie cut in half with automatic weapon fire can still crawl toward you. An old-style combat rifle such as the M1 Garand is perhaps your best bet. The semiautomatic action conserves bullets, and the heavy stock (useful as a bludgeon) and detachable bayonet give you options when the ammo is gone.

Presuming that the brain must be destroyed to fully incapacitate a zombie, I'd lean on a nice, sharp shovel.

How would the U.S. military fight a zombie army? [StraightDope.com]

Image: Secretly Ironic

Previously • Fairy Tale Inferno: Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie BBQ for the Nintendo DS
• Zombie Wars: Dawn of the Dead Producer Sues Over Dead Rising Game
• Remote controlled robot zombie

NASA has admitted that a computer virus was taken to the ISS in July. And it's not the first time!

The laptops infected with the virus were used to run nutritional programs and let the astronauts periodically send e-mail back to Earth.

The laptops carried by astronauts reportedly do not have any anti-virus software on them to prevent infection.

Once it has scooped up passwords and login names the Gammima.AG worm virus tries to send them back to a central server. It targets a total of 10 games most of which are popular in the Far East such as Maple Story, HuangYi Online and Talesweaver.

Nasa is working with partners on the ISS to find out how the virus got on to the laptop in the first place.

That's certainly rather benign, but perhaps it's time to start thinking of Norton, NASA. Although come to think of it, Norton could bring down the Space Station by itself.

Computer viruses make it to orbit

Wired has a great article up following gaming's favorite fruity Ren Fairer, Richard Garriott aka "Lord British" as he trains to be launched into space as "an effete space tourist, or monkey" at Russia's Zvyozdny Gorodok, aka Star City.

They live in cramped dormitories in the Prophylactory Building, or Prophy, which looks more YMCA than Star Trek. They slip and slide down frozen walkways past dilapidated Soviet structures. They subsist on cafeteria food slathered in mayo. They bury themselves in textbooks or ride "vomit comets" and centrifuges.

"Everybody knows you can go to space if you are a perfect physical specimen and incredibly smart," Simonyi says. "But what if you are kind of normal?"

The whole thing is incredible... from Garriott's dashed dreams of following his astronaut father into space. to the loss of his first chance at a flight into space when the tech bubble burst, to his training at Star City and eventual acceptance among the vodka-swigging Russian cosmonauts. An absolute must read.

Going to Space? First Stop: Eight Months of Grueling Training in Russia [Wired]

It's a fine line: what do you do when you have a three minute interview with the second man on the moon, Colonel Buzz Aldrin... an interview in which the space hero and futurist answers none of your questions, instead choosing to reply to them with random non sequiturs in a dialect that sounds remarkably like Google Translated moon man? Your deadline looms. The interview is nonsensical, completely unusable without opening your own publication up to ridicule. Yet professionalism demands that you not openly mock an American hero. What do you do?

Most of us would panic. But not Boing Boing TV's Ms. Xeni Jardin. A seasoned pro, Xeni confronted the dilemma by going meta, recruiting the ranting, rampaging id of the archetypical anonymous Boing Boing commenter to riff on the obvious: Buzz isn't making a lick of sense. Absolutely genius. Bear in mind this is not the official Boing Boing party line: I'm simply commenting as a viewer here. My interpretation may not be what was intended. But either way, this is my favorite BBTV episode ever.

Look, Buzz Aldrin rocks, no question. Additionally, he could hit me so hard my whole family would die.^* I'm loathe to criticize him. He deserves our respect and admiration. But I don't even know what's going on with him here. He answers Xeni's questions like Grampa Simpson: "Back in my day, we flew Apollo 11 to the moon on a thimbleful of corn oil, and NASA stuffed our pockets with moon money, which was what they called Gouda at the time..."

Xeni Interviews Buzz Aldrin [Boing Boing TV]

* - Missed opportunity: given Buzz's history of knocking out flippant journalist punks, BBTV should have gotten Buzz to throw a punch at the camera, much like in the opening credits of He-Man.

This excerpt from the 1979 Usborne Book of the Future certainly causes a few nostalgic, retro-futuristic pangs. According to this book, by the year 2000, squadrons of rocket troops will board NASA-like space shuttles and propelled into orbit, where it will shoot to the other side of the planet at over 16,000 km per hour. Once they've landed in some picturesque Arabian oasis, it's time to swarm over the indigenous natives with armed, floating hover cars. I'd say this seems like overkill just to mop the floor with a gaggle of liberty-threatening Middle Eastern insurgents, but the occupation of Iraq going as it has, perhaps the missing ingredient was rocket troops and hover cars after all.

The Usborne Book of the Future [Pointless Museum via Danger Room]

A post on a Russian Steampunk (Stimpank!) community offers a gallery of attractive images of N. Lebedenko's amazing Netopyr, or Tsar Tank: a massive tricycle-like armored vehicle with a wheel span of 27 feet and cannons loaded on a rotating turret, the underbelly and the sponsons. The huge wheels were intended to roll over large ditches and walls, as well as gelatinize fleeing hordes of Bolsheviks. Unfortunately, they didn't work very well, and the tank was abandoned where it was being tested, 60 kilometers from Moscow, for the next 8 years, until it was dismantled for scrap in 1923.

If The Empire Strikes Backhad played out not in science-fiction but Leninist folklore, the Tsar Tank would have been the AT-AT to Lenin's Luke and Siberia's Hoth.

Tsar Tank [Live Internet via Gizmowatch]

The Russian WW1 Lebendenko (or Tsar) Tank [Landships]

This twenty-foot retractable watchtower is dubbed "Sky Watch" according to Animal New York. It's used by the NYPD to monitor areas where crime is spiking...which means that it's currently just a few stops West of me in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where a recent spate of robberies and muggings have plagued the neighborhood.

If these mobile towers were permanent fixtures in the city I might be more upset by them, but New York's roving bands of police officers through the Operation Impact project do seem to be keeping crime down. And while I find irresponsible police as frustrating and frightful as anyone, I've come to view a pair of officers walking through neighborhoods keeping the peace as a good thing.

Sky Watch Deployed In Williamsburg [AnimalNewYork.com]

OhGizmo! unearths this wonderful horological curiosity: a key-wind pocket watch containing a gun barrel capable of firing a .3mm through a man's heart. Confront the perpetually tardy with the time... then put a cap into their brainpan with it.

Rare English Patent Curiosa Railroad Pocket Watch Gun [Littlegun.be via OhGizmo!]

Every flabby, pallid junior high dork found himself, at one point or another, gravitating towards an awkward mulleted sociopath as their best friend. The kind of buddy who dressed in nothing but crusty heavy metal t-shirts and liked to show his camaraderie by enthusiastically punching you in the stomach when you least expected it, or answering your tremulously worshipful questions with phrases like "What, are you retarded or something, douche?" or "Way to homo it up, gaylord." Ah, good times.

For me, my own personal friendship with a misanthropic sociopath lasted long into adult hood, when said friend rewarded me for my years of omega male devotion by giving me a lucrative job writing about gadgets for a living. But even now, when I go over to his Brooklyn house for a few beers and a never-ending gauntlet of Indian burns and purple nurples, we end the night bonding over what brought us together in the first place: his astonishing war cabinet full of flea market weaponry of the most extravagant and implausible design. Weapons to command not just fear, but respect.

"Check this out, d-bag," my friend will say, fitting a scorpion shaped knife to his wrist and polishing the sterling silver skull face with a filthy rag. "I once killed, like, thirty ninjas with this little byoot."

I'd always wondered where I could get such highly lethal knives. My friend was never forthcoming about his "connections", though. But as it turns out, you no longer have to buy them from a brown-toothed amputee flying a Confederate flag behind his fold-out table at the local flea market. Instead, that same brown-toothed amputee will sell them to you for less than $35 each over the Internet. These are the real deal, just like assassins, ninjas and presidential body guards use. I'm buying, like, ten. Now we'll see who the wussy d-bag is, Joel. Not me!

Insane Wrist Knives are Scary Cheap [Nerd Approved]

The Super Soaker, introduced in 1989, already has a long history of redesign and refinement. Enthusiast site iSoaker has charts tracking the evolution of the backyard battler's weapon of choice.

iSoaker [via Gizmodo]

Julia Keller's new book about an old gadget is reviewed by the Washington Post's Jonathan Yardley, who doesn't seem to like it much. He finds its too representative of a journalistic bad habit, trying to weave poetic myths out of mundane subjects made interesting because of the blood they left in the ground: "Keller is given to broad strokes, sweeping generalizations, large claims and overheated prose."

That said, it's fascinating to read that Gatling's death-machine was inspired by an earlier invention of his, one both mundane and humane — a mechanized seed-sprayer.

One of his agricultural inventions, a seed planter, was the inspiration, Keller believes, for the gun: "Fed by a gravity-driven hopper, the seeds dropped, one by one, into the furrow. Gatling couldn't get that process out of his mind: its rotating simplicity, its smooth mechanical perfection."

The most effective use of Gatling guns during the civil war, Keller writes, was by the New York Times, which lined them up outside its offices to scare away a mob of anti-conscription activists upset with its editor's outspoken criticism of them. They were far more successful among police departments and factory owners than as actual military weapons — as intimidating as they were ineffective, they made perfect security theater.

Jonathan Yardley on 'Mr. Gatling's Terrible Marvel'
[Washington Post]

Noah Shachtman reports on the "Voyeur" drone, a 27-inch flying drone designed to protect our ships at sea.

Drone-maker Lite Machines is working on a similar machine for land-spying. And the company informs us that the Voyeur boasts "near-silent operation" and can be "hand-launched," as well. Two useful qualities, no matter what the gadget's final purpose.

Video: Marital Aid... or Navy Spy Drone? [Danger Room]

Behold, a filthy hippie. Visible smell waves oscillate off of him, offending the sensitive, mucus-soaked nasal capillaries of all who stand downwind. One grubby hand is extended in a placating gesture of love... a message turned even more loathsome by the smear of excremental filth caked to the blade of his outstretched palm. The hippie shouts wildly about the murky, omnipresent Man... the corporations, the politicians, the baby killers who prevent all of mankind from sloppily colliding in an orgiastic rut of granola, pot and unshaven armpits. Everyone hates him.

But say you're the murky, omnipresent Man who is duty-bound to exile him to certain mid-west detainment camps. You've got a problem: how best to oppress this hippie without letting him touch you? This hippie containment net — first dreamed up and patented under the Nixon administration, then cleverly re-marketed as an "explosion containment net" after September 11th — solves the problem with deft engineering. Cram this in your bong hole, Cheech. The good citizens of America want to hear nothing of your disgusting "peace" and "love."

Top 10 Strangest Anti-Terrorism Patents [Neatorama]

Backed by positive reviews from Orange County's SWAT team, the $695 Pistol Cam affixes to handguns and records up to an hour of MPEG4 audio and video.

Taking bets: how long until the first "missing footage" scandal from a botched raid?

Pistolcams [Wired via Chipchick via UberGizmo

Daimler AG has announced the Mercedes-Benz Zetros, a heavy duty work truck available in 4x4 and 6x6 variants for use by militaries, hauling fleets, and other industrial transportation infrastructures around the world. Think Unimog but even bigger.

To give you some idea of the sort of conditions these vehicles are likely to be used, check out this little bit from the press release:

The all-in-one concept (chassis, cab and vehicle bodies) meets all the requirements associated with highly-mobile, on-road and off-road vehicles. The forward tilting bonnet in this series facilitates fast and easy servicing. The cab does not need to be tilted to service the vehicle, which is technically much harder with armoured cab-over-engine trucks. This means that some of the crew can stay in the cab for communications or protection tasks.

Talk about a bullet point. It's not often you get a feature list that mentions that the engine can be worked on while keeping a man free for covering fire.

Mercedes Zetros: When You Need A Bigger Unimog [Jalopnik]

Posters featuring the new Robocop are out and about, if this grainy phonecam shot is to be trusted. There should be an award for not trying to "update" the classic look, though the glowing cylonesque visor is somewhat fruity.

Gizmodo hopes for a Bad Robocop; I merely hope for Paul Verhoeven and Peter Weller. Alas, score-writer Basil Poledouris is dead.

Robocop is Back [Gizmodo]

This video details the "Oklahoma Full Auto Shoot," a 2005 event in which families used military-grade weaponry to destroy cars in a field. This year's event is this month.

I love my country.

[via Gadget Lab via Kottke via Delicious Ghost via The World's Best Ever]

The Type D Telephone, commissioned from the Automatic Electric Company in 1945 for the heavy cruiser USS Salem... for shouting obscenities down to the engine room or being appraised by high command of the Atlantic movements of Jerry's U-Boats. I love the fact that, spartan of design as it is, someone still managed to squeeze some brass nautical bling around the rotary dial. And that Press to Talk --> Reproducer Only switch is a delight: a direct speed dial to the Captain's missus. Navy men have such unflattering euphemisms for their wives.

USS Salem Steampunk Command Phone [Steampunk Workshop]

Some of the phrases were really quite violent, commanding people to get on the ground and put their hands over their heads. The guy who sits outside the five-and-dime all day on a folding chair thought those were especially funny.

Designer Anthony Sims created this conceptual "Moonstream" vehicle, conceived to ferry space tourists around the surface of our moon and beyond. It's a nifty design, balancing the line between sleekly futuristic and practical.

Concept Page [AnthonySims.com via Coolest-Gadgets via Automotto.org]

Yesterday's "Nano" was VIA's freshly-renamed Isaiah chip; today's is the Nano Air Vehicle, a tiny drone that flies by moving its wings instead of using propellers or jets. Graced by a half-mil from DARPA, creators AeroVironment have six months to convince the military it's good for something.

Weighing less than 10 grams and only 7.5 centimeters long, the Nano will "push the limits of aerodynamic and power conversion efficiency." The stated objectives are somewhat opaque...

The development of conformal, multifunctional structural hardware and strong, light, aerodynamic lifting surfaces/rotors for efficient flight at low Reynolds number (<15,000)

... But I can't help but remember something from that other bastion of ornithopter fandom, Dune:

Nano Air Vehicle [DARPA]
Nano Air Vehicle [Ubergizmo]

Is frisking someone for a wire still much use as an anti-surveillance measure? Motorola, with its TETRA Covert Radio, has removed any hope of easily ratting out the spies: it weighs only 180 grams and can "easily be concealed in light clothing." From the press release:

The TCR1000 ... helps officers to disguise their equipment during covert operations,
allowing them to blend into the crowd. ...
end-to-end encryption. It incorporates many innovative features to address
the unique requirements of covert radios such as discrete audio, radio
control and long battery lifetime. ... The TCR1000 is controllable from a remote unit that provides
greater flexibility to users in their operations.

It even has integrated GPS. It'll be on show at Hong Kong's TETRA World Congress in June.
Press Release [Motorola]

Having to take laptops out of bags for the x-ray machines at airport security is a pain, especially if you tend to have funny laptops that set off tedious "Oh, that's a funny laptop" conversations whenever you get them out. Skooba Design and Targus will be among the first to make TSA-approved bags, permitted to run through the screening machine with the lappy still inside. From USA Today:

"A policy likely to take effect in a few months ... [for the] new "checkpoint-friendly" cases, which passengers would have to buy if they want to take advantage of the new TSA policy. Travelers could still use old cases but would have to continue removing laptops at checkpoints."

Skooba says it's currently working on product demos, and hopes to have products available soon. In fact, the TSA has received 52 proposals since announcing the new policy. Yay! A whole new consumer product category invested entirely in the eternal continuation of a state of war.

UPDATE: Skooba's Michael Hess writes to remind consumers that internet photoshops aren't real:

"Believe it or not, we have already received a few calls and notes both asking if we had that bag and also some expressing annoyance that we do! Obviously we don't can't be "responsible" or liable for that message or the mocked-up product (though I think it is very funny) or mislead any consumers, so if you can somehow address that, we'd appreciate it. Wish I didn't have to ask, but you know how these things go."

No problem, Michael! Perhaps you should consider making a special edition. After the TSA approves your new bag, that is.

Have laptop, will breeze through security [USA Today]

Danger Room uses the announcement of the "Advanced Mission Extender Device" [pictured]— a fancy pair of urine-collecting briefs for pilots — to discuss the state of mid-air defueling technology.

Pilot relief isn't just a comfort issue.  "Some pilots do permanent damage to their bladders by holding it in for hours at a time, which can cause incontinence and other problems," the AP notes.  Totally draining yourself -- "tactical dehydration" -- can cause headaches and worse.  "At least twice, F-16s have crashed as their pilots tried to urinate. In 1992, one crashed in Turkey after a belt buckle got wedged between the seat and the control stick, prompting the Air Force to urge pilots not to unbuckle completely."

New Relief for Pilots? It Depends [Danger Room]