The Golden Buddha Phone has all the features of ordinary top-of-the-line cells, but also offers a virtual prayer room where users can pray to Buddha and various Bodhisattva.

This techno-jewel sports a piece of real jade, pearl powder lacquer and a 24 karat gold paint-job that make it the most expensive cell-phone in China, at $1,750. Although the iPhone or Blackberry seem like better choices from a technological and financial point of view, neither of them offers a virtual prayer room. That’s what makes the Golden Budha Phone stand out. Stressed-out business men and women will have the opportunity to relax by praying to Buddhist Illuminati like :  Sakyamuni, Maitreya, Bhaisajya, Amitabha, Manjusri, Samantabhadra, Kwan-yin or Ksitigarbha.

Unfortunately the Goldne Buddha Phone is compatible with GSM on only two frequencies: 900Mhz and 1800Mhz, so it won’t work in the USA, Canada or Mexico.

This must be an upgrade of the original Buddha Phone.

via Chinavasion

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Created by Solene le Goff and Christophe Gouache, out of an oak log, Log radio might just be the world’s “greenest” radio.

The Log Radio features a long, thin solar panel that charges it with energy, and if there’s no sunlight available, it also has a built-in dynamo, that will keep it running with minimum energy. The bottom left button, the one with the finger hole in it,handles the dynamo, the top left one turns the radio on and controls the volume, while the top right button is used as a tuner.

This amazing radio needs no wires or batteries and was conceived as a statement against the use of plastic and metals. Incredibly enough, 80% of the Log Radio is made of wood, while the other 20% is made up of basic radio components.

via designboom

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Charles Guan, a young student at MIT, has built a Shopping Go-Kart that reaches a top speed of 30 miles per hour.

LOLriokart, the name Guan chose for his invention, was built using an ordinary shopping cart, discarded wheels and the engine from a high-performance golf-cart. Although he could have opted for a stronger engine that would have pushed the LOLriokart to a speed of 45 mph, he decided to go with a smaller one that allows him to switch between a walking pace speed and 30 mph.

The wacky kart features a custom steering system and because all components are positioned on the wheel line, it has a low center of gravity even when he’s inside. In case something goes wrong and the brake system fails, LOLriokart also has an emergency red button that cuts all power to the engine.

it may not met all safety regulations, but for one year’s work and a budget of just $300, LOLriokart is quite something. Well done sir!

Watch the road test at the bottom.

via Popsci

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PC Case modding is really hot right now and modders are going out of their way trying to come up with the most original designs. The man behind this miniature room is definitely on the right track.

Featuring a sofa, armchairs, coffee table and even a working lamp, this miniature room seems created especially for the little guys in The Borrowers movie. And accessories like the gumball machine and the New York Times newspaper make it look like a real home. Let’s just hope he decides to keep the side panel open, or the inhabitants could melt to death.

It seems East-European modders are on a roll these days, you might remember other cool works like the Wall-e case mod or the Cooker Computer that also came from that area.

via Modding.ru

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Fans of Battle Star Galactica are going to love this. A do-it-yourself Cylon Pumpkin is the perfect Halloween accessory for any fan of the series.

All you need to make your very own Cylon jack-o-lantern is a big, fat pumpkin and the new Larson Scanner kit. I’m sure you can find your own pumpkin, as for the kit, you can buy at from Evil Mad Scientist, for just $13.  That’s pocket change for a true Battle Star Galactica fan. Actually, that’s pocket change any way you look at it.

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Talented modder creates an awesome looking PC case, inspired by the pyramid ship featured in the movie Stargate.

I’m a big fan of case mods and we’ve had a few great custom PC cases featured on Oddity Central, but I think this is the coolest one yet. Modder Gup has created a PC case replica of the pyramid starship seen in Stargate, completely from scratch.

Apart from the incredible design of the case and the cool built in lights, the Pyramid Case features a moving side panel as well as a Stargate Active Desktop. All you have to do is input the chevrons and you’re on your way to a another planet.

The Pyramid PC features a T7200 Core 2 Duo processor, Mini-Itx Crommel LV-677 motherboard, 2GB of DDR2 Ram, a 160GB hard drive, and a Gforce 9400GT graphics card. Not the most impressive specs, but with a design like that, what’s inside doesn’t even matter that much.

For more photos and details on the building process of the Pyramid PC, check out this thread on the bit-tech forums.

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Squidolin is a state of the art electric violin that not only looks amazing, but teaches you how to play it like a professional.

Created by designer Carlos R. Mendez, Squidolin is an electric violin with a very futuristic design that can save you thousands of dollars in violin lessons. Instead of paying a master to teach how to play the violin, you just connect Squidolin to a TV set and it will take you through a series of lessons that will have you playing the violin like a professional, in no time.

Connected to an amplifier, Squidolin sounds just like any other quality electric violin.

via Carlos Mendez

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Milan Karki, an 18-year-old from Nepal, may have solved the world’s increasing energy problems, by inventing a solar panel that uses human hair instead of expensive wiring.

The young Nepalese, together with 4 classmates, has been trying to come up with a way of producing cheap, renewable energy for his home village ever since he went to school in Kathmandu, but now he dreams of powering up the whole world with his invention.

Milan has discovered hair not only makes us look good, but is also light sensitive and a great energy conductor, because of the melanin it contains. So he replaced the silicon in normal solar panels with human hair and thus invented a new type of solar panel, four times cheaper than the ones on the market today.

The inventor says he has already sent out a couple of his prototypes to districts in Nepal, to be tested for feasibility, but is confident he has found an answer to his country’s energy issues. He says buying half a kilo of human hair is not only cheaper than a set of batteries, but also produces energy for much longer period of time. And anyone can replace the hair, so the solar panel doesn’t require a lot of servicing.

Photos by Tom van Cakenberge/BARCROFT MEDIA

via Daily Mail

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I knew Russian modders had some mad skills, but it seems the ones from the Czech Republic are just as good. This Cooker PC mod is proof of that.

I don’t speak Czech, so I don’t know much about the building process of the Cooker Computer, but apparently it was done last year, starting from scratch. No photos of it in action have been found yet, but I’m sure it works just fine. After all it’s all about the look, and a computer in a stove is just about as fresh and cool as modding gets.

Considering you speak Czech and want to know more about the Cooker Computer project, check Modding.cz. Maybe you could give us some more details too. I’m sure we’d all appreciate it.

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Tao Xiangli, a 34-year-old amateur inventor from China, spent two years building a fully-functional homemade submarine.

Tao is not the first person to build a homemade submarine, but that doesn’t make his achievement any less impressive. Especially since he did it using oil barrels and tools purchased from a second-hand market.

After two years of hard work and testing, on September 3, young Tao Xiangli presented his invention to the world and took it for a test dive in a lake just outside Beijing. His homemade submarine features a periscope, electric motors, a manometer, two propellers, depth-control tanks and it only cost $4,385 to make.

Photos by Reuters

via Drugoi

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Mint Pass, a Korean tech company, revealed one of the craziest hard-disk concepts I’ve ever seen.

Named Mint-Hard, their new gadget will be shaped like an ice-cream and will be used as an external hard-drive. Users will be able to stock data on the ice-cream part of the device, while the stick is actually a USB-stick that can be used to transfer data.

Mint Pass plans to release its ice-cream hard-disk in the following flavors/sizes:

Chocolate (120Gb HD/ 8Gb Flash)

Strawberry (80Gb HD/ 4Gb Flash)

Vanilla (60Gb HD/ 2Gb Flash)

via Mint Pass

Designed by the people at Innerspace, The Seabreacher is a luxury, two-person submarine that looks and acts like a dolphin.

To tell you the truth, when I first saw photos of the Seabreacher, it reminded me of that super submarine Lucas piloted on Seaquest. Tou remember Seaquest, right? I loved that show.

The Seabreacher was created as a toy for millionaires in search of marine thrills. It comes in different colors and can execute jumps and rolls, just like a real dolphin, thanks to a 1500 cc engine, that can develop 215 hp. This beauty drives like a jetski when it’s on the surface, but can also go underwater for long periods of time.

The Seabreacher is anything but cheap, ranging from $48,000 to $68,000

Photos by REX FEATURES

via Telegraph.co.uk

The Cloud Project has found the perfect way to get people more involved in the burning issues like cloud seeding and nanotechnology.

Normally, most people would be less than interested to discuss such problems, but when ice-cream is involved, they become a lot more communicative. Using an old ice-cream truck with an industrial water-spray mounted on top, Zoe Papadopoulou and Cat Kramer managed to attract quite a crowd. Their plan was to shoot out liquid nitrogen mixed with ice-cream flavors, thus creating ice-cream flavored clouds.

In reality cloud making is really not that simple, but the concept really attracted the public and made them more aware of the problems we are facing. Real ice-cream was handed out together with important information regarding nanotechnology and its use in our society.

via Like Cool

The smartest autonomous robots in the world prepare for one of the most important robot competitions in the world, the World Cup of RoboCup.

Brilliant minds from all round the globe build soccer-playing-robots and compete in the RoboCup, to promote the development of artificial intelligence. This year, the weekend-long contest was held in the Austrian city of Graz and the protagonists tried to put on a show worth watching.

The Soccer World Cup for robots is not as young an event as you might think. It dates back to 1993 and, across the years, it took place in countries like Japan, Italy and USA. There are different league matches, from the standard to the smaller than 180 mm league.

In one of the leagues, teams use identical robots, and have the task of developing a software that can allow the machines to move autonomously. The dream of the developers is to one day create an entire team of autonomous robots that can defeat the human winners of the Soccer World Cup.

Photos by Reuters

via Telegraph.co.uk

Developed by scientists from Waseda University, Kobian can show emotions, perform tasks and is could be the nurse of tomorrow.

Kobian can express seven human emotions using his entire body. To show happiness this amazing humanoid opens his mouth and eyes wide and raises his arms. When it is sad, Kobian closes its eyelids, bends forward a bit and brings one of its arms to the forehead.

Researchers first presented Kobian in 2008 but back then he could only express emotions using its head. Some people complained its reactions were hard to read, so they constructed a more expressive body. Now this amazing robot recognizes its environment and is able to perform tasks.

Designed to take care of the elderly, Kobian might just be the future of nursing.

Photos by AP

via Daily Mail