The makers of the Chumby, a hand-held, cuddly computer in a beanbag, are finally starting to ship out retail units to the earliest of adopters. Though still in low numbers, it’s a promising bit of news for a gadget we’ve been frothing at the mouth to get a hold of. Featuring a spiffy little touchscreen with an accelerometer built-in, the Chumby is a widget ‘toy’ with an open development environment, allowing hackers and companies to create nifty little, internet-connected (via wifi), widgets that can sit at your bedside.

There are already a handful of hot widgets available to play with, from the eBay auction to Flickr stream widgets. My Chumby (should it ever be mass-available), will be used as an internet-aware alarm clock, syncing with time servers worldwide and streaming my music of choice to gently prod me awake. Developers, get on it.

Absolute hilarity. I know it’s an oldie, but I had to finally post more Star Wars goods, because, what are nerds without Star Wars after all? From the 80s, this is apparently a statewide beauty pageant from Kansas, where Miss Douglas County, Stacy Hedger, decides she wants to play a stirring trumpet solo for a medley of Star Wars, complete with choreographed laser shots and deflection rolls.

Not safe to stick in a stereo, but safe to use when sticking other things together, the Indispensable Tape Dispenser is every mix-tape fans dream come true. Shaped like an original cassette tape and packed with two-sided sticky tape, I can see this getting added to lots of kids adding this to their wishlists this holiday season.

Hvaauu hoaaaovoaaou maiyoo gaoaoaraaoo raauooaoruuauau rouaovuoaoan ruu nauao, maoooaowuaao muouuaio hauao waouonvuu aowiaauua rraouia raaauurooa wauyuaaovoaoaa maiuaooahuoaao! Guoai rraaoa huoa? Nhaouw noauyaraaaouaa rooyuuhooio nuuuuuoa rrauauuhoyuiuuu waooaa nuouuuaauarraoa.

Fresh-cut apples, ready-made pie crust, sugar, cinnamon, oh, and lots of crispy bacon fried in butter. Sounds lovely! Some daring food pornists took it to themselves to recreate the myth of the Bacon Apple Pie and put it’s edibility to the test. Was it edible? Did it send anyone to the hospital a few hours later? Yes and no it seems!

Want to try and bake one on your own? Follow the photo diary and see if you can recreate your own Bacon Apple Pie. Godspeed and may your intestines forgive you the next morning.

A huge past-time for Japanese school children is making Dorodangos, or, shining mud balls. By packing in wet dirt or mud, forming it into a ball and re-layering the mud as it dries, kids are making hard and perfect Dorodangos on playgrounds around Japan. Now you can make your own thanks to the English translations from Fumio Kayo, which are “previously undisclosed” steps for recreating the shining Dorodango. Perfect for parents looking for new ways of spending time with their kids, who always love a chance to play in mud.

More bad news for the record industry as many more big names in music are following Radiohead’s lead of offering their albums for free or for a ‘pay what you want’ fee, bypassing record industry price and market manipulation. Bravo! Hot on the heels of Radiohead’s success, Nine Inch Nails announced that they are now free agents after 18 years of being under record label contracts. NiN’s frontman has informed their fans to expect some big announcements soon. Now comes word that Oasis, Jamiroquai and The Charlatans are following Radiohead’s lead in similar ways. The Charlatans are currently planning on offering their album for free via the XM satellite service in a way to boost marketing for their live tours, which their manager is stating will help them to increase capacity and revenue from their live performances.

An excellent article from The Times Online documenting the decline of the industry due to music fan’s perceptions towards recorded music as a commodity. Take that fatcat record execs! No new cars for your kid’s 16th birthday this year!

The truth now is that a rudimentary cotton garment with a band logo stamped across it that has probably been manufactured for pennies in a Third World sweatshop costs about twice as much as an album recorded in a state-of-the-art western studio. And even at that price, recorded music isn’t selling.

A bit disappointing however that the article didn’t touch more on the success of many independent labels. Many larger indies have experienced massive surges in profits and growth, thanks to the marketing playing field being leveled across the industry. Small bands and labels can now expose their music to thousands of new listeners through MySpace, Last.fm and the sorts, leading to potentially larger live show attendance and more sales of released material, which is usually available at a lower price point compared to many majors and is more beneficial for the artists, who see more of those profits in the end.

A beautiful collection of archived photos from the Los Angeles Herald Express, dating from 1936 until 1961, giving us a striking look into local crime, scandal and even dog adoption ads. Ah, the good old days, when even tabloids had style. Courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library, who are archiving some of the most amazing photos I’ve seen and presenting them online.

Photos to the left, Mrs. Nancy Keith (top), holding photos of her missing children in 1948 and Mrs. Lola Titus (bottom) being dragged into court kicking and screaming to hear herself judged legally insane after she was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon for shooting nightclub operator Mark Hansen in 1948. She was committed to an insane asylum as punishment for her crimes.

Many of the hundreds of photos are NSFW, as some document some pretty gruesome crime scenes. Office workers consider yourself warned!

David Lynch directs more commercials, this time for Gucci’s fragrance, Gucci by Gucci. Featuring models Raquel Zimmerman, Natasha Poly and Freja Beha Erichsen, soundtrack backed by Blondie, naturally. Commercial shorts are quite suiting for Mr. Lynch, who seems to thrive with the large budgets and trying to plugin a feature-length story with his trademark style into every one he’s done.