While only 6-inches in diameter, the $50 City Lights Globe reminds us what Earth looks like at night, when the great oceans give way to the sparkle of cities. [ xUmp via RedFerret ] More

This daily calendar mixes analog, digital, nature, and poetry all in one: Every autumn day, each of its pages will fall off automatically, teared by a clever mechanism at its top. As this video shows, it works great. But why? Because in autumn, leaf falls, that’s why. And because it was commissioned as a promotional tool for clients by leaf blower manufacturer Stihl

People of the world who hate hate HATE going to the dentist, rejoice: DentalVibe is a new device that completely eliminates the pain when they are sticking a stainless steel needle into your gums. All by cleverly fooling your brain. Developed by Dr. Steven G. Goldberg DDS and Bresslergroup, DentalVibe vibrates at irregular intervals

Want your stolen gear back? Don’t call some gung-ho superhero who’s as likely to blow up your small grocery store as he is to catch those perps, call GadgetTrak instead. The little startup company has grown since we last heard of it back in 2007 , and is now operating a $25 per year tracking service that has delivered a statistically significant 95 percent success rate on reuniting gadgets with their owners. Available for Mac OS and Windows laptops, as well as mobile phones (BlackBerrys, WinMo, and iPhone) and even removable USB storage, the software’s intelligent enough to remotely activate your webcam and ping the incriminating info back directly to you — no data is sent to GadgetTrak. Check out some recent news coverage of the software and its implementation in local schools after the break. Continue reading GadgetTrak retrieves 95 percent of stolen laptops, puts RoboCop to shame (video) GadgetTrak retrieves 95 percent of stolen laptops, puts RoboCop to shame (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:16:00 EST

If you happen to be in Times Square any time soon, you may notice this billboard for Best Buy’s electronics recycling program. Make sure you take a close look! It’s composed entirely of outmoded gear. While part of me would hope some VHS players and bulky monitors would be allowed to fade away with dignity, at least these are ultimately being used in a clever way that promotes a good cause. Besides, it looks cool! And it’s bonus fun hunting for bygone favorites. [ Scouting NY ]

Bill Donahue made a trip to the headquarters of SkyMall, purveyors of the most useless gadgetry in the western world (good luck competing with Brando ). My favorite part of the article? SkyMall’s president is named Christine Aguilera. Ha! It is kind of an interesting piece, though—SkyMall doesn’t make, design, or even (to my surprise) ship products. They just pick and choose their favorites and assemble them into a magazine, and maybe provide some customer service. Mostly, the piece is a portrait of a company that could not be in a worse industry during a recession: Sharper Image and Circuit City have already bit the dust, and SkyMall’s profits are way down.

In today’s Remainders, David Pogue is distressed about the Nook’s weight problems, America’s Cup entrants ditch sails for wings, Engadget spots an HP Smartbook on the FCC’s site, and iLounge coughs up some unconvincing Tablet rumors. Heavy Being a gadget blogger can be tough. We’re talking sitting-cross-legged-all-day, sharing-one-3G-dongle-to-four-of-us, popping-Modafinil-to-stay-awake-at-CES tough. But according to the Times ’s David Pogue, our lives just got tougher. Why? As Pogue says, “bogus measurements.” That is, a bogus measurement of the Barnes & Noble Nook, which the company advertised as weighing 11.2 ounces but which actually weighs, according to Pogue’s rogue measurement, 12.1 ounces.

Growing up in upstate New York, I know something about ice, snow and struggling through waist high drifts piled up by the city snow plows with a woefully inadequate Toro snowblower. God, I wish I had some of this crap back then. This is how Russians melt snow and ice during their intense winters—by strapping a Klimov VK-1 engine from Mig-15 onto a truck. I think one of these would have taken care of the snow at the end of my driveway (and probably my entire lawn, neighbors lawn, and the woods behind my house) no problem. [ Link ] This homemade flamethrower was designed to kill mosquitoes in the home, but I think it’s safer to use one of these outside on the ice covering your front steps

We’re only into the second week of the year, but already we’ve seen thousands of gadgets and gizmos announced, thanks to CES. But what to splurge on? Hopefully our choices this year will help you out in your buying quandaries. 2010 promises to be a big year for launches, with 3DTV, tablets and ereaders expected to be stocked on Walmart’s shelves faster than yesterday’s old CRTs are thrown onto the street. After scratching our heads this week, we think we’ve all worked out exactly what we’re going to be spending our hard earned notes on this year—but we’re very interested in what you’re going to buy, too. Let us know if you’ve got similar taste to us, or want something different from the gadget fairy this year

DailyTech reports that a number of companies with tiny budgets who resorted to the survival tactic of showing their new gear at hotel suites around Vegas during CES were kicked out of hotel rooms they paid for by CES’s organizers. One company was reportedly ordered to pay a $10,000 exhibition fee to the CEA, the organization behind CES, in order to continue showing their products in their hotel suite. If you’re one of the companies who got booted, we’d like you to pitch us your new stuff, so we know we didn’t miss you because of the CEA. [ DailyTech ]