Tinkerers from the Site3 coLabratory have discovered how to make fire… with your mind!

The PK4A Project uses a headset to read brain patterns and a small homemade computer to increase or decrease the flame based on the user’s cerebral input.

The headset is called the NeuroSky MindSet and uses four sensors to detect two of the eight energy bands the brain produces. The computer interprets the brainwaves using a custom algorithm and reflects the level of activity with a massive propane flame.

Safety is obviously a concern so the inventors use a ‘dead-man switch,’ which constantly has to be pressed for the device to function.

While there are no plans to put the item up for sale basic specs are available on the project site.

If you can’t wait to see this thing in action, here’s a video of them using it at Firefly 2010.

Everyday this week…Brett Rounsaville brings us the Weirdest Alien Pictures ever taken.

I bet, just like me, you’ve been sitting there at your desk all day wondering what would happen if The Leader somehow mated with a watermelon and a piranha.

Yeah…I thought you might be.

Well, my friends, wonder no more! For I bring you…Leader Watermelon Piranha Baby…er…Jr? Doesn’t really roll off the tongue does it? Do me a favor and leave your name for this monstrosity in the comment section.

Also, as seems to be the status quo this week, please let me know if you know the story behind this picture or if you can figure out the origin of…Fish-Melon-Boy! (Nope, still no good…)

What do you think? Is this an alien? Is it an Earth based freak of nature? If it is…seriously, what would have to mate with what to make THAT happen?!

Check out this crazy footage from Japanese TV of the Northern White-faced Owl’s amazing transformation defense. Watch it until the end for the creepy Owl-Cat transformation!

Undefeated. Undisputed. Unequaled.

Paul The Octopus wins again.

Everyday this week…Brett Rounsaville brings us the Weirdest “True Life” Alien Pictures ever taken.

Much like George Washington after chopping down the last of the alien cherry trees, I cannot tell a lie. 99.9% of the reason I chose today’s picture was because it reminded me of this shirt.woot.com shirt (click on the image there to enlarge it) and it made me giggle.

The other .1% of the reason is that you just don’t see enough variation in alien photos or accounts. Four feet tall, big eyes, blah, blah, blah…

You lost me at, “Did I ever tell you about the time I was probed?”

It’s reassuring to know that in the off chance that we’re being visited by aliens capable of mutilating cows maybe these little guys are giving squirrels a run for their money.

Also, even if it’s just a tiny little carving…it’s still pretty impressive.

Same game/same rules as yesterday. I have ZERO idea as to the origin of this critter. If you can tell me who made it or “authenticated” it leave the answer in the comment section for a genuine, one-of-a-kind weirdthings.com no-prize!

What do you think? Real or fake? Have you seen a weirder alien photo? If the answer is yes then, for the love of all things strange, why haven’t you posted it in the comments yet?!

Shooting a diamond bullet at anything might be the most Bowie badass thing ever conceived of, but if, as Chinese scientists are now theorizing it can also create nuclear power then we have a new favorite source of alternative energy.

[Popular Science]

As long as we’ve been circling the darn rock, astronauts have been baffled by the glow surrounding the moon during sunrises and sunsets. A new theory posits that overactive electrons are vomiting lunar dust off the surface and creating such a heavenly glow.

So, now we know.

[Space.com]

A Japanese coal city abandoned in 1974 has been officially off-limits for anyone looking to explore the slowly decaying buildings that once was home to thousands. That did not stop this brave explorer and his trusty guide who not only infiltrated the infamous Battleship Island but took some super insane pictures while there.

[Gakuranman]

A couple of week ago we told you about Wicked Laser’s Spyder III Pro laser, a ‘real-life light saber’ that can also potentially blind you and give you cancer.

Well, it turns out George Lucas noticed the resemblance to the powerful Jedi weapon and issued a cease & desist to Wicked Lasers. It comes in the form of a press release posted on Business Wire:

“It has come to our attention that a company called Wicked Lasers is selling a highly dangerous product out of Hong Kong that is designed to look like a lightsaber from Star Wars. This product is not licensed or approved by Lucasfilm in any way. We have demanded that Wicked Lasers immediately cease and desist their infringing activities. As Wicked Lasers itself admits, this product can cause serious injury to the user and other people. We strongly discourage consumers from purchasing it.”

The Spyder III is still available for about $200, but with the legal department of LucasFilm involved it’s likely to go the way of the Death Star at any time.

Justin Robert Young recounts his harrowing ordeal in the Forest with a Million Eyes. Brian, Andrew and Justin then step into the treacherous mental playground of a loyal listener and reveal their most deep-seated primal motivations when they are faced with surviving in a post-Zombie Apocalypse. One of them will become a ravenous fiend roving the ruins of civilization in search of fresh brains. Another will unleash his inner amoral self and cackle in delight as the world burns and search out female survivors to indulge his earthly desires. The final member of the trio will rise above tragedy and seek out vengeance for the horrific fate the befell is family and adopt a heroic new identity, and another, and another.

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[podcast]http://www.itricks.com/upload/WeirdThings070510.mp3[/podcast]

Everyday this week…Brett Rounsaville brings us the Weirdest “True Life” Alien Pictures ever taken.

Partly in a celebration of the anniversary of the Roswell incident, partly because it’s a shortened holiday week filled with travel and partly out of sheer laziness, this week we will be looking at some of the weirdest “real” alien photos you’ve ever seen (and hopefully I won’t babble on about them for too long, thereby totally negated the timesaving ploy of only dealing with pictures this week and forcing myself to look inward for time-wasting faults when sporting an already severely weakened ego. Uh-oh. This is going to be bad isn’t it…).

Let’s get on with it.

This is one of my early favorites. Not so much because of its startlingly genuine looking appearance and believability as a really for real alien, but because of its startlingly genuine looking appearance and believability as a candid snapshot of my grandmother passed out on her couch after an all night Charles Shaw bender.

Honestly, the resemblance is striking, the glassy eyes, the lolling tongue, the feverish sweat…I love you, Grandma. We’ll get you help. I promise.

Here’s a little game we’ll probably be playing a lot this week: this picture is all over the internet but I couldn’t, for the life of me, find the initial source. If you can figure out where this picture came from and the story behind it please leave the answer in the comments section to win a genuine, long-distance, virtual pat-on-the-back!

Show of hands. How many of you think aliens 1) exist, 2) have landed on Earth, 3) have made contact, and/or 4) are responsible for Glenn Beck’s career?

Skeletal remains of a primitive Neanderthals shows the males of the species were hormonally jacked and wielded “Popeye”-esqe arms.

Project leader Maria Mednikova told Discovery News that Neanderthal males hunted in the “extreme,” helping to beef up one arm.

“The common method for killing animals was direct contact with the victim,” said Mednikova, a professor in the Institute of Archaeology at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The next step for this area of research confirming the ultimate masculinity of the Neanderthal? Being printed in full on muscle tees to be worn by UFC fighters during their ring entrance.

[Discovery]

Canadian Filmmaker Rob Spence has turned tragedy into tragedy-aide with his new invention.

Spence lost his eye in a shooting accident when he was a teenager. With the proliferation of cheap miniature cameras he realized he could record true first-person footage with a little tinkering. He’s installed the camera into a prosthetic eye, and while it’s doesn’t give him binocular vision it does allow him to shoot and stream footage of everything he sees. He’s also included a red light to enhance the creepy factor.

You can find out more about Spence’s futuristic project by checking out his blog.

Everyday this week…Brett Rounsaville brings us the Weirdest Murders ever committed.

Sometimes the best-laid plans of mice and men…no, wait…that was Steinbeck. Nevermind.

Today we’re talking about Upfield. Arthur Upfield. More specifically we’re talking about one of his better-known pieces of crime fiction and the weirdness that surrounds its history.

While still trying to “make it” as a writer despite two mild successes under his belt Upfield took a job as an itinerant laborer on Australia’s well known Rabbit Proof Fence project while he tried to come up with a new mystery for his fictional detective to solve. It wasn’t unusual for him to discuss the project of the campfire with other itinerant workers and eventually, with some help, he devised (bum bum bahh…) the “perfect murder.”

He figured if you burned the body, sifted out the left over bone bits, dissolved them in acid and threw all the ashes to the wind then there would be no evidence left with which to convict anyone. Great idea for a villain’s MO, right? Except with no evidence he found his plot stuck again with no great way for his detective to solve the case.

Back to the campfire.

Enter Snowy Rowles, yet another itinerant and one with a history of burglary. Without much to add to the conversations he nonetheless listened to the stories.

Soon after, two men disappeared and somehow Snowy ended up with a sweet new ride that looked suspiciously like one of the missing worker’s brand new Ford. It seems Snowy decided to take this whole “perfect murder” thing on a test drive.

Three murders deep, however, he got a little sloppy and didn’t quite do all the necessary “throwing to the wind” that might have been recommended in Upfield’s book.

In an additional case of bad luck, the officer assigned to the case instantly recognized Snowy as John Thomas Smith, an escaped convict. Suddenly the detective had all the time in the world to scrap up little tiny bits evidence that may or may not have been vaguely reminiscent of people while Snowy (er…Smith) flounder in a jail cell waiting to be executed.

No word on whether Upfield was more upset with providing inspiration for murder or with being so poorly emulated.

The end.

That’s all for this week gang! Now for my favorite part…time for the Weird Off! Let’s see your ranks when dealing with some of the Weirdest Murders ever committed. We have:

1. El Shaka – The man who wasn’t murdered…until he was.

2. Michael Malloy – The bum who wouldn’t die.

3. The world’s first homicidal robot

4. Nicholas Cocaign – The would-be soul stealing lung eater.

5. The “perfect murder”…on paper.

Sound off!