Shades of Little Shop of Horrors' Audrey with this LED clock from Brit designers Jimmy Loizeau and James Auger. Part flycatcher, part timepiece, the gizmo harvests insects on a sticky roller covered in flypaper, before dropping the corpses into a microbial fuel cell.

The dead bug is then digested by the bacteria within, and the chemical changes are used by the cell to power the clock. Simple, huh? Well, simple if your mind moves in mysterious ways, I suppose. There's a close-up for fans of six-legged snuff porn below.

New Scientist Via Engadget

Japanese taxis are easily among the most expensive rides in any major city, and now you can mix that novelty with freeloading friends reluctant to chip in on gas money. The Japanese Replica Taxi Meter is incredibly realistic, compact and can be quickly pulled out and affixed to your dashboard to begin charging the moochers in your passenger seats.

Although the meter doesn't actually correspond to real distance, the fare does increase in a gradual manner over time giving the meter a close-to-reality appeal. Keep in mind that the charges are reflected in Japanese yen, so you might want to keep a digital currency converter handy on your phone. You can pick up your ticket to amateur cabbie status for 3,200 yen ($33.42) here.

Via Akihabara News

Altec Lansing is one of the greatest names in American audio history, so it has pained me to see this once mighty brand sinking down to making mostly cheap Chinese multimedia speakers. But if it ever gets into production, this new concept from designer Nuno Teixeira could put Altec back on the cutting edge.

The Omni is a three way design with upward firing drivers intended to deliver an even 360 degree sound radiation, giving it the type of openness and huge sound stage you can't normally achieve with a conventional forward radiating design. The result is a stunning design, that looks like it might cause an International weapons scare, if US satellite imagery spotted North Korea's Kim Jong-Il setting up a pair in one of his palaces.

No word yet on pricing or availability.

Via Yanko Design

There are motorcycle sidecars, and then there are motorcycle sidecars. This particular mash-up is dubbed the "Snaefell" and is the work of Francois Knorreck. It took him a whopping 10 years and over $20,000 to complete. The motorcycle is a Laverda, and the car itself is actually cannibalized from several different vehicles.

Hey, if you're going to end up riding in a sidecar, why not make it a full-sized one? Check out more of the Snaefell in the gallery below.

Looking to off yourself in the most spectacular and ridiculous way possible? You can't go wrong with a bike powered by a pulse jet! This enterprising Oregonian built just that for himself, and it took him on a wild 70MPH ride down the highway. He survived, sure, but that's just the first ride. You can't always win when you play Russian Roulette.

Instructables via Make

The Bugatti Stratos is a slick design by France's Bruno Delussu, who was inspired by classic cars such as the Bugatti Type 57, Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Mille Miglia and locomotive designs by Raymond Loewy. Delussu wasn't so interested in the technical aspects of those vehicles, however. He designed the Stratos to be a purely fantastical car that leans on its looks.

And lean on its looks it can. The end result, as you can see, is pretty impressive, affecting a retro air that's still undoubtedly futuristic. Check out more of the Bugatti Stratos in the gallery below.

Just look at this magnificent Edelweiss PC, designed by Pius Giger. All its wires and cables are hidden, but its components are suspended out there for all to see. Reminds us of that exquisite BMW Designworks PC.

Peer inside its smoked glass cover, and you'll see its innards, intertwined with tubing for its liquid cooling system. Check out that graduated cylinder on the outside holding some of the coolant. Stunning.

As we mourn the loss of spectacular dancer, frenetic and staccato singer, and professional weirdo Michael Jackson, the gadget world reminisces about a patent Jackson filed in 1993. Remember that supernatural, gravity-defying 45-degree lean Jackson performed with his troupe of dancers on "Smooth Criminal"? Jackson used wires and harnesses in the 1988 music video, but that wasn't possible when he performed the trick live in 1992.

He did it with special shoes that quickly slid into pegs that rise out of the floor at just the right moment. Also helping the effect were rigid anklets that worked like ski boots, supporting Jackson and his entourage of dancers as they leaned forward at that magic angle. Notice the guy on the right having a bit of trouble extricating himself from the paraphernalia in this live concert video:

Despite the mainstreaming of the iPod Touch there remains the popular myth that the geek-friendly device simply isn't for women. To address the cute-obsessed iPod Touch fans around the globe Taiwan's VOGUE Tech has introduced the LuluCat UG-038 iPod dock.

In terms of "cute factor" the set-up is pretty straight forward featuring a cat head-shaped speaker and a matching pawprint remote control. If you have a girl geek in your life with iPod Touch accessory needs the LuluCat will only set you back about $54 here.

Via Aving

Did you sit by your computer late on Friday, June 12 in order to pounce on the perfect Facebook vanity user name? According to the company, half a million people signed up for user names that will appear in their Facebook page's URL in the first 15 minutes they were available. I managed to grab "sekramer" without incident that evening. Though I made sure to get my user name, and gently reminded some of my less Web-savvy buddies to do the same, I don't exactly approve of the company's new user-name scheme. Read why after the Continue jump.

The Levi-Table by designer Donald Dahl may look like an ordinary, albeit bulky, piece of furniture, but there's a clever little trick to it. The U-shaped head of each leg is actually fitted with powerful magnets, that hold the tables lab in place in midair. Glass inserts at either end of each head keeps the table from levitating to the side and slipping out.

The table isn't in final working order yet. Dahl tells us:

Something I did for a class in college. The physics I believe are sound enough to work, just gotta buy some cow magnets to get it off the ground and make sure the end tables are weighted. There is a test-model I built on page 3 that illustrates the end look it would have without the plastic guards in place.

Sometimes, when you're driving down the highway, you just want a pizza. But pulling over for food wastes valuable time. What to do?

Just grab yourself a Porta-Pizza oven and cook a pizza in the passenger seat while you drive! This 12-volt pizza oven was designed for in-vehicle cooking, plugging right into your cigarette lighter adapter and making fresh pies at 70MPG. Sure, it's got to be totally dangerous to worry about an oven while you drive, but how else are you going to get pizza in your car?

Stupidiotic Via Technabob

If you're like us, you're eagerly anticipating the delivery of the Chevy Volt electric car. That day just got a little more real when the first preproduction prototype rolled out of the General Motors Operations Center in Warren, Michigan. It's the car-company equivalent of a beta build, and it's a few weeks ahead of schedule.

Until now, the innards of GM's upcoming electric car were shoehorned inside other vehicles, affectionately known as "mules." This is the first time the electric tech has been built inside the actual Chevy Volt body, and it looks pretty much like the pictures GM released last September.

Notice in the gallery below that the Volt's headlights aren't quite finished yet, and also check out the charge port just in front of the driver side door, looking a whole lot like a gas cover. Overall, the GM-saving electro-car looks like it's close to its final production form. Could this mean the Volt just might be on track for its late-2010 delivery date? Here's a video of the prototype in action: