Submitted without comment, aside from that it should be required viewing prior to commenting, writing, or otherwise interacting on the internet.

If you have tender eyes or ears or are easily offended, scroll on by now. I would sincerely hope you don’t though, otherwise you might miss one of the most ingenious and entertaining USB flash drives to hit the market in recent years. After all, the Duet is an 8GB flash drive, but it’s also something very very different: a vibrating…personal health appliance designed to help ladies relax, if you catch my drift.

No?

Okay, it’s a flash drive plus vibrator. Yes, it’s a sex toy on one end and stores your most personal data on the other. Talk about a very very personal accessory. Here’s what Unplggd had to say on the matter, along with the specs on the Duet:

Here’s the specs on the Crave Duet:

• Phthalate-free & body-safe silicone
• USB rechargeable
• Completely waterproof
• Virtually silent
• 4 vibration modes & 5 power levels

• Up to 4 hours of continuous use

• Genuine leather pouch included

• 4.55” x 1.08” x 0.48” (11.6 x 2.7 x 1.23 cm)

There’s even the option for 8GB flash storage (perhaps to store appropriate media to help along related activities?) and a couple other luxe gold detail finishing, if you’re into a more fanciful finish to your lil’ friend. As one friend put it upon seeing these, “they’d make awesome bachelorette party favors!”

The Duet is another one of those products that’s looking for interest and people who are interested in putting their money into the project before they actually go forth and start mass producing.

[ CKIE :: Duet ]

More news I’ve been sitting on for a while but that’s still incredible is the story of the habitable – by all indication anyway – exo-Earth orbiting a binary star system well over 40 light years away. As noted at Technology Review, it’s not that astronomers are having a difficult time finding habitable exo-Earths: there are definitely plenty out there and we’re finding more and more thanks to the launch of the Kepler probe and its finely tuned eyes.

In fact, so many new candidates have appeared that a lot of people have already moved on to the next thing in the news cycle, completely forgetting that we’re on the brink of discovering planets that aren’t just potentially habitable to life like ours, but that may also have their own forms of life already on them.

In this case, 55 Cancri f, shown above, is in the constellation Cancer and shows signs of being quite comfortable to human life even though it orbits a binary star system. When I was a wee astrophysicist as an undergrad, I learned that binary star systems are entirely more common than you might think (after all, we do tend to make the assumption that our own star system is the norm.)

Here’s what Technology Review had to say:

Today, we can add another strange planet to the list: 55 Cancri f, one of five planets known to orbit an orange dwarf star some 40 light years away in the constellation of Cancer.

Kaspar von Braun at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and a few pals have measured its orbit accurately for the first time. These guys are able to confirm that 55 Cancri f is a genuine candidate to support liquid water.

They say that although this planet’s orbit is much more elliptical than Earth’s, it still spends most of its time (74 per cent) in the habitable zone.

Furthermore, 55 Cancri f is quite like Earth in some ways. Its year is about the same length as ours. And with moderate greenhouse warming, it could support liquid water all year round.
But unlike Earth, its mass is about the same as Neptune’s (although it doesn’t seem to have a large gaseous atmosphere).

That’s incredible: a Neptune-sized planet that could be completely habitable and has two suns? Incredible.

[ Technology Review :: Astronomers Discover Habitable ExoEarth Orbiting Binary Star ]

I bookmarked this a while ago partially in order to make it easier to come back to when I wanted something to decorate the walls of my new place, but also because I wanted to be able to share these beautifully geeky posters. If you want your houseguests to know you’re an Android fan, or that you’ve been using a Mac since the Classic days, or that you’re an old school gamer, these posters are for you, and most of them are easily available as prints and copies that are pretty enough for frames and definitely attractive enough to earn a spot on your walls.

The ones above are some of those old school video game posters, but I’m also just as much a fan of the Fail Whale, the Google Doodles, and just about any of The Oatmeal’s prints.

[ Mashable :: 20+ Great Geeky Posters For Your Office ]

(Photo courtesy of µµ.)

Over at ExtremeTech a few weeks back, I penned a column that I’m actually very proud of – essentially a layman’s guide to what the Higgs Boson is and why it’s important to scientific discovery and physicists everywhere. After all, we’re spending a lot of time looking for it, it’s just as well that someone took the time to explain to people what it is and why it’s important beyond calling it “the God particle,” which in itself has little to no connotation.

I won’t try to recap that post here, I just strongly suggest you head over to take a look, but this video is also an excellent primer, one that I thought was good enough that it should be included in the post itself.

[ ExtremeTech :: What Is The Higgs Boson and Why Is It Important to Science? ]

This tidbit from Dorkly will either make you laugh and smile or it’ll completely obliterate your childhood. After all, imagine what Mario, Solid Snake, and Kratos actually look like – or rather, what their voice actors actually look like.

If you’re curious, you’re free to proceed – but if you’re terrified of the notion and would rather continue to believe that Mario is a dark-haired Italian plumber, well – I’ve already shattered that one for you. However, if you’re curious what the Master Chief from Halo actually “looks” like under that armored helm, or what the characters from Team Fortress 2 actually look like, then click on. They answers actually may surprise you.

[ If Famous Videogame Characters Looked Like Their Voice Actors ]

It would be enough if this beautiful Steampunk watch over at Instructables just kept time, but it also has the mechanical retracting iris that makes this watch a piece of art. The YouTube video of it in action is below, but it’s safe to say the thing is absolutely gorgeous.

Best of all, since it’s Instructables, you get to see how the thing is made, from start to finish.

[ Instructables :: Steampunk Wristwatch With Mechanical Iris Cover ]