loose electron submitted a (sigh) slideshow page documenting 10 of the worst products from CES this year. Includes a baseball hat with a TV in the brim, vibrating earbuds, an Android powered microwave, and what appears to be the next generation of Teddy Ruxpin.

Scyth3 writes "A man is suing his neighbor for not turning off his cell phone or wireless router. He claims it affects his 'electromagnetic allergies,' and has resorted to being homeless. So, why doesn't he check into a hotel? Because hotels typically have wireless internet for free. I wonder if a tinfoil hat would help his cause?"

jeffmeden writes "Plow Monday is normally for blessing laborers and their tools; as the name suggests it is aimed at those who work the land. A church service in London, England Monday decided to go after a more modern audience: office workers and their modern communication gadgets. From the Times article: 'The congregation at St Lawrence Jewry in the City of London raised their mobiles and iPods above their heads and Canon Parrott raised his voice to the heavens to address the Lord God of all Creation. "May our tongues be gentle, our e-mails be simple and our websites be accessible," he said.'"

An anonymous reader writes "The successor to the Lego computer is the Lego router, a case for the Linksys WRT54GL made entirely out of LEGO bricks. Check out the blog for all the details on how it was built, and to download the plans to make your own!"

In college I found the best time to drink was right after giving blood, and it appears that the Cascade Regional Blood Services in Tacoma, Washington agrees. The blood center has launched a "Give blood, get beer" promotion. Donors who are at least 21 years old are given a coupon for a free pint of beer at a participating pub or restaurant.

The people who picketed the funerals of dead soldiers and brought you such charming websites as "God Hates Fags" are getting into the music business with their single, "Whorish Face." The parody of the Lady Gaga hit "Poker Face" was written by Westboro Pastor Fred Phelps' granddaughter Megan Phelps-Roper. With all the trouble these people have caused already do they really want to face the fury of Weird Al?

ChiefMonkeyGrinder writes "Reporter Dan Simmons from the BBC's technology show Click managed to break a mobile phone marketed as 'unbreakable' (video), during a demonstration at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas." The phone can survive a 10 story fall, being submerged 20 feet for 30 mins, and you can use it to hammer a nail; but it's no match for a British journalist.

andylim writes "It's really annoying when your phone runs out of battery power but what if you could charge it up using your dog? According to recombu.com, a Swiss man called Erik Schiegg has created a "solar dog" charger that combines a solar panel with a dog for the ultimate portable charging solution. Shiegg explains that the charger works in cloudy weather conditions and it's at a better angle to the sun than if he was wearing it, 'My Android phone is charged in no time.' He also adds that it would be interesting if farmers used this idea and put solar panels on their animals."

An anonymous reader writes "Here's Avatar stripped of the distracting special effects. Rudyard Kipling would be proud." It's funny how something so visually amazing can have such an underwhelming and rehashed story.

JamJam writes "Air Canada has been told to create a special 'buffer zone' on flights for people who are allergic to nuts. The Canadian Transportation Agency has ruled that passengers who have nut allergies should be considered disabled and accommodated by the airline. Air Canada has a month to come up with an appropriate section of seats where passengers with nut allergies would be seated. The ruling involved a complaint from Sophia Huyer, who has a severe nut allergy and travels frequently. Ms. Huyer once spent 40 minutes in the washroom during a flight while snacks were being served."

Lanxon writes "Swaroup Anand, 23, from Bangalore, was fully conscious as he underwent open-heart surgery. An epidural to the neck, administered at the city’s Wockhardt Hospital, numbed his body during the procedure. Dr Vivek Jawali pioneered the technique ten years ago and has recently released a tutorial on DVD, which gives a step-by-step guide to the procedure for other surgeons to watch and learn from."

tugfoigel writes "A Swiss court has slapped a local millionaire with a record speeding fine of $290,000.The man was reportedly caught driving a red Ferrari Testarossa at 137km/h (85mph) through a village.The penalty was calculated based on the unnamed motorist's wealth — assessed by the court as $22.7m — and on his status as a repeat offender."

The party's over for Alkis Gerd'son. The University of Victoria has won a court decision and plans on evicting him from student housing almost 13 years after he graduated. Gerd'son had been arguing that the university was trying to evict him because he is disabled; while the university maintained that his failure to enroll in credit courses since 1997 was the real reason.

innocent_white_lamb writes "Starbucks brought out a line of cups with prehistoric Aztec images on them. Now the government of Mexico wants them to pay for the use of the images. Does the copyright on an image last hundreds of years?"

alfredos writes "Physicists and engineers at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory built tracks inside a fusion reactor and ran a toy train for three days to help them with their calibrations. From the article: 'The modified model of a diesel train engine was carrying a small chunk of californium-252, a radioactive element that spews neutrons as it falls apart. “We needed to refine the calibration technique to make sure we are measuring our neutrons as accurately as possible,” said Masa Ono, the project head of the National Spherical Torus Experiment.'"

A new plan calls for Chinese residents in council housing estates in the city of Guangzhou to be evicted if they are caught spitting in public or littering. The plan sets up penalty points for residents who break the rules. Spitting in public carries a three-point penalty, littering is on a sliding 5-7 point scale depending on what floor you are on when you litter. Anyone who racks up 20 points will be asked to leave.

Do you think soda tastes best from a fountain? A team of microbiologists from Hollins University have found that extra flavor might just be coliform, a fecal bacteria. 48% of the sodas they tested from soda fountains had the bacteria. Even better news, the study also found that most of the bacteria were resistant to antibiotics. From the abstract: "...Coliform bacteria was detected in 48% of the beverages and 20% had a heterotrophic plate count greater than 500 cfu/ml. [...] More than 11% of the beverages analyzed contained Escherichia coli [E. Coli] and over 17% contained Chryseobacterium meningosepticum. Other opportunistic pathogenic microorganisms isolated from the beverages included species of Klebsiella, Staphylococcus, Stenotrophomonas, Candida, and Serratia. Most of the identified bacteria showed resistance to one or more of the 11 antibiotics tested."

A funeral home is being sued by members of a New Mexico family after they received a bag of their grandmother's personal effects which just happened to include her brain. The brain was discovered when relatives smelled a foul odor coming from a bag they received from DeVargas Funeral Home and Crematory. Funeral home owner Johnny DeVargas says the mix-up is not the fault of his business. It could have been worse. They could have sent her whole head.

Under a new law, France will become the first country in the world to ban "psychological violence" between married or cohabiting couples. The law applies to both men and women and covers such things as: repeated rude remarks about a partner's looks, false allegations of cheating, and threats of violence. French premier Francois Fillon said, "The creation of this offense will allow us to deal with the most insidious situations — situations that leave no visible scars, but which leave victims torn up inside."

The suspicious material found inside luggage that shut down Bakersfield's Meadows Field Airport turned out to be five soft drink bottles filled with honey. A routine swabbing of the luggage tested positive for TNT. When the bag was opened authorities found the bottles filled with an amber liquid. Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said, "Why in this day and age would someone take a chance carrying honey in Gatorade bottles? That itself is an alarm. It's hard to understand."