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First of all it’s not geeky, it’s cool. A Training School Kit is designed to teach any ordinary small fish how to do really cool tricks instead of just floating around in its bowl. Your fish can amaze your friends and family with over ten different tricks. It will learn how to play football, soccer, fetch, the limbo, and how to go through tubes. The sports tricks include mini nets and goal posts on a platform “field” with little soccer and footballs as well. The kit includes a DVD on fast, easy ways to train your fish as well as an instruction manual with pictures. It also includes a training platform and twenty training accessories. The kit is made for fishes between 1 inch to 6 inches long and any tank or bowl larger than ten inches by six inches.

This kit was used to train the fish trick record holder and when properly used can train just about any small fish. I think it’s a great gift for a nerdy relative, or anyone with a pet fish. All they do all day is swim around in circles, if your going to keep them locked up in a tank at least give them something to do!

Most people have played with Van de Graaff Generators in high school, its more commonly recognized as a big ball that makes your hair stand on end. Most really start asking how it works and why it was invented.

Back in 1931 the American physicist Robert Jemison Van de Graaff invented the generator that can create up to 20 million volts. It was originally invented to create the huge amounts of power needed for the early versions of particle accelerators. These particle accelerators were also called “atom smashers” because they caused sub-atomic particles to be brought to very high speeds and then crashed into atoms. This makes other subatomic particles and high-energy radiation like X-rays.

You know when you take sweaters out of the dryer or shuffle your feet across the floor , and it causes shocks? Well that’s static electricity. A Van de Graaff generator is a way of making static electricity in huge amounts for use in experiments.

If your trying to make your hair stand on, but aren’t being successful, its probably because your not standing on an insulated surface. This is what causes a charge to be built up in the body. Some generators can make sparks a foot long, so if you charge yourself up you can point at things like metal blinds and such to make them move. Bubbles will move around a generator as they are attracted and repelled.

For those who keep up on all the new gadgets and devices out there, you should probably check out this one. A personal media viewer is a device that fits over the eyes and displays a screen for personal viewing of television, movies, or video games. This was once imagined a long time ago, and now it has become practical. Perfect for air travel, or long road trips, the gadget also includes detachable ear plugs so no one else is interrupted.

Developed from military technology, it includes a screen in 24-bit true color, a 28 degree field of view, and an experience like a 52” television. The LCD screens have a 428 x 240 resolution and can be focused or tilted for individual fit. Some personal media viewers include connections for a video iPod®, a carry along DVD player, or a gaming system. They require AA batteries, that will last a viewer about eight hours of continuous use.

This is a perfect gift for anyone in your family who enjoys their new toys. A personal media viewer runs about two hundred and fifty dollars. Just make sure they take them off once in a while and have some family time.

With a little bit of research I have found the most universal toy for any grownup! They call it WowWee Rovio. Almost sounds like a rover like you would call a dog, but it’s not a robotic dog it’s a robotic webcam. It’s designed to allow the user to be in two places at once. (Or so we can pretend anyway.) You can interact thru the robot by not only seeing and hearing what’s going on but you can actually respond and talk back. Surprising it’s relatively small its only about 10 inches all the way around and it has a little neck that pops up like E.T. does. Besides just being a really expensive toy ($316) or a spy machine it has some good practical uses. If you’re in a separate room and want to watch your kid you can just park Rovio in the corner to keep a live streaming eye on the little one. Also if you have pets at home or elderly relatives you want to keep an eye on this is a perfect way as Rovio operates off of a Wi-Fi connection. To me it’s a cool little toy that has a lot of practical uses behind it.

I’ve found it! This little keyboard is perfect of any music lover out there. It’s called the Play n Roll Electronic Piano. My girlfriend is a music nut and I might get this for Christmas for her. This thing is cool because it rolls up like a mat and is an on the go piano. At first glance it doesn’t look like much however it offers 49 keys and four octaves. They took into consideration someone that likes the sound of all music though because it has one hundred different instrument tones. My girlfriend would love this feature since she plays several instruments and she can make plenty of noise with this one device. Also if you know someone that likes to write there own music, as in my case, then you’ll be glad to know that this keyboard actually has recording and playback capabilities so music lovers can take it on family vacations or weekend getaways and still write their music in peace. Since it’s designed to be portable it runs on 4 AA batteries and weighs in at an amazing two pounds. The best part is its cheaper than a real piano or keyboard its only $50. I just think it’s cool because it rolls up personally!

Researches are developing new implants, for your brain. Though it sounds creepy, the new implants will be able to interpret brain signals and be able to make the brain more efficient. The “brain computers” are made with algorithms that can translate our thoughts, and work with our brains as they learn new things, which wasn’t possible before. Since the human mind changes as it grows, a program was needed to be developed that could grow with it.

The brain computers where tested in rats with positive results. Three rats with the neural implants learned how to move a robotic arm toward a target using their thoughts and were rewarded when they succeeded. The computers were rewarded as well. They work on a point system and the computer wants to earn as many points as possible. Points are given for each time the computer figures out how to get the rat to move the arm closer to the target. This makes the computer figure out which signals get the greatest rewards. The computers then take the information and compact it so it was easier for the rats. From here the experiments were made more difficult, but studies found the rats had gotten better and better even though the experiments were harder.

There isn’t enough funds to use this on humans, yet, but this technology is being designed to be used for paraplegics so they can use there limbs again.

If you’re like me and have a cat then you know that they’re not always the type to lie around and do nothing. After hours of recreational time with my cant and her still not getting wore out I had to find something to keep her occupied. So I sat her on my lap and started surfing the net while petting her and I came across this little useful invention called the Westminster Radio Controlled Rat. Now I was kind of skeptical about it at first but I figured it would be fun to have around the house not just for the cat but for other reasons. (One reason is to scare the crap out of my girlfriend and any other visitors that hate rats.) Since the body is actually a textured rubber my cat was able to bite on it and pounce on it with no problem. It was nice having a way to occupy her without having to wear myself out in the process. Not to mention, it’s always fun scaring the crap out of someone with a big giant rat! So if you’re a cat lover looking for something interesting and unique you might want to check into this nifty little toy.

Some of the most random websites on the net have the most interesting things you can find. This website for example, called the Atlantic Poject definitely falls into that category. The object of the project is to get everyone curious about a topic and to challenge the assumptions made and then to think about it and rethink about it. There’s over a dozen topics from “Why does your dog pretend to like you?” to “Could Jesus save Hollywood?”. The best part to top it off is that each one comes with not only a photo, but a movie, article, and documentary. I think it’s a great way to start debates between your friends on a Sunday afternoon or to just get your mind to let go of everything for a while and run off into a crazy world of thinking. Since they are asking questions to try to get people to lead to better answers they have a blog designed just for that purpose. Also in each section there’s an area for people to leave a comment to each subject. Which after reading thru some of them I was dying of laughter.  Like in response to “Which religion will win?” Someone wrote Microsoft. So go stimulate your mind a little bit and have a good laugh.

One of the newest concepts for outer space technology is “the space elevator”. Invented by Professor Fotios Papadamitrakopolous, the space elevator is intended to help take things into outer space. Instead of burning the tons of fuel for each time something is brought into orbit, the space elevator will take things up into space using a much lower energy cost and a counterweight.

At the heart of the professor’s invention is his method for sorting nonmaterial. Whenever a nano product is created, there isn’t a good way to sort it out from all the other products made with it. He and the UConn group found a way to sort out the preferred molecule constructs with organic compounds. They have used these special molecules to form an extremely strong rope that would be strong enough to pull things in and out of space.

With this technology, building things in space won’t take nearly as long, and will be a lot cheaper than using the tons and tons of fuel it would normally take. Colonizing in space has just now become practical with this invention. The only other option is to find a fuel that is at low cost and unharmful to the environment.

Some of the most interesting things happening on the web is the increased visibility and influence that many social networks are having on society as a whole.  People with GPS devices throughout the world are playing a treasure hunting game where the basic idea is to locate containers outdoors and then share the experience online.  The containers are called geo-caches and once the individuals, or even teams use a GPS system to locate the containers they replace it with something else for the next person or team to find. You can go to geocaching.com to read about other people’s adventures and photos, or you can download a clue sheet and begin your own adventure.

    Another social network increasing in popularity are travel portals.  These passion portals give people the opportunity to connect with others that share the same interests or passions for certain travel-related activities, such as golf, diving, hiking, biking, camping, etc.  Or travelers that share the same demographical information such as female business travelers, university alumni or food and wine aficionados.

     Some website communities such as Wikitravel, World66, Gusto and Real Travel allow users to share itineraries, adventures and other travel information.  Websites such as Meetup.com offer users the ability to locate and meet groups within the cities they live that share a common interest or activity.  Then there are the most commonly known social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook that allow people to keep in touch with one another despite the distance between them.