The idea of an asteroid colliding with the Earth is a scary thought indeed, though it’s an event that many astronauts and scientists claim never has to come to pass if we prepare for it. Anatoly Perminov, head of Russia’s space agency, is looking for one such plan, though it isn’t clear yet what shape it’ll take, save for “no nuclear explosions” (read: no fun) and that it’ll be grounded “on the basis of the laws of physics.” Perminov appeared on Russia’s Golos Rossii radio station to discuss the issue, saying: “People’s lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would allow us to prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people.” That’s a sentiment that we can agree with, though securing the kind of cash it’d take to fund such a project is obviously a problem. The other problem, though, is an asteroid known as Apophis. Apophis was discovered back in 2004, and made news when it was guessed that there was a one in 37 chance that the 1,150-foot-wide asteroid would collide with our planet. Five years later our chances have improved to a one in 250,000 chance that it’ll hit us in 2036, but the message is clear: there’s a chance that something is going to hit us sometime. That’s why it’s a good thing that Russia is once again trying to kick off the effort to save us from asteroids. Besides, maybe we could turn our know-how when it comes to moving asteroids, to harvesting them . Wired’s Danger Room has an excellent writeup of Perminov’s proposal, as well as a response from NASA astronaut Rusty Schweickart. Via Guardian.co.uk

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Russia’s space agency wants to save the world from asteroids

This is a Polaroid camera made out of LEGO. It’s cute. If you point and clicked it at an aborigine, it would steal their soul. And I would buy that soul from you to complete my soul necklace . Then I would use the combined power of said necklace and custom f***-up boots to destroy Jacob AND Esau from LOST. Then the island would be mine and I would throw a luau, where we will roast a polar bear. Am I a genius or what? Dharma-beer me! Lego Polaroid Camera Can’t Possibly Be More Cute and Lovely [gizmodo]

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Smile And Say, "I Swear I’ll Stop Eating The Blocks": A Sweet LEGO Polaroid Camera

Wiiwaa is a new Wii game that comes with a stuffed animal peripheral . Basically you put a Wiimote (NOT YOUR PENIS) in its mouth and then dry hump it from behind like there’s no tomorrow. Because there might not be. Don’t believe me? Hit the jump for a video of Weewoo in action.

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Wii Game With Stuffed Animal Peripheral

The British government’s Labour Party proposed the Digital Economy Bill in October, a get-tough policy against copyright infringers that threatens to take away an offender’s Internet connection after a third offense. The problem is, this bailout of movie and record producers might end up costing British taxpayers $1 billion USD. But Labour Party leaders have a plan. They’re thinking digital piracy will be reduced so much that tax revenues from all those increased media sales will equal $2.72 billion, defraying part of the cost of the policing of such draconian measures. However, they still plan to pass along $1 billion of the cost to innocent taxpayers, equal to about $40 for each broadband connection in the country. Funny how these clueless government types make the mistake of assuming that reduced piracy equals additional sales of records and movies. Meanwhile, the British media industry loves this bill, which is gaining traction in the British government. Never mind that most of the people of Great Britain think it’s a horrible idea. We can only hope this twisted logic doesn’t find its way to U.S. shores. Dvorak Uncensored , via DailyTech

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Britain to make taxpayers pay $1 billion to catch digital pirates?

Okay so maybe the asteroid isn’t actually earth bound, but it could be. You see, nobody can agree on how serious a threat the rock poses. I say laser the shit out of it. Then laser all the little pieces. Then blast me in the eyes. If I can’t see the end of the world I don’t wanna see anything! Russia’s space agency chief said Wednesday a spacecraft may be dispatched to knock a large asteroid off course and reduce the chances of earth impact, even though U.S. scientists say such a scenario is unlikely. When the 270-meter (885-foot) asteroid was first discovered in 2004, astronomers estimated its chances of smashing into Earth in its first flyby, in 2029, at 1-in-37. Further studies have ruled out the possibility of an impact in 2029, when the asteroid is expected to come no closer than 18,300 miles (29,450 kilometers) from Earth’s surface, but they indicated a small possibility of a hit on subsequent encounters. NASA had put the chances that Apophis could hit Earth in 2036 as 1-in-45,000. In October, after researchers recalculated the asteroid’s path, the agency changed its estimate to 1-in-250,000. What is this, football? Why do the odds keep changing? Because this shit’s all fun and games until the day the asteroid’s supposed to hit and the odds drop to 1-in-0.5. Then what? We all bone till we burn up, that’s what. *high-five* Going out like the dinosaurs! Russia may send spacecraft to knock away asteroid [yahoonews]

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Russia To Blow Up Earth-Bound Asteroid

“I’m a doctor, not a gnarly surfer, Jim!” That doesn’t mean McCoy can’t boldly go into the coldest water with a Star Trek wetsuit, pattered after those worn in the original series and custom-fitted for the dear price of between $435 and $470. Unless you have a death wish, don’t wear the red one, ’cause you know what happens to those guys. Roddenberry.com , via Geekologie

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Star Trek wetsuits set phasers on stunning

This is a 1981 DeLorean modded to look perfectly screen accurate to the one in Back to the Future . I’m talking peeeeerfect, like this hot little body of mine. *touches hip* tsssssss!! I’m sassy too! This is the most screen accurate Back to the Future Delorean Time Machine replica to ever appear on eBay. It is a real masterpiece. You might be asking yourself why it’s so expensive? Well, try to build a super-accurate Delorean Time Machine yourself, and you’ll quickly see how time consuming it is. That last 20% of accuracy takes 500% more time and effort. This incredibly accurate replica of the Delorean Time Machine was painstakingly built by Gary Weaver, owner of www.bttfparts.com, over the course of 2 years, from 2006-2008. This is the only car Gary has ever built on commission, and, other than his own personal car, is the only one he has finished to his complete satisfaction. Current bidding is around $60K with a little over a day left, but you can Buy It Now for $90K, which is exactly what I’m going to do after I finish typing this. Then I’ll just need to get my hands on some real plutonium and PRESTO, glowing children. Glowing dino children. *wink* Hit the jump for several more shots but hit the link to the auction for a ton of high-res pictures to really appreciate the level of craftsmanship.

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Amazingly Accurate BTTF DeLorean On eBay

Fulton Innovation teased us earlier this year with its eCoupled wireless power tech, near-field inductive coupling to charge gadgets a few inches away as if by magic. Now they’ve spread things out, wirelessly powering a 12-watt light bulb from 3 feet away. There’s a catch, though. Those two huge cylinders holding the primary and secondary coils are certainly obtrusive, and you lose a lot of power between them, using 120 watts to power that 12-watt bulb over the 35-inch distance (with dummy loads using up 40-60W of that power). That’s not too efficient. Yet. But we’ve seen resonance devices transmitting electricity with higher efficiency, up to 75% . Sure, Nikola Tesla did something like this in 1891, but now it might be approaching practicality for real-world installations. After all the technology is perfected , the supreme challenge will be convincing people that their brains won’t be cooked if they stand between these two spooky gizmos. We’re confident this is safe, but wait a second — notice in this video demo, the guy’s not putting his head between the transmitter and receiver:

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Wireless electricity improved, now works over longer distances

Nothing says “I’m rich!” like an unnecessarily fancy shower. And boy, are Arblu’s new showers unnecessarily fancy. Using a showerhead that rains water straight down on you either with a normal amount of pressure or a water massage. It’s painted up in a bright red, which is a power color, as I’m sure you know, and look like it would need to have a bathroom built around it rather than just installing in your current home. But hey, you’ve got enough scratch to make that not much of a hassle, right? Archi Portale via BornRich

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Arblu shower washes the scent of poor people right off

ReflectionOf.Me posted a graph that shows how much HP printer ink costs compared to human blood, vodka, crude oil and other precious liquids.

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Graph compares price of inkjet ink to other liquids