Awesome Etc

Simultaneously scary yet enlightening, Jess Bachman’s revealing Death and Taxes poster for 2009 shows ever more accurately and beautifully where US tax payer dollars go.

Only you and your 15 ton buzz saw-wielding robot can prevent forest fires: this awesome concept by designer Jordan Guelde plays directly into countless mecha fanboy dreams.

The Singing Ringing Tree is a sculpture in northwest England whose numerous tubes create a strange, haunting sound that would be quite at home in a sci-fi horror flick.

Beauty may be only skin deep, but Leatherman’s versatile Skeletool looks just fine in its aluminum frame. The 5 oz. tool comes with a blade, bottle opener, bit driver and carabiner.

If you or someone you know is a Mac fan, these GUImagnets should top your list: each pack comes with 41 magnets with various OS X GUI elements. Talk about real-life drag and drop.

It’s over a year old but we’re still digging this motion graphics reel by The Ronin. It’s a motion graphics and design studio based in England, founded in May 2000 by Rob Chiu.

Using nothing more than cardboard and glue, Chris Gilmour creates life-size replicas of familiar objects. We’re amazed at the complexity of some of his pieces, including the trike (above).

It looks like a primitive Borg Cube, but we’re sure the Citizen Cube won’t be doing any assimilating: it’s the work of artist Brenda Guyton, who creates sculptures from found computer parts.

Believe it or not, the woman in the video above is an animation by Santa Monica-based Image Metrics. The body is of a real woman, but the face is computer generated.

Samsung proves it knows what it’s doing in the viral video department; this unboxing video for its upcoming Samsung Omnia phone pokes fun at bloggers, yet still left us in stitches.

This latest trailer delves deeper into the post apocalyptic wasteland setting of Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360, PS3), due out March 2009. Think Mad Max meets MGS4 meets Tomb Raider.

The Archos 5 is not quite a laptop or a media player. It sports a 4.8″ touch screen, wi-fi, and doubles as a DVR; the Archos 5g connects to cellphone data networks with a 3.5G antenna.

That’s no moon: this tongue-in-cheek video blends real footage of San Franciscans going about their daily business with the Death Star, Tiberian Shuttles and Star Destroyers.

Using a radio-controlled E-Flite Blade 400, retired marine and present-day UAV consultant Dave Herbert gives a new meaning to “fly fishing” with the video above. Warning: circus music.

Defend your castle (or 1 bedroom apartment) with Exotath, Sword of the Dark Elf. It’s a false-edged sword, but at 45″ with a stylized skull motif, its lethal looks alone will send evil a-packin’.

Fresh from The Onion: the Pentagon has replaced its PR department with the Spokesdrone, after apparently realizing that all their responses were canned anyway.

Nothing beats an old fashioned zombie attack to get the blood pumpin’: this Zombie Hunt Lego diorama by Justin Vaughn is inspired by Max Brooks’ Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z.

Big Buck Bunny is a funny animated short with overtones of Rambo. What makes this film unique is that it was created with free software; all its data, characters and textures are open source.

We can’t help but draw comparisons between South Park’s prescient Guitar Queero episode and Chris Chike, but the latter is the real deal: a true Guitar Hero in our midst.

Available at Vladstudio.com, Planet Earth Inversed is one of those wallpapers that has you poring over the creative details. The neutral color scheme is easy on the eyes, too.

If sitting down tends to make you squirm, a Webble may alleviate at least part of that tension. It’s essentially a mobile footrest that allows your feet to fidget away while you work.

Biofueled engines? Check. Ice penetrating radar? Check. Propellers? Lotus’ Concept Ice Vehicle is an Antarctic explorers’ dream; it scouts ahead for heavier support vehicles.

3D printing is here: Philips’ Shapeways site will take just about any 3D model you submit and “print” it using one of four materials; they charge by the cubic centimeter.