silly

The Diocese of London official biography for Peter Broadbent, bishop of Willesden, explains that the man of the cloth is a season-ticket-holding football fan who appreciates good beer, so he sounds like an upstanding gentleman.

But according to a number of U.K. news outlets, Broadbent is treading in some very unholy waters these days after making remarks on Facebook about the impending nuptials of Prince William and fiancee Kate Middleton, in which he referred to the events surrounding their April 2011 wedding as "nauseating tosh," compared the couple to "shallow celebrities," and predicted the marriage … Read more

Remember a few weeks ago when YouTube made a big deal about its new music video page that sorts out every single music video that's hosted on the service? You can now put it to far better use with a new Firefox extension called Scrolling Lyrics Player (SLP) that turns each video page into a honest to goodness karaoke player.

Once installed, SLP will sit just to the right of any YouTube video and do a search for the lyrics of whatever music video or song recording you're watching. It then syncs that up with the timing of … Read more

Magnetic Thinking Putty is Silly Putty with a twist. Aside from exhibiting standard characteristics such as being able to be molded and stretched, this version can be magnetized. This means you can use a magnet to control the putty, creating the cool effect seen in the image. It reminds us of Spider-Man's nemesis Venom preparing to snare its next victim.

This is possible because there are millions of tiny magnets embedded in the material, giving this blob its magnetic properties.

Online store Vat19 currently lists the product as out of stock. The same product can also be found on … Read more

Real-world versions of Web sites can be pretty nifty, and the Twitter and Facebook mouse pads from the Meninos studio are no exception. Both feature a large, fill-in status box, just like you'd find on each of the sites, although in each case the wording has been changed to reference the use of your mouse. I especially like the details on the Twitter one that includes things like the speech bubble nub on the top of the pad, and the faux advertising box with instructions to "just point and have fun."

These pretties set you back $11.… Read more

I don't have a dog right now, but if I did, I totally wouldn't trust it to roam around my apartment while I'm not there. Who knows what kind of mischief it'll get into or what it'll find lurking in my sock drawer. This Pet's Eye View Camera makes it easy to keep track of your dog, but $55 is too expensive for what appears to be a glorified Webcam.

There's not a lot going on here in terms of technology: the little USB still camera attaches to your pet's collar and … Read more

Here's something that's guaranteed to crack up your friends--a knuckle-cracking simulator that ensures you never run out of knuckles to crack.

The idea, according to Strapya World, which sells the product, is looking tough--since "you always see fighters cracking their knuckles before they start fighting, right?"

I'm just surprised Japan's quirky toymaker Bandai didn't think this one up before Strapya World. Though at a piddling 500 yen ($5.26), don't expect this gimmick to be crackingly loud (it sounds tinny in the vid below) or to last past a few good abusive … Read more

Editors' note: This is a guest post. See Michael Songer's bio below.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, we have seen a number of well-known legal disputes: legality of peer-to-peer services such as Napster and Grokster, cybersquatting, laws (trying) to regulate porn, even "veejay" Adam Curry trying to use the MTV domain name.

As we head into 2010 and beyond, here are some legal issues that are likely to careen through cyberspace in the next few years.

1. Lawsuits related to stupid/silly conduct shown on the Internet. The assimilation of broadband brought with it those "viral videos": … Read more

An application that did nothing beyond showing a person was willing to spend gobs of money for it didn't last long on Apple's App Store, but now we'll begin to see if Google lives up to its more laissez-faire approach to its rival Android Market.

Apple banned Armin Heinrich's "I Am Rich", which cost $1,000 and only showed a red ruby, from its App Store last August. Now the conceptually similar "I Am Richer" has arrived on the Android Market from Mike DG.

Perhaps owners of T-Mobile's G1 phone are … Read more

In the insane world of USB gadgetry, it's often impossible to find anything useful. And this is probably no exception, but it's at least one example we wouldn't immediately throw out. Ever since college we've had a soft spot for neon signs, though we do have one minimum requirement: that they're legible, unlike the "Bar" sign included among a trio that includes the @ symbol and a smiley face seen on GeekAlerts. But we have to ask: Is it really necessary for this to have a USB connection, as opposed to a plain old … Read more