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The Hello Kitty Multi-Functional Scale does not only look cute while displaying just how much you’ve put on over the weekend’s feasting, it is also capable of detecting your body’s water level and let you know whether you’re overweight or underweight. The scale is made out of glass and lined in the usual pink, and retails for $129.99. Just how many Hello Kitty devices does one household need anyway? You might want to consider picking this up if you have a Hello Kitty fan in your home, and a scale would come handy to keep track of just how many pounds you have to shed once the holiday season is over.

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Filed under: Interviews, News

Yoichi Wada is the CEO of Square Enix, making him a very important spokesperson for the company — especially their well-established Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises (the latter formerly under Enix’s care). Wada took some time to speak with CNet Japan about the latest generation of consoles. Besides saying that the PS3 is a media hub and a gaming console, he noted that only the Xbox 360 has appropriately touted itself as a gaming machine. The Wii, he says, well, “people aren’t buying the Wii as a game machine, but as a toy.” His comment about the PS3 was meant to say the system hasn’t clearly defined what it is and that it should, soon.

He also goes on to say that Square Enix isn’t just a DQ and FF company — Wada says they make so many of those games because “… people keep asking for new installments.” It’s not entirely relevant to the PS3, but Square Enix is making a lot of fresh IPs in the coming year aside from the next entries in their beloved franchises. With his attitude, though, he seems hesitant to put them on the PS3. Hopefully people will understand that the PS3 is a gaming console, but has the capacity to be so much more. It’s not confusing; it’s just hard to believe it can do so much.

[via Kotaku]

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Filed under: Green Tech, Gift News, Holiday Gift Guide

Marketing geniuses at Japan’s Aqua Toto Gifu Aquarium have caught the attention of both the marine-life lovers and the media with a holiday display that uses a unique source of clean renewable energy — an electric eel, otherwise known to us geeks here at Switched as Electrophorus Electricus.

The aquarium placed its “E-Tree” next to tan electric eel in a tank. Inside the tank, copper wiring has been run, and every time the eel brushes against the conductive wire, the tree’s ornaments light up, much to the pleasure of spectators.

Tanks filled with electric eels and lots of copper wire aren’t going to allow any of us to drop off the grid anytime soon, but still, it’s a neat trick, no?

According to Wikipedia, electric eels generate electricity using three organs — the main organ, hunter’s organ, and Sachs organ — that take up four fifths of its body. These organs act in a manner similar to charged plates in a battery. The average electric eel can produce up to 500 volts and one ampere of current (500 watts). That’s enough to hurt — a lot.

Oh, and electric eels aren’t eels. They’re more closely related to catfish.

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From Ubergizmo

Related Links:

• Decorate Your Desk With a USB Christmas Tree
• Rockefeller Christmas Tree Goes Green

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Filed under: Action, Classics, Comedy, Drama, Horror, Independent, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Exhibition, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels

Starting tonight and running through December 17th, Edgar Wright is taking control of the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles. Wright, director of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, is programming a festival of his favorite movies, and it’s a wonderful and eclectic bunch. He’s calling the fest “The Wright Stuff,” (also the name of a universally beloved screenwriting column on this very site), and he will be on hand to introduce several screenings with special guests. As always at the New Beverly, one of Los Angeles’ absolute treasures, every screening is a double feature.

I’ll just tell you about the screenings with special guests, all of which start at 7:30. But don’t forget to check the website for all show dates and times. Tonight, Edgar and songwriter Paul Williams will kick off the event with two musicals — Bugsy Malone and Brian DePalma’s Phantom of the Paradise. December 5th, the first feature is Flash Gordon, with special guest (and ex-Bond) Timothy Dalton. The second feature is Mario Bava’s Danger Diabolik, introduced by Edgar and the great Joe Dante. On December 7th, Edgar will introduce The Last Boy Scout and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with one of the finest action screenplay writers of our time — Shane Black. December 10 is John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London and Tremors (which I spouted my love for here). Landis will help Wright introduce his film. December 12th is Top Secret! (almost as funny as Airplane and The Naked Gun, in my opinion) and Woody Allen’s Bananas, with David Zucker on hand. December 14th is the Roger Ebert - penned Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, and Head, hosted by Wright and Micky Dolenz of The Monkees. And on December 16th, Wright will introduce Evil Dead 2 and an all time favorite of mine — the Coen Brothers’ Raising Arizona.

Here is a press release from Edgar with his thoughts on the included films. If you live in the Los Angeles area, there’s really no excuse to miss this. See you there!

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Filed under: Vegetables, Recipes, Books, Baking, America

Over the weekend I went down to Philadelphia’s Italian Market. Scott and I had brunch and then wandered through the shops and stalls. He bought himself some new knives at Fante’s (the best kitchen supply store in the Philadelphia area) while I ogled the rectangular removable bottom tart pans. After that we wandered into a funky little used bookstore that has a great section of cookbooks. I picked up a copy of Marion Cunningham’s Lost Recipes, and I’ve been reading it in snatches, as if it were a novel, in my spare moments.

I’ve actually wanted a copy of this book since it came out in 2003, but as is often the case, there are just so many cookbooks and so little time. But when it crossed my path for $8, I was hard pressed to say no. The thing I’m loving about this book is that it captures the essence of American cooking as it was forty, fifty and sixty years ago. It has the same intangible feeling of nostalgia that I chase after with all my old cookbooks and the contents of my grandmother’s recipe box.

One of the recipes that is calling to me is the one for “A Side Dish of Onions.” It calls for 2 pounds of onions, sugar, butter, mustard and spices and sounds like it would be something that would tempt me to eat it straight out of the pan. The full recipe is after the jump.

Continue reading Marion Cunningham, a used cookbook and an onion side dish

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio

If mama taught us one thing about free offers, it’s read the fine print. Unfortunately, it was missing from Nokia’s unusually tight-lipped “Comes with Music” announcement yesterday. Fortunately, Ars Technica unearthed the dirty details for us. Nokia’s service is actually a first to fit under Universal’s Total Music plan whereby carriers or device manufacturers tithe Universal a fee of about $5 per month for each device sold. While it appears free to end users, the cost is baked into the handset and/or data plans from your friendly neighborhood carriers. Oh, and it’s slathered in DRM — PlaysForSure DRM in fact making your tracks incompatible with both Zunes and iPods. Burning a CD will require an “upgrade purchase” for the tracks you received for free. Look, we don’t mind paying for tracks, in fact, we expect to. But all this underhanded sneakiness is just silly. This is not the future (at least we hope not).

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Filed under: Features, Gaming

Our bosom buddies over at Engadget Japanese got ahold of Nintendo’s new Wii Fit and ran through the unboxing ritual for our sake — they’re all too busy burning the carbs to bother with such nonsense otherwise. Nothing much to see in the box, but we’re sure you’d rather get started on some yoga than play with a bunch of doodads anyways.
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL), Citigroup Inc. (C), New York Times’A’ (NYT), Sony Corp ADR (SNE), Bear Stearns Cos (BSC), Blackstone Group L.P (BX)

An interesting article over at TheStreet.com reports that commercial real estate investment firm, Blumberg Capital Partners, is readying to launch an investment firm, backed by Middle Eastern investors, to invest in U.S. media companies.

TheStreet.com reports that “the fund would target newspapers, as well as Hollywood movie studios, online media outfits, broadcast news, and possibly radio businesses.” According to CEO Philip Blumberg, it appears that the fund would raise about $500 million and with the use of leverage, have purchasing power of three times that amount.

I’ve noticed recently that even indefatigable Jim Cramer has wondered out loud (as he frequently does) why foreign investors haven’t stepped up to the plate to start picking up cheap U.S. companies propelled by high oil prices, a weak dollar, and U.S. companies trading at relatively multi-year cheapness.

We’ve seen Abu Dhabi recently inject $7.5 billion of capital into Citigroup (NYSE: C), make a 5% investment into Sony (NYSE: SNE), and make a similarly-large investment in the Carlyle Group.

While some in Congress have started to fret about large foreign investors putting money into the U.S. (in fact, there are restrictions on certain types of purchases by foreigners), I think this is just an efficient flow of capital going to where it can be put well to work. Certain U.S. companies have been down (particularly media stocks) and this provides an opportunity for foreigners.

I think a good question to be asked is whether there is significant value to be found at these levels in companies like The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) or radio stocks or other broadcast media. In times of economic struggle, advertising dependent broadcasters are not where you’d want to have your money for the short term. P2P file sharing and Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes have made huge dents in the music industry. It’s this author’s opinion that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is poised to manage all things advertising and is a major threat (and eventual partner) to any business that runs an advertising sales team.

Do I think that the media industry has changed? I certainly do, and radio stocks are not coming back, at least not in their current iteration. Victor Miller, Bear Stearn’s (NYSE: BSC) Hank Aaron of radio stocks, had a recent research report out on the state of the radio industry for 2008, and it was as bleak as I’ve ever read him.

That said, the industry is not going away and there are some great brands and history in some of these institutions that in the right hands, could be very lucrative. Question is why a real estate investor like Blumberg is the guy to make this happen.

Where are our own value investors, like Blackstone (NYSE: BX) or the Carlyle Group? It seems that they’re waiting for things to get cheaper and buying things overseas. Kinda ironic.

Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund. Author owns a long-term position in GOOG stock.

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