Google is great for getting off, but what if you could bring your search engine between the sheets? The Google News Cushion is a nice addition to the bedroom, listing the top news stories for specific years. At up to $250 per pillow, Google appears to be attempting to claim some extra cash it didn't earn last quarter. With call-outs to Britney, Janet Jackson, Paris and Podcasting(!?), we could only wish Google would spit out a "Top Searches" pillow list for every year instead of swallowing it into "SafeSearch On" mode.

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One could only wish there was more than just hot air to fill this float. A 40-meter-high floating condom to promote safe fucking pitched a tent in the sky over a recent Dutch festival.

"This is a playful way of asking for attention to the problem of sexually transmitted diseases, HIV and AIDS," said director of public health services, Laurent de Vries.

The airy erection took 3 months to build, with the hopes of submission into the Guinness Book of World Records as the "biggest condom". Despite the months of hard work, unsurprisingly, it only took 10-15 minutes to get it off... the ground.

[A weekly link post of skipped over (and slightly stale) sights and stories]


• Mobile gadget geeks prefer gaming over music.

• Japanese celebrate 110th anniversary of their immigration to Mexico with a 110-meter-long sushi roll. Mmm, delicious anti-assimilation.

• Jane Fonda is planning to make an erotic film to prove couples can have fulfilling sex lives in their 70s.

• Computer Ports Are Forever.

• Treat your tush to a cushion of cuddly pandas. [via]

"The Dining Room", by Richard Jackson.

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Playing in pixels on the streets of Italy, Nintendo launched a new marketing effort for the Wii. Equipped with office supplies and a bit of spunk, classic characters were cut and pasted in post-it note form. Link, Mario, and Donkey Kong made the list, though somehow Duck Hunt got the chump. Kotaku elaborates:

"These aren't regular Post-It Notes, mind you, as they're adorned with custom "Wii'll Not Forget" advertising on the back, which not only delivers the Wii elevator pitch, but also probably inspires current Wii owners to compulsively purchase Virtual Console titles."

Previously: Pixelated walflowers and interactive post-it notes.

College kids may soon find themselves paying for two tuitions if they're not careful. Cheap contraceptives are no longer being supplied to colleges across the country. As a result of the Deficit Reduction Act signed in last year, discounted anti-daddy drugs became "a disincentive for drug makers". Budgeting for books or babies may prove difficult between school and sex, so at least now you'll have a decent excuse for not reading the course materials.

We've had our heads buried in a sand of Harry Potter spoiler sites and iPhone gripes to have had a chance to visit TheSimponsonsMovie.com before it was taken down. Apparently, a man by the name of Keith Malley owned the domain and was using it to display some animated naughtiness between Simpons characters. Before the public at large was able to answer the burning question of if the curtains match the carpet to Marge, the court ordered the domain be handed back to Fox.

Previously: Olympic logo looks like Lisa Simpson giving head.

Fashion victim to space invaders, the latest in vogue video game garments are hoodies. Pretty in pink patterns or stylish in simple graphics, the hoodies carried at the Cool Hunter run at a not-so-80's rate of $150 a pop. This should come as no surprise, to a graphic that appears to get away with charging $45 for some stickies. Hey, we are living in a material world, and I am a video game girl.

As annoying as the classic AOL "You've Got Mail!" voice of obviousness, GMail has decided to kick off an attempt at everyone's loathed beloved acronym CGM. Asking for submissions in spirit of the one above, GMail wants you to print out and pass the "M-velope" on video. Thankfully the pain doesn't last long, as videos are asked to be 10 seconds or less. Entries are due by August 13, in case you want to try out for being not internet famous.

Like this ad for the British Heart Foundation suggests, Shake Well Before Use has been taking care of getting healthy this last and current week. While we could only wish getting healthy involved a daily serving(s) of sex and swimming, it has meant that posting has been a little on the light side lately, but will return once the thermometer stops telling us what we already know. In the meantime, keep updated via Twitter so as not to miss nuggets of essential knowledge like this.

Giving you the freedom to say "uh, no" to underwires and sayōnara to straps, a hybrid of pasties and padding protects you from being caught smuggling peas. Manufactured by Bristols6, "Nippies" aim to say bye-bye to being uncomfortable by going bra-less. The "my humps" hybrid works like pasties without poking through your top. The cover-ups come in stars, butterflies, and probably also kittens and rainbows filled with your hopes and dreams while they're at it. Nippies are perfect for the nice girls with a naughty streak.

Plastic pleasure has turned into an odd obsession for one man who lives with 100 sex dolls. The plethora of polished "pets" are caged in a room, where the man apparently gets off knowing he has full ownership without fear of a woman leaving or cheating on him. This scene seems to leave many speechless, most notably, the dolls. While a piece of plastic may suffice, dolls have nothing on D-S-L's.

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Interaction between man and machine has sometimes been a contrived courtship. A new experiment aims to build the bionic bridge by exploring the boundaries between skin and screen. Delicate Boundaries (video), is an environment created by Chris Sugrue in which "lifelike digital animations swarm out of their virtual confinement onto the skin of a hand or arm when it makes contact with a computer screen...". Using infrared illuminators to openFrameworks, Sugrue claims the screen-to-skin system is not terribly complex.

Not the latest PETA "shock-vertising" strip down, the company Lush has a slightly different objective using similar techniques. Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics wants to get the word out against packaging to help save the environment. Appareled in only aprons, the brave staff bared mostly all out in the streets. The aprons called for people to ask them why they were naked, but for many of us, we can appreciate the visuals without needing an answer. Treehugger, however, has questions of their own:

"The campaign does leave questions open: for example, why hand out leaflets in a campaign against waste? And is naked the new marketing trend?"

Ahem. Trend?

Terrifyingly tasty, a new "treat" aims to terrorize your taste buds. Meat cake is a new mad scientist creation from Black Widow Bakery:

"This, my friends, is my culinary epiphany. Feast your eyes on this! A cake...with a t-bone drawn on it? Has our intrepid chefstress lost her mind? NO, my friends, NO! because THIS....is MEAT CAKE."

Probably born out of an Aqua Teen Hunger Force addiction, the only logical explanation is that culinary-types are full of crazies.

[Thanks, Cindy!]

Nintendo aims to teach teens about STDs, puberty, pregnancy and more. With Oscar-winning lines like "Huh? What?" this sex education video stars an adolescent teen who gets teleported down the NES rabbit hole to a TRON-esque experience. Luigi guides the dazed and confused teen through what testes are, while Mario offers delightful commentary like "totally tubular!". Between the nostalgic blips and bleeps and a clip of "condom boots" saving the day against AIDS, the video ends with a Captain Planet feel-good moment of "Nintendo Power! Safe Sex Is Teh The Best!". Also, what's with Luigi having no accent? Needless to say, this is WTF-approved.

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A project originating from Burningman 2006 caught the eyes of Phil Torrone recently. Playaflies is a kinetic study in glowing orbs. By using LEDs embedded within wired up ping pong balls, the experiment captures some beautiful somewhat abstract motions. At night, the ping-orbs were placed on bicycles to outline a mimicking motion of the riders. The official site for Playaflies outlines a DIY version, in case you want to recreate some of the Burningman magic back at home.

No longer about who can out-drink who, texting is the new tolerance tournament, especially among teens. A recent survey found that 44 percent of teens use text messages as their primary mode of communication. While that figure is far from shocking to the majority of us gadget geeks, 28 percent admitted to texting under the dinner table. More close to 'home' (aka the blogosphere), the rising number of insatiable SMS-users has created an ongoing discussion and debate about the social integration or rejection of "interconnected multitasking culture".

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Rallying up the raunchy, lingerie label Ophelia Fancy created a provocative wear for Wimbledon. With tennis ball pasties and patterned panties, the outfit is sure to be inside the play area. The ladies at Knickers particularly like the knee-highs with knotted bows. The lack of length to the lingerie is sure to shock stuffy Wimbledon regulars, however nipple-centric costumes are anything but new to Ophelia's collection. From naughty nurses to seductive sailors, we're reminded of how delicious dress-up can be.

Belly fat is now being used for boob jobs. The procedure, dubbed Celution (sigh) uses fat from the belly or below mixed up with a cocktail of stem cells to create some serious boobage. Within an hour, the process of 'baby got back' to boobs is completed. Despite the one hour quickie, your breasts will fill out slowly over the next six months.

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Using solar power to make effective advertising, WWF is once again heating things up. A fairly simple setup, a billboard with an awning casts a shadow during the day that corresponds with the marketing message. Previously, WWF created an ad that also held a very shocking visual of the tangible amount of carbon monoxide we create in one day's worth of driving. Trendhunter points to further explanation of the billboard:

"It’s perpendicular to the equator, with an unobstructed exposure to the west. The “waves” start at about 12:00. The challenge was not azimuth (the daily path of the sun), but altitude, which due to the Earth’s tilt, required the scalloped awning’s shape to be distorted to compensate for 43N latitude, during the life of the posting (about 8 weeks)."

Make your man purse your main squeeze by holding onto it tight. A recent dive into research reveals that men typically carry around more expensive items in their accessories than women, making them a target for murse muggers. An average male in the UK carries around £319 ($637) in his murse while women typically only carry £255 ($509). The main difference in dollars is due to the fact that men are more likely to carry laptops around than women. Extra baggage is rarely ever a good thing, but in this case, you may want to embrace it.

Seductively surprising, a new brand of condoms is playful with its packaging. The Danish brand, Hanky Panky, has designed its product to specifically spice up "doing the deed". Seemingly inspired by childhood memories of the "Toy Surprise Inside!" Cracker Jacks, the box contains two compartments: one for the condoms, and one for a "surprise". Apparently, the surprise can be anything from massage oil and "manuals" to masks. You'll need the surprises, as the three condoms that come with only satiate most for one day's duration. Regardless, the concept seems perfect for those in need of a mid-day "snack" and surprise.

Your new iPhone so cute you want to just squeeze it to death? Save your strength with a hand-knitted version of your beloved buy. With #6 needles and a little nourishment, an iPhone fanboy's mother created an actual size yarn replica of the insatiably shiny device. The hand-knitted iPhone may not keep your thighs as warm as a Macbook, but you'll at least be able to cuddle up to it on those lonely "no messages" nights.

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San Francisco is seducing Shake Well Before Use this week (hence the minimal posting). In the meantime 'til Monday, feel up Gridskipper's San Francisco summer faves.

Update: Follow the SF flirtation on Twitter.