According to Wired, most toy designers are now creating three-dimensional models using haptic tools that give the illusion of working with clay or other materials. This is stage 1: allowing practitioners to map their existing skills to the digital medium. I’ll be really interested to see what’s happening in stage 2, when sculptors invent new skills to take advantage of the digital realm.

Seems to me that if you’re wearing a pair of cans this big the wire is not much of an added impediment. But I suppose if you need to bop around the room, Bluetooth keeps you from yanking at the end of the leash.

The Skyacht company has developed and flown a new kind of balloon that uses a hot air bag for lift and an electric motor for propulsion and steering. The bag’s structure is maintained by long tent-pole like rods. [slashdot]

The U.S. lost an opportunity to catch Osama Bin Ladin early in the war in Afghanistan because they spent too much time negotiating flyover rights with Pakistan. Some free thinkers have a solution: send troops through space, avoiding national airspace altogether. [defensetech]

Pecha Kucha sounds like a combination of happy hour, design contest and poetry slam. Designers show off their stuff with 20 Front Row slides in 6 minutes, no more than 20 seconds per slide. Sounds pretentious and yet strangely alluring.