See how they run. One of these mice gives me nightmares. (I'll let you guess which one.) That aside, they are quite clever. A good way to get started in that whole Steampunk aesthetic.

1. The Skull Mouse

This one comes from Ivan Mavrick. The goggles are a nice touch. So are the little earphones.

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Is this what the new Apple tablet device, rumored to be unveiled next week on January 27, will be like? This is a concept video of how one company--Bonnier R&D--imagines magazines of the very near future. Skip to 3:00 to see how it works (and to skip the erudite British dude describing the concept). Pretty neat. It's called the Mag+ and it looks and works sort of like a very big iPhone.

​From Google Wave to mommy blogs to TechCrunch's Mike Arrington "stealing our tweets," 2009 was a booming year for the Web and social media scene. To celebrate, LAWeekly.com is hosting the LA Web Awards 2009 and asked you to nominate the best in 36 categories. Who gives the best tweet? What's the best site for gamers? From over one thousand nominations, a team of expert judges from LA and SF's online communities -- including Kevin Pereira, Andrew Nystrom, Gabe Rivera, Travis Keller, Sean Percival, Aubrey Sabala, Mike Prasad, Shira Lazar, John Resig, Maya Baratz, Andrew Sorcini, and VVM new media staff -- combed through the sites and selected winners. And to keep it fair, none of the judges voted in a category they're affiliated with. Check out the winners below and stay tuned for information on how you can win a spot on the guest list for our private party at Bardot on January 21st to celebrate 2009's best online.

LA's Best Twitterer
@XeniJardin

LA's Best Flickr Pool
LA Addict

LA's Best Flamer (i.e. best shit talker)
Buddyhead

LA's Best Food Blog
Eater LA

LA's Best Music Blog
Aquarium Drunkard

LA's Best Police Blog
Witness LA

LA's Best Tech Blog
Lalawag

Is this nerdy, or isn't it? I honestly can't decide. It's a necktie that holds an iPod Nano, essentially a less dorky version of the quintessential old school nerd pocket protector. Note that the colors correspond with the iPod colors. It's called "The Commuter Tie," and is made by Thomas Pink of London. Their site says, "The music player is placed in the pocket to avoid having expensive devices on display or damaging the line of one's suit."

Avoid damaging the line of one's suit? Okay, maybe it's not nerdy. Maybe it's just gay.

I suppose the next step up from this would be a necktie that holds an iPhone. The tie would have to get bigger, or the iPhone would have to get smaller.

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Oh sweet Jesus, what is this? Some guy in Australia has been making Christmas trees out of Tesla coils. Granted, what I know about electricity is not a lot. But isn't Australia flammable? The guy's name is Peter, and he is a fiftyish year old physics drop-out. He says on his website: "This year I plan to do another Xmas tree based on the success of the one two years ago in 2007. I plan to make it bigger and more spectacular and I will use a different technique. I will still use a long exposure and a rotating colored filter but the tree shape will be outlined by sparks from a rotating rod on top of the Tesla coil. This gives the "Eye of Sauron" effect."

Australia, if you are wondering where all your electricity is going, you might want to talk to this guy.

Peter's Tesla Tree

​The best thing about this photo is the guy (Peter presumably) standing in the back. Notice the umbrella. Is it raining? While the electricity is on? If it is not raining, then what the...?

Peter's other possibilities for 2009:

Tweeps took over Hollywood & Highland's Kodak Theater for the 140 Character Conference, the second edition of Jeff Pulver's global Twitter initiative (first in New York, next in London) that explores the effects of the real-time web on business, media, and culture.

Here are our Top 140 (or so) tweets via the #140conf Tweetstream...

Josh "CuriousJosh" Reiss

@heathermeeker @hennartonline @lorimoreno

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From I.D.E.A. Label, these ceramic pigs are not piggy banks. They are piggy speakers. It looks like they have analog cable hookups (not USB). Which means they are old school porcine speakers. They cost 4,725 yen, or around $50 bucks. The shiny pink version is especially delectable.

If the tail is retractable, then this pig is perfect

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It's Friday night and you drove out to Hollywood, found your secret parking spot, got in line and after an hour of waiting, realized that there's no way you and your friends will be getting inside the club. The night is still young, so what do you do? Fear not, dear reader, L.A. Weekly is here to help. We're excited to announce the launch of the L.A. Weekly iPhone app, the first app built for an alternative weekly paper. L.A. Weekly has always been your essential guide for where to go, where to eat, and what to do. Now you can get all of our hot tips, newest places and best restaurants on your iPhone. For free (we love that word). The app features over 200 concert and event listings that you can sort by date, nearby and neighborhood, plus over 1000 easy-to-search restaurant listings, including recommendations from our Pulitzer Prize winning food critic Jonathan Gold. You can also keep up on the latest happenings in L.A. with our "Last Night" event and nightlife coverage and slideshows, available by 9 a.m. most mornings. Download it here or search "LA Weekly" in the app store. Check out the images below for a sample of what you'll find:

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Access to the latest preview has always been a tech status symbol of sorts; useful for eliciting all kinds of Beta envy from co-workers and loved ones alike. So when the Google Wave invite frenzy hit yesterday we got our head out of the clouds and asked our friends at Google what all the fuss was about.

​And our Google friends texted us back kindly, "Sent you an invite to your gmail account. Might take them awhile to process. But it looks like you can invite 8 other people."

Excited, we tweeted the news. Then looked at our gmail account. Again. and again. And again when we woke up this morning. Nothing.

From an actual invite (which we have not yet seen).

Invite others to Google Wave

Google Wave is more fun when you have others to wave with, so please nominate people you would like to add. Keep in mind that this is a preview so it could be a bit rocky at times.

Invitations will not be sent immediately. We have a lot of stamps to lick.

Happy waving!

Nerd much? On the ThinkGeek website, the description of these light and power-outlet wall switches mentions LCARS. If you know without googling exactly what LCARS is, you also probably already have these installed in your bedroom. You are probably already making sweet, sweet love to an alien from the Delta quadrant. Or, perhaps, an android.

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