Monday, April 16, 2012

A New, Non-Ferrous Kind of Iron Butterfly?


So I've been re-landscaping my yard the last couple of months, digging out hedges, laying down weed block sheets, planting exciting new plants, and so on--the usual pleasures of home ownership--and ran across this crazy new product while shopping at Lowe's: the Electronic Butterfly in a Jar.

This is a really cool, yet simple, idea.  If you tap the top of the jar, the robot butterfly--which looks pretty danged real--will flutter and fly about in a very realistic manner.  My daughter loves it, though it spooks one of my teenagers (the uncanny valley strikes again!). The guide wire isn't readily visible from most angles, so it usually looks like the real thing at first glimpse.

Manufactured by Gemmy Industries, the butterfly is one of several options, including other butterflies, fireflies, and fish.

It's for sale at numerous outlets at various prices, but here it is at ThinkGeek.  Which also includes this video:



I'm waiting for the ones without guide wires, which escape into the wild with their solar-powered wings and wreak havoc upon nature.  In their honor, I post the obligatory make-out hymn, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida":

2 comments:

the innominate one said...

"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", make out hymn? How prosaic. Let's dispense with euphemism and call it what it is: the theme for fucking.

Pro Libertate said...

Is that all hymns or just this song?