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Posted: 06 Aug 2012 11:00 AM PDT

Sad For You With Your Old Legs

Hugh Herr rock climbs with his prosthetic legs and believes that, ’It’s really sad to have biological limbs, you’re constrained by nature and you can upgrade. The artificial parts of our body are immortal.’ Herr isn’t just a double amputee, he’s also an MIT Professor specializing in Prosthetics. He uses different prosthetics for climbing than for hiking or running. So can prosthetic legs be an advantage?

Fake Better Than Real?

There are some pretty interesting conversations going on out there about an unfair competitive advantage for those that have artificial limbs. It’s actually quite impressive that technology has come so far that a double amputee can make it to the Olympics using artificial running prosthetics (blades) called “Cheetahs”. South African Oscar Pistorius ran in the 400m Olympic Finals yesterday as the first double amputee to compete in the Olympic games.

Artificial Limbs, Unfair Advantage

Oscar was kept out of the 2008 Olympics because his artificial limbs were considered an unfair technological advantage. For the 2012 Olympics, however, Pistorius was able to compete. His Olympic debut was a 7th place finish in his 400 meter heat.

Check out the video below for why this isn’t an advantage:

Technology Provides Unfair Advantage in Olympics

Artificial limbs are not the only technology being debated. In the 2008 Olympics, the LZR Racer swim suits were allowed and 90% of races were won by swimmers wearing the LZR Racer Swim Suit. The 2012 Olympics did not allow those suits, determining that they provided an unfair advantage to swimmers. Still the 2012 swim suits take advantage of technology as well. Bicycle advances may also provide an unfair technological advantage for specific riders and teams. What other technologies may be providing unfair advantages? Do you think fake legs constitute an unfair advantage?

The Video Notebook: A Retro Design

Posted: 06 Aug 2012 07:26 AM PDT

Don't go sticking this in your VCR (providing you're perpetually trapped in the '80s). Behold the Video Notebook, a 260-page writing pad ingeniously designed to mimic the appearance of a VHS cassette tape, a recording device now considered primitive in the modern age of the Blu-ray. Such a strikingly retro design will allow for diarists and casual scribblers the world over to indulge in sweet nostalgia, of which the makers of this conceptually brilliant product were fully aware: "For most of us, the VHS is just a nostalgic memory, but we thought it was an object worth revisiting, in the form of this very nice Video Notebook."

A must-have for any self-respecting film fan of a certain age, the Video Notebook comes with a protective sleeve and a sheet of sticky labels for writing on, just like the actual tapes of yesteryear. The manufacturing company has apparently (and unsurprisingly) sold out of the product, although you can find it on Amazon for a measly $29.99. Oh, a little advice: if you do buy the Video Notebook (and who could blame you?), try and make sure you don't get it mixed up with your VHS copy of "The Notebook" – y'know, if you're a complete doofus.

The images above were taken by filmmaker BenDavid Grabinski, a proud purchaser of the Video Notebook, and the images below are official marketing stills.