DailyBento

Enough with the Rickrolling Already!

Vocaloid Lili: Lili Lili Burning Night

Touhou Presents: Native Faith

Anastasia in Russian

It’s not Disney, but many remember it in the same light. Plus, this story takes place in Russia, so it makes perfect sense.

MMD V: Somersat PV

USB-Powered Necktie Coolers for Nerds, Courtesy of Thanko

Japanese gadget maker Thanko just released a USB-powered necktie cooler designed to provide relief to office employees who take a lot of heat from the ol’ boss.

The Thanko USB Necktie Cooler 3 was just released in late June as some sort of upgrade to the USB Necktie Cooler 2 (2008), though critics haven’t been able to find one single difference between the two. I suppose that maybe perhaps the tie design was updated?

Regardless, the dweeb device features an integrated plastic fan in the tie’s knot. And oh, if you haven’t already guessed, it’s a clip-on tie. Attached to the tie is a 135cm long cord with a USB plug at the end. You merely plug it into a USB socket and walla, you’re cool, though technically you’re anything but cool!

If you’re really daring, you can opt for a separately purchased battery pack with four AAA batteries. This means you can tug the necktie around with you to hot places—like a library, a university classroom or even a Star Trek convention.

It’s currently available to only the Japanese, but it’s slated for an American release through JapanTrends sometime in the near future. The expected cost? About $75.

Thank You Thanko for making the lives of the Office characters (especially Jim and Pam) easier!

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Clever Teapot Designs

More pictures after the jump…

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Liquor-Guzzling Father Tries to Auction Daughter

An Indian day laborer from Andhra Pradesh, India, was busted for trying to auction his six-year-old daughter for liquor money.

Krishnaiah, 40, is a drunk with a penchant for cheap liquor. It’s a bad habit for which he’s incurred quite a heavy debt with local liquor-shop owners. So much so, in fact, that local dealers refused to sell him anymore, which in turn inspired him to travel down the street and put his prepubescent daughter up for sale at an open auction.

He managed to find a local pedophile willing to pay 1,000 Rupees (or $21.44) for the poor lass. Thankfully, news of the horrific ordeal quickly spread, prompting the spineless purchaser to abandon Krishnaiah’s daughter at a street corner. Police later found her. As for the pervert, he fled the scene and hasn’t been seen since.

Krishnaiah, on the other hand, was immediately apprehended by police and then given a beat-down that would likely make Mike Tyson cower in fear. Though corporal punishment is a questionable repercussion—no matter what the crime—it can be reasoned that the the drunken fool will think twice about ever trying to pull off such a pathetic scheme.

Unfortunately, there is no word as to whether he will be reunited with his daughter, or whether she’ll be shipped off to a foster home. For the moment he lies in jail, contemplating his poor decision.

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Atami Welcomes Virtual Girls, Real Boys

Love Plus+, a videogame based on maintaining a relationship with a virtual girlfriend, is putting some zip back into Atami, a faded Japanese resort town about an hour from Tokyo.

So much so, in fact, that at one stage, according to Kan Iwamoto, chairman of Atami’s shopping district union and operator of a women’s clothing store, some business owners expressed concern that the city would be overrun “by nerdy men toting backpacks.” To Atami’s relief, he said instead that the “normal-looking” game fans have been courteous and pleasant.

And some local busiensses have been quick to spot a chance to make a buck. At Korean barbeque-inspired restaurant Hien, the final dish in a special Love Plus set menu is a heart-shaped rice dish named the “Rabumbap:” combining “rabu,” the Japanese pronunciation of love, and bibimbap, the traditional Korean dish’s name. “At first I was a little embarrassed. For a 54-year-old man to name a dish, the Rabumbap, is embarassing,” said Kanji Nagasawa, the restaurant’s owner.

The game’s not only an attraction in Atami itself. The titles, only available in Japan, have done well for a niche genre: since Love Plus launched last September, and the debut of its follow-up title in June, the series has sold a combined 423,000 units, according to Japanese videogame researcher Enterbrain.

And Atami is not the only place where the virtual world met reality. On Twitter, Konami reminded boyfriends across Japan of game character Rinko Kobayakawa — an avid reader and punk-music fan — that her birthday was Aug. 17 and asked how they planned to spend the day with her.

And last Christmas, the company announced sales of a holiday cake that the players could buy for their pixilated girlfriends. An hour later, enough flesh-and-blood Romeos flocked to the shops that all 300 cakes were sold out before the bakeries had even opened. One especially smitten fan married his Love Plus girlfriend Nene Anegasaki — an Aries who likes household chores and horror movies — in a tongue-in-cheek wedding streamed over the Internet.

via wsj

North Korea Touts Mind-Expanding Liquid Brain Juice

The government of North Korea claims it has fashioned a mind-expanding, liquid brain juice dubbed the ‘Super Drink’ that can supposedly multiply brain hells and halt skin aging.

Leave it to the world’s most bizarre and out-of-date regime to produce an anti-oxidation drink that, according to the secretive Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), “protects skin from wrinkles and black spots, and prevents such geriatric diseases as cerebral haemorrhage [sic], myocardium and brain infarction by removing acid effete matters in time.”

The Telegraph reports that the mixture contains 60 types of “microelements” extracted from over 30 species of plants. The combination evidently helps improve mental acuity and retention by “multiplying brain cells.” How exactly the juice does this is unclear. Moreover, the KCNA has yet to release the drink’s name or announce its official arrival date on store shelves.

They did however claim that the juice was well received by Chinese, German and other businessmen at a trade fair in Pyongyang last month. Plus they quoted company manager, Jong Song Ho, who testified that the juice “proved efficacious among workers of such industrial establishments as thermal power station and smeltery and at medical institutions.”

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