Every inauguration of a new president brings out the kitsch, the manufactured collectibles of the moment. But this inauguration has more marketing opportunities than any before. As Stephen Colbert says, "Barack Obama can sell crap. I mean worthless crap." Anything and everything with the words Obama, inaugural, commemorative, or collectible is on sale and flying off the shelves. There is, of course, the same type of memorabilia you recall from past inaugurations. There are commemorative coins, plates,... READ ON

Get ready to bookmark this, people: Turkey Tracker is a collaborative webcast of a Thanksgiving turkey being cooked in a smoker in Portland, Oregon. The smoking starts at 9am (Pacific time) on Thanksgiving Day, and involves: • Two cameras trained on the smoker, broadcasting live video (via Ustream) • A USB thermometer inside the turkey that automatically posts its temperature readings to Twitter (read more on this at MAKE) • Live chat alongside the video (also via Ustream) •... READ ON

Yesterday, NASA announced that the Mars Phoenix Lander has died. Okay, they said that the lander had "ceased communications" and that the lander had "finish[ed] successful work," both of which are merely euphemisms for its tragic death after five months of lonely toil on Mars. The Mars Phoenix Lander's death is not unexpected. It landed in a polar region of Mars, because that's where the ice is. But it's also where it gets real darn cold during the Martian winter, and at this point, Phoenix (and its... READ ON

Last night, CNN debuted its latest ultra-high-tech gizmo: a "hologram" interview system that allows Star Wars-like images of distant people to appear on stage, interacting with the CNN host. Now, it turns out that the "hologram" isn't actually visible to the host (it's composited into the image you see at home by a computer), but it's still pretty neat. Here's a video of Will.i.am appearing "live via hologram" in the system's first use: Okay, so how does this work? Gizmodo tells all. From the... READ ON