I'm not sure whether the Qtire is named after Q the gadget guy of James Bond movie fame, but it would be entirely apt.

These new tires use a patented all-weather technology that enables studs to be extended from the surface in snow and ice, yet lie below the tread when not required. The retractable studs are operated by an air bladder that pushes them out from inside the tire when needed, and deflates so the studs retract when not needed. The tires are not entirely maintenance free — the bladder needs to be refilled with air after the studs have been deployed around 50 times — not much effort for a significant improvement in safety.

Hoping they incorporate blast mode, so I can ejects the spikes in the path of the CHP on my tail.

Photographer Bryant Austin seeks out inquisitive and accepting whales. During his dives, he floats almost motionless for hours at a time, waiting for the fifty to one hundred ton subjects to come to him. During these rare and unique encounters, the whales will gently reposition their pectoral fins and flukes in order to avoid causing Bryant any harm.

Bryant’s inspiration began five years ago while diving in the Kingdom Of Tonga. He was six feet in front of a humpback whale calf when he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder — he turned to face the eye of the mother. She extended her 15-foot, one-ton pectoral fin to gently let him know that she was watching him. It was at this moment that he realized what was missing in the field of whale photography: an emotional connection…mammal to mammal, species to species.

His high-resolution, life-size photographs are unbelievable. They are currently being shown in Norway and will be on exhibit in Japan in 2010, fulfilling his vision of inspiring peaceful, positive change within whaling nations.

A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter by Caleb Larsen is a physical sculpture that is perptually attempting to auction itself on eBay. Here is the auction, the current bid is $4,250.

Every ten minutes the black box pings a server on the internet via the ethernet connection to check if it is for sale on the eBay. If its auction has ended or it has sold, it automatically creates a new auction of itself. If a person buys it on eBay, the current owner is required to send it to the new owner. The new owner must then plug it into ethernet, and the cycle repeats itself.

One of the more novel ideas I've heard about in the art world. I just wouldn't want to be the last monkey to buy the piece. What would one do with a $4000 oversized paperweight.

I think we're all familiar with Las Vegas' transformation from sleazy, organized-crime desert town to it's current incarnation as Disney-esque theme park. But somehow, the city's graphic image has not evolved with the same speed. Online gambling, its ugly step-sister, has certainly lagged in this respect. To nudge the industry along, graphic designer Daniel Carlsten has created a series of striking images. Daniel says these are "A bright and playful visual toolbox for a company who wants to add human and friendly to the vocabulary of the usually quite shady world of online gambling."

As an admitted Beatles fanboy, you could get my attention with just about anything related to the Fab Four. But designer Michael Deal has outdone himself with his latest project. This ongoing exploration of Beatles music through infographics is a treat for the both the right and left hemispheres of my Liverpudlian brain.

In Authorship and Collaboration, the color patterns offer clues about the band's gradual fracturing as each member becomes more independent. Red bars (signifying jointly written songs) decrease in the second half of the timeline; the split-color bars give way to solid bars of a single color. George Harrison also began to compose more music as he matured as a songwriter, signified by the increase in green bars (Lennon and McCartney's lack of support through Harrison's development is widely cited as a factor contributing to the band's eventual breakup).

Song Keys is a fascinating look into relative keys for all Beatles songs, be they major, minor, or diatonic. (Who knew that Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's were so balanced in this respect?)

My favorite chart is Self Reference, in which lyrics that reference previous lyrics are explored, noting at what point in each song they can be found.

The Polish photographers Szymon Roginski and Kasia Korzeniecka worked together to create these images for the “O Mia O” Spring Summer 2009 collection of Ania Kuczynska. First they photographed the collection which they then cut up and transformed into 3d objects. The result was photographed again and used for the “O Mia O” collection.