Man kills self with home booby-traps. Steve sez: "It's tragic when life imitates Wile E. Coyote cartoons. Guy boobytraps his house to get his family if they try to break in, and seemingly is killed himself by his own traps."[Boing Boing Blog]

Lego enthusiasts have implemented three of Escher's optical illusion paintings (including "Ascending and Descending," pictured here), using Lego! [Boing Boing Blog]

New Scientist: Skin-based networks that run at 10 Mbs may revolutionize P2P.   On a lighter note, imagine a party where people shared music and movies with physical contact. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

What price justice? Let's say you have a debt-collection matter in which the "deadbeat" owes, in round numbers, about 18 cents. So you bring the action and you seek attorneys' fees and other charges.  That figure comes out to $311.26. The court doesn't like this and awards sanctions against you.  But now the defendant's lawyer claims to have put in about $7,600 defending the case. [via Overlawyered] [Ernie the Attorney]

Italian porn star "La Cicciolina" has offered to have sex with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in exchange for peace. [Exploding Cigar]

Prime Time Gets Real With a Plump Heroine. The sudden embrace of the Rubenesque seems to span all across popular culture, including a new ABC sitcom, "Less Than Perfect." By Alessandra Stanley. [New York Times: Arts]

Japanese Masters Get Closer to the Toilet Nirvana. Toilets in Japan are far more than mere hygienic necessities: new models test biological samples, provide climate control and even soundtracks.

Japan's toilet wars started in February, when Matsushita engineers here unveiled a toilet seat equipped with electrodes that send a mild electric charge through the user's buttocks, yielding a digital measurement of body-fat ratio.

Unimpressed, engineers from a rival company, Inax, counterattacked in April with a toilet that glows in the dark and whirs up its lid after an infrared sensor detects a human being. When in use, the toilet plays any of six soundtracks, including chirping birds, rushing water, tinkling wind chimes, or the strumming of a traditional Japanese harp.

By James Brooke. [New York Times: International]