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Amputee to climb building's 103 flights with mind-controlled leg

This Sunday, amputee Zak Vawter will stand at the foot of Chicago's Willis Tower and focus his thoughts on climbing. If all goes according to plan, his bionic leg will listen to those thoughts and he'll ascend 103 flights without a hitch.

Vawter, who lost his right leg in a motorcycle accident in 2009, will be wearing a cutting-edge, thought-controlled prosthetic that's about to make a very public debut. He'll head up the 1,451-foot skyscraper (also known as Sears Tower) as part of SkyRise Chicago, an indoor stair-climbing fund-raising event for the Rehabilitation Institute of … Read more

Snow Blaster: A Christmas light video game

The creator of the exceptional Christmas light Guitar Hero game from last year is at it again.

Behold Snowball Blaster, a 26,000 LED- and incandescent-bulb Christmas light game by Ric Turner. The 50-year-old programmer, who has gotten nearly 3 million views on his YouTube channel, has become something of an Internet legend for making "video games" out of real Christmas lights. In his latest merriment, you sit in a "electric training sled" wrapped in green and red LEDs. Anyone else think it could be a side car for a Tron bike?

Players sit in the motorized seat and use a game controller to dodge snowballs. It's pretty wild because Turner really has the game instructions (spoken in a funny voice), music, and lights coordinated and played through speakers as shown in the video below. It's even broadcast on FM so people in cars can watch and listen. The audio "does not blast through the neighborhood," according to Turner, but you have to wonder if the neighbors are in agony. … Read more