Uncommon video of a MiG-29 firing an outer-pylon R-73 missile at a Hermes 450 UAV belonging to Georgia … doesn’t end well for the drone.
Georgia-Russia Tension Escalates Over Downed Drone - NYT, April 22 2008

Not even close to being gadget-related, but here’s a list of the world’s best restaurants, thanks to San Pellegrino and their site World’s 50 Best Restaurants. At the top of their list, which makes it the best restaurant in the world, is El Bulli in Spain.
50best’s comments about el Bulli include such superlatives as [...]

iF, the International Forum Design recently awarded one of their 2008 concept awards in the category of Architecture & Public Spaces to Hanyoung Lee for his Virtual Wall Traffic Light. The Virtual Wall uses lasers to project virtual pedestrians across an intersection to supplement the traffic light.
List of winners for the iF [...]

Encyclopaedia Britannica seems to be in trouble. Customers are curiously reluctant to spend $1395 on the print edition of the encyclopedia, disinclined to pay $70/year for web access and even averse to parting with $49.95 for the Britannica Deluxe Edition 2007 DVD.
It appears that knowledge-seekers lean towards the $37.50 Encarta DVD, or, to [...]

Nielsen ranks the most sought-after luxury brands in the fashion world:
1: Gucci

2: Chanel (=)
2: Calvin Klein
4: Louis Vuitton
5: Christian Dior
6: Versace
7: Giorgio Armani
8: Ralph Lauren
9: Prada
10: Yves Saint Laurent
[...not a bad list, but it's missing Hermes and possibly Burberry].
Many of these rag dealers have of course branched out into gadgets & consumer electronics, eg the [...]

GameSpot reports that Grand Theft Auto IV is on its way to stores and will be released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on April 29. In the first week, GTA4 is expected to sell 6 million copies and generate $400 million for the Rockstar Games division of Take-Two Interactive.
…and in related news, R* [...]

Year Over Year game industry sales in the U.S. were up 57%, with Nintendo continuing to dominate in both hardware and sales. The best selling game console was the Wii with 721,000 units and top game was Super Smash Bros. Brawl with an astonishing 2.7M copies sold.
Nintendo & Wii depend on casual gamers, with their [...]

The University of Cambridge is to be commended for collecting and organizing and publishing the nearly-complete works of Charles Darwin & making them available online & for free.
CRD = an outside-the-box thinker, for sure.
The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

The Rocket Racing League finally seems to be taking off. Originally inspired by the fictional Star Wars pod racers, and after about two-and-a-half years of work, the 1st Exhibition Race of the Rocket Racing League will take place August 1-2 2008 in Oshkosh, Wisconson. The X-Racer, as the plane is called, is a single-pilot craft [...]

Sony’s annoying, er innovating, Rolly robotic music player is now available in black. And the small flapping arms come in red, blue or silver. Can’t stop progress.

Rolly SEP-10BT