Reality Can be Weirder Than Fiction: Ebola Toys Selling Like Hot Cakes

It may be the only time you will find these words in the same sentence: "Ebola" and "Add to Wishlist."

Giantmicrobes Inc., which makes a line of plush toys based on viruses and other microscopic organisms, has sold out its entire Ebola stock, including the small Ebola doll for $9.95, a Gigantic Ebola doll for $29.95 and an Ebola Petri Dish toy for $14.95, according to the company's website.

"Since its discovery in 1976, Ebola has become the T. Rex of microbes," says the Stamford, Connecticut-based maker of the "uniquely contagious toy" on its website, which promotes them as gag gifts that also have educational value.

With the latest Ebola outbreak, which already killed more than 4,500 people, mostly in West Africa, customers have snapped up the toy, which looks like half a pretzel.

"You do not want to get Ebola," warns the website. "A short incubation period of 2 to 21 days presages symptoms which include fever, aches, sore throat, and weakness, followed by diarrhea, stomach pain, vomiting, and both internal and external bleeding. And then, for between 50-90 percent of victims, death."

Giantmicrobes lists the World Health Organization as one of its largest customers, along with pharmaceutical companies and the American Red Cross.

Anyone disappointed by the current shortage of the Ebola toys can click on "Add to Wishlist" and wait for more stock to arrive. Or make a different selection from the company's array of other plush toys, including Anthrax, Botulism, Cholera and Dengue Fever.

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HOLY CRAP! I Wish This Had Come Out When I Was a Kid!

damnit.  Now I need to figure out how to scrape together enough for my son.

HEY NOEL!

The CEO of Tesla Motors said today that the material cost of the electric car company's Roadster sports car has dropped to about $80,000, which should help the company reach profitability next month.

Elon Musk said in a blog post on Tesla's Web site that the material cost, which is the total cost of the parts and components that make up each vehicle, was as high as $140,000 in summer 2007.

The car currently has a starting sticker price of $109,000.

"Combined with a steady production volume of 20 to 30 per week in the third quarter this year and a good take up rate of the higher priced Roadster Sport, we expect to cross over into profitability next month," Musk wrote in his blog post.

The Roadster, a two-seat electric sports car, can get more than 200 miles on a single charge with an acceleration of zero to 60 mph in just under 4 seconds.

Musk said a key step toward lowering the costs was moving production of the vehicle's battery packs from a factory in Asia to the San Carlos-based company's home state.

"This may sound counterintuitive, but our unit cost actually went down and quality improved as we went to a more automated system and could iterate quickly with engineering to find design efficiencies, " Musk said.

In addition, moving production of the heavy and bulky battery packs significantly lowered the company's shipping costs, he said.

Closer to affordable! ;)

Water Jet Pack!

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Why Didn't They Have This When *I* Was a Child?!

Introducing Kota, the walking, ridable dinosaur! Just in time for Xmas!


I was soooo born too early.