Process this: A kaput-critter computer

Brian Tracey • Profile

With more and more companies allowing employees to bring their pets to work these days, it's not unusual to find a furry animal occupying a cubicle near you. And now an artist/inventor has taken this idea to a new high-tech level by putting a personal computer inside a dead beaver.

The Compubeaver, designed by Los Angeles resident Kasey McMahon, took three months to build and is literally stuffed full of the latest computer technology, including an Intel Core Duo processor, 160 gigabyte hard drive, and even a DVD burner so you can record your favorite TV programs off the National Geographic channel.

"I started thinking about the most ridiculous thing to put a computer into and decided it had to be a beaver," McMahon was quoted as saying in the British newspaper Metro. "It looks at how nature relates to technology."

She also claims the rodent-gadget doesn't smell, so your co-workers will have to come up with another excuse for constantly shunning you.

Not-so-bad ideas

• This is definitely not child's play: The "world's highest swing" has been set up on an 1,100-foot TV tower in China.

The swing set was built on a platform 700 feet above the ground on the tower in Chinese city of Harbin, a local daily newspaper reported.

Customers sit on the swing's seat and are pushed beyond the edge of the platform over the city.

The ride is called the "game for brave people," according to the Harbin Daily.

"Brave" is not the adjective we were thinking of.

• Attention passengers — Bulgarian train engineers have been given rotating chairs so they can urinate out of the locomotive's window without having to stop.

The engineers' union had complained that, on some older trains, there were no toilets and they were forced to pee out of the windows, the Ananova Web portal reported.

In response, the railroad agreed to fit the special chairs so the driver can turn and relieve himself out the window without having to get up from the controls.

This innovation must also have added benefit of encouraging train riders to step away from the edge of the station platform.

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