News on new Wallace and Gromit coming soon to a computer near you. While the next Wallace and Gromit film, called “The Great Vegetable Plot”, won’t be out for a couple years, twelve one minute shorts will be released on the Internet later this year. These bits will feature inventions from Wallace’s Workshop. Much hilarity will ensue, I’m sure. (thanks Steve!)

You probably know someone who is tone deaf, or perhaps you are tone deaf yourself. The official term for people who have difficulty recognizing the difference between tones is amusia. NPR’s All Things Considered had a report a couple days ago on research into “musical disabilities”. It focuses on a woman named Monica who may have congenital amusia, as she has no physical defects or damage that would cause her to be tone deaf. Monica can not distinguish the differences between changes in tone unless they are significantly different. There are sample recordings on the page so you can give this a try yourself. Researcher Isabelle Peretz’s work in creating tests like these for detecting amusia will help geneticists track down the genes that cause this trait. Some people who can’t sing just can’t sing, but some people can’t truly hear what they are trying to duplicate with their voices. (thanks Renee!)

While searching for something completely different, I stumbled upon a site selling Lord of the Rings Swords. Sting, Glamdring, and The Sword of the Witchking are available. The manufacturer, United Cutlery, has the license to reproduce swords from all the films in the trilogy. For more background information on the hardware of LotR, take a stroll through this essay on The Arms and Armour in JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth. It’s more than you ever wanted to know about all the weapons and armor. And, since I’ve already been asked this, no I don’t think the United Cutlery swords glow when orcs are present. No “Folk of the Noldor” are involved in the manufacturing of the reproductions.

Yet another pen computer bytes the dust. Sony’s Slimtop Pen Tablet was more of a touchscreen device than a pen computer, but it tried to break the mold, yet again. Artists and children may have enjoyed the setup, but it does not really offer much more than getting a tablet peripheral, except that you get to draw directly to the screen. Even then, your hand can get in the way. Microsoft is pushing a tablet paradigm again, so we shall see what comes next in the chain of pen computing failures.

Around the time of my wedding, Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt filed suit against the jewelry designer who made their custom wedding rings, which Brad reportedly designed. The designer apparently sold the same designs, which were supposed to be one-offs, to other people and used the couple’s names without permission to boost sales. I suppose if I thought I had a unique custom designed wedding band and then it was sold to other people, I’d be miffed. And if someone was using me for advertising without paying me, that would be wrong. But a $50 million federal lawsuit seemed to be an overreaction. However, it did serve to illustrate how seriously they were taking it. And it worked. They have reached a decision everyone can be happy with. Damiani International will stop selling the rings, Pitt will design a line of jewelry for them (!!), and Aniston will be featured in their international advertising campaign. Everyone wins. And you can be sure the celebrity couple will be making a pretty penny from their new assignments. Perhaps not $50 million, but their payment is certainly not merely the privilege of keeping their wedding bands unique. (Though other manufacturers are sure to create knock-offs.)

Diner City is a fun visit with photos of diners from most of the states. There is background info on diner manufacturers (most weren’t just old railroad cars, despite their looks), a list of diners for sale, and some bonus pages of roadside icons linked towards the bottom of the main page. The first diner I remember eating in, the Silver Star in Norwalk, Connecticut, is not pictured, but I’m pretty sure it still exists. (via Larkfarm)

I have switched to Windows XP on my home computer and my eyes are already begging to switch back to Classic mode. Although the watery blue seems soothing, it is a strain on my vision, even though I have my monitor refresh cranked up to 100 Hertz. High contrast text is better than pretty text.

I have seen wind-up radios and flashlights, but I was surprised to read about a wind-up cellphone charger. From a maker of self-sufficient energy products, the FreeCharge is a collaboration with Motorola. I am hoping other cell phone manufacturers will follow suit. It may not be as convenient as plugging your phone into a socket somewhere, but it could be a lifesaver out in the wilds (or the sidewalks and malls of the urban jungle).

I haven’t used it much, but Find Articles looks like it could be a good filtered resource for topic searches. It is “a specialized search engine designed to help you quickly and easily find published articles on the topics that interest you. Our database has hundreds of thousands of articles from more than 300 magazines and journals, dating back to 1998. FindArticles even brings some print-only publications to the Web for the first time.” (via Follow Me Here)

Le Sportsac bags were a fashion godsend for me in the 1980s. While most trends (Bermuda bags, designer jeans, Laura Ashley, and Gunne Sax) were beyond my means, Le Sportsac bags, made of ripstop nylon, were almost unseemingly affordable. I could nab a bag, though perhaps in last season’s colors, on sale for $15-$20. Now, the bags are back in vogue with collectible prints and sequins. They are something “fun” and “whimsical” for fashion mavens to buy in quantity. As for me, I’ve gone back to good quality leather, and I intend to stay there.