The iPad is all the rage at a private school in Knoxville, TN, where all students from fourth to 12th grade will now be required to carry iPads starting this August. Hey, it beats a backpack full of spine twisting books. The students can either provide their own tablet or lease a WiFi-only model for $20 a month.

Webb School hopes that the iPad will eventually replace traditional textbooks. We aren’t sure how effective an iPad only classroom can be, but I guess we will all find out soon enough.

We’ve seen iPads being offered on planes and in hotels, and now they are hitting schools. A pilot project in four California school districts will replace 400 students’ eighth-grade algebra textbooks with Apple iPads in an attempt to prove the advantages of interactive digital technologies over traditional teaching methods. He should help to correct their spines as well, since an iPad in the backpack weighs a lot less than a book.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has teamed up with California Secretary of Education Bonnie Reiss for the pilot, which will take place at Long Beach Unified School District, Riverside Unified School District, Fresno Unified School District and San Francisco Unified School District.

Everyone else is going 3D, so why not take a look at what a MacBook 3D would be like? That’s what designer Tai Chiem has done here with this glimpse into what it could be like. This concept MacBook has stereoscopic iSight cameras, 3D glasses and a hingeless spine design.

We don’t have any info on how it all works, it’s just a dream for all of you apple fans to drool over. Somehow, I don’t think Apple will be making anything 3D like this anytime soon.

The safety of your children is one of your top concerns as it should be. So you have to have booster seats in your vehicle, to keep your kids buckled. But it’s a hassle when the kids aren’t using it. What do you do? You make the kid carry it with them, that’s what.

When they arrive at their destination they can just take it with them as part of their backpack thanks to the BoostApak, which comes with a hard plastic shell for kids aged 4 to 11. It’s ergonomically designed to “protect growing spines and encourage better posture.” Not sure we believe that since it is a backpack.

Like your typical geek, I am a big fan of science fiction flicks. As you expect right up there at the top of my favorite franchises are Star Wars and Star Trek. I’m not such a hard-core fan that I wear costumes and buy fancy collectibles that cost hundreds of dollars, but I like the films well enough.

If you are the hard-core geek that has to own the most realistic collectibles from the two Star franchises, eFX has you covered. The company has offered its line of Star Wars collectibles for a long time and it announced today that it would be offering up a line of licensed Star Trek collectibles as well.

Strapya is apparently aiming to defile every lovable movie character, with baby versions that are oh so adorable. Even I could take baby Rocky in the ring. Baby RoboCop will stop crime dead with cuteness overload. And baby Predator couldn’t possibly pull your spine out. He’s just too adorable.

Some others include Hannibal Lector, Edward Scissorhands, Beverly Hills Cop and even the diaper Don himself, the Godfather, who will make you an offer you can’t refuse…to clean up…in his diaper.

These lamps don’t light the room so much as fright up the room. Dinosaurs are scary. They feature powerful, energy-saving LEDs, and the Deluxe version is even equipped with a spine made of variable LED colors that can be adjusted with the included remote control.

Have you ever seen a Jurassic light show before? Neither have I, but these lamps convince me that Dinosaur bones are meant for glowing. Imagine these babies full sized, glowing in a darkened museum. That would be somehow even scarier than the real bones.

It’s like a bullet-proof vest for your back. Only not bullet-proof. No, this won’t cause anyone any concern. You just look like you are part of some covert op and wearing your gear. I’m sure it won’t raise any eyebrows at the airport or the bank.

On the plus side it goes with anything you might care to wear. Hell, why not let your spine handle the load? Especially if you have an old clunker of a laptop that has caused you some arm injuries. It has 3 compartments. One for your Laptop, one for accessories and a pocket.

Regular pogo sticks just don’t have the serious power needed to make them a truly fun toy. They just don’t bounce that high. The Flybar however, is like a pogo stick on steroids.

That stick you had as a kid? That’s nothing. This baby launches you way higher. I’m talking hopping over cars here. It gives you the ability to do all kinds of dangerous stunts. It operates using amazingly strong elastic bands called rubber thrusters, which increase the bounce height to a full seven feet. And yes, you may order one if you don’t like your neck all connected to your spine, for $320.

Daniel Pon loves Steampunk. So when it came time to make a steampunk mouse to go with his Steampunk keyboard and monitor, he went a little crazy with the design. The end result? Pretty damn cool. And maybe a bit morbid.

The Paradox Mouse is a great steampunk mod with typical brass, bolts, gears, wood, etc. A great neo-Victorian peripheral. But it has a few extra features that Daniel calls “ironic”. These features are a real mouse skull, shoulder blades and spine, all lovingly worked into the project. The skull sits on the front of the mouse, the shoulder blades as miniature cattle catchers, and the spine as the palmrest.

There’s a new sheriff in town, and he’s serving up booze. The Shots Gun Drink Dispenser will only cost you about $22 and it even comes with a holster. It’s a gun that shoots booze. What could be better? It will let you impress your friends as you shoot up some drinks and shoot off your mouth. Though it may be a small weapon, it packs a powerful punch.

I know what you’re thinking. Did he fire six shots, or…only five? Do you feel lucky punk? Do ya? Then have another drink. It will fit on any bottle of liquor. Simply put the holster on your bottle, begin pumping the pump-action lever and you’ll be shooting more rounds then Ron Jeremy during production hours.

Here’s something for old school Mac fans who need a little geek chic. The kind of geek chic that will throw your back out. Someone over at Instructables converted a 1988 Macintosh SE into a chiropractor’s dream. A chunky, spine dislodging MacPack. Basically you just hollow out a Mac and attach some straps. I’m sure you won’t stand out at all. And I can’t see anyone throwing rocks at you, trying to break the screen…

This Yamaha-branded Deus Ex Machina concept motorcycle was dreamed up by Jake Loniak, an Art Center Pasadena student. It obviously looks awesome. Like a robot and a vehicle all in one. Since it’s a concept, Jake went a little crazy with the specs. It will be powered by ultra-capacitors and doped nano-phoshpate batteries (like those in hybrid cars). 36 pneumatic muscles and 2 linear actuators are set along a spine consisting of seven vertebrae, and that’s what keeps it in control.

Another cool touch is that the helmet is pneumatically attached for ease-of-use. Jake claims that his design can reach a top speed of 75mph, I’m just not sure how well protected a human would be in this thing. I do know that I want to see it in action NOW.

Yo, peeps – check this out! We’ve got a new Plustek scanner in the house! Sorry, can’t really think of another way to introduce a boring scanner. Anyhow, Plustek is making available its new OpticBook 4600 book scanner for all your illegal book copying needs for around $700.

The Plustek OpticBook 4600 has special technology and design to let you scan right up to where the book spine is placed. These scans can be done directly to a connected hard drive or other portable storage media. You can also save the scans in a searchable PDF format.