Jem Stansfield climbed to the top of the BBC White City building in west London. But here’s the thing: He wasn’t bit by a radioactive spider and his girlfriend isn’t named MJ. No, he managed the climb using some DIY vacuum gloves that were made out of a regular household vacuum cleaner.

Unlike Spidey, he was secured with a safety harness tied to his back, just in case. He built the gloves himself, in a stunt for a new BBC One science show called Bang Goes The Theory.

Vacuum tubes powered a whole bunch of gadgets in the past. They even continue to show up in or on our gadgets today. So what could be cooler than a Vacuum tube flash drive? Thanks to the folks at CF14 Industries we now have real Vacuum Tube Flash Drives.

It took some trial and error, but at last they got the interior of a 512MB thumb drive inside of a vacuum tube. The end result looks pretty awesome and should make your laptop look a bit more steampunk. Hit the link and see if you’d like to try it yourself.

This just may be the most awesome and nerdiest chess set ever. You’re looking at Paul Fryer’s Vacuum Tube Chess set. It’s one of only seven made. The pieces actually light up when they’re plugged in to the board.

How cool is that? The only thing that sucks is that you would need to replace blown tubes from time to time, but we don’t care. We just wanna play chess with Vacuum tubes that really light up.

Who needs a printer when you have a robot that will gladly print on your floor? Don’t worry all you clean-freaks, it also cleans up after itself. This Roomba was hacked and outfitted with printer parts and now gladly treats your floor like a wall to be graffitied. Is that a word? It is now.

It draws, or prints in powder. Luckily after you are finished drawing, the bot can just vacuum it all up. Might be a fun way for spies to deliver messages. Be here at 3:15, get the message from the bot and order it to clean up and erase the evidence.

The Fukitorimushia floor-cleaning robot wipes instead of vacuums, like an inchworm with a cylon eye. Designed by Panasonic, the little robot is wrapped in a nanocloth sleeve, which collects dust and debris as the robot crawls, worm-style, across your floor.

Yes, what we have here is the swiffer evolved. Its also has sensors to seek out dirt, so it will focus on problem areas first, then move on the assorted crumbs. Nothing on price or availability yet.

If today’s beautiful weather was any indication, spring is finally here. Sadly, the bugs have arrived with it. The fly-goodbye will keep their population down and keep your magazines insect-gut free. Just insert the front tube that has some glue at the bottom, give it some pump action and fire.

If you are skilled enough that buzzing sound will cease and the fly will be trapped in the tube with glue. Brilliant. It’s like an insect carbonite freeze. It works more like a vacuum that sucks the fly in when the trigger is pushed, and you have to be about 1 to 3cm away from the pest, but still. Pretty nifty way of killing some insect game.

RockridgeSound recently released the somewhat retro looking ISR-VT02 iPod dock. The unit boasts an integrated AM/FM tuner, vacuum tube amplifier, two-stage 12AX7 (ECC83) amplifier, two 3.15 inch speakers, 12W of power, S-Video out, mini stereo input and RCA analog inputs.

The RockridgeSound ISR-VT02 iPod Dock is not only retro looking and “woody”, it’s also compatible with all iPods and the iPod touch. Not the iPhone. This docking station is available in Japan starting today for around $385.

Swearing has lost it’s luster, let’s face it. Words that used to have an impact just don’t do it anymore. We’ve become de-sensitized. We need a new way to sling profanity. Like with a clock. The Super Electrofluorescent Profanity Machine will generate random four-letter words for you at the rate of one per second. The machine was constructed from fluorescent vacuum tubes, and also tells time. We just love clocks that use vacuum tubes, but we never thought we would see them swearing.

It will cost you $125, but if you have the money, it’s an interesting take on the whole tube/clock/swearing thing. According to the designer, every four-letter English word could possibly show up on the display. To prevent gibberish, the device is programmed to display pronounceable words, not just random letters.

Check out this sweet Steampunk ray gun. It sports a pretty nice, not so over-the-top Steampunk look but still manages to have lots of nice detail. The “Power supply” consists of a vacuum tube and “brass bits” installed inside the gun. The smoky look of the vacuum tube makes it look as if it has just been fired.

There’s even detail inside of the barrel. The creator added some clockwork parts inside so that it looks like the delicate clockwork mechanism is focusing the particle beam. Nice! The end result is a nice looking Ray Gun suitable for any Sci-Fi adventure.

Nothing sucks more then getting off of a plane and realizing that your ears are taking their own sweet time to pop. Sometimes yawning or swallowing will work, but often their is no relief. And it really drives you crazy. Now there’s a simple solution. The ear pressure equalizer is nothing more then a small pump that creates a vacuum in the outer ear canal and gently pushes the eardrum back into its original position.

Just do what they say not to do and stick a foreign object in your ear. In this case, the tube, then push the yellow button and you’re good to go. Luckily it is safe as it features a safety vent that prevents the build-up of too much pressure. The whole thing comes in a package that’s smaller than most mobile phones and will cost you $60. Popped ears however are priceless.

Scotch tape is pretty damn versatile. Right up there with duct tape. But I bet you never thought about scotch tape creating X-rays. . Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles have discovered that peeling Scotch tape in a vacuum tube generates X-rays. How they came up with the idea of putting scotch tape in a vacuum in the first place is anyone’s guess.

You can imagine their surprise that a 99 cent roll of tape can give you an X-ray. They managed to develop a slightly blurry X-ray image of a finger using the tape. They think that further research can yield a low cost/low power X-ray machine for use in areas of the world where the money and electricity aren’t available for standard machines.

For audiophiles that want the very best, Navison has merged digital technology with vacuum tube design with the Reference 228 Tube Compact Disc Player. It has a refreshing retro look that makes you stop and stare, complete with signature Barian Kingwood, gold plating and textured black finish.

The Reference 228 is designed to capture the whole of your music, so you can hear every little detail, not just the gist of what the artist is going for. Some other features are Jensen & Auricap capacitors, Mundorf filter capacitors, Tantalum & Riken resistors and Cardas Gold rhodium RCA input jacks. Even the remote is luxurious in copper and wood.

I love all kinds of stuff with vacuum tubes. They just look cool and remind me of a different era. I love me some iPod docks with tubes, amps, and clocks. Even this “test tube” clock looks pretty neat, even if they’re not real vacuum tubes or test tubes that have chemicals in them or a tiny lifeform.

It’s basically just a bunch of numbers with glass domes over each. It doesn’t quite match the style and warmth of a Nixie clock, but hey to each his own. It does have a cool retro look. It’s $75.

Audiophile specialist McIntosh Laboratory has just unloaded a flotilla of new high end (i.e. pricey) components for the “price is no object” home theater. The one we picture above, for example, is the MC2301 Vacuum Tube Power Amplifier, priced at around $11,000. That’s right, $11k.

Full details on this vacuum tube piece of audio equipment and four other new McIntosh releases are found after the jump.

Nemo Gould, a mechanical sculptor, assembled the Big Man robot from all kinds junk materials ranging from vacuum cleaner parts to chair legs and he even used floor polisher. The Robot is a respectable 8 feet tall and has a little robot inside that controls him.

The Big Man robot moves it’s hands to and fro and it can also move it’s mouth up and down. The “Little Man” in it’s chest moves levers that control Big Man. It doesn’t get much more awesome then watching a tiny robot control a big robot with antlers on it’s head. Video below.