Get ready to boogie, toast ginger ale and connect to the internet at 30,000 feet because Virgin America has teamed up with YouTube for a Wi-Fi launch shindig in the sky. The airline plans to launch its Gogo Inflight Internet service November 22 on a flight over the Bay Area while live streaming all the party shenanigans to an audience rocking out at the YouTube Live concert in San Francisco.

Today as you rush through the day, take some time to thank the tank flushing away your unmentionables (or those of the nasty person before you) as we celebrate World Toilet Day. Rose George, journalist and author of The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters, has offered all of us who may take this household fixture for granted a real reason to be thankful this November, especially with the revelation that only half the world enjoys a designated place to, well, “think about things,” as we call it around our house. So, hang a streamer on the porcelain god, drop a flower in the bowl or even a note in the mail to that special place with a great bathroom saying “Thanks for making every moment special.”
(Photo Credit: Oksana Struk/iStockphoto)

Godzilla has made a triumphant return to Japan, only this time he’s a bit more eco-friendly. Japanese television stations have descended on a city in eastern Japan to capture footage of a tree that bears an eerie resemblance to the legendary giant lizard monster. The owner of the Godzilla tree swears the tree has not seen the sharp end of a weed whacker.

When was the last time you broke out the old TI-83 or any calculator for that matter? The cell phone has managed to go all Jason Voorhees on a number of products, knocking off gadgets that once enjoyed immense popularity. Wired examined five devices killed off by mobile phones, although, as the the blog points out, nowadays the phone function is only one of many handy dandy features. So, what ended up biting the dust? The PDA because you can really only fit so much crap in your pockets and who the heck wants to cram a chunky, glorified address book in their metrosexual business slacks? Next up, the camera. Well, not all cameras, just the “cheap, junky bottom end of the digicam market.” The Ultra Mobile PC has also gone to the electronic graveyard in the sky, but mostly because it sucked in its own merits. Other gadgets not quite dead, but sitting in intensive care include landline phones and MP3 players; Wired even took a ballsy step and called out notebooks as the next victim of the cell phone reign.

While the United States has witnessed the pajamification of America, Europeans opted for a more sporty, albeit arguably just as messy, style in tracksuits, but now one city in Austrian city has banned the look for its fleet of cabbies. Salzburg, home to The Sound of Music and Mozart, now requires taxi drivers don slightly classier frocks and has also nixed smoking in an effort to have the cabs smell less stinky.

The Twitter Fail Whale has landed on the endangered e-species list–extinct creatures include the Pets.com sock puppet and the little-known Google Gremlin–as the microblogging service debuted two new cartoons to soothe users in times of Twitter meltdowns. The so-called “Twitterpillar,” a low-rent version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and “Moan Cone,” a schizophrenic ice cream cone, will join the Twitter family and subsequently move the Fail Whale closer to extinction. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone explained the new characters to Wired, “The whale was related to over-capacity performance issues. Twitter has successfully moved to a more reliable state and the so-called Fail Whale has become an endangered species…(the caterpillar and ice cream cone) is used when we take the site down for maintenance — planned or unplanned.”

Attention emoticon addicts: back away from the colon, half parentheses and capital p because a new invention aims to make your expression of emotion over the computer far easier…and fashionable. :-O An Italian company called Bajca has created an “emotional communicator” that’s basically an emoticon keyboard that doubles as jewelry. :-S Whenever you feel like smiling or frowning or sticking your tongue out, click a button and voila, everyone knows exactly how you feel without all that complicated punctuation mark and letter button pushing. :) Then, if you can tear yourself away from all the excitement of e-expression, you pop off the emoticon keyboard buttons and string them on to your favorite necklace. ;-) Go ahead, wear your emotions around your neck! :-X

Nerd, genius, teddy bear–whatever you call Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak, one adjective always sticks–geek. No, it’s not in the name calling style of schoolyard bullies, Woz has embraced his geekiness and now it’s even earned him something quite special (besides those billions of dollars) in the title “Geek of the Month” by the folks over at geek mecca YouBentMyWookie. Between his love of robot anything and unabashed enthusiasm for tech and gadgets, Steve seemed the obvious choice for the site’s first geek flavor of the month. Skip over to YBMW for an interesting interview with Woz, including his break down of different types of geeks.

If you’ve committed to a diet to get in shape for the holiday season, then you might want to consider not skipping the commercials on your TiVo because you may just find yourself suckered in to a midnight pizza binge. Domino’s has teamed up with TiVo to sell pizza to those couch potatoes zipping through commercials. How does it work? Glad you asked–when a customer fast fowards through a Domino’s commercial, TiVo will pop-up an ad asking the TV watcher if he wants a little grub from Domino’s and, if that lure of easy pizza ordering proves to strong to resist, the customer can order directly from a Domino’s delivery menu on the television.

The Gibson Robot Guitar has fans in Metallica, Wu Tang Clan and…Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak?! The teddy bear techie grabbed one of the first self-tuning guitars, admitting his ears needed a little help with tuning, but also noting he has soft spot for robot anythings. Rolling away on his Segway, robot guitar in hand, likely on his way to a home filled with Roombas and maybe even a robot maid named Rosie, Woz can’t help but giddy over new tech-infused products that make life a little bit easier.

In the States, hardly a bus goes by without the pearly whites and perfect coif of a woman news anchor reminding you to pick up some bronzer on your lunch hour, but Jerusalem’s mass transit recently witnessed its first estrogen injection into the mobile advertising market thanks to the “Wake Up, Jerusalemites!” party. Previously, women’s faces were not allowed due to worry about ultra-orthodox reactions, including the editing of Fergie’s picture out of an ad for a Black-Eyed Peas show. The Wake Up, Jerusalemites were shocked to find they weren’t allowed to put campaign posters up for women candidates for a city council election; luckily, the advocacy group, the Israel Religious Action Group, was able to win a last minute court case to reverse the rule just in time to snag posts for two of their three female candidates as well as the campaign for female prime minister candidate, Tzipi Livni. You go, girl!

Reverend Ed Young has put forth a challenge to his parishioners at Dallas’ Fellowship Church that could have a lot more folks saying “Oh my God”…in the bedroom. Young wants his congregation to rekindle the romance, put on some Barry White (or the Christian rock equivalent) and get busy. No, not busy with praying, busy with sexy time. In the midst of a sliding economy, out of control divorce rates and controversy over same-sex marriage, Young says it’s time to turn the “whining” into “whopee” because “sex is like Super Glue.” The frisky rev ordered church members to have sex every night for seven days, but if you’re not married or gay, the church wants you to keep it in your pants.
(Photo Credit: Lev Dolgatshjov/iStockphoto)

Brush up on those 6th grade writing class haiku lessons because Copyblogger plans to reward a MacBook Air to the skilled wordsmith that composes the most clever Twitter-themed haiku. Entries have already started pouring in and include little ditties like “‘@John, I am pregnant.’ / ‘@Marsha, will you marry me?’ / ‘Yes @John, my tweetheart,’” “The joy of Twitter! / Kevin Rose has sneezed again. / Quick! Blog about it!” and “I desire a Macbook / But I’m no good at haikus / Unlikely to win.” Aspiring poets or people just hoping to score a free MacBook Air can submit their haiku until November 16.

German car customizer Brabus wants to pimp your Tesla. Well, the five of you who actually plopped down $100,000 for a Roadster. The Brabus enhancement upgrade package (sounds like a plastic surgery 2-for-1 deal) includes stylistic improvements and a perplexing “space sound generator” that replicates the growl of a V8, race car engine or two robot-like sounds dubbed “Beam” and “Warp.”

Twitter’s abuzz with word Facebook has gone to Fail Whale Land with error messages up the wazoo and a whole lotta unhappy folks looking for their morning poking fix. The site loads occasionally and so far there’s no word on what’s causing all the problems, but at least one tweet suggests, “they need a fail whale. or a fail chicken, or some other kind of fail animal…fail…eagle? fail…elephant!!” Indeed, because fun cartoons soothe all error message woes.

In the wake of Craigslist’s recent decision to begin charging horny folks to post under “erotic services,” a former employee has decided to take advantage of the controversy by starting a free adults only website, AdultsOnlyList (look it up yourself–NSFW warning). The simple website includes only three categories, including “casual sex” and “erotic services.” Or check out another new website, hookupmaps.com, that allows people seeking a quickie with a total stranger to find fellow casual encounter seekers on a Google Map. Who are the (horny) people in your neighborhood…in your neighborhood…the people that you meet each day?

Thousands are flocking to Ratanpur, Nepal to be touched by the young man who is believed to be the reincarnation of Siddhartha Gautama, better known as Buddha, despite the skepticism voiced by some Buddhist scholars. Ram Bahadur Bamjan,18, is believed to have fasted for three years, despite his healthy appearance, and was first discovered meditating under a tree in the jungles of southern Nepal much like the Buddha himself. Said one skeptic, though: “Being Buddha means the last birth and the highest level that can be achieved. There can be no reincarnation of Buddha, even though Buddhists believe in life after death.” The pilgrims disagree; as one farmer put it: “I have no doubt in my mind he is a God…I used to hear about such miracles in the past but now I got to see one.”

A new travel warning for Americans venturing south of the border to Mexico City: Beware of elderly men sporting uncontrollable erections. Mexico’s capital city plans to dole out free Viagra and other impotence drugs to men 70 and older starting December 1 because the city believes sexuality “has a lot to do with quality of life and our happiness.” How does a bunch of horny grandpas trying to hump everything that moves make anyone happy? Let’s hope the city’s heath authorities have a little treat in mind for its elderly women– free prunes and bunion removal maybe?

Hot Dogs? Easy. Chicken Wings? Child’s play. Cake? Well, a cakewalk. Testicles? Now you’re talking. Brave New Zealanders closed their eyes, conjured up some happy thoughts and chomped down on bulls’ balls for the annual Shepherd’s Shemozzle. Competitors had to sink their teeth into the skinned testicles, carry them with their mouths for 54 yards, quickly swallow a side of Weetabix and raw egg and wash it all down with a can of crappy beer. Newly crowned champion Josh Masters gave the nauseating experience a positive spin when asked about the taste of the testicles, commenting, “Best of all, they weren’t connected to anything.”

If one little button caused your company to lose out on $110 million in potential annual revenue, you would probably kick that silly button to the curb, right? Well, not if you’re Google. About one percent of users click the search engine’s “I’m Feeling Lucky Button,” but because the button takes searchers directly to the top result, bypassing search ads, the button doesn’t generate the same revenue as regular queries. Feelin’ lucky then suddenly feels like losin’ $110 million in possible annual revenue. In most businesses, that costly little bugger would lose its job faster than a vampire working at a blood bank, but Google exec Marissa Meyer pish-posed the idea of not letting users get lucky anymore, explaining, “It’s possible to become too dry, too corporate, too much about making money. I think what’s delightful about ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ is that it reminds you there are real people here.”

Transgendered Oregonian Thomas Beatie made headlines around the world earlier this year as the first person on record considered legally male to get pregnant and give birth. Beatie and his wife Nancy welcomed daughter Susan Juliette in June and wasted no time gettin’ busy on producing a sibling for their bouncing baby girl as Barbara Walters announced on this morning’s “The View” that Beatie once again has a bun in the oven. In an interview with Babs set to air Friday on ABC, Beatie reveals that the couple will welcome baby no. 2 in June. Sheesh, that’s one fertile myrtle!

The Secret Service may have to play Kindergarten Cop after an eerie incident on an Rexburg, Idaho school bus, where elementary students started chanting “assassinate Obama.” Home of Brigham Young University’s Idaho campus, Rexburg sits in what may be the reddest county in the United States, but as Matthew Whoolery, a psychology professor at the school explains, “I don’t think that the majority of people in Rexburg have extreme ideas like that, but we were just surprised that it would go that far.” He also noted that the students didn’t know what the term “assassinate” meant, making the chant all the more insidious in its garb of innocence.

The cravings of Obamaphiles all over the world will be temporarily sated by the compilation of completely random facts released by the Telegraph today. Limbaugh will enjoy blasting his high school nickname of “O’Bomber,” although the reference is to his basketball skills, rather than terrorist leanings. Speaking of basketball, though, the newest addition to the White House sporting complex will be a court for the president-elect’s favorite relaxation technique, which begs the question of any plans for a future 1-on-1 showdown with Palin? Obama might have even made political history when he left a stag party when the stripper arrived, as opposed to leaving with her. But why spoil all the fun; check it out for yourself.

Elvis likes popping up in Colby-Jack cheese and Jesus makes appearances every few months in oil stains and Cheeto bags, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that the face of the most talked about man in the world has mysteriously materialized on a slice of toasted Wonder Bread. The wondrous “Hope Toast” features President-elect Barack Obama in a familiar pose, gazing upwards towards prospects of change and butter.

Who doesn’t love tweets about boogers, hacking and mucous clogs? Digg founder (or co-founder, whatever) Kevin Rose has created a Twitter account for his cold, collecting over 500 followers in less than a day and undoubtedly keeping everyone on the edge of their futon waiting for the virus’ latest update. The account’s debut tweet proved viruses boast some mad typing skills and that they enjoy a day at the office: “hanging out w/@kevinrose, making his head hurt and nose stuffed up… hopefully he’ll take me to @digg tomorrow.” Stay tuned for every sniffle, sneeze and ha-choo!