Americans love barbecues…delicious meats seared to perfection make feelings that border on arousal for a red-blooded male. So here’s the reasonably-priced but questionably-useful Maverick ET 901 Remote BBQ Thermometer and Timer, available for $60. The device serves many of the necessary functions needed for great barbecue, measuring temperature and time needed to cook. But the main reason for its above-market price is the remote capability which allows you to monitor the food for extended periods of time from 100 feet away. As any good barbecuer, the type of person who’d invest in something like this, would tell you, it’s always a great idea to wander far away from the meat that’s currently cooking on an open flame. 7 out of 10 drunk fire marshals wholeheartedly agree.

[via, thanks John for the tip!]

Despite being out for a couple years, the Nintendo Wii is as hot as ever. Now that heat can be taken literally, given that this is a $1500 Solar-Powered Nintendo Wii. With a built in monitor and a Nintendo Wii powered by the sun (both aided by a heavy duty battery), this portable(ish) product can provide joy for 8 hours. Though I have to say, there’s a bit of heavily laid-on irony given that you’d have to be outdoors to use the product, yet wholly opposed to actually undertaking the real physical activities you’re simulating with the Wii. You might as well read a book about a guy reading a book.

[via, thanks to MYSBT MVP Mike for the tip!]

This week was the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, so what better time to throw $1.8 million at the Burton-Rutan Spaceship One Space Voyage, as seen in Neiman Marcus’s catalog? The money buys you a six-person chartered flight from the “soon-to-be-completed” spaceport in New Mexico (but, disappointingly, doesn’t seem to include a meal or drink service). And while it would certainly be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and something of a deal considering NASA is viewing $133 million costs per flight as their budget, imagine how silly you’ll feel when you find out that the moon landing was faked. Well, at least according to noted astrophysicist Whoopi Goldberg.

[via, thanks Michael for the tip!]

I have to admit that in the three or so months doing this site, I’ve enjoyed doing some of the cheaper worthless items as much as the expensive and gaudy ones. This item falls squarely in the former category. Meet the USB Stripper, a paltry $35 item which, when plugged into a USB input, begins to do a sexy dance for you. Unfortunately, unless you’re quick and masterful with a paintbrush, the stripper will continue to stay clothed throughout her dance. You know, so the gadget stays classy.

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This Schrödinger-esque masterpiece is one of, if not the, most expensive standing clocks in the world. Meet Jaquet Droz’s La Machine à Ecrire le Temps (translation: “The Machine that Writes the Time”), an item which writes the time down for you at the low cost of $343,000. You can see video of the machine in action here. It’s pretty cool, but for that much money, you could employee a team of little people dressed like Rosie from The Jetsons to do this and many other household tasks for three or four years. And if you have to choose a piece of needless and expensive technology, I’m thinking Rosie the robot wins every single time. Plus I’m pretty sure you’d have to get some sort of tax credit for specifically creating a job for little people. Otherwise, our government is simply not doing their jobs.

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