The Japanese are famous for “Chindōgu,” the art of inventing ingenious gadgets to solve a real need. Unfortunately, a lot of these inventions turn out to be pretty damn ridiculous. We’ve scoured the internets to find the craziest Japanese products. Some are baffling, others made us giggle, but all of them left us wondering “Why the hell would anyone ever need that?”

1. Swords aren’t just for Samurai any more! Kitchen knives shaped like Samurai swords:

echnology has reached a pinnacle of modern home design with the combination of Apple and a coffee table to create Cosmikart’s Digital Coffee Table with multi-touch interface.

The people at Cyglo have developed a new product for cyclists that is as much about safety as it is about style. The Cyglo Night Bright LED Tires are an array of LED lights on bike tires that illuminate when pedaling, forming a constant stream of colored light at full speed. The illumination these tires produce improves a cyclist’s visibility to drivers and pedestrians, keeping them safer on the road through heavy traffic. While we salute the safety measures these LED tires provide, let’s be honest– we’re interested because they look f__king sweet. Just a small investment in this technology and you can own your very own urban TRON light cycle. A pair of these would look devastating on our jet black fixie…

Newsweek.com has ranked a list of top 100 best countries around the world based on five categories: Education, Health, Quality of Life, Economic Dynamism and Political Environment.

The Scandinavian countries Finland and Sweden occupied the first and third places on the list. The United States didn’t successfully squeeze into the top 10 while China was rated 59th.

Following are the top 10 best countries on earth:

A huge number of moths in Belorussia tragically ended his life on the murder of a lantern

The oil spill resulting from a pipeline explosion in the port city of Dalian on July 29th is being cleaned up by a small army of fisherman, locals, and government workers manning over 250 oil-skimming vessels and 8,000 fishing boats - much of the work being done by hand. The spill, now contained according to authorities, grew to 430 square kilometers (165 sq mi), but was prevented from fouling international waters. The explosion was due to improper desulfurizer injections into the pipeline, according to a report by Xinhua, China's state news agency. As workers continue their efforts and watchdog groups like Greenpeace level criticism for what they call an inadequate response to date, Dalian Port has already resumed operations at two of its oil berths, the company said on Sunday.

The 2010 Tour de France cycling race is now over, with Spain's Alberto Contador claiming his third win in Paris yesterday. Andy Schleck of Luxembourg finished 39 seconds back, and seven-time tour winner Lance Armstrong finished 23rd in his final Tour de France. This 97th running of the iconic race started in Rotterdam with 198 riders in 22 teams of nine, and finished yesterday, 3,642 km (2,263 mi) later in Paris, France on the Champs-Elysees.