Here's one straight from the bizarro chapters. Dozens of individuals that attended an all night dance party near Moscow have been "partially blinded after a laser light show burned their retinas," according to Russian health officials. Apparently someone responsible for erecting the equipment decided to aim a few lights powerful enough to brighten the night sky down at the crowd (after rain necessitated a makeshift roof, we're told), with some of those who stared too long losing up to "80%" of their vision. We're not exactly sure what will happen to the promoters of the event, but at least now you have a valid excuse to rock those face-engulfing sunglasses (or a welding mask, if you're really paranoid) in every night club you waltz into.

[Via Switched, image courtesy of iGouGo]

Not to be confused with the absolutely worthless (sorry, the truth hurts) Big Red Button of Doom, the Emergency Party Button has a very specific purpose. Designed to take a vanilla home from mundane to spectacular in just seconds, this connected trigger basically flips a boring crib into a bumpin' club whenever you see fit. Just to give you an idea of what goes down when you mash the button, you'll see hallway lights turn off, blinds close, a fog machine come alive, speakers crank up and loads of laser lights turn active. All told, the project cost the builder just north of $600, which seems like a real bargain given what you get. Jump on past the break to have a look on video.

[Via Hack N Mod]

Yeah, you thought you were living the high life with that pair of rechargeable batteries and tennis racket attachments you ponied up for -- too bad you weren't even halfway to awesome. Nyko's new "Wii Party Station" is the only way to live, with room to charge four Wiimotes, hold and chill four adult beverages and room to house the all important chip and dip bowl and various Wiicessories. Best of all is the completely superfluous score board to make your smack talk so much more effective, and the hand cooling fan really seals the deal. For $25, if you don't have one of these 12 seconds after they hit store shelves, we can't be friends anymore.

Make no mistake, adorning your party with gadgetry that not only amps up the atmosphere but simultaneously exalts your geekness is no new trend, but the Party Timer clock / informative display takes ubiquitous party monitoring to a new dimension. The LED-packed device sports a fairly attractive enclosure and simply displays the time whenever work has got you down, but if any of the internal ambient noise sensors start recognizing sustained levels of increasing sound, it can switch into its own zoot suit and give your guests the skinny. While in Party Mode, the clock morphs into an informative display that shows No Party when there's no sustained noise above ten decibels, but for eight additional ranges, the device flips through Romantic Party (11 to 20 db), Talking Party (21 to 50 db), Lite Party (52 to 70 db), Music Party (71 to 90 db), Dance Party (91 to 100 db), Club Party (101 to 120 db), Mega Party (a dangerous 121 to 160 db), and if you're still alive to notice, Atom Party shows up when things get pegged above 161 db. Click on through for a few closeups of this rave must-have.

[Via Gearlog]

Whilst many may be aware of the strong reputation that churches hold for repeatedly pulling off successful annual gatherings, a recent letter sent by the NFL to the Fall Creek Baptist Church suggests that this particular organization isn't quite so clued in. The letter, which caused the church in question to cancel a planned "Super Bowl Party" sparked a litany of other cancellations by churches scared of attracting the wrath of the league. The NFL has subsequently attempted to rectify the situation it got itself into -- some would argue the sports equivalent of "cancelling Christmas" -- by stating that their original claim was that churches could display the game, as long as they didn't charge for entry, or display the game on anything other than "a television of the type commonly used at home": in the case of the kitted out Fall Creek Baptist Church, they were hoping to broadcast the game on a TV measuring more than a divine 55-inches diagonally. Unfortunately for the groups that arranged and then subsequently cancelled their parties, it's a little too late to re-advertise. Fortunately, God's omnipresence comes in handy for these sort of screw-ups, so the solution for watching the game at home with the ultimate authority is as simple as leaving a space on the couch. Whether or not he digs your set is an entirely different matter, and one that's entirely down to thickness of your wallet.

[Via Tom's Hardware]

In today's world, locating a dishwasher to meet your precise needs is becoming a reality, as we've got ones that work on countertops, sans water, and with icky toys, but now Siemens is offering up one for the night owls who'd rather jazz it up at home than head out on the town. The aptly-named Party Dishwasher sports a sleek, silver finish and your standard under-the-counter boxy design, but what it lacks in originality outside, it certainly makes up for inside. Designed specifically for party-throwers who'd rather blow around $900 for a new kitchen appliance than order up a extra dozen or so Merlot glasses, this machine touts a 29-minute rapid wash cycle that can blast the bacteria off of whatever partyware that's dirty so the late arrivals will have fresh glasses (while the early birds' thirst). Additionally, the built-in varioSpeed technology reportedly cuts the wash time of even normal, non-party serving cycles "in half," and it also allows you to use whatever choice of detergent you have (or have on hand, anyway), and then automatically detects the right temperature and amount of water to both conserve resources and finish faster. Of course, all these niceties do come at a price, but whether it's all worth the €679 ($884) is certainly debatable.

[Via Appliancist]

In the grand Engadget tradition of nerds gathering together to ogle tech and consume alcohol -- well, we can only assume alcohol was involved, due to TMX Elmo's apparent popularity -- Engadget Chinese pulled off quite the party the other night, with appearances by all three new-gen consoles and plenty of other toys. Peep a few pictures after the break, or just hit up the read link for the party in all its machine-translated glory -- just like we know those EC kids best.