Oh Pleo, it's been far too long since we've seen you out and about! Thankfully, we've stumbled upon a handful of Pleo news all at once, so we hope you're ready to catch up with your favorite dinosaur. First up is a pair of useful hacks from GRIP: a spy cam hack -- which transmits images from the pet to a PC sans wires -- and an XBee hack, which allows users to monitor Pleo's sensors and control its servos in real time. For those looking for less work and more laughs, you'll definitely want to venture on past the break. Wondering what's there? Pleo visits the day spa -- need we say more?

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Read - Pleo's day spa adventures

There's DIY mischief and then there's next level DIY mischief, and we'd have to say that Julius von Bismarck's Image Fulgurator is one of the best scare-the-squares toys we've ever come across. A sensor detects camera flashes of nearby victims, triggering a projection of the image or text of your choice onto their subjects -- and into their photos. Anyone using a digital camera will notice the trick immediately, of course, but marks with film equipment won't ever know what hit 'em -- although they might remember the weirdo with the pistol-grip camera thing standing next to them. Check the video after the break.

[Via Core 77]

In an expression of remembrance for a historical moment in hair-trigger overreactions, artists all over the Boston area have taken to the streets armed with provocative LED signage. Paying homage to the "bomb" scare of January 31st, 2007 (which was actually just viral promotion for the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie using LED art), creative pranksters have descended upon the city with electronic recreations of President Bush, Osama Bin Laden, and a number of other inflammatory images sure to rile the local authorities but-good. Truck on over to MAKE to see a collection of images, and if you happen to be in the Boston area, don't miss a chance to snap some photos of your own!

Did Zug punk the entirety of the Super Bowl-watching population this year, an estimated 90 million people? Or is their chronicle of "the most ambitious prank in history" a prank in and of itself? We don't know the answer -- for the record, we're leaning towards hoax -- but Zug claims that with some social networking and 2,350 Prince-themed pendants (ordered from Chinese manufacturer Ok Fun Times Electronics Co.), they were able to get the audience to light up and spell out ZUG.COM during the halftime show, thinking they'd instead be spelling out PRINCE. Ok, makes sense, but you'd think everyone would have heard about this by now, right? Well, Zug claims the media's been trying to cover it up; they expect us to imagine how few would really want to admit that five unauthorized people could transport a quarter ton of boxes on pallets -- contents unknown -- into the most televised sporting event of the year. For the record, what was the cost on this supposed stunt? $40,000 in equipment and legal fees, as well as a 2nd mortgage on lead prankster John Hargrave's home.

Remember those five teenage girls from Ravenna, Ohio, who on the eve of April first placed seventeen Mario Bros. inspired question cubes around town? Well, after HAZMAT, the Fire Dept. and the five-O were called in and the dust settled it looked like those little ladies were in for some serious trouble. Though it turns out the town of 12,000's dropping the case against them, the case prosecutor stating of the squeaky-clean teens he does "not believe that they had any bad or malicious intentions." Gee, ya think? Sure, we can understand a little why some people who didn't ever play Mario (unlike Engadget or our readers) might have gotten concerned at the sight of these boxes, but we're just glad that a slight case of Midwest terrorist hysteria didn't ultimately result in some crazed teenage witch hunt.

[Via Joystiq]