Art. (Photo: Polygon)

The future is finally here: Microsoft and Pizza Hut have launched a new app for Xbox Live that lets users order the Crazy Cheesy Crust Pizza (and other assorted items!) straight from their Xbox 360.  Users link their Xbox Live and Pizza Hut accounts (who has a Pizza Hut account?) and then purchases can be made via the game controller, voice input or Kinect gestures, which totally counts as exercise.

Plus, the app takes care of pesky social interaction for you. There’s Facebook integration so you can brag to your friends that you’re the brave soul sitting on your couch eating pizza and playing Bioshock. Larry Hyrb, the director of programming for Xbox, told Polygon that the app has been in development for a while:

"We're always looking at ways to give our audience more of what they're interested in," he said. "If you look at our audience, they love pizza. I mean, who doesn't? It has international appeal, and Pizza Hut is a recognized brand that matches up well with the Xbox brand."

Now the only time gamers have to get off the couch is when their moms tell them to close the basement door.

(Photo: coleman.ucsd.edu)

Remember how jealous you were that the title character in the movie Matilda could move stuff with her mind? She could float candy to her mouth and turn the record player on and off and exact elementary school revenge on mean headmasters, all by scrunching up her nose and thinking really hard. We're not quite there, but science is getting close: soon, temporary tattoos attached to your forehead could make you telepathic and telekinetic.

Brain implants that tap into your neural network to augment your cognitive and physical abilities are undoubtedly a fixture of the future landscape, but they demand invasive surgery. Temporary tattoos, being developed by electrical engineer Todd Coleman at UCSD, read brain activity and could soon send your brain's messages to remote computers, allowing you to manipulate drones hundreds of miles away.

The tattoos could also help you speak without ever saying a word. By placing them on your throat, they can pick up subvocal movements that allow people to communicate without actually speaking. "We’ve demonstrated our sensors can pick up the electrical signals of muscle movements in the throat so that people can communicate just with thought," Mr. Coleman told Txchnologist.

Now, when will Mr. Coleman enlist a hip tattoo artist to make these forehead tats look swag?

(Photo: Deep Space Industries)

Rocket scientists are cool--have you seen that NASA mohawk guy?--but with the growth of the commercial space industry, they were bound to get eclipsed by swashbuckling adventurers with a mind for intergalactic exploration. Enter the Asteroid Hunter, the newest position of badassery, second only to the child who came to our house dressed as "half unicorn, half rockstar" on Halloween.

Kurzweil AI reports that commercial asteroid mining company Deep Space Industries has announced a plan to launch ships into space to mine nearby asteroids for resources that could help accelerate Earth's development. It's the first mission of its kind, and bound to conjure Indiana-Jones-meets-Captain-Picard fantasies in anyone with a space hero complex.

"More than 900 new asteroids that pass near Earth are discovered every year," Deep Space CEO David Gump told Space.com. "They can be like the Iron Range of Minnesota was for the Detroit car industry last century — a key resource located near where it was needed. In this case, metals and fuel from asteroids can expand the in-space industries of this century. That is our strategy."

The first asteroid hunter spacecraft will be deployed by 2015. That gives us all two years to start training to become asteroid hunters startingggg ... NOW. Race you to Astrophysics 101 on Coursera!

(Photo: Fan Pop)

Just because you want to simulate living in ancient Galilee times doesn't mean you won't want to check your email while doing so. Kfar Kedem park in Israel has outfitted donkeys with wireless routers so that users can check into "My Ass" on Foursquare. Ah, ain't the future grand?

Upon our initial reading about the Transition, our first question was a Philosoraptor-esque one: how is a car with wings not the same thing as a plane? Oh, but we were so wrong. Except for the fact that it can literally zoom through the air, it also functions as a typical car does: the Transition can get up to 70 mph on the highway, and comes with wings that fold up, so it can fit in your garage. The whole thing is very Jetsons, minus the floor trap door (we hope).

According to the AP, the car "has two seats, four wheels and wings that fold up so it can be driven like a car. Last month, it flew at 1,400 feet for eight minutes. Commercial jets fly at 35,000 feet."

With a price tag of $279,000, the trick is finding people both rich enough and brave enough to take the Transition for a spin. Apparently 100 people have already shelled out $10,000 each as a non-refundable deposit, and those numbers are expected to increase following the autoshow.

Considering this reporter alternates between popping Xanax and clutching her seat mate's knee while distorting her face into a look that reads "We're all going to die!" every time she flies, we probably won't be testing out the Transition any time soon. But if you're more rational than we are, you can plop down a deposit for the Transition here. Happy flying!