Claudia Mitchell had a small mishap with a motorcycle a while ago, causing her left arm to be amputated at the shoulder. Ow.

As if that were not enough to foment the inner torment necessary to become a super villain, Ms. Mitchell now has the perfect hardware with which to stroke the evil familiar of her choice.

Doctors at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago have used their secret desire for a cyborg army to develop a prosthesis that uses nerve cells from the shoulder and arm stump to relay commands to the bionic hand at the other end.

Way to use your powers for good, Rehab Institute!

The exceptionally interesting feature for this prosthesis is that Ms Mitchell’s nerves have been diced up and re-wired so that when someone touches a patch of skin on her chest, her brain interprets the touch as coming from her hand.

Videos of the arm in action can be found here at the RIC website.

It is not every day (sadly) that a mother-daughter team of dedicated robot enthusiasts comes along. Not only do they have delightful engineering and shocking stick-to-it-iveness, they wrap it all up in *precisely* the right shade of cupcake pink.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you: The Twisted Metal Bunny Bots.

These are the chicks that created a sensation at Robogames 2006 with their unwavering infatuation with the sport. Not only did they stick around when their robots were done competing, but they brought in the chevaline cavalry when they were most needed, and did it all with smiles on their faces and 10w-30 in their veins.

For kicks here is a picture of eensy beensy cute and adorable Fiberglass Ears Of Death, courtesy Baby Bunny: