All sorts of odd things have been sold on eBay.  For example a casino purchased a grilled cheese sandwich that supposedly had an image of the Virgin Mary on it for $28,000 [BBC].  Here is 50 of the funniest recent eBay auctions I have seen on the web:

50. Jigger Scotch Whiskey Toothpaste – 6 Proof

You know the Ke$ha song “Tik Tok” where she says “wash my teeth with a bottle of Jack.” Yup there is an actual toothpaste that will show you what it actually feels like to wash your teeth with whiskey.
Ended: Feb 18, 2010 09:08:46 PST
Bid history: 9 bids
Winning bid: US $15.55 [eBay Link]

49. Lucky Charm Cane Toad with coin

from Australia

Unfortunately for this seller, I’d never carry around a toad voluntarily.
Ending: Mar 14, 2010 15:21:21 PDT
Bid history: 0 bids
Buy It Now: US $25.99 [eBay Link]

48. Vikings Alan Page Teddy Bear for adults 1977

This is part of the description: “THEODORE MAHARISHI BEAR was manufactured in 1977 by the T. Bear & Co. for the express purpose of helping owners deal with ‘upset stomach, heartburn, acid indigestion, headaches, insomnia, low spirits, and overeating caused by fatigue [sic], anxiety and stress.’” Since when did a teddy bear have the same effects as Pepto-Bismol?
Ending: Mar 08, 2010 14:06:09 PST
Bid history: 1 bids
Winning Bid: US $10.99 [eBay Link]

47. HAUNTED APATITE BRACELET APOLLO WEIGHT LOSS MOTIVATION

The seller of this item put a “Spellcast” on it to assist the person wearing it to meet their weight-loss goals. This sounds just like a ghetto version of the pet rock idea.
Ending: Ended by seller
Bid history: 2 sold
Winning Bid: US $79.00 [eBay Link]

46. COOL Deluxe Leather wrist arm waist binder Restraint

The seller of this item put a “Spellcast” on it to assist the person wearing it to meet their weight-loss goals. This sounds just like a ghetto version of the pet rock idea.
Ended: Mar 08, 2010 15:28:27 PST
Bid history: 1 bid
Winning Bid: US $49.99 [eBay Link]

45. Biblio-thumpograph no. 1

I don’t think that “Dirty Show” erotic art festival and God should ever be in the same description, but this seller does:
Description: This authentic replication of a “Biblio-thumpograph” was originally used by Martin Luther to not only inflict punishment upon his theology students but in keeping with the common superstition of the time, believed that the word of God could be absorbed by repeated blows to the buttocks. To that end this particular copy served the artist well at this year’s “Dirty Show” erotic art festival in Detroit, as he demonstrated his functional art devices.
Ended: Mar 05, 2010 21:09:19 PST
Bid history: 0 bids
Winning Bid: US $50.00 [eBay Link]

44. POTATOE SHAPED DUCK OR BUNNY? ITS A DUNNY!

This is the ugliest potato I have ever seen. And I have seen lots of potatoes in my lifetime. Why would I pay for one?
Ended: Mar 07, 2010 16:24:18 PST
Bid history: 0 bids
Winning Bid: US $0.99 [eBay Link]

43. Own North Dakota Mineral Rights On Bakken Oilfield

This is the first time that I ever heard of a company sell shares to their company through eBay. Spending $2.00 buys you a share of North Dakota Bakken Oil. This system seems to be working for them because about 724 shares have been sold already out of 42,836 available.
Ending: Still pending
Bid history: 724 sold as of March 8, 2010 18:43PM EST
Winning Bid: US $2.00 [eBay Link]

42. Arrow Pottery Risque Novelty Whiskey Jug

That is so witty! The bottle says “Lay Off This is the Old Man’s Private Stock” and there is a picture of a half-naked woman on it.
Ending: Mar 08, 2010 15:41:22 PST
Bid history: 0 bids
Winning Bid: US $9.99 [eBay Link]

41. FROG DOING YOGA IN GYM GEAR! 3 DIFFERENT STYLES! BNIB!

You know what I’ve always never wanted? A frog doing yoga for about $20.
Ending: Feb 25, 2010 17:38:12 PST
Bid history: 0 bids
Winning Bid: AU $18.95 [eBay Link]

40. Cornflake shaped like Africa

I’m not intrigued by this corn flake whatsoever. I think this person is trying to bank off the person that sold the Virgin Mary’s face printed on a toast auction.
Ending: Mar 09, 2010 18:31:08 PST
Bid history: 0 bids
Winning Bid: US $0.99 [eBay Link]

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) Chief Financial Officer Barry McCarthy will join the board of directors of Chegg Inc.  Chegg is a Santa Clara, California based company where people can rent textbooks.  There is about 4.2 million textbooks in their collection. [San Francisco Business Times]

MetroGames is a social gaming company in Argentina that has just raised $5 million in Series A funding from Playdom.  The funding will be used to expand the development of games.

MetroGames has about 30 games in their network.  Playdom CEO John Pleasants will be joining the MetroGames board of directors as part of the deal.  Playdom has about $43 million in funding at a $260 million valuation. [TechCrunch]

Saab is moving their new headquarters to Royal Oak, Michigan – a suburb of Detroit.  Saab is now property of Spyker but they are not too far from General Motors.  In the next four years Saab plans to hire about 160 people.  Currently they employ about 60 people.  Saab was given tax incentives from government agencies.  [egmCarTech]

Canon is the world’s first company to apply for a generic top-level domain: .canon.  It is acquiring the rights from ICANN.  The evaluation fee for a new gTLD is at about $185,000.  Good thing that Canon has tons of money. [CrunchGear]

YouTube has sent out an invitation to musicians for a partnership program called Musicians Wanted.  If you’re a YouTube musician, check out the partnership page.  Some of the perks include revenue sharing, branded channels, HD videos with 16:9 aspect ratio, and secured streaming. [Mashable]

The Motorola CLIQ XT is going to be available on T-Mobile for $129.99 with a 2 year contract.  The XT runs on Android, has a 5 megapixel camera, uses MOTOBLUR touch screen with on-screen keyboard, and has a proximity sensor. [T-Mobile PR via Engadget]

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has lost a $106 million patent case against VirnetX Holding Corporation (AMEX:VHC).  The case is related to two VirnetX patents on automatic and secure virtual private networks (VPN).  

“Our clients are very happy with today’s verdict,” stated VirnetX counsel Douglas Cawley. “We hope this decision sends a clear message to patent infringers everywhere that they will be held responsible for wrongly profiting off the hard work of others.”

Microsoft legal spokesman Kevin Kutz left the following statement regarding the lawsuit:

“We are disappointed by the jury’s verdict. We respect others’ intellectual property, and we believe the evidence demonstrated that we do not infringe and the patents are invalid. We believe the award of damages is legally and factually unsupported, so we will ask the court to overturn the verdict.” [SeattlePi]

The research and development labs at General Motors is working with several universities for building augmented reality systems.  The enhanced vision system embedded in future cars would allow motorists to drive in difficult situations. Although the technology is in research phase, the system is expected to hit the market by about 2016-2018.  “We’re still doing a lot of research around the cognitive effects of this kind of display,” stated GM Group Lab Manager Thomas Seder in an interview with The New York Times. “We have to display the enhanced vision system to augment the information for the driver and not distract them.” [NYT]

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has introduced Gesture Search for the Android.  This means you can draw out the letters on your phone and find contacts based on that. You can also use gestures to find installed applications, music, bookmarks, etc. Below is a sample of how the technology is used.  Currently the Gesture Search works for Android 1.6+ [Google Blog]