The exhibition, entitled "Frogs: A Chorus of Colors," features more than 150 live frogs from approximately 25 species, from the brilliantly coloredto the giant African bullfrog. The exhibit opens Saturday (May 18) and runs through Jan. 5, 2014.

" are so weird that although we might think we know frogs really well, there's just so much about their biology and what they do which is a chance in the exhibition to really surprise people," exhibit curator Christopher J. Raxworthy, a curator in the museum's department of herpetology and faculty member in its Richard Gilder graduate school, told LiveScience at a press preview of the exhibit.

The display introduces visitors to the biology and evolution of these wacky and wonderful amphibians, as well as their importance to ecosystems and the dangers they face. The colorful creatures, which were bred in captivity, peer through glass cases containing recreations of their natural habitats. []

Highlights include the pale-blue Mexican dumpy frog from the semiarid subtropical lowland forests in Mexico and the appropriately named tomato frog from the lowlands of Madagascar.

The frogs possess a certain mystique for visitors. People are drawn to the amphibians' bright colors and strange physiques. "I think that, aesthetically, it really gives people a high," Raxworthy said. In addition, there are the quirky things frogs do.

For example, many frogs swallow using their eyeballs. "Once they have prey in their mouth, to help force it down their throat, they actually pull their eyeballs down," Raxworthy said. And heres another wacky tidbit: African clawed .

The exhibit's centerpiece is a large poison-dart-frog vivarium containing more than 80 frogs, including bumblebee poison frogs, Bastimentos strawberry poison frogs and green-leg poison frogs. In the wild, poison dart frogs concentrate the toxins found in ants and other insects they eat into a powerful poison that the Ember, the indigenous people of northwestern Columbia, rub onto darts for weapons.

Active research in the museum's department of herpetology is also featured in the exhibit. Biologists are still discovering new frog species. More than 6,000 species have been described so far, and that number is increasing rapidly, Raxworthy said.

Nonetheless, frog populations are dwindling around the world, and the exhibit features a short video about some of the threats frogs face. Nearly one-third of amphibians 88 percent of which are frogs are threatened, and at least 34 species of frogs (and possibly many more) are extinct. Habitat loss is a major cause, but a mysterious disease caused by theis also to blame.

"There's lots we don't fully understand, but its very sad to see a big chunk of amphibian diversity now also suffering because of this disease," Raxworthy said.

The purpose of the exhibit is to educate people about these fascinating creatures, Raxworthy said. For visitors, he said, "This is a great chance to find out interesting facts about frogs you probably have no idea about. The more you dig, the more weird and wonderful it gets."

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Given Kate Spade Saturday's bold designs, bright colors and creative flair, it was probably only fitting that the new lifestyle brand opened its first flagship store in fashion-obsessed Tokyo.

After all, the sister label of Kate Spade New York began developing the brand with Japanese consumers in mind more than three years ago, envisaging functional designs that would strike a chord with on-the-go urbanites and expand the original brand's DNA into a more casual realm.

Kate Spade Saturday opened its first store in Tokyo's trendy Harajuku district earlier this month and another in Osaka last week, and plans to have a total of five Japan stores open by June. Following the Japan launch, it also debuted in the United States via an online store and is eyeing a push into other international markets later this year.

"Because this brand's concept originated in Japan and we really wanted to make the brand global, we felt Tokyo was the perfect city to launch the brand," Ayako Yanagisawa, president of Kate Spade Japan, told Reuters in an interview at the company's offices in Harajuku.

"I think Tokyo is a very interesting city for the fashion industry to try out a new brand. The market is mature enough to receive, and digest, and understand new creativity. There is also a wide age range of people who like fashion in this city," she said.

"It can be a real showcase for the Asian market."

Tokyo has served as an overseas launch point in recent years for several brands, including designers Rebecca Minkoff and Tracy Reese. Both the Rebecca Minkoff and Tracy Reese brands showed at the Tokyo Runway fashion show Wednesday held in conjunction with Japan Fashion Week.

TRENDSETTERS

Kate Spade New York, owned by Fifth & Pacific Companies Inc, is known for the splashy colors and bold prints of its designer handbags, clothing and accessories. It competes with brands like Coach and Michael Kors in the attainable luxury category.

Kate Spade Saturday skews slightly younger, more casual, and less expensive than the New York label.

Yanagisawa said both the Japanese and U.S. sides of the company were involved in the development of the Saturday brand from the onset, and the design of several products reflects Japanese consumers' love for functionality and detail.

Its Half-Circle Bag, which goes for 19,845 yen ($210) online, can be worn over the shoulder or around the waist, and the strap can even be worn as a belt. Its Square Tote, at 17,325 yen ($180), has two side pockets that can be used to hold folding umbrellas - a must-have for Japanese urban life - or just as easily a bottle of wine to take to a party.

Japan is Kate Spade's biggest market outside the United States and the company aims to increase the number of its Japanese stores - including New York, Saturday and its Jack Spade men's brand - to between 85 and 105 in 2016, from 54 in 2012.

"The Japanese retail market still has room to grow," Yanagisawa said, noting that so-called fashion buildings, often built adjacent to or above train stations, were a big draw for women in their 20s and 30s even as traditional department store sales drop off.

Japan's young trendsetters are starting to take notice.

"Everyone has a Kate Spade iPhone case," said Kyoko Oyamada, a 21-year-old university student in Tokyo sporting a black leather Kate Spade handbag. "I thought they were cute so I went to check out the bags myself and found one I wanted."

($1 = 95.0550 Japanese yen)

(Reporting by Chris Gallagher, editing by Elaine Lies)

More recently, we've seen a smartphone thats likely the fastest to go from $99 to 99 cents and a Death Star-like media player that doesn't do much other than look menacing. To make our list of all-time gadget flops, the product had to do more than fail to execute. It had to have serious hype behind itenough to help make that crash and burn all the more satisfying. Here are our Top 25 Worst Gadget Flops of All Time.

Segway (2001)

Other than the original iPhone, very few gadgets in history were hyped this much before launch. Dean Kamen's Project Ginger had all sorts of praise heaped upon it by those who previewed the new-age scooter. Here's what Steve Jobs reportedly said about the Segway in a book proposal: If enough people see the machine you wont have to convince them to architect cities around it. Itll just happen. Oops.

Priced at a staggering $5,000, the Segway didn't even come close to living up to its expectations. Sure, it was nifty that the Segway was self-balancing, but that wasn't nearly enough to overcome the sticker shock or the sheer geek factor of this vehicle. The final insult came when President Bush fell of a Segway in 2004. Today, you'll see these scooters ridden by some police officers and postal workers, but that's pretty much it.

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ViewSonic Airpanel Smart Display V110 (2003)

Part of Microsoft's ill-conceived Smart Display product line, the Airpanel V110 allowed users to access their PCs wirelessly from up to 150 feet away. It was kind of like a tabletwith a really short leash. For a totally unreasonable $1,000, those gullible enough to buy this device were likely disappointed to learn that the Airpanel turned your computer into a brick for everyone else while you were using it. Add in limited viewing angles and glitchy performance and you have a real stinker.

BlackBerry PlayBook (2011)

If BlackBerry's comeback fails, the PlayBook will be remembered as one of the nails in the coffin. Research in Motion was so busy showing off that it's 10-inch tablet could play high-def videos via its HDMI port that it forgot to include native email and calendar apps. That's right, the PlayBook didn't let you view your messages or appointments unless you had a BlackBerry phone connected to the slate via Bluetooth. Amazingly, RIM called this glaring weakness a security feature. Less than 9 months later, co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsille stepped down from their posts.

Cisco Umi (2010)

Before Cisco's consumer division completely imploded, the company staged an elaborate press event in San Francisco to show off the Umi, a device that enabled families to video chat in HD right from their living rooms. There was just one problem. No one wanted to pay a whopping $600 for a one-trick-pony set-top box, never mind the dumb $25 monthly fee. With free services like Skype and FaceTime already available for our phones, tablets and laptops, Umi was destined for the gadget scrap heap.

Nokia N-Gage (2003)

Once upon a time Nokia believed it could compete in the handheld gaming market, and that delusion manifested itself in the form of the N-Gage. This combination phone and mobile console was so awkward it was funnyassuming you didn't fork over $299 to get one. For starters, the N-Gage forced users to hold it up their heads sideways to talk, which make people look like they were holding a taco up to their ears. Gamers also needed to remove the back cover and battery to swap games. Nokia would release a mobile mea culpa sequel in the N-Gage 2, but it was too little, too late.

MSN Direct Smart Watches (2004)

Literally and figuratively, MSN Direct Smart Watches were ahead of their time. Made by the likes of Fossil and Swatch, these bulky wrist-worn monstrosities fetched stock quotes, news, sports, and weather via FM radio waves for $9.99 per month. Unfortunately for Microsoft and its partners, smartphones already did the above and much more. The hardware would fade from the market by 2008, but Microsoft only recently shut down the network.

Oakley Thump Sunglasses (2007)

Before there was Google Glass there was Oakley's Thump sunglasses, which combined shades with an MP3 player. Too bad the glasses were ugly and the audio controls were difficult to use. Plus, users were stuck with a measly 256MB of flash memory at a sky-high $495 price tag. Shockingly, a celebrity endorsement from Dog the Bounty Hunter failed to move the needle.

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Microsoft Zune (2006)

Hoping to make a dent in the iPods mammoth market share, the original Zune got some people so excited that one man decided to have the Zune logo tattooed on his arm. Too bad he didnt have anyone to share his music with. The Zune-to-Zune sharing feature (which worked over Wi-Fi) fell flat because you could only play tracks you acquired three times within three days. You also had to be near the other unfortunate Zune owner. A lack of a video store at launch further hurt the Zunes cause. A more polished design in the Zune HD and a half-baked gaming strategy couldnt save this franchise, but elements of its slick UI live on in Windows Phone.

HP TouchPad (2011)

It's hard to believe now, but the HP TouchPad was one of the most eagerly awaited tablets back in July of 2011, promising to breathe new life into webOS' multitasking-friendly interface. Some of the software elements were indeed slick, such as Stacks for organizing related tasks and the polished notification system. Ultimately, though, sluggish and buggy performance and a dearth of apps doomed this slate. After less than 3 months on sale, HP pulled the plug on the TouchPad and all webOS hardware. So much for doubling down on the platform it purchased from Palm.

Motorola ROKR E1 (2005)

Before Apple dove into the smartphone market it dipped a toe in the water by partnering with Motorola for the ROKR E1 ($249), dubbed the first "iTunes phone. The ROKR wasn't even a one-hit wonder. Thanks to its lame 100-song capacity and the inability to download tracks over the web, consumers immediately tuned this handset out. No one wanted a gimped companion device for their iPod that could make calls; they wanted it all in one device. And Apple would give it to them two years later.

Twitter Peek (2009)

Not all single-purpose devices are bad, but this was the worst. The Twitter Peek allowed Twitter fans to check their feed and post updates using a built-in keyboard. While cute, the device showed only 20-character previews of your Tweets, forcing you to click to see more. And the built-in browser was buggy. It didn't matter that you had a choice of payment plans (free service if you paid $199 up front or $7.99 monthly if you spent $99). There were plenty of free apps for cheaper smartphones that did the same thing. Perhaps the Fail Whale should have been printed on the box.

HTC First (2013)

Too soon? Nah. Sometimes it doesn't help to be first, especially when you're releasing a device for which there's a free app that does nearly all the same stuff. The HTC First for AT&T comes pre-loaded with Facebook Home, which puts your friends' updates right on the home screen and makes it easy to jump in and out of texting sessions with creepy floating Chat Heads. Although HTC's device offered a more robust notification system than the free app, that wasn't compelling enough for smartphone shoppers. AT&T cut the price from $99 to 99 cents in less than a month. Something tells us there won't be an HTC Second.

Garmin Nuvifone G60 (2009)

It's hard to blame Garmin for attempting to protect its GPS turf. The Nuviphone G60 entered a market in 2009 that saw the Motorola Droid include Google Navigation for absolutely nothing. Available for AT&T, the G60 sported a fairly large (for the time) 3.5-inch display and a driver-friendly interface, but smartphone shoppers didn't know what to do with a Linux device. By the time an Android-powered sequel hit the streets, Garmin's opportunity had hit a dead end.

Samsung Q1 (2006)

Known as a part of the buzzed-about Project Oragami before it hit the market, Samsung Q1 was an Ultra-Mobile PC that weighed 1.7 pounds and ran full Windows on a 7-inch (800 x 480) touchscreen. Price? $1,099. That's too much for a device whose software wasn't touch friendly and whose battery lasted a sad 3 hours on a charge. Today Samsung is the No. 2 seller of tablets behind Apple, but the Q1 should get none of the credit.

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CueCat barcode Reader (1999)

Step 1: Take a gadget to scan a barcode in a magazine. Step 2: Connect the USB device to your PC to direct you to a website. Step 3: Wonder why you didn't just type the URL in your browser. The likes of Wired and Forbes supported this wacky idea for a while, and many subscribers received the device for free to encourage usage. But that wasn't enough to prevent the CueCat from being put to sleep.

Google Nexus Q (2012)

Google has had decidedly mixed results with hardware, but the Nexus Q was an unmitigated disaster. Despite its Death Star-chic design, this gadget was an overpriced $299 orb that attempted to make media consumption more social. You and your friends could create a queue of tracks and/or YouTube clips and stream them from your phone or tablet. Inexplicably, though, the Nexus Q couldn't access anything other than Google's content, making the Roku look like the deal of the century. There are rumors that a Nexus Q2 is on the way, but it had better be an entirely different beast.

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BlackBerry Storm (2008)

Do you wish your touch screen felt like it was collapsing every time you tried to respond to an email? That was the magic of SureType, an ironically named feature that made the BlackBerry Storm one of the most hated smartphones ever. A lack of Wi-Fi, glitchy software and sluggish performance solidified the Storm as a unnatural disaster. RIM's Storm 2 would improve on the original in every way, but how could it not?

Microsoft Kin One and Kin Two (2010)

During the launch for Microsoft's Kin devices the company told us that its new quasi-smartphones for hipsters were three years in the making. So how did the company forget to include apps? Or games? It also didn't help that Verizon Wireless forced its pricey smart phone data plan on customers to cover the cost of all those photo and video uploads. Mercifully, Microsoft killed these awful products after 6 short weeks on the market.

Fusion Garage JooJoo (2010)

The polar opposite of an iPad killer, the JooJoo tablet was widely panned for its awful battery life, unintuitive interface, and choppy Flash video playback. Did we mention this 12-inch monstrosity weighed 2.4 pounds? Add in a measly 5 hours of battery life (max) and you know why this slate didn't stand a chance. An attempt at a comeback in the form of the Grid 10 failed just as miserably, thanks to a confusing interface that literally had a map to show you where you were.

Sony Tablet P (2012)

Sometimes two isn't better than one. Exhibit A is the Sony Tablet P, which sported dual 5.5-inch displays that you could use either laid flat or clamshell style. While small enough for jacket pocket, the P was way too big for your jeans and it cost a fairly steep $549 (or $399 with a two-year contract). And even though some of the apps stretched across both screen, you couldn't run two separate apps simultaneously like today's Galaxy S4. Worst of all, the P was instantly dated because it didn't support AT&T's LTE network. It was HSPA only. Why bother?

Dell Streak (2010)

You could call the Dell Streak a precursor to modern-day phablets like the Galaxy Note II, but that would be an insult to phablets. The Streak was so comically large that AllThingsD's Kara Swisher called it a waffle on stage at the D8 conference. The Streak also suffered from a relatively low-resolution display (800 x 480 pixels) and ran dated Android 1.6 software. A 7-inch follow-up with abysmal battery life sealed this product line's fate.

Sirius S50 (2005)

Siriusly? Somehow the satellite network provider believed that consumers would want a portable radio that wasn't really portable at all. To get live stations you had to connect the S50 to a car kit. You could listen to recordings on the go, but only two hours' worth. Maybe that was for the better, since the S50 didn't even live up to its measly 6 hours of rated battery life. At the time XM2Go devices were a much better deal; they were bulkier but actually live up to the promise of live satellite radio.

Sharp RD3D (2003)

It's probably not a coincidence that Sharp exited the laptop market in the U.S. not long after the RD3D bombed. For a gulp-inducing $3,300, this 15-inch notebook was the first to display 3D content without the aid of glasses. Even if you were willing to put up with the eye strain, the RD3D's sluggish performance with 3D enabled and laughably narrow viewing angles made this laptop fall flat on its face. Other companies would try to pick up where Sharp left off, including Nvidia and Toshiba, but they failed, too.

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Palm Foleo (2007)

Other than a few review units for the press, the Linux-powered Palm Foleo never saw the light of dayand that's a good thing. This 10.1-inch not-quite-a-netbook was designed as a companion device for Treo users, syncing data via Bluetooth but offering a Wi-Fi connection. The idea was to give buyers a bigger canvas to view email, edit documents, and surf the web with the Opera web browser. A $499 price tag and an executive decision to revive Palm's then aging mobile platform would relegate the Foleo to collector's item status.

OQO Model 01 (2004)

The power of Windows in the palm of your hand. That was the promise of the OQO Model 01, which ran Windows XP on a 5-inch display. This mobile Internet device was indeed versatile, offering a slide-down thumb keyboard and a desktop dock. Alas, a very chunky design (.9 inches inches thick), serious heat and noise issues and short battery life made the $1,999 price tag way to much to stomach, even for well-heeled mobile executives.

This story was provided by , a sister site to LiveScience. Follow Mark Spoonauer on , . Follow LAPTOPMAG on ,or .

That line of thought, while not exactly new, has manifested most recently in the considerable hype surrounding massive open online courses MOOCs. While specific MOOC iterations vary in their details, the name refers to classes distributed online (and thus available to a massive audience) and open to all comers (meaning, usually, no charge): Lectures are consumed via web video, discussions happen on dedicated message boards, testing is administered online. Despite the fact that many MOOC experiments have been offered gratis, the idea has inspired several startups that clearly see profit potential downthe road. Recently in The New Yorker, Nathan Heller took , a nonprofit MOOC outfit backed by M.I.T. and Harvard.

The latest bit of MOOC-news comes from the Georgia Institute of Technology, which just last weekthat,, it will offer a full-on masters degree in computer science in MOOC format or rather, Georgia Tech College of Computing Dean Zvi Galil corrected me, a MOOC 2.0 format. The program begins in 2014, and seems worth keeping an eye on. Galil certainly isnt shy about its potential: Were doing it because we want to lead the revolution, he tells me.

Per the usual MOOC dynamic, the program will be open to anyone. But if you want the outcome to include not just edification but an actual, accredited,Georgia Tech Online Master of Science in Computer Science degree, thatll cost you: under $7,000, . Given that out-of-state tuition at the school is north of $26,000, and Galil says completing the offline equivalent degree typically takes a year and a half, that seems a bargain. (Even before you figure in the incalculable value of living anywhere besides Atlanta!) And obviously the cost factor is even more significant if you benchmark against the many schools that are .

Thus the scenario raises two seemingly contradictory questions. One is whether using a MOOC platform could cost the school real-world (and higher-paying)students. Galil suggests that, revolution notwithstanding, this isnt a big worry. The MOOC format will be most appealing to far-flunglooking to burnish their credentials, and skill set, without uprooting their lives.

Eventually, he muses, the on-campus program might be somewhat reduced. But with face-to-face interaction, community, and career opportunities that stem from company visits and the like, showing up in person remains as attractive as ever in the short-term, and will always offer advantages. Physical universities (or good ones at least) where networking and other aspects of campus life remain meaningful, will survive, he says. Im sure of that.

The second question, then, is what would motivate someone to pay the $7,000 at all. If you can go through the exact same program for free (or some nominal sum), and learn the exact same skills, then are you paying for an education or a credential? Actually, Galil says, this gets at the 2.0 bit of this MOOC variation, and its a response to demand. Students want the credential, the credit, a degree, he says.

Georgia Tech, he continues, has experimented with computer-aided teaching for decades, and in the past year has offered more than a dozen MOOC-style courses. One of these, but most have gotten rave reviews, according to Galil. Still, he says this experience has helped identify some limitations of the MOOC idea as its been realized to date.

Most notably, its been widely noted that the vast majority of people who start any given no-charge MOOC 90 percent or more dont make it to the end. Quite a number drop before the first assignment, Galil notes. Somebody paying to earn a real degree is less likely to do that, he contends, and part of what theyll get for the money is a real infrastructure of student services: mentors, exams administered in testing centers, and similar additions that will make these courses valid.

With many details still to be sorted, Galil confidently declares that the university is moving into uncharted territory. And really, who knows how the MOOC notion will play out? But the truth is, the actual risks involved for a serious university exploring this territory are pretty low. If it doesnt work out, thats part of being on the bleeding edge of technology, which is where any technology-education program wants to be. If it does turn out to be a crucial early shot in some revolution, well, even better. The real future of technology and education is unknowable, but the present is obvious: Experiment with disruptive educational technologies, to quote . Its the 2.0 thing to do.