Category: Curiosities

4U2P

Apparently urinating on walls is a massive social problem.

I had no idea. I did hear that Singapore (I think) had some laws about public urination that didn’t include lifts – so in protest people started urinating in lifts…

Anyway, it’s hardly an epidemic, at least in Australia. Apparently that’s not the case in Mexico. At least that’s the only reason I can think of to invent something like this.

What is this? You ask. This is a public and discrete urinal. As discrete as an oddly shaped bright yellow plastic sculpture can possibly be…

July 28, 2009

Square eggs, round wholes

You know what every cubic Caesar salad needs – along with the croutons. Square eggs. Square eggs, think about it. Life would be so much better if there wasn’t a threat of your egg rolling off your plate… you can buy your egg squarer here.

“Put warm peeled hard boiled egg in the egg cuber with the base plate flat on the bottom. Place forming plate on top of egg. Screw the top down until the egg becomes square (best results if egg cuber has been chilled). Unscrew cap and punch base plate up from the bottom with finger. Remove square egg.”

Found here.

July 26, 2009

Rat2-D2

Taxidermy is fun. Especially taxidermy that combines a toy with a mouse and is then sold on eBay.

Found here.

July 26, 2009

This sink rocks

“A small cobblestone blocks the source, which starts to spout water meandering down to the basin when the stone is removed. Then, the cobble can double as a plug for the sink”

Found here.

July 25, 2009

Table tennis opens doors

At one time I was mildly addicted to table tennis. It was back in 1999 and 2000. When I should have been focusing on finishing high school. My friends used to gather downstairs at our house for impromptu competitions. Those were the days.

I haven’t really had room for table tennis at any house since. Well, at the first house I lived in up here we did. But I was a full time worker by then, with no time for youthful frivolity.

Now it appears that space is no object for table tennis at home – because you can just convert a doorway into a table. It does limit the heavy topspin round the net return – but you expect to make sacrifices for this sort of awesomeness.

It was designed by Tobias Franzel and I found it here…

July 25, 2009

Wrist watch

I thought the digital amputee who turned his prosthetic finger into a USB drive was hardcore. He’s got nothing on this guy. Who is pioneering a digital tattoo, powered by body movements, and from what I can tell, receiving time updates remotely.

July 25, 2009

Will fly further than a paper plain

Yes pedant, I know I plain appears to be spelt wrong.

A couple of years ago at a work team retreat we were challenged to make a piece of paper travel the furthest. Many people made paper planes. That was the trainer’s intention. I made a paper ball and threw it over the roof of the training centre. I’ve always been one for trying to subvert psychobabble filled training sessions.

Why am I telling you this? Well, paper planes have been the dominant paper projectile for too long. Balls of paper are all the rage.

If I bothered to hand write much, or chuck out any notes, then this would be the notepad for me. The paper is not “plain” – get it? I am sure you do.

It’s designed by a Dutch design mob called Trapped in Suburbia – and you can buy the notepads direct…

July 25, 2009

Time passes in an inking

This calendar is terrific. The ink gradually seeps through the page – filling one digit per day. It was designed by a guy named Oscar Diaz.

“Ink Calendar” make use the timed pace of the ink spreading on the paper to indicate time.
The ink is absorbed slowly, and the numbers in the calendar are “printed” daily. One a day, they are filled with ink until the end of the month. A calendar self-updated, which enhances the perception of time passing and not only signaling it.”

July 25, 2009

Killer Fast Food

Heart disease is a killer. Fast food causes heart disease. So it’s not a huge stretch of the imagination to see the iconic fast food characters as mafia bosses – like this guy did…

July 25, 2009

Itty Bitty Weezer

8 Bit music takes me back to my childhood and hours of Nintendo gaming. This is a weird piece of childhood/adolecence fusion – 8 Bit Weezer.

It’s pretty cool. Not sure I’d listen to it regularly. But Island in the Sun and El Scorcho are pretty awesome.

July 25, 2009

Shirt of the Day: Burger King

Lets face it. Burger King has a creative advertising department. One campaign encouraged Facebook users to trade ten friends for a burger, they put together the subservient chicken campaign… I could go on. And I will.

Remember that zombie shirt from a couple of days ago? Well Burger King has topped it.

Soccer (or football to the purists) players have been throwing shirts over their heads to celebrate goals for years.

Burger King noticed.

July 24, 2009

Class = “mug”

Yeah, so I’m a geek. And I spend a fair bit of time trying to get frustrating CSS anomalies ironed out of our work website. So this mug is funny. Ok. That is all.

July 24, 2009

Bleak Books

I have no idea how many books have been published in the history of book publishing. There’s probably some sort of database that tracks that sort of thing.

Many of these books are crap, and justifiably fall through the cracks… Which is where “Awful Library Books” comes in – they’re tracking down the crap for posterity’s sake.

July 24, 2009

Pac Axe

Here’s something every mathcore lead guitarist needs. A Pacman guitar. Unfortunately it’s one of a kind. But it was made by these guys… so you can probably order another one.

The dots on the neck even light up.

July 24, 2009

Horseplay: with wheels

Ralph Lauren polo shirts are one of those status symbols favoured by the rich and the famous. There’s a rule of thumb that says that the bigger the horse on the shirt the more the wearer is trying to draw attention to their awesomeness (ie the bigger the tool)

Segways are another such status symbol and Polo, the sport, is the last piece of this picture…

This is Apple co-founder “The Woz” playing Segway Polo.

I suggest the Ralph Lauren Polos of the future will feature a logo like this… you heard it here first.

July 21, 2009