Technabob » ireland

Man Tries to Turn Poop to Gold, Burns Down an Apartment Block in the Process

Hazel Chua — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:00:50 +0000

Now who hasn’t dreamed of having the Midas touch, and possessing the ability to turn whatever they touched into gold? Obviously, there are a lot of downsides to it (like you could accidentally turn the people you love into, well, solid gold), but that doesn’t mean there aren’t individuals who won’t resort to crazy things in order to turn stuff into gold. Individuals like Paul Moran, that is.

Stock Photo: Not the Actual Apartment Burnt Down by Flaming Poo

The price of gold has been rising pretty steadily over the past few months. And for those people who are down on their luck or in dire need of money, nothing is impossible. For example, Moran actually thought that it was possible to turn his own poop into gold by putting into an electric heater. All I can say is, if that were all it took to turn human waste into gold then everyone would be trying to poop their heads off – but they aren’t, for a reason: because it’s gross, it doesn’t work, and it can burn down your entire apartment block, which was what happened in Moran’s case.

Unfortunately for him, a judge wasn’t too impressed with his poop-to-gold experiment and has sentenced him to serve three months in jail.

[Belfast Telegraph via HuffPo via Dvice]

LED Pillow Clock Wakes With Light, Not Sound

Technabob — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:30:29 +0000

Who among us really likes being awakened from a deep slumber by a jarring alarm buzzer? Sure, you could get yourself a clock radio or MP3 alarm clock and play some Enya or Kenny G to ease into the day, but who really wants to listen to that? This concept for a visual alarm clock could very well revolutionize the way we wake up.

This simple, yet brilliant pillow alarm clock is designed to gently wake you by exposing your eyes to a glowing cloud of illumination, gradually increasing in brightness over a 40 minute period. Created by Ian Walton of embryo, in collaboration with Eoin McNally, the glo Pillow uses a cutting-edge LED fabric substrate below the pillow’s surface to work its magic.

Once you’ve been roused from your sleep, just lift your head, and the pillow displays the current time using an easy-to-read dot-matrix display that lives beneath the pillow case. The design also incorporates convenient controls built into a soft flap on the side of the pillow.

At this point, the glo Pillow is only a concept design, but I’m hoping that embryo eventually manages to gear up production for these.

[via IDasia]

Everyday Objects Get Flattened

Technabob — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:26:12 +0000

Irish Artist Finn Magee created this series of works which take common electrical household items and turn them into 2-dimensional posters. The innovative part of his Flat Life series is that the objects remain fully functional in their flat states.

While they may just be flat posters, the pieces still plug into a wall socket. The images are then illuminated by embedded LEDs. For example, the desk lamp has a single LED to substitute for the light bulb. In the case of the alarm clock, he’s actually installed a 7-segment LED clock into the image.

Very cool stuff. I’m pretty sure these are one-of-a-kind works, but would love to see Magee produce these for the masses. I’d certainly hang a few in my house.

[via Torc.]