Since most USB designs are pretty boring, I’d like to see this idea expanded on. Say, one large spaceship with some smaller ones in the docking ports maybe. I’m sure it will become a reality one day.

[via Likecool]

[via Fancy via Ohgizmo]

When the tin was full of change, I hid it at the back of my closet so it would sort of become my emergency fund. Unfortunately, I also completely forgot about it. A few years later, when I was cleaning out my stuff, I saw the can and decided that it was time to collect. Coins spilled out in every direction, but when I took a closer look, I realized that the coins were no longer being accepted in my country circa a few years ago. Sucks to be me, I know.

Okay, so anyway, that was a pretty long (and slightly unrelated) story about the Flying Piggy Bank, but it was the only anecdote I have that is all about piggy banks.

These Flying Piggy Banks were designed by Galerie Brigitte, and they feature a whole new opening with which you’re able to drop in a wide variety of coins and paper bills. The new slot looks like a cross hair, which is meant to make the whole task of dropping bills into the flying pig a whole lot easier.

According to Yanko Design, three sizes are available: S, M, and L, depending on how much cash you want to stash before you finally decide to literally break the bank.

I tried to track down the designer, but a site in her name just led to a page full of ads and articles on diesel engines and pond pumps. Oh, well. If you do decide to get a piggy bank (even if it isn’t the Flying Piggy Bank), I only have one piece of advice: crack it open the moment you hear that some notes in your currency are about to be phased out.

The thing is pretty cool, even if it looks like the grey’s stopped simply mutilating livestock and started breeding with it. The alien eyes of the Cool iPig are pointy and are actually the speakers for the thing. Its nose has the controls for pausing and playing tracks.

The ears are motion sensitive and control the volume of the music. The device can dock your iPhone or any dockable iPod. It also has a 3.5mm input jack for non-dockable devices. Other features include a remote control, 23W of power, a subwoofer, and TV connectivity. The device is offered now for about $150 and has an internal rechargeable battery.

The artificial meat is described as “soggy pork”: “What we have at the moment is rather like wasted muscle tissue. We need to find ways of improving it by training it and stretching it, but we will get there”, says Mark Post, professor of physiology at Eindhoven University.

Exercising pig muscles when they’re not attached to the rest of the pig? – Quite a stumper indeed. I don’t know how far this experiment is going to go, but if it succeeds this is going to cause drastic changes worldwide. Meat may become cheaper, but at the same time a lot of people could lose their jobs if we don’t need to rely on live animals for meat. Would you eat lab meat?

pic from Room Candy

[via Telegraph via The Presurfer]

These ceramic pigs from Japan’s I.D.E.A. feature a full-range speaker in their bellies. The only thing tastier than pork bellies is amplified pork bellies! Mmmm.

They’re available in black, white, and shiny gold, but you really want the pearlescent pink one, don’t you? Of course you do. My favorite thing about the piggy speaker is the skinny little tail that doubles as the connector for your media player. Oink!

Currently, I.D.E.A. Pig Speakers are only available in Japan, where they sell for ¥4,725 (appx. $50 USD).

I just want to put that Spider-Pig song on my iPod, hook it up, crank it to 11, and put it on infinite repeat.

The machine uses a pressurized saline solution to emulate blood flow. It can also be used to film the interior of the pumping heart, a welcome feature for researchers working on tools and technologies for repairing heart valves. The inventors hope that the dynamic heart system will lead to significant reduction in costs for experiments, since it allows scientists to refine their designs and ideas before moving on to expensive live tests. According to Richards, “It costs approximately $25 to run an experiment on the machine, whereas a similar experiment using a live animal costs approximately $2,500.”

[via Inventor Spot]

Just add “http://bacolicio.us/” to the beginning of any site’s URL and boom! BACON!

So for example you want to baconify TIME’s website, just type http://bacolicio.us/http://time.com. Look at that strip of goodness. The only thing better than that is a picture of woven bacon. OR a baconized picture of woven bacon. OR real bacon.

[via The Raw Feed]

As soon as you put a coin in its mouth, the little pink piggy gets down to business, making appropriately piggish snorting sounds as it gulps your money.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

As an added bonus – if you flip him upside down, he kinda looks like Spiderpig.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Available from UK gadget shop GadgetShop, you’ll need to save up £14.99 (appx. $30 USD) in coins before you have enough money to put one on your desk.

[via Toyology]

The i-Panda and i-Piggy digiBanks automatically identify each coin placed in the bank, then calculate the total and display them on the bank’s LCD screen. The banks can also be programmed with savings goals and can play celebratory musical tracks when milestones are met. Each digiBank also functions as an alarm clock and has a special key that prevents kids from pilfering the funds before they should.

Amazingly, even though i-Kiddo is based in Taiwan, they’re supposed to be able to identify U.S. currency including pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.

Individually crafted by artist Anna Lee (a.k.a. ‘Annamatic’,) these cases are definitely geared more toward girls, kids or men who are extremely confident in their masculinity. Choose from “Mr. Devil,” a little red demon, “Bubba,” the leather-clad bear, or “Hamlet” the pink pig designs.

The cases cost just $15 each and are available from Annamatic’s shop over on Etsy.

[via Smidigt]