Hasta La Gadget!

If you have watched How to Train You Dragon – and who hasn’t? – then you already know that the Night Fury dragon is pretty cool. Well, he just got cooler. How about the Night Fury dragon in your room as a lamp that breathes fire?

I thought that would get your attention. Crafter Undead-geologist created this desktop lamp. It looks neat, yes, but the best part is that it actually breathes fire from it’s mouth instead of using a lightbulb. Though its fuel source is ethyl alcohol, not dragon’s breath.

Don’t drain your dragon though. When you are done using the lamp, just cap the flame with a mini viking helmet. Perfect.

[via Obvious Winner]

It’s one thing when a dog barks, it’s another one entirely when a giant pipe full of fire does it. And it’s even better in slow motion.

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Growing up, Hack A Day’s Caleb Kraft loved the James Bond movies. But he didn’t idolize 007. Kraft looked up to the guy who provided Bond with high tech and fortuitously plot-relevant gizmos: the Quartermaster, aka Q. To emulate his idol, Kraft decided to recreate a spy movie staple: a self-destructing gadget. A self-destructing laptop, to be specific.

Kraft took out the CD-ROM drive on a laptop and packed it with thermite. Thermite is a very explosive substance that can make short work of the laptop’s hard drive, which of course is the most vital part of the gadget. But because thermite itself is hard to ignite, Kraft made a multi-stage self-destruct mechanism. The first stage is lighting up a model rocket igniter. Kraft says this can be done via the 12v line inside a computer. The model rocket igniter will then light up a bit of gunpowder, which will light up some magnesium shavings, which finally will be hot enough to ignite the thermite. Did it work? See for yourself in the video below. You’ll see that Kraft also rigged a self-destructing external hard drive.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to Head to Hack A Day for more information about the project as well as before and after images of the laptop. This page will not self-destruct. You are not Ethan Hunt.

The PowerPot and the BioLite stove seem like great ways to harness the heat from fire and turn it into electricity. But what if you already have a pot and a stove? A company called Point Source Power might have a solution for you. The only thing that the company’s VOTO chargers need is a fire.

VOTO chargers look like one of those portable water heaters. But instead of a metal coil at the end, the chargers have a stack of replaceable fuel cells made from biomass. You stick this end into the bottom of your stove or bonfire and it will generate electricity over time. The electricity will be sent to its handle. There are a variety of handles, but the most useful one is shown in the video below. It’s a battery that can be used to charge devices via USB but it can also use its stored energy to power its built-in LEDs.

These chargers will be useful not only for campers and field workers but also for people who live in places that don’t have access to electricity. You can check out Point Source Power’s website for more info on their products, although the site seems to be down as of this writing.

[via Inhabitat]

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