Hasta La Gadget!

So Een Maal was on the right track after all.

Japan’s Kyoto University and Kobe University recently installed bocchi seki aka “lonely seats” at their dining halls while refurbishing it. The seats are called as such because they let the people seated finish their meals minus the chitchat that normally comes with dining with others.

The dining tables feature 50-centimeter dividers at the center of the tables so you won’t have to interact or speak with the person who’s sitting across you. That saves you time, lets you focus on finishing your meal, and lets you avoid having to socialize or make small-talk with people you might not be very comfortable with.

Apparently, it’s something a lot of students appreciate. A 22 year-old female student told Asahi: “When I don’t have much time or I’m in a hurry, the lonely seats are convenient.”

Another student, a 22-year old male this time, said: “If you are sitting at a big table by yourself it’s like you don’t have any friends and that is embarrassing.”

What do you think?

[via Kotaku via Foodbeast]

This camera is flipping awesome. The camera takes short bursts of GIF photos and then prints them out on Z-ink paper to be assembled into a flip book to reanimate the action. The revolutionary idea is the brain child of Jiho Jang as a part of his college thesis. The problem is that this IS just an idea, but one that needs to be brought into reality.

It was a match made in heaven. So when the time was just right, Redditor SirTechnocracy put together a heart-wrenching proposal that made fellow Redditors and non-Redditors alike swoon.

Last Monday morning, he posted a link of a gallery to AdviceAnimals. He shared that his girlfriend, who goes by the handle LadyTechnocracy (see what he did there?), browses Reddit everyday, so it’s highly likely that she would come across his post at some point.

The entire proposal unfolds quite nicely in a series of memes, as you can see in the gallery below.

The bottom of the meme gallery points to a link, which hosts another gallery of commissioned art that all depict one message: a proposal.

SirTechnocracy explained on Reddit: “It would be far more romantic to her than just taking her to a restaurant. Especially with all the pictures I commissioned for this (getting all those together took months and a couple thousand dollars).”

A few hours later, LadyTechnocracy apparently found the gallery. Hearing her excitement from the other room, SirTechnocracy entered the room, got down on one knee, and proposed to her in person.

Naturally, she upvoted him, and said “Yes.”

[via C|NET]

Cats know just what to purr and what to meow to get their owners to do anything. So if you own a cat, don’t look into their eyes. Don’t listen to their purrs too intently and never rub their tummies more than you have to… or you might end up like this dude who built the ultimate catwalk for his cat outside his out: cat-notized.

This over-the-top walkway was discovered and brought to the attention of thousands of other cat lovers by Nekomemo, a Japanese site for cat-loving dudes and dudettes. It provides your cat with a safe, caged walkway so eagles won’t be able to swoop down on him and carry him away.  (Yeah, I know, that was far-fetched. But still.)

It just goes to show that the cat is the boss and you are just his lowly servant. He’s got nine lives, you’ve got one – even Mother Nature’s against you!

[via Rocket News via Neatorama]

I love those finger-lickin’-good chicken drumsticks, but as a cookie flavor? I don’t think so.

Thankfully these fried chicken cookies whipped up by Bridget over at Bake at 350 taste nothing like the real thing, although they look so much like it!

The chicken drumsticks are probably the easiest part to form and bake. You can also easily recognize them at a glance, compared to, say, chicken breasts or thighs.

Bridget included a guide on cookie cutter templates so you can still bake some fried chicken leg cookies of your own, even if you don’t have the appropriately-shaped cookie cutters.

Perhaps the biggest thing you might be wondering is.. What makes the chicken leg cookies look so darn crunchy? The secret, my friend, is cornflakes.

You can check out the recipe here.

[via The Awesomer via Foodbeast]