Everyday objects like keys and forks and spoons and brooms and umbrellas and so forth are always designed with usability in mind. You use them everyday so they better be easy to use, right? But what if you re-designed them to make them annoying and uncomfortable to use? They’d still technically be useful objects but they’d also be hilariously terrible to actually use.
     |
You probably know a few people who use email
| |
ThinkGeek is blackmailing kindhearted people with its blobfish plush. What’s a blobfish? This poor creature was voted the world’s ugliest animal. To make things even more insulting, blobfish are endangered animals and don’t look hideous when in their natural habitat, thousands of feet underwater. That’s like having an alien take the last human to outer space stark naked, then noting that we look like bloated and sunburned corpses.
On the other hand, the voting was conducted by an organization called the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, which raises awareness for unsightly endangered animals. Many people know about pandas, eagles and tigers, but they’re not the only dying animals. With its title, the blobfish now serves as the mascot of its ilk.
Wipe your browser’s tears and order the blobfish plush from ThinkGeek for $40 (USD).
[via Boing Boing]
Artist Alicia Watkins zooms in on microorganisms and viruses not with a microscope but with needle and thread. Her Etsy shop is filled with handmade cross-stitches of these tiny beings, from our buddies the red blood cell and the neuron to nasty folk like the anthrax bacterium and the ebola viruses.
Each cross-stitch is made with white or ivory Aida cloth and mounted on a 3″ wood hoop frame.
Who wouldn’t want a syphilis cross-stitch on their wall? You can order these and more from Alicia’s Etsy shop for $20 (USD) each. They’re also available in discounted bundles and as patterns.
[via Laughing Squid]
The rise of social media networks and services have made it very easy for people to reach out and be heard. But a new iOS app called Cloak uses these very services for the opposite effect. Cloak taps into location data from the people you follow on Instagram and Foursquare. You can then flag those people and Cloak will alert you if they’re nearby. You’ll know when you need to relocate, hide or wrap up your heist.
Cloak is free for iOS devices. I wasn’t able to test it because I’m one step ahead – I don’t have a Foursquare or an Instagram account. But I think it’s worth noting because it’s a funny way of usurping social media. It would be even funnier if someone made an app that will help you stay away from Cloak users. You can call it Buzzkill.
[via Incredible Things]
I’ve always been a big proponent of making insults and insinuations that are both understandable, and bizarre. You don’t want to insult someone in a normal fashion with something old and boring. At the same time, if you have to explain to the person you insulted just what your insult meant, it takes the sting out of the barb.
A new book has turned up called the Shakespeare Insult Generator that lets you insult people using the words of Shakespearean literature. The downside to the book is that if you aren’t insulting an English Lit major, you will probably need to explain to them what the insult means.
The book has pages that are split into three cards. Each of the sections can be mixed and matched until you form the perfect insult. The back of the cards also tell you what the words mean. You can get the book now for $12.95(USD) on ThinkGeek, you pestiferous, hollow-eyed, malignancy.
Astrophysicist and Cosmos host Neil deGrasse Tyson, in addition to being a general badass, is most famous for his wildly infectious exuberance for all things science. Unless, of course, NDT is stoned out of his mind. In which case, that vigor would probably turn into the masterpiece you see below.
| |
You love burgers, so share that love with your cat and give him or her a comfy burger to sleep in. This ultra plush pillow bed by Petz Route will keep your cat comfy and gives him a nice secluded area that beats any other cat bed.
Although your cat might be a bit scared to climb inside, after seeing you chomp down all of those burgers. It sells for about $20(USD) over on Amazon Japan. For that price, it’s a kitty value meal!
You could get some small pillows that look like hamburger ingredients and complete the look. I’ll take mine with extra cheese. I said cheese, not fleas.
[via This Is Why I’m Broke]
The following are my picks for the best St. Patrick’s day ever, with a few post-St. Patrick’s day reconciliation-style inventions thrown in for good measure.
Seeing a smart cat walk on a treadmill to its plate of food tickles me more than it should. I scream out aww under my constant laughter. I must be a bad person. But let’s be honest. Metaphorically, we’ve all been this cat before. We’ve seen our goal but we kept walking in place not knowing how to get there. Literally though, we should put a treadmill before every fast food restaurant so it’d motivate us all to be a little more healthy like this cat.
| |
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
