Samsung's new QLED TV comes with configuration option: take a picture of the wall behind it before you hang it up and it will use it as a background wallpaper, drawing UI widgets (like weather display, etc) overtop of it, creating the hi-rez illusion that your TV has disappeared, leaving nothing behind but the bezel. Hard to get it aligned properly, and probably a config option on most TVs (but buried 11 menus deep and just advertised as "set wallpaper" rather than "make TV vanish"). (via Red Ferret)
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Redditor cobalt_brightside posted this giant, novelty on/off switch lamp that has a hilarious, tiny, functional on/off switch to control the lamp.
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WD40 has replaced its traditional taped-on, easy-to-lose nozzle straws (so important for getting the slippery stuff into the stuck places) with a pair of new options: a "smart straw" that is permanently affixed and delivers either a focused beam or a wide blast, controlled by a thumb-button; and a poseable metal "EZ Reach" straw that you bend into the desired shape and then direct, allowing you to squirt into hard-to-reach, places around corners and behind obstacles.
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Chet Phillips (creator of the Monster Zen book, the Steampunk Monkey Coloring Book and the Steampunk Monkey Cigarette Cards) sends us his Fantasy Travel Poster Series, "Paying tribute to vintage railway posters, this series re-imagines landscapes with fantasy elements such as giants, dragons, trolls and more."
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Bavaria's far-right, Islamophobic government enacted its Kreuzpflicht ("cross obligation") law, which mandates that every government building must display a Christian cross, and finessed this violation of Germany's legally enforced separation of church and state by claiming the crosses were "cultural," not "religious" and by saying that each building "should hang up the cross as they think best."
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The "Final Straw" is a cleverly named, cleverly engineered reusable drinking straw that folds down into a package small enough to use as a keyfob (including a little squeegee for cleaning the straw after use).
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Seoul-based designer Yang Si Young created the "Library Chair" in answer to a personal challenge: to design a piece of furniture that's also a library; with built-in shelving and a place to read.
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The Tentacuddle is another of Thinkgeek's not-April-Fools products launched on Apr 1 but seriously for realsies; it's $60, acrylic, 40"^2 plus five two-foot-long besuckered tentacles whose terminal apertures will admit your own appendages for eating or other manipulative/ambulatory tasks, and it's machine washable.
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knt.remembr is a pretty great track from Knxwledge, but man, what I would give to have that wallpaper! Update: thanks to Deb Chachra for identifying the source: Dan Funderburgh's "Vigilant Floral".) (via Dark Roasted Blend) (Hi rez)
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What's more revolting than buying color-matched books by the yard to class up your room like you were some kind of Trumpish dumbass who wants people to think you read but never actually read anything?
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Rain Nos roundup of the Core 77's Favorite Objects from 2017 has some real beauts that are of note to aficionados of physical culture and made objects.
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The $77 Pizzacraft PC0601 Pizzeria Pronto Stovetop Pizza Oven is a clever design: it's a stovetop oven that has a large thermal mass (thanks to a cordierite pizza stone) and other good thermal properties, allowing it to hit 600F in 10 minutes of pre-heating on your gas burner; it gets top marks in Wired's pizza gadget guide, too.
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Lucky Shot's .308 Real Bullet hand-blown Shot Glass (Amazon), we are assured, "does not contain gunpowder or lead residue," making them safe to drink from. Described as the "ultimate gift," not without unnerving connotation. They also make tumblers and pint glasses, but, come now... shot glass.
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Munktiki's $20 Octopus mug comes in red or purple, and nicely complements their Bell-Buoy mug (sold out, but we can hope for a resupply!). (via Super Punch)
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Goldstone Books, an online used-book seller in Wales, spruced up their offices with this gorgeous reception desk skinned with books. (via Blog on the Bookshelf)
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The Indiana Jones Melting Toht Candle
is $33.39 from Firebox, and while the listing doesn't give dimensions, it certainly gets good reviews! (via Bonnie Burton)
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