Gizmodo: amazing

This Couch Turns Into a Snooker Table

Adam Frucci — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:00:00 EDT

Plenty of couches pull out into beds, but how many of them pull out into snooker tables? Not enough, if you ask me.

Sure, your mother-in-law won't be able to sleep on it when she comes to visit, but is that such a bad thing? I mean, how versatile a piece of furniture is this? It can turn your living room into a game room in about 30 seconds.

Seriously people, why is this an antique and not something we all own? I want an air hockey couch, and I want it now! Let's make this happen!

You have never seen the like - a truly unique sofa that converts into a 6ft pool table!
Produced as a collaboration between Pierce upholsterers of Accrington and Riley, the famous pool and snooker table manufacturers, this is an exceedingly rare piece, and if not a prototype, then it was produced in a very limited quantity.

[The Daily What via eBay]

Japanese Iron Man Toy Has a Ridiculous Level of Detail

Sean Fallon — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:01:31 EDT

Some very talented individuals at the Japanese company Hot Toys have developed 1:6 scale Iron Man Mark I, II and III figures that feature an absolutely extraordinary level of detail. Seriously though—just look at Stark's face. Sure, he looks kind of Japanese, but I'll be dammed if that is not the best Robert Downey Jr. has ever looked in tiny plastic form. Details are scarce, but more info is expected to be released sometime "soon." I can't wait to find out how much I can't afford to buy this!

[Toy World Forum via Toysrevil via io9]

Korean Engineers Develop Miraculous 20,000-Year Photograph

matt buchanan — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:30:00 EST

Tucked into a dark and tiny corner of the PMA showfloor is a revolution made by a small Korean company called Wooyoun: metal photographs that last for 20,000 years. These images depicting the Democratic US presidential frontrunners (and no Republicans) were chemically etched in a patented, print-like process—probably with stuff that gives improperly masked technicians some horribly debilitating ailment. They'll last up to 1,000 years under the hot unforgiving sun. Hear that? Screw biodegradability. Put another way, that Hillary card you see in the gallery will outlast her reign by at least 15,000 years.

U Bend...Books Become Bookends

Mark Wilson — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 11:50:21 EDT

The U Bend is a book rack with a trick: it creates its own bookend for you. Impossible you say? The work of sorcery, and even black magic, you wonder? Nope. The bar is bent so one book is recessed below the others, allowing many books to lean on just one. But for $95, we wish that it included a second bookend. [product page via bltd]

The Dorky Genesis of Those "I'm a Mac" Ads

Adam Frucci — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 10:47:25 EST

And here you thought that Apple's advertising geniuses were completely original. This is a scan from a 1996 issue of MacAddict (click it for the big version), and boy, what a difference 10 years makes. Look, PC users wear suits! And Apple users wear… denim shirts over a t-shirt tucked into their hiked-up dad jeans? And an earring? Yikes, Apple users. That outfit wasn't even hip in 1996, which shows you how cool the editors of MacAddict are/were.

Oh, but wait! He's cool, look here, under hobbies: "No time for hobbies, too busy spamming Windows-only developers." I was wrong, you're totally gnarly, dude. –Adam Frucci

Cult of Mac [via Crave]