We've seen this guy's work before, but nothing actually produced such a controlled flame or came with building instructions as detailed as Everett Bradford's new Prometheus Device. And while I know that Pyro technically controls fire rather than actually making it, short of mutant genetics, this project is as close as we'll get. And it's damn awesome. [Prometheus via Make]

The design of the Gyrofocus fireplace may be 40 years old, but it was still striking enough to be voted the "world's most beautiful object" at this year's Pulchra design competition. [Focus Creation via Link]
The Conmoto suitcase fireplace allows you to bring warmth and ambiance wherever you go (the casing is weather resistant so even the outdoors isn't off limits). Conmoto is fueled by a small tank of bio-ethanol that burns for 2.5 to 3.5 hours. [Unica Home via Link]
A fire pit built-in to your coffee table gives city folk all of the benefits of a campfire without actually having to venture out into the wilderness. I'm thinking s'mores. [Opulent Items]
The Lumos is more than an outdoor fireplace, it's also a grill. Keep the chimney up and you have ambiance, flip it down and you have delicious meat cooking over charcoal. In other words, it warms you up inside and out. [Leenders via Link]
If NASA ever designed a portable fireplace (or a urinal), it might look something like the Piet. [Cavallius Design via Link]
The fireplace should be the focal point of the room, and the Skloib TV Drehturm allows you to stay true to that philosophy without compromising on the placement of your television. [Skloib via Link]
I have always wanted a wood-fired pizza oven in my backyard, but not quite enough to commit the time and expense to building one myself. If you are willing, Forno Bravo has provided info on how to build an oven like the one pictured here. [Forno Bravo via Flickr via Link]
High pressure propane burners like this one are often associated with frying turkeys, but the truth is you can cook a lot of awesome stuff with it. I would suspect that a high percentage of people (like me) use these to homebrew 5 gallon batches of all-grain beer. [Amazon]
These gigantic bear claw matches are as close as you will get to a guarantee on lighting a fire. The built-in kindling is a big plus, although the colorful, crayon-esque heads could be an invitation for your children to embark on an artistic disaster. [KM Match via Link]
The Wicked Torch is kind of like a cross between a flashlight, a lighter and a stove. At 4100 lumens, it is the brightest flashlight on the face of the earth according to Guinness. It's also hot enough to burn paper, light cigarettes and cook eggs.

On the other hand, buying one might prove problematic. It appears that the 1666 and DCCCXVII A.U.C. (64 AD in the Julian calendar) are only in the prototype stage at the moment. [BBM via Core77]

These KM Firelighters are essentially gigantic matches—so big, in fact, that the kindling is built right in. I can't imagine the fireball and plume of smoke these things emit when scraped against your rough, expendable surface of choice—seriously, each match is so large that you can count the tree rings—but I can appreciate the four, Crayola-like colors sure to tempt children into horrible coloring disasters.

Boxes of 20 go for about $3 apiece. [KM Match & Lighters via Red Ferret]

I guess it's more Burning Man carnival ride than up and down wooden horse carousel—but still pretty damn cool. [Popular Mechanics | Image credit]

Loaded with a mysterious, unnamed glowing substance (one can only assume hordes of ground-up lightning bugs), the shoes leave a simple footprint trail that can be tracked in case of sudden panic. (We're assuming this goop would be more sticky than slippery, though honestly, neither scenario sounds fantastic.)

Maybe these boots would help firefighters, and maybe they wouldn't (firefighters in the audience, please share your thoughts). But as some sort of child's toy involving special goggles, Nerf darts and booby traps, the glow boots sound like a lot of fun...especially if you can buy em in an men's size 12 and the liquid permanently stains carpets. [Yanko Design via ubergizmo]

In a town so tied into the film industry, it isn't surprising that local filmmakers would turn their cameras on the fire—showing us all just how fast a small flame can rage into something so utterly devastating. Check out Fast Company for the rest of the videos. [Fast Company and Yahoo]

What you'll need:

• Air Tank
• Air Valve
• Plumbing Nipples
• Plumbing "T"
• 45 Degree Elbow (optional)
• Air Compressor Nipple
• PVC Fittings
• Teflon Tape

What you'll get:

Now, if you still want to make one of these beasts after seeing that and you meet the required skill level of "Experienced and Insured" then check out this second video and the detailed instructions on Inventgeek. And don't blame us if something goes wrong. [Inventgeek]

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the product and return it to the nearest Wal-Mart for a full refund.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Wal-Mart Stores at (800) 925-6278 between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, or visit the firm's Web site at www.walmartstores.com

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is still interested in receiving incident or injury reports that are either directly related to this product recall or involve a different hazard with the same product. Please tell us about it by visiting https://www.cpsc.gov/cgibin/incident.aspx

Those in the U.K are advised to contact ASDA. [CPSC via CNN Money via Engadget]

The "Mall Fire" by Atria is a fire trunk that uses bio ethanol to create flames when its opened. When closed, it just looks like your standard issue white trunk. As for how much heat it throws, I'm assuming not a lot. But hey, fire! Everybody loves fire. [Product Page via BornRich]

It took more than 7-months for KIRO 7 Consumer Investigator Amy Clancy to get her hands on documents concerning Apple's iPods from the Consumer Product Safety Commission because Apple's lawyers filed exemption after exemption. In the end, the CPSC released more than 800 pages which reveal, for the very first time, a comprehensive look that shows, on a number of occasions, iPods have suddenly burst into flames, started to smoke, and even burned their owners.

Within that 800 pages of information, 15 minor burn and fire related incidents reported by iPod owners are discussed. KIRO goes on to describe several of these incidents and how Apple knew that there were defective batteries out there, yet did nothing about it. With over 170 million iPods in circulation, it's not surprising that Apple is trying to keep things quiet. A recall would come at a huge expense—and with that amount of product on the shelves, there is bound to be a few anomalies here and there. The CPSC agrees with this point, claiming that there are not enough cases thus far to warrant any further action.

It probably doesn't matter anyway. As Fake Steve points out, the Seattle connection points to a Microsoft conspiracy. And the burns? Masochists with cigarettes looking for a quick buck most likely. Besides, even if iPods did burn you, you still wouldn't buy a Zune. [KIRO 7 via Fake Steve / Image via Daily HaHa]

The man pretty immediately went up in flames, and the officer, recognizing that a man becomes significantly less dangerous once he's on fire, went to the suspect's aid, patting him all over (and getting burned himself) to quell the flames. While the officer tried to help the flammable man, he was hit by rocks thrown by a young woman also on the scene, also presumably high or stupid or both. Both the man and woman, as well as two others, were charged with sniffing a prohibited substance, and the young woman was charged with throwing rocks at a policeman. [Daily Telegraph]

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A bit of steel wool held to a battery's contacts will create a short and start to spark, and if you're careful, you can direct that spark onto some pre-arranged tinder, starting a fire. Of course, this also works with a 9-volt battery, which I'm almost positive Les Stroud has used on Survivorman, but it's a nice idea to show it can be done with something we've all got in our pockets. [via MAKE]

LiveSpark has both indoor and outdoor versions, and seems pretty flexible: The site shows installations of all different sizes and of different materials. We're not sure if it's actually available, as there's no order link or pricing, but if you're crazy rich, an architect, a pyromaniac, or some combination of the three, it'd make a pretty sweet addition to your abode. [LiveSpark]

Lawnmowers, with their spinning, ground level blades, are most dangerous to small animals, young children, and feet. Recently, one Mowing Menace trapped a 4-year-old girl's foot under its blades of doom, causing enough damage to require amputation. In fact, she was one of 77,000 people who go to the hospital every year, victims of mowing-related violence.

Clearly, in the epic battle of Man vs. Machine, mowers don't intend to play fair.

A mower in Oregon flipped its rider down an embankment and into a ditch before rolling itself onto some blackberry bushes above the trapped man. The lawn mower's heat actually set the blackberry bushes on fire, and when they gave way, the mower itself tumbled 15-20 feet to rest on top of its owner, trapping him in the ditch. Though the victim wasn't severely burned, the crushing weight of his mower caused enough unspecified injuries to necessitate a helicopter airlift to a nearby hospital.

Another one, at a park in Indiana, was being peacefully driven around the perimeter of a lake when it snagged a wire, flipped and slowly dragged its helpless rider into the water like a conniving, hungry alligator. Though the tractor technically did not devour the 59-year-old John McComas, it did pin him in the shallows of the lake, rendering him unable to move. Thankfully, he managed to keep his head above water and shouted for help, and was rescued soon enough to escape with only mild injuries.

A lawnmower in Florida apparently took offense to its owner doing a little repair work on it, and so shot a spark onto the owner's nearby boat. The spark ignited gas fumes and the boat promptly burst into flames, sending up huge plumes of smoke and the risk of serious fire in the "tinderbox conditions" of that stretch of the Atlantic coastline. The town's fire commissioner, Fred Link, explained with laughable naivete, "It was accidentally started." Sure, Fred, that's what they want you to think.

Lawnmowers don't just act alone, though. They are capable of teaming up with other terrors to dish out even more devastation. In Texas, the mere sound of a lawn mower was enough to enrage a nearby swarm of killer Africanized bees. That's right, Africanized bees, the ones the hysterical news media alerted your attention to back in 1999. The killer bees, responding to the mower's calls, attacked nearby residents, stinging two bystanders and two firemen. None were seriously injured, and another fireman said he "barely managed to avoid being stung," a quote he probably wishes had not appeared in his local paper. The bees were exterminated, but the mower lived to fight another day.

But just like in Battlestar Galactica, some of these appliances have decided to side with humans—defending them instead of terrorizing them. In Croatia, an innocent man was mowing his lawn when suddenly, his mower detonated a live hand grenade, sacrificing its own self in the process. The man escaped uninjured, but still confused as to what a live grenade was doing in his garden.

Beyond the urban camo paint job, the Rovio was loaded with a remote control fire extinguisher and equipped with some software tweaks that allow the robot to spot fire (and subsequently annihilate it) autonomously.

Remember that scene in Iron Man when the robot kept dousing Tony Stark with the extinguisher at comedically appropriate times? That's what you can expect from this Rovio...which sounds pretty fantastic. [Robots Rule via SlashGear]

The fat in the prosciutto and the oil-slathered cucumber is used with oxygen and a flame to combust, giving a fairly strong-burning torch. Check out the video below.

Proscuitto, we should add, is a dry-cured (not smoked, like American bacon) spiced Italian pork product, and despite hailing from communist Europe, is far superior to what we in the States know as bacon. That's right. There's something better than bacon. [Boing Boing Gadgets]

Sure, fire tagging is relatively dangerous, what with a school in LA having been partially burned down from the practice, but as long as you're smart enough to not try it on the side of an old wooden barn it shouldn't be that bad. And some people are tagging with lighter fluid, making it less permanent than regular graffiti. Lighting wet paint on fire makes it permanent, but with burned accents, which is cool too. But something about making graffiti more of a performance and something to be witnessed right after it's done is especially pleasing to me.

Unless it was on the side of my convenience store, in which case I'd call the cops on those no-good punks. [Gothamist via Fast Company; Photo by Faith-Ann Young]