Each glass's sin is "revealed through the ritual of drinking," says Kacper, adding that the glasses are designed to encourage "the user to be sinful in a theatrical fashion." Presumably throwing up theatrically after imbibing too much is entirely up to you, with no help from art or design.

If you're in London between June 12th and 19th, you can see the glasses being exhibited at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design Degree Show. And if you like them, you can order one of the limited edition sets. They come in a mahogany, velvet and brass case, so expect the price to be pretty sinful too. [Kacper Hamilton via Dezeen via Notcot]

Because of their soft glow, Planilum lights only get about as hot as the human body, which means that there is no need for a shade or diffuser. They are also about 90% recyclable because the design is nearly all glass. For these reasons, the Planilum can be integrated into designs that make a break from traditional lighting fixtures. In fact, the plan is to develop furniture and other household objects with these panels to make more functional and attractive lighting solutions. With any luck, we could see products based on this technology sometime within the next few years. [saazs via Inhabitat via OhGizmo]

Thomas Jefferson, the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence, also brought us the automatic door, swivel chair and designed the first ever macaroni machine. Ben Franklin, while never president, is definitely the geeks' choice for the man who never was but should have been—I mean, faced with he or Al Gore, who would you vote for?—was even more prolific. Blame him for bifocals, lightning rods, glass harmonicas and the odometer, that little counter that racks up your car's mileage, although Franklin's version was designed for carriages.

Finally, we have President Lincoln, the only US President to have obtained a patent, for a device to lift boats over schoals, after a couple of incidents when traveling by boat, first in 1831, and then in 1848, while traveling home from Congress. The patent application reads: "Be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, of Springfield, in the county of Sangamon, in the state of Illinois, have invented a new and improved manner of combining adjustable buoyant air chambers with a steam boat or other vessel for the purpose of enabling their draught of water to be readily lessened to enable them to pass over bars, or through shallow water, without discharging their cargoes." Babraham's design never saw the light of day, however. [Wikipedia]

We especially like the way the drivers are all connected with flattened internal cables, hidden among the angles, nooks, crannies and corners of this stunning design. We're not sure how the Pear Cable crowd will like that arrangement, what with all the difference they think fat, solid-gold/copper cables make and all.

The pricing is what really surprised us, where we thought these 40-inch Victoria EVO speakers would cost $50,000 or more, and here they are retailing for $5,400 a pair. Their little brother, the 34-inch Iguasçu EVO, omits one of those midrange drivers and costs $3,900 for a pair. Both models will be available in February or March of 2008. Just don't play any loud operatic soprano music through these babies, or you'll have a living room full of broken glass. [Waterfall Audio]

The Barcelona-born designer says that you can do what you want with the mice after you've caught them. Seeing as I don't have a python, I think I'll make myself a mouse-fur bikini. [Roger Arquer via Dezeen]

This cutout design will let you tilt that sucker all the way up to your forehead. If that's not tasteful, I don't know what is. The only problem? Each one of these ordinary wine glasses with a chunk bitten out of them will drain you of a castle-temperature $54, and that kinda stinks. [Greatest Wine Glass]

The important thing to remember is that Glass Toilets were someone's Dream. Day in and day out, they encountered their white, artless, fully opaque toilet tank and saw a missed Opportunity. After several years of honing their pitch at cocktail parties followed by drunken tears and reassessment of their life later in the evening, the creator of the Glass Toilets was ready to Take The Plunge*. [product via redferret]

*'Take The Plunge' is our entirely imagined slogan for the product and in no way represents the trademarks or intention of parent company and full Glass Toilets rights holder Glass Toilets.

It has 10,240 CPUs, 20TB of RAM, 280TB of disk storage and runs on SUSE Linux. It can compute at 62.63 teraflops, with a peak performance of 94.21 teraflops, making it the most powerful computer in Europe. [Navel of Narcissus]

When Aero is turned off, battery life is equal to or better than Windows XP systems. But with it turned on, battery life suffers compared with Windows XP...Laptop users who spent extra money on powerful laptops to handle the graphics requirements of Vista and the Aero interface are forced to run the aesthetic equivalent of Vista Basic, the low-cost version of Vista, if they care about battery life.

I don't know. If battery doesn't improve, we might start seeing more laptops with those static-electricity hand cranks on the side, like the original OLPC. – Wilson Rothman

Vista draining laptop batteries, patience [ZDNet via The Inquirer]

Product Page [via Boook of Joe]

And if you can master these fluid dynamics, you could make sure your date always has more to drink than you. Not that we're condoning that. Hit the jump to see it in use.

– Jason Chen

Project Page [jimrokos via Geekologie]

– Louis Ramirez
First Visitor Step onto Canyon Sidewalk [Spluch via TecheBlog]

Product Page [Via Newlaunches]

I'm not sure I have the guts to walk out over it. My faith in engineering and materials science simply doesn't extend that far. You?–Brian Lam

Grand Canyon Skywalk [Via Sci Fi Blog]

Did it work? Well, we don't see any lemonparty demons, do you?

– Jason Chen

Stained Glass PC Case [Boredstop]

But we're calling bullshit. First, there is no mention of any special, higher level of audio encoding than current CDs offer. And even if there were, why would we put these digital audio files onto glass to play them back? Why not just leave them on a hard drive or solid-state flashmedia?

Oh, and glass, yes, way to make the product out a completely indestructible material. Nothing can break, scratch or warp glass. Wait, that's why we invented plastic. – Mark Wilson

News Story [via therawfeed]

We're liking the colorful and space-saving near-vertical on-the-wall style of these range hoods. Our favorite feature is the innovative RF remote with its gestural controls. That's an idea that might be used elsewhere. But if you want this range hood, it's not going to be cheap. Brace yourself, it's $3990. – Charlie White

Vent hoods by Zephyr - Elica OM glass hood - a remote controlled hood! [Appliancist]

Now if you could just find a mail carrier that will bring your mail all the way up to your house rather than dropping it into a mailbox that's a half-mile away, this 15.5" mailbox would make a whole lot of sense. If you're so lucky to be able to use such a thing, it's $68. – Charlie White

Product Page [Chaisso, via Uncrate]

While some of these switchable glass products block out most light, others partially block it, giving you solar control while you can still have a view. Team up this technology with the Lumiwall solar-powered transparent lighting film we mentioned last week, and you can have complete control of the light coming from the windows in your room, day or night. – Charlie White

Product Page [Sage Electronics, via treehuggerand EcoGeek]

Get jumped, drink a shot. Get crowned, and your opponent drinks two shots. Lose, and you're drinking all the shots left on the board, buster. A great way to experience the wonders of tequila, alcohol poisoning, or both. Happy Fourth of July. – Charlie White

Shot Glass Checkers [productdose]

Actually, it was only $500 of real currency stacked on top of fake money, and people could only use their feet to try to break it. A security guard was present to make sure no one broke the rules and that people couldn't get to keep the money if they broke it.

Nevertheless, a glass that can stand a double-footed kick from a man with a 30 foot head start is impressive. Don't you wish your iPod screens were made out of this?

3M Security Glass Ad [37 Signals]

The Connection Glass was born out of two things product designer Priscilla Bernikowicz realized about bars: 1) that they're terrible places to meet people, because the noise prevents you from hearing what anyone is saying, and 2) that people clutch their glasses like security blankets. So the Connection Glass is kind of like Dodgeball except not on your cellphone, in that it tells you who is in your vicinity and lets you look at their profiles and send messages. You can exchange details with someone you find interesting by clinking your glasses together.

It's an interesting idea, and Bernikowicz is looking for backing so she can do more research and go into production, but at the end of the day is this something we really want or need? Most of us spend our work day locked down in front of a computer screen, only to spend our nights out coordinating our social lives over tiny cellphone screens. Instead of having more interfaces between us we should just relearn how to actually talk to each other face to face.

Priscilla Bernikowicz Design Portfolio [via Gearlog]
The Connection Glass facilitates and enhances meeting compatible people [gizmag]