Designers Create Meat Eating Furniture 120
Sonny Yatsen writes "NPR's Robert Krulwich explores the work of several designers who are working on carnivorous furniture. These creations, include a clock that feeds on dead flies, and a table that lures mice into a guillotined death. 'We want robots to be able to get their own energy from the environment,' says co-designer Prof. Melhuish. Let's hope they come up with a lounge chair that eats cockroaches sometime soon."
Om nom nom (Score:1)
This is one idea that literally does have a chance of biting you on the ass.
Office chair (Score:1)
I need an office chair made out of this stuff to give to my boss for a present. Just don't include any warning labels or instruction manuals with it, please.
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*gasp* (Score:3)
"combined with a form of fusion, the machines would have all the power they would ever need"
wait a minute... (Score:1)
"We want robots to be able to get their own energy from the environment."
so The Matrix was started by furniture designers?
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I'd be more worried about this sort of thing [reddwarf.co.uk].
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Any part in particular?
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Lounge chair that eats cockroaches sometime soon (Score:2)
What about a bed that eats bed bugs?
Maybe then we would not have to put quarters in for the magic fingers.
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What about a bed that eats bed bugs?
Already "invented", it's called washing your goddamn sheets / replacing your 20 year old mattress / NOT making your bed right after getting up [chronic-illness.org]
Re:Lounge chair that eats cockroaches sometime soo (Score:5, Informative)
What about a bed that eats bed bugs?
Already "invented", it's called washing your goddamn sheets / replacing your 20 year old mattress / NOT making your bed right after getting up [chronic-illness.org]
Dunno about that last one but I strongly doubt you have any experience with bed bugs if you think the prior two have anything to do with them. You seriously cannot do a single google search for bed bug causes [google.com] without pulling up several hundred citations but here's a few highlights:
As a corollary, some of the following ARE of interest relating to bed bugs:
Seriously, they're an unholy nightmare, plain and simple, and telling someone, "wash your goddamn sheets," is downright insulting to anyone that's actually had to deal with these bastards.
Re:Lounge chair that eats cockroaches sometime soo (Score:4, Interesting)
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Amen brother. Little bastards ruined my vacation a few years ago. I stopped counting at 150 bites on my arms, legs, and neck.
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An astonishing number of things DO NOT CAUSE BEDBUGS
Some studies have shown that bed bugs are the number one cause of bed bugs.
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Well thank you sir, I just got an education right there. I'm sorry if my comment came off as insulting in your opinion, I was just feeling cheeky when I wrote it.
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Not a bad idea at all. The environment also includes things like dander, dust mites, and mold spores.
Now, a roomba or air filter that could power itself off what it picks up --- that could be pretty damn handy.
Nothing with a face (Score:2)
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Microsoft Surface (Score:3)
Somehow I never thought I ever need to power up my table.
Then perhaps you need to upgrade your table to a Microsoft Surface, the successor to cocktail arcade cabinets.
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Vegans are way to picky. I just want a sofa that eats cracker crumbs and drinks grape juice. It's not often the kids spill a steak on it.
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Indeed, then they'll start demanding toflies, like the tofurkeys and tofu dogs human vegans seem to want.
Never understood why, if you object to eating meat, you form your veggies into meat-like products. I don't make carrot shapes out of my ground beef.
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Never understood why, if you object to eating meat, you form your veggies into meat-like products. I don't make carrot shapes out of my ground beef.
I'm a vegetarian, mostly vegan (some eggs and dairy) and I'll tell you why.
Meat is delicious. It's an great source of protein, fats, and nutrients. People like meat, and vegetarians and vegans are, in fact, still people. I spend a lot of time on my diet working out what to eat and eating healthy choices. I don't eat salad and granola three meals a day. As the saying goes, "You can't get full on salad!" That's totally true, and no real vegetarian or vegan would eat just salad because you'd get really s
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Unbuttered popcorn? Or did you find some special non milk based buttered popcorn?
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Never understood why, if you object to eating meat, you form your veggies into meat-like products. I don't make carrot shapes out of my ground beef.
But you can still eat real carrots whenever you want to, so your situation isn't equivalent...
I think I'll pass...... (Score:5, Funny)
Dad: "Honey, where are the kids?"
Mom: "They're playing by the couch"
Couch: "Burp"
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Excrement (Score:5, Interesting)
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It's got to either crap or have really bad gas. It's hard to use everything in a fly for anything but being a fly but you could burn the leftovers.
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Right - because then we'd have fly ash!
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I think around the furniture folks, that could be what's considered "artistic" and "designer", thus raising the price of your sofa by 10x!
well put it this way... (Score:1)
Would you rather have to kill a mouse in your house, or swat that fly, or would you rather just have to clean up couch and table feces?? :)
Answers seems obvious to me
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Mom: "It's okay, Timmy. Our carpet is coprophage."
In reverese (Score:1)
Not so long ago, there were these rubbers and plastic army men and Rubber Dog poop that did the opposite . ,They took the finish right off down to and beyond the bare wood
They Ate the Furniture
Mouse-eating coffee table.... (Score:2)
But what does it need power for? It's pretty much a coffee table without the energy the mouse will provide!
Re:Mouse-eating coffee table.... (Score:4, Interesting)
The coffee table eats mice to power itself.
But what does it need power for? It's pretty much a coffee table without the energy the mouse will provide!
It needs power so that it can eat mice, duh!
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If we assume a very efficient mouse consumption and digestion (E=mc^2) and take 30g as a typical mouse mass [answers.com] then you get about 2.696x10^15 Joules per mouse. After that first mouse, I bet the table could be quite the aggressive mouse hunter.
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Where will it get the anti-mice it needs to attain that level of efficiency?
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The table is anti-mice
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Yup. It's only us humans that suffer from 'philosophy'. Food, sex and death for everyone else.
Phillip.
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Solar Power? (Score:1)
I would think solar power would work better and be more readily available.
Is there a reason for it not being as considered as one would think? Is it too expensive? Technical problems? Or is it being increasingly used in robotics?
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Not all robots are designed for exclusively indoor use. And a house can be built in such a way as to allow in plenty of sunlight. I'm not an engineer when it comes to solar technology though so I can't say for sure how useful that is as an energy source, especially for larger robotics.
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Then how does my solar powered calculator work!?
pointless (Score:1)
first, why does a table need energy? does it get tired of sitting there in the living room all day?
second, before you go designing meat eating furniture, don't forget that as humans we too are meat.
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Don't worry, the fact that the story is completely fucking stupid won't keep our tax-supported "national-treasure" from wasting an hour reporting on it in a near whisper-voice that puts you to sleep.
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Sure, but does your coffee table smell of rotting dead mice? Didn't thnk so.
Insectivorous furniture (Score:5, Funny)
"Hey, see my new high tech chair? It gets its energy from eating cockroaches. (Wonder what it does with the energy?) Hmm, in order to stay alive it will need a continual supply of cockroaches so I'll need to make sure that my dwelling stays infested; but if it gets them all perhaps I can buy crickets at the pet store. This should bump up my value as a prospective mate a lot and help to get me laid. At the very least it will be great to sit in and watch Fox News."
Practical application (Score:2)
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I could see uses for things like a bugzapper lamp that "eats" the bugs to offset part of it's own power consumption (maybe all? how efficient are these insect-powered cells?).
I could also see uses for a mousetrap powered by digesting it's previous meal and storing it in a battery. Preferably one with less passive energy use than the ones we already use (y'know cats?), so it can lay in wait longer between meals. Something about a mousetrap that feeds on the lives of mice to power killing more mice amuses m
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The amount of energy you'd get out of such a scheme would be ridiculously low, much lower than the energy needed to build the equipment. You'd be better off generating energy from biogas produced by effluent and dumping expired pets in the septic tank.
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Just when I was wondering what I was going to do with all the stray cats in the neighborhood...
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Ok, I'll bite. How many grandmas does it take to power a house for a year? How many monthe worth can you store, before the neighbors start asking questions? Should you bother feeding them, or is it more economical not to?
Think of the hippies (Score:2)
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How about a vegetarian line, for their New Age clientele?
You idea might produce a lot more power, since vegetarians are considerably larger than mice. Just use tofu instead of cheese to attract them into the blades.
Somebody has to... (Score:2)
"Death Bed: The Bed that Eats"
What?! (Score:1)
What does a coffee table need energy FOR?! It looks like such HARD work to sit there all day in front of the tv.
That's right stay at home mom, you heard it here first: Coffee table does your job for the cost of a few mice.
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What does a coffee table need energy FOR?!
Ah, you see, that's the genius part! Because with these, we're also introducing our brand new electric wood screws and wood glue! They combine all the usefulness of your old wood screws and glue with... um... electricity! That makes them better! It does. Shut up. But, see, without power, they don't hold themselves together, and your table will fall apart! Hence the need for energy from dead pests!
See? It all makes perfect sense! You just need to think outside the box more often!
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What happens when you forget to feed it? Will it turn on its masters?
The coffee table won't, but the lazy susan probably will.
- RG>
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Progress in a nutshell (Score:2)
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I like how the author calls them "scientists" and "professors". Of what? Where is their degree? There is no actual suggestion or evidence that these guys are anything but a couple of crazy fucks screwing around with random shit in their back yard like some crazy junk-yard collector who thinks he's making a giant communication device to the space aliens hiding behind the moon.
The Curious Sofa (Score:2)
The Curious Sofa, a "pornographic illustrated story about furniture," by Edward Gorey (writing as Ogdred Weary), goes into this. Let's just say that, like most Gorey stories, it doesn't end well.
The obvious power source for a chair is... (Score:4, Funny)
Farts. I'm charging mine right now.
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Farts. I'm charging mine right now.
Better hope it doesn't go proactive when hungry!
This Is Great (Score:1)
Hopefully this is a first step towards... (Score:2)
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Can it eat the food my kids spill all over it? (Score:1)
Skynet goes carnivorous? (Score:2)
Anthill Inside (Score:2)
Tables? (Score:1)
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I... (Score:1)
chair resistant cocrhoaches (Score:2)
the little beasts will adapt soon enough
In Soviet Russia.. (Score:2)
the chair craps you!
Fleet Street? (Score:1)
Robots in Disguise... (Score:2)
So it eats flies and mice and craps out energon cubes... I guess we could call it an exterminate-icon....
from the eating-the-couch-potato dept. (Score:2)
That would be vegetarian furniture.
Bug free house (Score:2)
I don't think I would really want those items, but if my furniture were able to lure and dispose of bugs in such a way that I would never even know about the bugs, I think I could go for that.
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How about if it makes a great trail mix too?
I dont know about you but... (Score:2)
How delightful (Score:2)
Just what we need, new ways of killing.
It adds a new meaning to the saying “killing for convenience”.
Nobel Prize? (Score:1)
Clearly this must deserve a Nobel Prize..
why does this sound like a simpsons episode? (Score:2)
How retarded (Score:1)