By David Ponce

Looks like there really are people stupid enough to grant researchers funding to determine formulas for the strangest things. Last time we covered this, it was a Russian-American scientist who claimed to have developed a formula for laughter. Yeah, fun. This time around it’s not one but four British researchers at Leeds University’s Department of Food Science looking for the formula for the perfect bacon butty (popular in the UK, similar to a BLT). That’s right: four educated dudes who spent more than 1,000 hours testing 700 variations on the traditional bacon sandwich.

The results? For the best butty, you should put two or three back bacon slices under a preheated oven grill for seven minutes at about 240C (475F) and then place it between two slices of farmhouse bread, 1cm to 2cm thick. This conclusion was arrived at after (or maybe before or even during. Who knows?) the development of The Formula:

N = C + {fb(cm) . fb(tc)} + fb(Ts) + fc . ta

N = force in Newtons required to break the cooked bacon.
fb = function of the bacon type.
fc = function of the condiment/filling effect.
Ts = serving temperature.
tc = cooking time.
ta = time or duration of application of condiment/filling.
cm = cooking method.
C = Newtons required to break uncooked bacon.

Way to spend your students’ tuition, guys!

[ BBC Article ] VIA [ Neatorama ]

By David Ponce

This bizarre Japanese toy called “Human Player” simply tries to be… you. The first time you use it, it asks you 50 questions which are meant to analyze you and your personality. Once that’s done, it creates a little avatar: you!

From there, it splits into 22 personality offshoots and analyzes you the way a psychoanalyst would, and tells you who you really are. Once this is done, you can let you interact with up to 16 other digital peeps via IR and see how they interact.

The real strategy behind this device is the IR interaction with other people; it only really gets interesting when you start playing around with other Human Player owners (who of course have to buy their own Human Player). It would be interesting to see if your mini-you gets into fistfights with your mini-sister, or flips the bird at your mini-father, just like in real life.

When we visited the site (which is in Japanese), we were able to glean a few numbers that we interpreted to mean the following: Human Player has been available since March 31st, 2007 and costs 2,980 Yen, or roughly $25. Seems to be Japan only, but we can’t see why some enterprising importers couldn’t bring it across the pond.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Tokyomango ]

By David Ponce

You know how when you go to these multi-cultural fairs, and come across the Africa stand, you always have cool wooden sculptures of elongated people and stuff. Yeah? Well, little did we know that the good people of Ghana had taken their art to a whole new level. We just stumbled across a website that sells a variety of African goods, particularly this line of wonderful coffins. Aside from the pictured Nokia coffin, they sell a Ferrari, a Subaru, a beer bottle (!) and a computer mouse coffin. In fact, the company claims they will make you a coffin in any shape or size you desire, if you have up to three months to wait for them. Not only that, but we reckon their prices are more than reasonable: a full-sized (6ft) Ferrari coffin will set you back $1,000.

Keep reading for a few more pictures and links.

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By David Ponce

Last time you bought a smaller CD spindle (what is this? 10, 25 CDs?), we bet you had no idea you were also buying Tupperware. Well, hell, look at this! When you’re done burning porn important multimedia documents, you can use the empty spindle container to carry around your delicious bagel lunch.

VIA [ Core77 ]

By David Ponce

Oh, Japan, how you delight us with your wacky shenanigans. The latest? How about a fully functional aquarium that exists… right inside a deep fryer. No, no… let me explain this right. See, you have this aquarium with real live fish, and then, sitting right on top, is piping hot oil (163 Celsius) that is actually used to cook food. Since the water and the oil don’t mix, all the fish have to do to stay alive is not venture into the hot oil on top. What’s more, fallen crumbs from the frying process fall into this aquarium, serving as fish food. The fish are then able to live from 5 to 10 years, as long as they don’t get curious about what’s above the water line. It’s great stuff, but… we have a few questions about all this: how is the heat from the oil not transferred to the food through conduction? How do the fish breathe? Don’t they need oxygen? The food that falls below can’t be healthy; why aren’t they obese?

Whatever the case, after the jump, we’re including a video. And, get this… a link to a Japanese website called “WaterFryer”…

Update: Finally, some sense. From various translations of the video, the fish are just to demonstrate that there really is water under the fryer. The point of the water is so that the extra bits of batter from the food fall down into it instead of staying and burning in the oil, thus keeping the oil clean. The danger of a water/oil explosion is reduced because the water sinks down before it can explode. So, The Waterfryer is just that: a fryer that keeps itself somewhat clean by having its oil sit atop some water.

No one knows if goldfish were harmed in the making of this video.

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By David Ponce

Yeah, for some reason here I was half hoping it was a business card holder made from Kobe Beef jerky. You know, to snack on after you’ve given out all your cards… But it’s not. It’s just some vinyl chloride (aka plastic) card holder that holds ten cards, and looks awesome as hell coming out of your pocket.

They weigh about 30 grams, but since they’re handmade, that may vary a little. Not that it matters or anything, but we’re trying to find something pertinent to say about this; there isn’t much. They’re sold by SolidAlliance, a Japanese company famous for their food inspired USB drives. They’re available starting March 16th, and will set you back 2,980 Yen (or about $25).

[ Product Page (Translated from Japanese) ] VIA [ Plastic Bamboo ]

By David Ponce

So, you can look at this USB powered shaver a couple of ways. You can think of it as the perfect travel companion, recharging off your laptop while you work furiously at a cafe somewhere in the world, only to be ready to clean that beard off before your big meeting. Or, more likely for those of us reading blogs all day, as the sedentary geek’s best friend, sitting by the desktop charging away in case you ever decide to clean yourself and get a first life. Either way, this handy shaver is quite small, measuring 4 ?? x 2? and comes in a dandy gift box along with the cleaning brush.

The company that sells it does not seem to sell retail, opting for the wholesale route instead. This means you’d be free to resell these things, though you’d have to buy at least 25 to 499 to get them at the $14.40/piece price.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ EverythingUSB ]

By David Ponce

It’s far removed from gadgets, but crap if it isn’t fascinating. An enterprising Flickr user by the name of Pierre Tourigny has been scouring the website Hot Or Not for pictures of women. There’s plenty of that, and then some. But what Pierre then did with the pictures is what’s so amazing. He grouped them by average attractiveness (users of the site get to rate the pictures they see), and then blended them together using a program called SquirtzMorph. The result is the image you see above.

He claims he did this as a study on attractiveness, but we just think we was having fun. Can’t blame him either. He also grouped and morphed images based on age and ethnicity, and you can see those two pictures after the jump.

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By David Ponce

Did you know that Hello Kitty has a pet? Yeah, his (her?) name is Charmie. So, in a way, Charmie is a pet’s pet (Hello Kitty is still a damn cat, which, last time I checked, were still pets, so this works). I only mention this to highlight the absurdity of phone charms in general, and fully electronic, playable-as-standalone ones in particular. But hey, if pets can have pets, I suppose mobiles can have handheld games, right? Right.

Strapya

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Plastic Bamboo ]