…on March 1, 2009.

On that date, the traditional lighting source of incadescent bulbs will be banned from stores, forcing people to purchase more energy efficient bulbs such as compact fluorescents, halogens and/or LEDs. I have to say, at our last house, I had tons of halogen ceiling lights, which put out TONS of heat and had to be replaced about 3 times a year. That doesn’t seem ecologically friendly or energy friendly.

I have slowly begun converting some of our “main” lights in the current house to compact fluorescents, which with the ones I purchased, you have to get over two issues: one is the warm up time and the other is the color. I know that the color and warm up time can be compensated for by higher priced bulbs, but they also expend a bit more energy to have a constant “primed” bulb. I just figure it is a gradual light for late at night when your eyes need to adjust.

Now, for the LEDs, I am slowly becoming to love those little lights. They just need to come down on price before it can really be cost effective in a house my size. Maybe that will be the next experiment.

Anyways, do you think the people of Ireland will hate or love this change? It appears overall, there is a higher cost for the bulbs, so I wonder if that will sway them?

Retrieved from -Popular Science-

…and the Wunder Boner might do just the trick (if you want some fish)!

Yes, it is a fish de-boner…and yes, it is a horrible name. It’s great!

Retrieved from -ExtraLife- (thanks Scott Johnson for the laugh)

…involves tearing things down on purpose, instead of trying to keep them up!

So normally with Jenga, the object is to remove pieces of a tower and keep it from falling. Well, Uncommon Goods is offering a game that is similar, but much more pleasing to my destructive side. Players take turns building a tower while the other tries to knock it down with three types of devices: a ramp, a catapult or a wrecking ball.

This would be an awesome game for an engineer. Critical thinking to build up defenses where they are weak requires constant analysis which, for me, would be a pleasant change from normal board games when it comes to my thinking processes.

The only downside to the game….it costs $55.

Product Info -Destruct 3-
Retrieved from -OhGizmo!-

Unbelievable Dalek Christmas Tree from Lindsey J. Testolin on Vimeo.

…well, ThatsMyFace has the unique gift everyone has been wanting…a 3D model of your face!

So, the website ThatsMyFace has a pretty unique idea for gifts. You go to their website, you upload a couple of photos (frontal and profile), mark some key points and submit to them and they will create a facial profile for you. Then you can have fun by either aging yourself 10-40 years, change your ethinicity, change your sex and other fun things. They can also rate your “beautified self” and “attractiveness” ratings. How they do that, I have no clue. I would also be interested in the matching part where they will track down others who look similar to you.

But finally, for the true reason of this post…you can then purchase 3D cut statues of yourself to keep or to give as a gift. I like the pen holder shown above, but if you want to get real creepy, they have a “braincase” sample in which your top of head is cut off showing the brains.

So, starting at $29 (and ranging up to $2,000) feel free to give the ultimate narcissistic gift!

Product Info -ThatsMyFace-
Retrieved from -OhGizmo!-

Baxter St. Bridge over Little Sugar Creek in downtown Charlotte that now carries the professional engineering seal of the Q!

Test photo with canned image included with the TiltShift iPhone app.

…range all over the place, but they have just added one that I might have to get…TiltShift!

As I mentioned last week, I enjoy playing around with Tilt-Shift photography. Those lenses to actually make that type of photograph can run all the way up to $3,000…and that is an average. I have even resorted to following one of my favorite magazines, Make!, instructional on how to make a tilt-shift lens out of household materials. By the way, thanks to those who showed me where to find the right type of toilet plunger to make that lens. Anyway, one of the benefits of my new iPhone is the availability of literally TONS of applications people have written. The latest one today basically is the process I used to create my first tilt-shift photograph using Photoshop. So, instead of paying $800 for Photoshop, I can now pay $2 to do it on the iPhone. Talk about a savings! Once I get a good subject, I’ll show you how well the program works.

Product Info -TiltShift-
Retrieved from -Gizmodo-

…although there won’t be very predictable results when you go downhill.

Some of the most fun in college I had was when we had a snow/ice storm and the ground was completely covered. My friends and I just got it in our heads that we should head on over to Pullen Park (the park next to campus) and go sledding. Growing up, we always used the standard sled with the wooden slats and the metal rails that you waxed to go down a hill. Well, being the poor college students we were and not having access to a car, we had to improvise. We located some old cardboard boxes and crushed them down until they were in three layers and then shot ourselves down the hill. It actually wasn’t bad…until we hit roots…or a ditch that then served as a ramp launching us into oblivion for a crash landing on our tailbones. But the sheer fun of not being in control made sledding much more enjoyable for me. With that being said, it seems like this company has made a sled that can have that much fun and also look geekily cool at the same time. Who wouldn’t want to fly down a hill on the Millennium Falcon? And someone needs to buy this to see if it can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs for me.

Product Info -Amazon- -Target-
Retrieved from -OhGizmo!-

…this time in timelapse photography at a Monster Truck rally. I haven’t been to one of those in a long time, and this really makes me want to go!

Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Retrieved from -OhGizmo!-