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Designers Create Meat Eating Furniture

Posted by samzenpus on from the eating-the-couch-potato dept.

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."

14 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. *gasp* by somersault · · Score: 2

    "combined with a form of fusion, the machines would have all the power they would ever need"

    --
    which is totally what she said
  2. I think I'll pass...... by NiteShaed · · Score: 4, Funny

    Dad: "Honey, where are the kids?"
    Mom: "They're playing by the couch"
    Couch: "Burp"

    --
    Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
  3. Excrement by arisvega · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Does the furniture also crap?

    --
    The three laws of thermodynamics:(1) You can't win. (2) You can't break even. (3) You can't even quit.
    1. Re:Excrement by BigSlowTarget · · Score: 2

      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.

    2. Re:Excrement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Right - because then we'd have fly ash!

  4. Mouse-eating coffee table.... by janestarz · · Score: 2
    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!

    1. Re:Mouse-eating coffee table.... by tigre · · Score: 3, 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!

  5. Re:Nothing with a face by magarity · · Score: 2

    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.

  6. Insectivorous furniture by RNLockwood · · 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."

    --
    Nate
  7. The obvious power source for a chair is... by outsider007 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Farts. I'm charging mine right now.

    --
    If you mod me down the terrorists will have won
  8. Microsoft Surface by tepples · · Score: 2

    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.

  9. Re:Lounge chair that eats cockroaches sometime soo by FrozenFOXX · · Score: 4, 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

    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 without pulling up several hundred citations but here's a few highlights:

    • Dirt does not cause bedbugs.
    • Age of mattress does not cause bedbugs
    • Dirty clothing does not cause bedbugs
    • An astonishing number of things DO NOT CAUSE BEDBUGS

    As a corollary, some of the following ARE of interest relating to bed bugs:

    • Cluttered houses make them harder to get rid of, but do not cause them
    • You cannot leave traps for them as they feed on blood (unless you fill yourself with Clorox I suppose, though you'd have bigger problems)
    • They can survive for a good 14 months or so without feeding
    • They can survive extreme cold (think freezer) for days without issue
    • They can survive extreme heat almost without issue
    • Changing sheets/destroying mattresses/other have WORSE effects since you only end up spreading them
    • They're small enough to live in your freakin electrical outlets, computer case, under your desk at work
    • The only way to kill the bastards is a complex, multi-front, all-out ASSAULT involving quarantine, chemicals, and a shitload of other invasive stuff
    • Even after you *think* you've got it contained, they could just be resting for a few months or so (maybe a year, even) to start up all over again. God help you if you made the mistake of having carpet.

    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.

    --
    "Just a fox, a whisper."
  10. Re:Lounge chair that eats cockroaches sometime soo by MattSausage · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually heat is the one way pest control companies say you can be certain to be rid of them. They cannot live above a temperature of 100F or so. So in many cases they literally hook giant fans up to the windows and pump your house up to 120 or so for 24 - 48 hours to heat up everything in there, and you can rest assured any bedbugs in the building at that time are dead as doornails.

  11. Re:Pet furniture by RealGrouchy · · Score: 2

    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>

    --
    Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!