Shiny LEDs Ring In the New Times Square New Year’s Ball

I’m nostalgic for some things, but it’s about damn time they replaced that raggedy old New Year’s Ball in Times Square. It had 600 bulbs and looked like it came from the prop room of The Day The Earth Stood Still. The new and improved model boasts 9,576 LEDs, renders 16 million colours and displays video, all without using more electricity than 10 toasters. It costs $1.1 million, but lest you think it all went into tech, those sparkly things are Waterford crystals—the only thing that trumps Swarovski. [Sci Fi Tech]