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Hollow Spy Coins Are Perfect Metaphor of Current Economy
Posted by Jesus Diaz at 11:45 PM on October 22, 2008
Back in the good old days of the Cold War, spies didn't have encrypted mobile phones or digital thingamajigs to do their thing, so they did their spy business with classic spy stuff like spy camera-pens, spy shoe transmitters, spy bacon strips, and messages encoded on their spy underpants. Or these Hollow Spy Coins, which were used by the CIA and the KGB to hide poison or microfilms. Now you can buy them to store whatever is small enough to fit in them, like discarded nail bits. The coins are still in use by modern spies, however: Last year, the US Department of Defence cautioned its American contractors about hollow Canadian coins containing radio transmitters.
Coin Lamp has its heart in the right place, but I'm afraid the inevitable path that each of these concept lamps will take, given enough time, is into a garbage can. In pieces. Because your retirement fund will tank, you'll get desperate, and you will need the $US2.35 in change this simple little lamp contains something fierce. So, it will be Coin Lamp meet hammer, and then you can afford your small latte at the expense of not being able to see that night. Kudos to designer Jethro Macey for thinking of it, as anything that keeps us mindful of our energy consumption is a welcome step forward. [
This gizmo from Handlink is clearly aimed at hotels, coffee shops and other places where you may need net access, and you can't argue with the thinking in its design. Simply pop in some coins, grab the printout with your time-limited access codes, and then connect up your notebook, or phone to its 802.11b/g service. Kind of the retro-future public payphone of the internet era, it saves time from all that messing about you sometimes have to do in internet cafés. Shame it just takes coins though. No info on price or availability. [
Although not as long or stabby as real screwdrivers, these pocket coin screwdrivers go many places where real ones cannot (when's the last time you stuck a flat-head into your pants without getting a dirty look from your wife?). However, with these coin screwers, you can both screw in and out on the go with nothing but a pocketful of jingling to make anyone the wiser. A set of twelve can be yours for $8.50, which is the perfect price for stealthily unscrewing the train seat in front of you for subsequent laughs. [
