A spy camera hidden in a black back beside a notorious UK "fly-tipping" (or illegal waste dumping in the King's English) hot spot was recently thrown out by local workers with the other garbage. Apparently, this operation was so top secret that the workers in question did not need to know the details before being sent off to pick up the trash. To make matters worse, the camera has been valued at somewhere between US$14 and US$20,000. Basically, its just a hilarious waste of taxpayer money illustrated using equally hilarious British terminology. [Telegraph via Digg]

Read More »

Read More »

The European Space Agency has just released images showing all the satellites and human-made debris now orbiting space as a result of 51 years of launching stuff since Sputnik. That's about 6,000 satellites up there—of which only 800 remain operational—plus thousands of other objects from launches and accidents. According to their mindblowing simulations things are getting a lot worse:

Read More »

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for recycling, but it's the process I'm not so thrilled about. For bottles and newspapers things are fairly simple, but there is a whole grey area that makes knowing what is appropriate for recycling more complicated. The Barcode Trashcan offers a high tech solution that utilises the product barcode to help sort and separate items.

Read More »

Clement Eloy, creator of the infamous Hotdoll sex doll for dogs, has a new project. Unfortunately it doesn't feature dogporn, but it's still pretty cool. It's called the SamePaperPlayAgain, and it's a wastebasket designed to help you waste time as well as paper by making throwing things away a game. Take turns kickin' stuff at the wastebasket, keeping score on who's more accurate. No matter who wins, the real loser will be your employer, who's wasting valuable payroll dollars on someone who clearly doesn't care about their job in the slightest. [FeelAddicted]

In the Kenyan slum of Kibera, outside of Nairobi, an oven fuelled by garbage is now in testing. At its heart is a superheated steel plate that vaporizes drops of water. The oxygen released burns discarded sump oil from vehicles, reaching even higher temperatures up to 930° Fahrenheit. Garbage is then used to maintain the heat.

Residents can use the oven to cook hot meals or make hot water for washing. The system's added benefit is that it reduces waste in the area, a problem that has gotten so bad that it is beginning to destroy Kenya's plains.

Recognized as the first of its kind, the concept has caught on quickly, and plans for 20 more are already in the works. As people are increasingly drawn to urban areas, excess waste is rapidly becoming a critical problem. There are still some obvious kinks to be worked out, such as containing the fumes from the burning garbage.

The oven was built with the help of a $10,000 grant from the United Nations Environment Programme. Advocates of the oven hope that the technology works well enough to be employed in large cities everywhere. [Christian Science Monitor via Treehugger]

Who knew a minor variation in the shape of the top of an ordinary trash can could be so useful? There's usually a trashcan next the toilet, so Snowtone Design figured it might be nice to put that receptacle to use during the times you're not throwing stuff in it. Just drag it around in front of you as you're doing your business and all of a sudden you have a hands-free reading assistant. [Snowtone]

Our rant about those $7,250 Pear Anjou speaker cables found its way to the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF), and Randi offered $1 million to anyone who can prove those cables are any better than ordinary (and also overpriced) Monster Cables. Pointing out the absurd review by audiophile Dave Clark, who called the cables "danceable," Randi called it "hilarious and preposterous." He added that if the cables could do what their makers claimed, "they would be paranormal."

Read More »

Here's what happens when British artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster toss a pile of trash in their living room. Somehow it stacks up so perfectly that when they shine a light through it, glorious, and sometimes even pisstastic, artwork results. Big names on the UK art scene since their highly acclaimed exhibition at the Royal Academy in 2000, they've been coming up with these spectacular compositions ever since. [Slightly Warped]

The reason Japanese people are so short is because space comes at such a premium (it's true, we read it on Wikipedia). This adjustable trash can, however, is great for small rooms that need small cans, but can adjust upwards to accomodate large rooms as well. This way, instead of throwing out your garbage when the bin gets full, you can just make the bin bigger. Avoiding problems by deferring solutions until later, that's the American way. We're just glad the Japanese are finally catching up. [Cataloger via Tokyo Mango]