Puzzle Alarm Clock limits snoozing

When this alarm clock goes off, it ejects three puzzle blocks that must be put back into matching holes before it will turn off. 

The idea is that you have to wake up to complete the task and can't simply hit the snooze button and go back to sleep!

[UrbanTrend via Gizmag]

Universities with the Best Free Online Courses

A ranked list of free university courses at the Education Portal for those who want to enhance personal knowledge or advance in their current field...

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (mit.edu)
   Over 1,800 free courses offered through the OpenCourseWare project (OCW).

2. Open University (open.ac.uk)
   Undergraduate and graduate-level course materials on arts, history, business, education, IT and computing, mathematics and statistics, science, health and technology.

3. Carnegie Mellon University (cmu.edu)
   Includes statistics, biology, chemistry, economics, French and physics.

4. Tufts University (tufts.edu)
   Courses include lecture notes, assignments and other supplementary materials (OCW).

5. Stanford (stanford.edu)
   Run through iTunes U so can be downloaded and played on iPods, PCs, and Macs.
   

6. University of California, Berkeley (berkeley.edu)
   Podcasts and webcasts on astronomy, biology, chemistry, computer programming, engineering, psychology, legal studies and philosophy.

7. Utah State University (usu.edu)
   Comprehensive text-based online courses from anthropology to physics and theatre arts.

8. Kutztown University of Pennsylvania (kutztownsbdc.org)
   Large collection of business courses on accounting, finance, government, business law, marketing and sales with interactive case studies, comprehensive text, slides, graphics and streaming audio.

9. University of Southern Queensland (usq.edu.au)
   Includes communication, science, career planning, technology, teaching and multimedia creation. (OCW)

10. University of California, Irvine (uci.edu)
    Topics like financial planning, human resources, capital markets and e-marketing include syllabi, lecture notes, assignments and exams.
    

How To Do Laser Graffiti

A fascinating form of "non-destructive" graffiti that uses a laser, to draw images on buildings in real time. Great for hijacking political events, etc. but rather scary if you happened to be looking out a window into the laser beam! [a Weekend Project from MAKE Blog]

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Color Changing Illuminated Shower Head

This replacement shower head illuminates the water according to water temperature. I guess this might be useful; it's a curious effect at least. The illuminating LEDs are powered by the water flow and don't require batteries.

Shenzhen Kezhilai Electronics Technology Co., Ltd.
[via Gadgets News]

A silly little YouTube movie

This clip says something about the nature of humour. People seem to find this type of slapstick incredibly funny or are not moved at all. I'm one of the former...
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Novel dish drainer saves water while watering your plants

With the current state of drought in Melbourne, there's a lot of interest in ways of saving water around the house.

Here's a novel design for a dish drainer by a young Turkish designer Erdem Selek that would look great in the kitchen and save at least a few drops of water.

Erdem is doing a thesis at the ESAD de Reims in France on sustainable design approaches of medium sized manufacturing companies in Turkey from the economical perspective.

[via MAKE: Blog]

Top Gear review of the P50 - a 60's design for the car of the future?

Absolutely classic Top Gear humour!

Jeremy Clarkson reviews the tiny P50 - a 40 year old car that makes a Prius look like a petrol guzzling tank.
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[via Gadget Lab]