Flo Toilet saves you on water and yoga

A team of ASU College of Design students, led by faculty members John Takamura and Dosun Shin, hopes to change the toilet archetype with their “Go With the Flo” design by the year 2030. The unusual trans-generational toilet design concept grabbed the “Breaking the Rules Silver Award” at the Northwest Design Invitational. The toilet concept met five “outstanding design” criteria - appropriate aesthetics, design innovation, ecological responsibility and market and user benefits. The ergonomic Flo toilet is a sustainable design concept for baby boomers, which functions like a squat toilet. The usage of the toilet, in a way, is very similar to yoga. It helps build and strengthen abdominal and back muscles. Flushing requires just one-half to one gallon of water. The Flo features an electromagnetic ball valve that flushes water from the tanks to the toilet. The Go With the Flo toilet is independent of electric power and doesn’t feature any mechanical parts.

They'll Never Find It!: Powdered Alcohol

I've known about powdered alcohol for a while now because I remember reading an article about powdered wine being available to campers (also great for water into wine tricks!). *HORF* Just kidding, I'd totally drink it. But now it's hitting the mainstream, and soon you'll see powdered alcohol mixes popping up everywhere (read: your teen's bookbag).

No word on price or availability just yet, but rest assured they'll be a ton of companies jumping on the 'sneaking alcohol into church/school' bandwagon. Which, honestly, I've been doing for years. Now I know what you're thinking, "But how, Mr. Geekologie Writer?" And the answer to that, my disciple, is in my stomach. In a tied-off balloon. Next to all the coke.

New York Street Advertising Takeover

Some interesting vigilante justice happened in NYC over the weekend - the "New York Street Advertising Takeover" project happened over the weekend, with 120 illegal billboards in and around NYC being white-washed and then painted over by about 80 different artists. Only billboards (apparently mostly all from one agency) that weren't registered with the city were targeted.

According to Cronicas Barbaras, who spoke to the organizer of NYSAT "NPA outdoor operates over 500 street level billboards in NYC ranging in size from about 4'x4' to 50'x12'. All of these advertising structures are illegal. I found this out by talking to the NYC Department of Buildings which has no permits for the NPA outdoor structures but has its hands full dealing with the rampant illegal billboard situation. I have also spoken directly with NPA outdoor employees who have told me that the NYPD will jail them from time to time at which point NPA lawyers bail them out and they are compensated 500 dollars for the nuisance of spending the night in jail."