appliances

When it comes to bathroom designs, the Internet is flush with ideas about the contemporary toilet. These days, you’ll find lots of green bathroom remodeling tips about the latest generation of high-efficiency toilets (HET). The newest HETs offer an .8 gallon procedure, where older toilets consume 6 gallons to do the job. But none of them look halfway as interesting as these unique designs I’ve culled by Googling and going with the flow.

Commodious dentitis

Photo by Holy Taco

Photo by Holy Taco

Toilet designs like this make you wonder what their creator had in mind. Perhaps it was an earnest attempt at water conservation through the power of persuasion.

Bathroom for massively multiplayer addicts

Photo by Curious Photos

Photo by Curious Photos

Last year a 20-year-old British man died from a blood clot that formed during his all-night shifts on his console playing the online game Halo. In 2009, a young Korean man committed suicide when he discovered could no longer walk away from his console. Seriously, gentlemen, take a break, will you?

Go fish

Photo by Izismile

Photo by Izismile

Someone call PETA. What happens to the fish when the tank drains to flush the commode? It’s an interesting enough design, but I couldn’t possibly sit there with all those eyes on me.

Heat for your seat

Photo by Nomadness TV

Photo by Japanese Stuff

You have to hand it to Japanese designers who created this warm toilet for those icy winter mornings. It’s probably not the model to choose if you have a family member that already spends too much time in there.

The butt of someone’s joke

Photo by Reverse Monster

Photo by Reverse Monster

No, it’s not the Grateful Dead’s old drum kit. But with more than 2,050 different styles of bathroom toilets on the market, you’d have a tough time convincing your spouse to live with this one.

Uncanny experience

Photo by Azareal

Photo by Azareal

It took an Atlantis astronaut more than six hours during his spacewalk to “fix” bad smells coming from this toilet on the International Space Station. It would take you a month of physics classes at the Houston Flight Center to learn how to use this clinical masterpiece.

Need to read up on your flush-toilet antiquity? Peruse Gizmodo’s “The Long, Unglamorous History of the Toilet.”

Furniture and appliances to fear

It’s time once again to warn you about home appliances, furniture and other products for the home that may cause more harm than good. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) posts alerts on its website for products that have received complaints and are currently being recalled – voluntarily – by their manufacturers or distributors.

In a news release, the CPSC claims to have averted delivery of “hundreds of millions” of unsafe products. In 2010 and 2011, the port surveillance arm of the CPSC blocked importation o0f more than 6.5 million units of 1,700 different children’s’ products from coming into the country. Read more about it at the CPSC. And now on to some recent recalls.

Don’t fall for this chair

Photo by CPSC

Photo by CPSC

Some 11,000 of these 482 Series Steelcase Amia desk chairs were recalled after it was discovered that pivot pins in the chair bottoms can drop out without warning, posing a serious fall hazard. The chairs in the recall were sold at …wait for it…The Healthy Back Store and other retailers for between $350 and $700.

Floor lamp meltdown

Photo by CPSC

Photo by CPSC

If you’re lighting up your home with Big Lots’ Model G-1843-5 Classic Quarters Five Light Floor Lamps, stop now. You might light up more than you bargained for when you plunked down $50. So far, four consumers have reported on melting lamp shades. The wiring, the CPSC found, can also become exposed, creating the opportunity for consumers to unwillingly participate in home illumination.

Blinkin’ and Nod

Photo by CPSC

Photo by CPSC

The Land of Nod is recalling Blake Bed Frames that can apparently entrap the child sleeping in it. The models were sold at stores in Illinois and Washington for between $600 and $700. Visit the Land of Nod for recall information.

You can now get recall notices by email by subscribing at the CPSC. The Federal Government also has app downloads available for Android smart phones to help you search for alerts while you’re shopping. Cool beans!

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