Comments on: John Lennon's alien ice cube

by: Darien

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:09:43 +0100

Glad you mentioned the Uri Geller story; James Randi's old post on the subject was actually the first time I ever heard of the Piet Hein superellipses, and so every time I see one I immediately think "hey, it's an alien artifact!"

by: Jaymis

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:33:54 +0100

Love the top "holding the reflector" shot. [Note the press-handout pic below that, though - it looks as if whoever the Hein people got to take pictures of their products couldn't be bothered putting shiny things in a little tent, either :-). -Dan]

by: kamikrae-z

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 19:23:56 +0100

@#5 I like it, but what if the bag was shaped like a tea bag!
Of course, material choice would play an important factor, but I think it could be a winning idea...

by: Daniel Rutter

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:32:14 +0100

You could use a piece of stainless tubing, closed at one end. Fill with water (or salt water, even), freeze, then use as swizzle-stick. You could even curl it around like an electric stove element so you could get plenty of surface area below the level of even a small drink in a wide glass, like the whisky in the above picture.

(If you started making complicated shapes, you would of course have to take more care to make sure the expansion of the water on freezing didn't damage the tube.)

Actually, if you only want to cool something like a single or double Scotch, the Piet Hein cooler will probably do a decent job, because there's not much volume of liquid, and you probably don't want it cooled almost to freezing point anyway. I still don't think it'll achieve much that just putting the glass in the freezer wouldn't, though.

by: Erik T

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:00:10 +0100

#1, the ghettofabulous solution would be to put ice cubes in plastic baggies, and put those in your drink.

by: FuzzyPlushroom

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 04:41:04 +0100

I dare say that these are rather cute. They may not cool all that well, but they're a billion times as durable as an olive, which has to count for something.

by: AussieDan

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 22:58:45 +0100

Stuart: I think you'll find that your second mystery is the solution to the first!

by: Stuart

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:56:39 +0100

The only greater mystery than why designers keep making pretty-yet-inferior objects is why people keep indulging them in that pursuit.

by: Red October

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:12:53 +0100

That looks awesome. Shame it doesn't work well. Is there no cure for ice melting in ones drink? Those horrendously tacky mugs with the frozen stuff in the walls are, well, tacky, and they break, and they take up gobs of freezer room, and so on and so forth.