I love rockets, and I love art deco, and I love to wash my hands. So the conundrum exists: how can I combine all these things?
OMGOMGOMG. This way!
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Oh, Mrs. BA is so getting me this for our anniversary this year.
Tip o’ the space modulator to io9.
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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
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May 24th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
I hear you can also get a Battlestar shaped bathtub
May 24th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Humans are so ingenious. A solution for a conundrum we never knew existed till they presented us a solution for it. Now I want one too!
May 24th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Umm, Phil, did you check the price?
http://www.newretrobath.com/products/rh1127.htm
The cheapest model is over $2500!
May 24th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
You are such a nerd that I have to laugh.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
That vibrator looks unduly complicated, but, hey, whatever floats your boat.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Ooooooh sweet mystery of life at last I’ve found you…
Gotta have it!!
May 24th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Beautiful. But it costs almost $2,000!!
May 24th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
That’s some design.
May 24th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
You’ll never get swine flu with that baby – it’ll blow any germs or viruses off your hands and into the next galaxy!!
May 24th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
I’m sure if you bought that for Mrs. BA, you would be sleeping on the BAcouch for the next six months!
Mchl… A Battlestar Bathtub??? Oh, you mean the hybrid tub! Yes, that was available at the BSG auction held recently!
May 24th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Hmmm…don’t know if I’d go public over a triple decker phallic symbol.
May 24th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Phil….
words fail me…
but if you get it, I wanna see it in situ.
May 24th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
When you install it, remember, it’s hot on the left, red on the right. If you do it backwards, just reverse the polarity.
May 24th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Was definitely a WANT.
Then I Googled it to find prices….$2044 is the cheap version – $2647 for ‘Satin Nickel’ finish…..
OMGOMGOMG, indeed….Hope the book sold REALLY well…..
May 24th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
$2500 for the taps!! Your book must have done really well. Give me $500 and I’ll make you a waterproof paper mache set of taps that slips over your regular taps. I’ll even use tinfoil to give it that shiny look. Order now and I’ll add the batteries for free (in case you want to convert it to..uhhmm…other uses).
May 24th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Oh that IS cool! Holy moly it’s expensive, though.
May 24th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
WOW! It’s like Flash Gordon – but with a better budget!!!
May 24th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Okay, I gotta admit – that’s cute. I wouldn’t put one in my house if you held a gun to my head and it was only like $ 250, but it’s cute.
May 24th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
ccpetersen:
Only if the BA is in the tub!!!
May 24th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
I WANT!
@Michael L, I would be a very happy wife indeed if I got something like that for an anniversary instead of something useless like flowers or chocolate.
May 24th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Michael L:
I’d think Mrs BA would have something to say about whether he was in the tub when I see it!
He wants HER to give it to HIM for their anniversary.
May 24th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Unless these are made of solid gold or hand-carved by elves, I have no idea how anyone can charge that kind of money for something that would only appeal to fanboys (who tend not to be all that wealthy).
May 24th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
@ccpetersen… ROFL!
I saw that only after time ran out on the edit feature! My Bad!
May 24th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Schweet, but -WAY- too expensive. There might be an alternate way to get the job done: Go to an auto junkyard and find a rocketship hood ornament and drill it out and fit it out with a spigot… It’d cost less anyway…
Or is there a metalcaster near you?
You might remember Virginia Metalcasting over in Waynesboro. Artists who make bronze busts and such go there to have castings made, so you might tag along with someone who does that work and get the basis of one made for cheap.
May 24th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
THAT is the coolest thing Ive seen since Hubbles repair!
May 25th, 2009 at 12:41 am
Damn humans are up to it again ! Hee, Hee!!
May 25th, 2009 at 2:59 am
Niice…..
Oh and this is quite amusing (at least for me)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8066743.stm
Completly off topic but oh well…
May 25th, 2009 at 3:50 am
OMFSM! It’s the NERF version of the Bat Plane!
$2.5k for small quantities really isn’t bad at all – producing the mould would have cost a fortune and finishing the tap would also take a fair bit of time – that is, assuming it’s brass or bronze. If it’s metal-plated plastic then don’t bother. Now for the plating – nix nickel (will turn green + some people have an allergy to it), and a chromium job can flake off if it’s not done well (if done well it could last over a decade). I wonder what the gold finish is like? A 14 or 16K electroplating should be quite durable.
@WJM: It’s water powered – no need for batteries – just perfect, eh?
May 25th, 2009 at 4:36 am
I like Art Deco too, but that… that thing is just plain ugly and it will increase your chances of hurting yourself when you step back in amazement over the latest apparition of Lenin on your shower curtain.
May 25th, 2009 at 5:24 am
I will be happy to put on my plumber’s hat and install it for you.
Just call 1-800-noleaks.
May 25th, 2009 at 6:06 am
Niiice! I would buy one!
May 25th, 2009 at 7:20 am
Do they have a faucet model of the Enterprise, cause I’m still reeling from Star Trek? (^_^)
May 25th, 2009 at 8:24 am
Phil,
You are such an Astronerd.
Your money would be better spent on http://www.spacetoys.com/
Like, a scale replica of the Saturn V Rocket, which is only $222 (way less than your faucet)
http://www.spacetoys.com/proddetail.php?prod=KYNS5T
I’m just say’in …
May 25th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Critique: I like all the a fore-mentioned things but the design makes me want to vomit. The rocket boosters are almost as big as the cabin. Either they need to be smaller or, the cabin needs to be larger. That said, it’s still pretty cool.
May 25th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
I wonder if the owners of the Dubai Hotel would add one of those to one of their sky high hotel rooms, made, of course, of solid gold? For the occasional visiting techno-nerds. Dubai! Are you listening?
How about one modeled on the Enterprise, with electronic flow control?
GAry 7
May 25th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Don’t you think your sink is ostentatious enough?
May 25th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
I see you snickering behind the door. You’ve been a bit mischievious lately.
May 25th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Looks like something off the hood of a 50’s Buick! As a Master plumber I cringe when I see these things. I always think long term, like what are you gonna do if you need new stems or a cartridge’s? Best buy a dozen hot and cold when you order it. I hate to be a kill joy %^(
May 25th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
I love subatomic particles. If they ever make something like that for us then how the hell am I going the get clean hands ever again if I can never be sure where the water is going to come out?
May 26th, 2009 at 1:52 am
Dave, Comment 27, I was wondering how I could bring that news story to peoples attention. Well done. It features on Google News too. Made me giggle. And then nearly cry when I realised it is classed as a religion in the US.
P.S. The taps are nice……
May 26th, 2009 at 3:20 am
Gary Ansorge Says: “How about one modeled on the Enterprise, with electronic flow control?”
Or just a salt shaker.
- Jack
May 26th, 2009 at 10:05 am
It reminds me of the commercial where the couple is being given the tour by a famous architect, who finally ushers them into his posh office and asks them, “What can “I” do for you?” and the woman takes a faucet out and says, “I want you to design a house around this!”
Indeed.
May 26th, 2009 at 11:59 am
real 1956 BelAir hood ornament looked like this:
http://nealw.com/Vette/Hood_Ornaments/56_Chev_BelAir.jpg