You know how when you're fetching a drink from your refrigerator, and you lay your hand on one of the panels, and you recoil in terror because it's mildly warm? And you start to wonder "WTF? The fridge is emitting heat?!" so you go look up refrigeration technology and find out that, obviously, the heat you felt is the heat being pulled out of the food. You then go on your daily life never thinking that this "energy loss" could be any other way (second law of thermodynamics or conversation of energy or something).

Enter a brilliant yet obvious idea: Why not harness that excess heat? Sharp has released a refrigerator with a heating compartment for keeping food warm. The target market are families who dine apart most of the time with parents working late and children studying into the night. "It can be used to keep dinner warm for husbands who come home late" or snacks for children coming home late from after-school activities, Sharp said in a statement.

This is particularly great technology for me: I often find myself desiring complex-to-make foodstuff (the Burrito/Lasagna hybrid, for example) at ungodly hours of the night. Now, my mom/girlfriend/all-female-soldier-squad-cooking-division can prepare the food while they're awake, and I can fetch it when I get hungry. Genius!