[COOL OR NOT COOL] Fake fireplaces

The way I feel about fireplaces is the way I feel about wicker furniture.

If I'm at a beach house, wicker furniture is fine and pretty much expected.  Fireplaces are great if I'm in a cabin or in a ski lodge.

But if I'm in someone's apartment in New York City and they turn on a gas fireplace, I'm wondering two things:

1. Do you really think this is romantic?

2. Am I going to asphyxiate and die? 

3. In NYC's housing market, having a "window" is a selling point that is included on actual real estate listings, so a fireplace has got to equal BIG MONEY.  How much are you paying for this stupid fireplace?

This hanging fireplace from Tongue + Groove is probably the coolest version of a fake fireplace that you can get, but a few things here:

1. Do you want your apartment to look like something out of The Jetsons?

2. According to the site, "the flame heats the steel bowl, emitting a radiant heat along with a strong frontal heat." Something about this sounds dangerous.  Oh yes, it's the fact that a BALL OF FIRE is hanging from my ceiling. Also, it can rotate 360 degrees.  Oh, good.  A BALL OF FIRE hanging from my ceiling and spinning around. 

Somebody call Johnny Cash or Jerry Lewis, we've got an emergency.

What do you think?  Fake fireplaces: cool or not cool?