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By now you’ve discovered that the man in the picture is not Steve Jobs, but rather a mutton chopped Asian man impersonating the tech superstar.
However, that thing standing next to him has to be a cyborg, a real life cybernetic organism, although I’m pretty sure it must be quite underpowered since it’s been constructed out of Mac parts.
In true Macborg fashion it won’t be compatible with 80% of the world, it will be impossible to fix once broken, and don’t even think about upgrading- if you want more memory you’re just going to have to break down and buy a new one every four or five years.
But it sure is shiny, and clean looking, with lots of white and silver bits and a fruit shaped logo, that counts for something, right?
Pascal Prokop of Switzerland didn’t want to wait for the European cold snap to end. So he yanked the front passenger seat out of his Volvo and put in a wood-burning stove:
Pascal Prokop, who lives in Switzerland, caused a minor internet stir when photos of his stove-car near Mettmenstetten, a town 25 kilometres south of Zurich, began to circulate on Friday. [...]
Mr. Prokop obtained an operating permit for his stove-car from the Swiss Technical Inspection Authority, making it perfectly legal to operate.
You can view larger photos at the link.
Link -via DVICE | Photo: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters
If Thomas Edison were alive today, he would be celebrating his 165th birthday. Jeremiah Warren made this quick overview of his life and work, so you’ll know more than just “Edison invented the light bulb.” -Thanks, Jeremiah!
Digital artist Petros Vrellis created an interactive version of Vincent Van Gogh’s painting Starry Night. The brushstrokes movie and activate music. Vrellis tells more about the project at Creative Applications. Link -via The Daily What
See also: Starry Night is Everywhere!
This video introduced me to Jaimie Mantzel. He not only builds toys, he builds everything else! The top comment at reddit tells more about him.
This guy is a complete and total bad-ass. Seriously. (He’s also nearly constantly manic too, but I digress.)
He has this giant tree-house he built in the middle of the woods by hand which he actually lives/lived in. When he realized he needed a lumber mill to build a giant workshop to go along with his tree house in the woods, he made one himself, with two tires, a motor, and some aluminum poles (no joke).
Why did he need a giant workshop in the middle of the woods, you ask? To build a working life size version of this robot of course! And he did it using 99% junk yard scrap MacGyvered together (like everything else he does). He also wore chain-mail while doing all this to ‘stay fit’.
He has a video blog with tons of videos on YouTube. This guy is so interesting he has caused countless people to spend 10+ hours watching his videos in a single sitting (myself included!). Just look at the other comments here and you’ll see how common an occurrence this is.
P.S. Almost forgot! His “tree house” has a giant trampoline in one of the rooms integrated into the floor (one of those giant backyard ones).
P.P.S. He also somehow convinced his lady-friend to move out into the middle the woods and into his tree-house with him while he did all of this.
Anyway, this toy does not yet have a name, but he is working with a toy company to eventually produce it. -via reddit
Colin Furze takes his souped-up mobility scooter for a spin in the snow, reaching speeds up to 50 miles per hour! If this kind of thing catches on, a stroll through the local mall could become a dangerous excursion. -via BroBible
What? You're going to put your selfwinding Audemars Piguet chronograph (just don't call it a "watch") in a regular old watch winder? That just won't do!
But don't worry, Zannetti is here to save the day with this: Box of Time Dragon watch winder. If you have to ask how much, obviously you can't afford it. Now if only there's a pen that will go with that ...
After all the impressive additions they’ve given this world, it’s easy to think of famous inventors as brilliant creators who can simply do no wrong. But the reality is that no one is perfect and just because someone came up with a device that revolutionized the world around them doesn’t mean they didn’t have their share of failures as well. Here are some of the less famous (for good reason) inventions of some of the greatest inventors on Earth.
Edison had over 2000 patents by the time he died, so it’s not really much of a surprise that among his innovations on the phonograph, the light bulb, the kinetoscope and the telephone, he also had some utter failures as well.
Interestingly, one of his worst failures was actually a great idea that was just too far ahead of its time for the current technology. The Edison Doll was the inventor’s attempt to bring the joy of the phonograph to children. While talking dolls are common place these days and widely loved by little girls around the globe, the problems with the Edison Talking Doll were many. For one thing, phonographs of the time still had to be manually cranked at the appropriate speed in order to play correctly. That’s asking a lot for a child to do with her toy. Another problem was that even when cranked at the proper speed, the doll sounded simply terrible because voice recording still wasn’t very good at the time. In fact, Edison himself admitted “the voices of the little monsters were exceedingly unpleasant to hear.” As if those two issues weren’t bad enough, the mini phonograph inside the doll was incredibly fragile –meaning even if a little girl did manage to play the sound at the right speed and not run away from the shrieking abomination, she’d almost certainly destroy the wax record after only a short amount of play time.
Of course, all the new technology didn’t come cheap and the doll would cost between $10 and $25 depending on the outfit she came in. That’s the equivalent of between $240 and $600 these days, which is a whole lot to spend on a doll that terrifies your daughter and breaks without any effort. Of 2,500 made, only 500 were sold and most of the dolls were returned. With all of these failures, it’s no wonder the doll was only sold for a few short weeks in early 1890. Of course, the rarity of the failure has only increased the doll’s value over the last century. These days, an Edison doll in good condition can easily go for over $15,000 –and that’s without the original phonograph, since most of the excess inventory was sold off without a sound device inside.
The terrible toy doll wasn’t Edison’s only failure though. In fact, his best-known failure was in his push for concrete housing complete with concrete furniture, even concrete pianos. Edison believed these cheap creations would be a good way to solve the housing crisis and allow low-income families to enjoy the finer things in life without spending a fortune. In 1917, he and Charles Ingersoll offered 11 concrete homes (that’s them above) up for sale for only $1,200 –a third of the cost of an average home. Even so, they didn’t manage to sell a single one.
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Now this is advertising so clever it's criminal: Y&R agency in Amsterdam, The Netherlands came up with an unusual ad to feature the slim LG's new TV. Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Ads of the World
If you can’t stop hitting the snooze button in the morning, then you might want to look in to getting one of these water powered alarm clocks, which was created by Austrian design studio Vera Wiedermann to help wake up chronic snoozers.
The water clock uses a drip system to count down the time until the hammer is released and a loud chime sounds, and the only way to get some more time in the sack is to fill it up with water all over again.
So, unless you figure out how to refill this sucker while sleepwalking, it should get you up and going better than anything with a snooze button. And it’s nice looking too, made out of glass, copper and cord, so it won’t clash with your style or reset itself when the power goes out.
Joanna Montgomery invented Pillow Talk, a system for lovers who are far apart. Each person wears a chest belt that measures his/her heartbeat. A transmitter sends that rhythm to a pillow. Just hold it close to feel, in a small way, together.
Link -via The Mary Sue
Master case modder Brian Carter made this amazing case. It includes rollbars, a USB-powered beverage cooler disguised as a first aid kit, and a spinning imitation minigun. Yes, that is a fake minigun. But we’ll probably see real ones on the next generation of super case mods. Look at more pictures and a video at the link.
Swap-o-matic is a vending machine that doesn’t use money. Instead, you swap something you have for something you want! It’s also an art project that makes a statement about consumption and recycling, designed by Lina Fenequito with Rick Cassidy and Ray Mancini. It’s a cool idea, but where I live, it would either stay empty or would become filled with old tires and obsolete electronics -things you have to pay to get rid of. Link -via Laughing Squid
With the wave of portable gaming consoles coming out, it’s not surprising that SNK has jumped on board and revealed their Neo-Geo Portable Device (hopefully tentative title), which will come pre-loaded with 20 classic titles like Metal Slug, King Of Monsters and Fatal Fury, has 2gb internal memory and an SD card slot for loading emulator ROMs, and even has an AV output for playing on the bigger screen.
What is surprising is how little we’ve heard about anything Neo-Geo over the years, considering their fan following and the fact that I still see Neo-Geo arcade units all the time in bars and taco shops all over town.
I guess the ridiculously high $600 price tag really did put this otherwise awesome console to bed, so hopefully the release of this Portable Device, and a more affordable price tag, will help resurrect the arcade gaming giant.
On March 21, 1920, the Sandusky Register reported on an astonishing invention in which W. W. Macfarlane, traveling in a car (driven by a chauffeur), held a conversation with his wife back at the garage -500 yards down the road! The article is reprinted at Paleofuture. Link
Man, with all the innovative ways people have come up with to destroy zombies, humanity should be well prepared if we ever end up in neck deep in the walking dead!
The latest innovation comes in the form of the Doublestar Zombie X Chainsaw rail attachment-just attach it to your favorite assault rifle and get to chopping if the rotten buggers start to close in on you! Perfect for channeling your inner Gear or Space Marine, badass suit of armor not included.
Link –via Geekosystem
The problem is popularly known as the Hot Pocket Conundrum, and it has vexed gamers for generations. Here it is: you need food, but that requires stopping the game. As this is obviously an unacceptable option, many gamers have starved to death on their couches.
Thankfully, Ben Heckendorn has now solved that problem by designing a Hot Pocket delivery device and mounting it on the back of a controller. Never again need anyone die from in-game malnutrition — provided that some kindly soul will periodically reload the dispenser. Thank you, Mr. Heckendorn. You are a true hero.
Video Link -via DVICE
Previously by Heckendorn: See-Through Shirt
If you need me, I’ll be downstairs with the shop vac. You can call but I probably won’t hear you because it’s loud with the shop vac on. And this speaker built by Art Pentry into a toolbox probably won’t help you any. Watch a step-by-step instructional video at the link.
Tobias Sonne, a student at Carnegie Mellon University, developed a pair of suspenders that encourage the user to sit up straight. He attached a strip of conductive fabric to one side. When it’s compacted, a buzzer activates. It’s not bad. But, as Lauren McCarthy’s Happiness Hat demonstrates, an electric shock would probably be more effective.
Don’t run away, Meat Shield. It’s a hundred experience points, yours for the taking. Just keep his attention while we slip around behind him.
-via Super Punch | Artist’s Website
Man, the dragons in the video game Elder Scrolls V:Skyrim sure are colorful these days! With the recent invasion of a Macho Man Randy Savage dragon, and now these scaly beasts that look suspiciously like characters from My Little Pony, I don’t know whether to shoot the buggers down, or open my arms wide and wait for a big old hug!
–via Topless Robot
From our pal Dan Piraro of Bizarro, here's a reminder to update the Ten Commandments to include "Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's iPad?"
Link
“Why doesn’t every car have a flybridge?” That was a question posed to custom carmaker Randy Grubb. You’ll ask it, too, after taking a spin in the Decoliner — Grubb’s monument to the majesty of both the Art Deco era and the open road. You can steer it from the roof, which is built like a motorboat console. Or you can peek inside and witness what a craftsman of vision and dedication can accomplish.
Link -via Jalopnik (where there’s a video)
Etsy seller Daniel McLeod writes “I had an old Atari 2600 that had stopped working and I couldn’t just get rid of it.” Well, of course not! That’d be like getting rid of your own mother because she got old. Classic Ataris should be cherished and repurposed, and that’s what he did. McLeod’s is now an audio dock.
If you’re worried about a dystopian future where the view from your window is obscured by zombies, rubble piles and the occasional group of bandits, then you’ll want to invest in Samsung’s new transparent Smart Window-a computer screen/window that can make the world outside look like anything you want, even the terrifying real world, if that’s how you get your kicks.
You can make it look like still photos, video footage, a computer desktop, even television, if you prefer to imagine a sitcom taking place outside your window over an otherwise bleak reality. It’s large, shiny, and eliminates the need to actually go outside, so what’s not to like?
–via Geekosystem
These VHS tape inspired notebooks ooze retro charm, and will probably get shoved into the nearest VCR by a curious senior citizen if you’re not careful.
Created by Peleg Design, they even come with a plastic slipcover and adhesive labels, to complete the old school cool. Label them as something sick like Faces Of Death or Snuff Film and you have a journal even your nosiest family members won’t want to crack open.
A while back I posted an article about a urinal which doubles as a video game, and this invention was actually well received, even though I still don’t understand the allure.
But this concept design for an e-Urinal really makes sense to me–a unit which is able to scan your urine and report possible health issues to you while you wait. And, while this particular model may still be in the conceptual stage of development, I can see this kind of thing catching on and changing the way our health issues are diagnosed.
Let’s just hope you don’t have to show proof of health insurance in order to use this urinal, or I predict a lot of wet floors surrounding these things!
Stephen J. Anderson wired up electronics and everyday objects to make his own kitchen synthesizer. It looks a little dangerous, don’t you think? This music starts at 2:20. -via Buzzfeed
Six daleks, labeled as “Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne engines” from the space shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis are invading being shipped to Stennis Space Center in Mississippi to be refurbished for use in NASA’s new project, the Space Launch System (SLS). Link -via io9
(Image credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis)
Do you remember chess boxing — the sport consisting of alternating rounds of chess and boxing? Well, just imagine what you could do with this bag, allegedly built by researchers at the UK’s Open University. If you could put these sensors on a human body, then boxers might be challenged to perform music while simultaneously beating each other senseless.
-via Boing Boing
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