After allegations that some of Toyota's cars get stuck accelerators, designers are taking a look at a 1990s Swedish design that never became popular. Sven Gustafsson's invention was a single pedal that did both jobs. Masuyuki Naruse brought the invention to Japan years ago and has been trying to popularize it. It's a superior approach to driving safety, according to psychology and engineering expert Katsuya Matsunaga:

“Simply speaking, the conventional pedal setup, which forces drivers to switch back and forth between pedals, is dangerous,” Mr. Matsunaga said.

“Mr. Naruse’s pedal works because it takes into account how our bodies work,” he said. “It makes sure that when we make a mistake, the car stops.”

Replacing standard pedals with the Naruse device requires no big changes to a car’s braking or acceleration systems, Mr. Naruse said, and retrofitting costs about 100,000 yen ($1,156) each. The biggest challenge of mass marketing the pedal, driving specialists said, would not be cost or technology, but the need to fundamentally change the way millions of people drive.

Link via Popular Science | Image: NYT

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A baby bear got caught in a fisherman's dip net. Human residents at the homestead tried to safely remove the bear, but mama bear stepped in to solve the problem. The action starts at 0:50.

via Urlesque

This headline is from last Friday's Christian Science Monitor. So irritating monkeys is a field of study? What are the undergraduate prerequisites? Should Neatorama keep a monkey-irritator on staff, or contract out the work?

Link via Marginal Revolution

London-based designer Ryan McIlhinney made this lamp out of action figures held together with a polyurethane lacquer:

Trawling for materials quickly became an obsession, with Mc Elhinney’s limited budget, natural eye and vivid imagination ensuring he spotted the perfect finds to bring to life his early designs. Full of expression and movement, dollar-a-bag sacks of second-hand plastic toys became the designer’s chosen medium. Telling a story with each manipulation, Mc Elhinney meticulously gloss-painted and fused together each figure in a six week process, creating the first in his series of ‘Toy’ frames and lamp bases.

I can see Buzz Lightyear, the Thing, and Spider-Man. Can you identify any others?

Link via Great White Snark

Sikorsky Aircraft's prototype X2 helicopter became the world's fastest helicopter when it reached a speed of 225 knots -- 9 more than the previous record set in the 1980s by a Westland Lynx. From the company's press release:

The X2 Technology demonstrator combines an integrated suite of technologies intended to advance the state-of-the-art, counter-rotating coaxial rotor helicopter. It is designed to demonstrate that a helicopter can cruise comfortably at 250 knots while retaining such desirable attributes as excellent low-speed handling, efficient hovering, and a seamless and simple transition to high speed.

Press Release via DVICE | Photo: Sikorsky | Previously: Full-Sized Electric Helicopter

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At a recent trade show, the Nakajima Lab at the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo demonstrated a prototype GPS directional system that is built into a pair of glasses. The user starts by inputting his/her destination, then following lights in the frame indicating which direction in which to travel. The Nakajima Lab says that this system could be safer than handheld GPS guidance systems because the user can keep his/her eyes on the road.

via CrunchGear

This image of unknown provenance is going around the Internet. In reflection of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, it depicts a cosmology of Hell for Internet users. You can view a larger size at the link. Do you agree with its arrangement?

via GearFuse

A Japanese food manufacturer called Morinaga produces canned milkshakes that are flavored like pancakes:

Morinaga, on the other hand, simply strives to imitate the taste of breakfast (and a Morinaga Hotcake breakfast at that) without worrying overly much about vitamins and so forth. They're not seeking to provide a substitute for brekky, ion other words, just a reminder of its glorious, soothing flavor.

Each can of Morinaga Hotcake Milkshake contains 280 grams (10 oz) and costs 120 yen or about $1.40 when it goes on sale September 8th.

What do you think: awesome or disgusting?

Link via Geekosystem | Photo: Inventor Spot

Chelsea Clinton recently got married in a truly grand spectacle, and TMZ has pictures and diagrams of some of the luxurious porta-potties that were available for guests. Featuring stereo music and running hot water, they cost a total of $15,000 for the event.

Link via DVICE | Photo: TMZ

Chinese artist Shi Jindian made a wire frame replica of the Chiangjiang 750, a Chinese knock-off of a the classic BMW R71 motorcycle:

Shi Jindian’s sculptures are made of steel, yet they are light, transparent, almost ethereal. After searching for years for “a material that was brand new, completely untraditional”, he settled on steel wires. By trial and error, he learned how to crochet the two-dimensional strands into three-dimensional forms, using tools of his own devising. His wire meshes start out as wrappings around some common object. When the mesh is complete, Shi Jindian destroys or extracts the object, leaving only its steel exoskeleton. The result, he says, is a kind of fiction, a virtual reality that can be walked around and touched. Surrealist René Magritte painted a pipe along with the words: “This is not a pipe.” Shi Jindian does something similar in sculpture, making not-quite-replicas of items from musical instruments to machines.

Link (select "Portfolio") via OhGizmo! | Photo: White Rabbit Gallery

You're probably familiar with CAPTCHAs -- images of letters and numbers that websites use to verify that users are people, not automated programs. The Tumblr blog CAPTCHArt is filled with user-submitted cartoons inspired by the phrases found in CAPTCHAs.

Link via Urlesque | Previously: Topological and Other Strange CAPTCHAs

Paul Yarrow of south London has a hobby: he likes to appear on television. So whenever a news camera crew gets set up in a public venue, he hangs around in the background on camera. So far, he's been spotted in more than twenty broadcasts in the UK. Allegedly, Yarrow wants to become a cast member on Big Brother.

Link via Super Punch | Screenshot: Fidget With

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If you have about $11,000 to spend, Gurcharn Sahota will give your car the most thorough cleaning imaginable. Each car can take up to 250 hours of effort, in part because Sahota uses a microscope to examine the car for blemishes. Here's how he starts:

Gurcharn first sprays the car with a degreaser to loosen any mud then jet washes it to get the worst off.

Next he wipes the vehicle with a lambs-wool mitten dunked in warm soapy water before jet washing it again.

Gurcharn sprays the car with mild wax solution to reduce the risk of scratching before drying it with a microfiber towel.

The final stage uses a special clay which is rubbed over the paintwork with wax to remove any impurities.

He then polishes up to five times using a buffer and an abrasive compound.

A paint gauge is used throughout the cleaning to check how much clear coat and colour there is to work with on the body work.

And a microscope linked to a computer allows him to view bad scratches in detail.

Link via Geekosystem

As Miss Cellania pointed out yesterday, a 1995 episode of The Simpsons predicted that Lisa Simpson would get married on this day in 2010. So now that we're living in the future, let's see what movies can tell us to expect for the next forty years. Brian Wolly of Smithsonian guides us through the future, starting with five years from now:

2015: Released in 1989, Back to the Future Part II played with the space-time continuum as Marty McFly traveled forward to 2015, then back to 1955, then forward again to 1985. Its vision of the future, however, is a smorgasbord of whiz-bang inventions. In the fictional Hill Valley, California, of 2015, you can buy self-drying clothes, self-lacing shoes and drive a flying car. Books do not have dust jackets (but note: there still are books). In earlier drafts of the script, there was a plot line that involved a new form of credit card: your thumb. The most famous invention of 2015, though, is the “hoverboard,” a skateboard that levitates over the ground; at the time of the film’s release, many fans called the production studio asking where they could obtain one. Lastly, the Chicago Cubs finally end their century-plus quest to win the World Series in 2015.

A darker side of 2015 was predicted in Paul Verhoeven’s Robocop (1987). Detroit is in shambles, overtaken by crime and an evil corporation with plans to demolish the decrepit city center. Cops shot by nefarious crime bosses are resurrected as half-man, half-machine law-enforcement cyborgs. Though Detroit has had its share of troubles, will this be the future of policing? In the film’s two sequels that bring us to the close of the decade, the answer is “yes.”

Link via Digg | Photo by Flickr user Lee Jordan used under Creative Commons license

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ElliptiGo is a combination of a stationary elliptical trainer and a bicycle. It looks a bit unstable to me, but the official website says that it was successfully used on the grueling 129-mile Death Ride in California. What do you think -- is this a useful exercise tool?

via CrunchGear | Official Website