It’s exactly what it sounds like, a bike and a backpack at the same time.
Perfect for down-hill bikers, the backpack bike can be folded and carried as a simple backpack when you’re climbing to the hilltop, and converted to a sturdy mounatin-bike ready to tackle the rough terrain, on your wayback down. It’s made out of an ultra-light material that makes it easy to carry by both men and women.
And a great way to hide from your parents without getting bored.
I know it looks like an ordinary closet from the outside, and that’s the idea, but inside lies a powerful command center from where a computer geek does great things like…playing World of Warcraft, hacking people’s computers and other fun activities.
This has to be one of the best computer hideouts I’ve ever seen. Not recommended for claustrophobics though.
Datamancer presents his new creation, a scrabble keyboard for the Apple Macintosh.
The special keyboard uses real scrabble tiles, hand-beveled and fitted on a USB, clicky, mechanica-switch keyboard. The casing is made out of aluminum, to fit the simple, sleek design of the Mac.
The scroll and Num and Caps keys have been fitted with LEDs that shine through the carved lettering. Datamancer‘s beautiful keyboards are priced between $1,200 and $1,500 depending on the design and materials used in the build.
Check out Datamancer’s Scrabble Keyboard:
After the disaster caused by the huge earthquake in May 2008, China is looking for safer schools for its children.
And a possible solution is the temporary schools proposed by Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban. After the terrible earthquake that hit China and caused over 69,000 casualties, Ban brought his ingenious idea to the attention of the authorities, who approved the project. He and a team of Chinese students started building safe schools out of cardboard pillars, plywood roofs and polycarbonate as insulation.
The cardboard and plywood schools are temporary, but in case of an earthquake, should the structures collapse, the materials are nowhere near heavy enough to cause serious injury. The materials used are fireproof and waterproof. Shigeru Ban hopes soon he will be able to build multi-storied buildings out of cardboard.
via TreeHugger
No, electronics are not recycled the same way as ordinary trash. Electronics have their own graveyard, and it’s called Guiyu.
Guiyu is a town in China that is known as the largest electronic waste site on the planet. One million tons of electronics waste are shipped here every year, mostly from North America, Japan and South Korea. Since 1995, Guiyu has been attracting peasants from the area to work as electronics processors. They only receive about $1,50 for a sixteen hours work-day collecting valuable metals and usable parts from broken devices.
Guiyu is a very dangerous work environment, with some of the highest levels of dioxin ever recorded. The soil is saturated with led and other heavy metals while the water from the area is undrinkable. People that visit Guiyu experience strange headaches and metallic taste in their mouths.
Despite this, Guiyu’s electronic waste business is very profitable, each year producing more than$75 million.
The Eliica prototype created quite a lot of hype when it was unveilled in 2003, both because of its incredible specifications and ugly looks. Eliica is a fully electric super-car created by a team of engineers from Keio University, Japan. The eight-wheeled vehicle is powered by a pack of large lithium-ion batteries that help it go from 0 to 100 km. per hour in just 4 seconds and reach a top speed of 402 km/h.
Each of Eliica‘s eight wheels produce 80 horsepower and its batteries provide power for a 321 km ride. Hiroshi Shimizu, head of the Eliica project, is considering producing a limited series. The exclusive super-car costs &320,000.
This guy is the real deal man. He probably can’t afford a kick-ass ride but that doesn’t mean he can’t pimp the ride he CAN afford. Check out the cool sound system this little gangsta is dragging along, I love it. The tricycle isn’t too bad either.
Environment is a very popular issue nowadays so environment-friendly houses are finally becoming interesting. Domespace invented their semi-spherical houses over 30 years ago but only a few of them have been purchased and only around France, especially in Brittany, where the company is based.
The Domespace house plans were designed to optimize warmth by natural means, so the house actually turns to follow the sun and gain as much energy as it needs to keep temperature at an ideal level. If you don’t want warmth and sun-rays you can just set it to turn its windows away from the sun. You can command the engine to turn the house at a certain time or program it to do a full day rotation.
These days Domespace houses only come with an engine, but a few years ago if you wanted to buy or rent a house, you had to move them manually. I can imagine such a house for lease: “It’s a great house, spacy, full of light…only thing is you have to turn it yourself”.
Watch a cool video of a cheap, easy-to-make and fully functional dream controlling device that will chase away your every nightmare. It’s, well…everything you ever dreamed of.
The Lucid Dream Machine, gives you the ability to take control of the action in your dreams without waking up, it’s like your awake inside your dreams and fully aware of the fact that your actually dreaming.
The machine works by flashing two red LEDs in your closed eyelids while your sleeping, these make your eyes receive light, and send the information to the brain making it alert but not affecting your sleep, you gain consciousness and wake up in a dream. Once you hit that point you can do whatever you want here are some crazy examples : fly, jump off buildings, skydive, have sex, eat cars, imagination is the limit !
You have free access to the natural reserves of Adrenaline and Melamine which your body holds “people often take heavy drugs like “Methamphetamine” to unlock these magic potions” .
Developed by Kyoto University Venture Business Laboratory, Bambgoo is a fully functional vehicle that runs for 50 kilometers on a single charge. This ecological concept car is 270 cm long, 130 cm wide, 165 cm high and only 60 kg heavy. That’s what’s so special about Bambgoo, its body is made out of bamboo. If you happen to pass through Japan these days, you might want to check it out and maybe even take it for a short drive-test.
If you’re careful about what and how much you it, than IC3 is the perfect gadget for you. It’s made-up of a computerized handle and 3 interchangeable eating tools: a fork, a knife and a spoon, each with their own special features. The fork measures food composition, such as fat, sugar or protein levels, the spoon weighs your bites and the knife acts as a thermometer, taking temperature readings from your food. Together these three do a great job of replacing the normal nutritionist.
The IC3 Cutlery has been presented and is still on display at the Designparcours 2008 exhibition in Munich, Germany.
German designer Markus Kison invented a device that lets people experience the atmosphere of WW 2 nowadays.
Set up in the German city of Dresden, Markus Kison‘s so-called time machine takes people back to the 13th of February 1945 when bombs were dropping all over the city and the whole country was in chaos. But the most remarkable thing about Kison‘s invention is the way it operates. It’s not just some ordinary siren that emits sounds of bombing, it operates in complete silence. People just have to put their elbows on the iron fence on witch the device is installed and cover their ears with their palms. The sound is transmitted through vibrations that make their way through the bones until they reach the ears.
Fascinating invention by Markus Kison!
When the Heatherwick Rolling Bridge is in its horizontal position, there’s nothing remotely strange about it, just another steel and wood-made bridge in London. But that all changes when it curves up until its two ends touch, to let boats pass. When curled, Heatherwick Bridge resembles an old watermill wheel.
Heatherwick Studio’s Rolling Bridge opens every Friday at noon but if the winds exceed 30 mph, the hidraulics may be unable to handle them, so the bridge doesn’t open.
How many of you have ever wanted just one more minute of sleep on a Monday morning after a weekend of partying? I know I have and if you’re like me, you’re in for a treat. Some smart people have come up with a way to help us grab some precious extra minutes of sleep in some unusual circumstances. With their revolutionary vertical bed anyone can take a short nap while waiting for the traffic light to change, in the elevator or in public transportation vehicles.
The vertical bed comes complete with ear-muffs, mirrored eye-glasses and even an umrella in case it rains. All you have to do is stick your hands in your pockets to protect your wallet and phone and you’re all set for a nice relaxing nap. One day in the vertical bed and you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.
Created by Korean artist JooYoun Paek, the self-sustainable chair is a polyethylene-made dress, connected to a pair of special pair of shoes that pump air into the dress, with every step you take. After a short walk, the dress inflates in the back forming a nice “little” chair that makes it possible for you to stop, sit on it and rest for a bit. Depending on the wearer’s weight, the dress deflates allowing him to carry on with his walk.
The self-sustainable dress is an artistic concept that “motivates people to switch between walking and sitting as a loop behavior on the street”. One couldn’t actually use the self-sustainable chair on a day-to-day basis, it makes you look like you just arrived from another planet.
Here’s a test-drive of the self-sustainable chair in New York:
