Tuesday, March 8, 2005

Talking Treat Ball. The Talk-to-Me Treatball is a clever reiteration of the classic pup toy. The Treatball allows you, the often-absent owner, to record a message that will play for your dog whenever he bats at the ball. An internal spiral insures that some work and much nudging must be done to produce any reward, but he'll be able to hear your voice and perhaps not suffer too much in the way of separation anxiety. Dishwasher safe and available in brilliant red and blue plastic for just $15 from SmartHome, batteries included. Catalog Page [SmartHome via ShinyShiny] Also, SmartHome has a similar-functioning Talking Bone, if you'd rather not refill the ball. [Gizmodo] 2:58:26 PM   comments[]

Sunday, March 6, 2005

2:14:21 PM   comments[]   Solar Powered Public Compacting Trash Can. New York City and trash have a long history. Branching out in their waste management solutions, the city is trying a new trash can that uses solar power to detect when it is full and automatically compacts the garbage inside. Then, an indicator light blinks and it can even send out a wireless call for a pickup. The BigBelly cordless compacting trash system is available from the Seahorse Power Company, who claims that requiring less pickups will result in less diesel expended. The first trial model is in Tribeca, if you feel this warrants a special trip. Product Page [SeahorsePower via WMMNA] [Gizmodo] 2:08:05 PM   comments[]

Thursday, December 2, 2004

Yo-Yo Ice Cream Maker. If your old 'convince the grandkids to sit here and crank this handle for three hours' bucket-style ice cream maker breaks down and you don't wanna spring for a newfangled electric model, you might be interested in this yo-yo, called the Urawaza Spin Ice. I'm not sure how it stays below freezing, but the up-and-down, er, yo-ing of the yo-yo performs the cumbersome manual labor of constant stirring which gives ice cream its velvety texture (as opposed to the non-stirred variety known as "unappetizing block of ice"). Presumably due to the small quantity of cream in question, the whole process takes a mere ten minutes (as opposed to 30+ minutes for even electric makers) before you're licking creamy goodness off your lips. Looks like these are only available in Japan for the moment, for around $15. [Gizmodo] 11:51:54 AM   comments[]

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Ashcroft & Bacon TRUTH: Volume One, Edition One AAS-1149-LP American Artists Custom Records Producer: Winnie Swaim Engineer: Joe Higgins SIDE 1 Why Me, Lord | 2:44 | Reach Out to Jesus | 2:25 Jesus Hold My Hand | 2:22 | MP3 (2.2 MB) The Broken Vessel | 3:38 King Jesus | 2:13 | MP3 (2.0 MB) Unseen Hand | 3:25 | MP3 (3.2 MB) SIDE 2 Didn't He Shine | 2:40 I Find No Fault In Him | 3:00 | MP3 (2.8 MB) More About Jesus | 2:14 We've Come This Far By Faith | 2:12 Come Holy Spirit | 2:25 Jesus Is Lord of All | 2:56 1:18:36 PM   comments[]

Friday, November 12, 2004

Rise, Reebok Pump 2.0, Rise!. Speaking of wearable tech, Reebok’s Pump sneaker is back as the Pump 2.0.  Yes, it still uses an air chamber to mold itself to your foot.  This time around, however, you don’t need to use a goofy little pump thing.  Instead, the Pump 2.0 inflates itself automatically after a few steps.  The pump is now located in the heel of the shoe rather than the tongue-placed finger pump.  A valve keeps the pressure from being any more than 5psi, a pressure that the Reebok people say will keep you floating on, well, air.  While the original Pump sold for $195, the new Pump 2.0 goes for just $100. [Engadget] 12:53:09 PM   comments[]

Tuesday, November 9, 2004

Fun Slides Carpet Skates. The promotional material claims these carpet skates are like, "socks on a hardwood floor," but having lived with hardwood floors for some years now, I can't imagine Fun Slides are quite as splinterific. They do look kinda fun, though, and there's a carpet puck accessory available for your indoor carpet hockey needs. Overturned laundry basket / goal not included. Skates can be had for around $18, while the puck will set you back just under $5. Fun Slides Carpet Skates [via RedFerret] [Gizmodo] 12:22:46 PM   comments[]   Flashy fish. Science News has an interesting article about the otherworldly colors and skin patterns of reef fish. People can theorize till the cowfish come home about what they see on a reef, but what matters is what fish see, and that's been hard to determine. Improvements in cameras and in equipment for analyzing light and color are now inspiring new approaches to approximating a fish-eye view of the reefs. Looking at the abundant coloration from a fishy perspective, the new work demonstrates that people can be quite wrong about what's showy and what's subtle. The old questions are giving way to more-sophisticated new ones. Colors aren't just a matter of either hiding or flaunting. It may be possible to whisper and shout at the same time. [Boing Boing] 10:38:21 AM   comments[]

Sunday, October 31, 2004

Jon Stewart will destroy television! Brian Dear evaluates Jon Stewart-and-co's latest appearance on C-SPAN and predicts that Stewart will destroy television! The panelists took turns reading from their book, America: The Book. It's amazing how much coverage this book gets on C-SPAN. But these guys are not normal book authors, and they're not there to push the book. They're there to destroy TV as we know it. I believe that Stewart and company are trying to revolutionize television by tearing down its conventional standards and practices. First, dress inappropriately, like a slacker. Stewart's starting to dress like Bill Murray in the early scenes of Stripes. Second, resort to language that's simply not said on television, certainly not C-SPAN. Speak as many four-letter words as possible, so the television audience members marvel in the fact that there are no bleeps like there are on The Daily Show, only occasional and entirely useless on-screen warnings that this program contains bad language. Duh! [brianstorms] 9:25:59 AM   comments[]

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Breakdancing photos. BoingBoing reader Paul McEvoy saw this series of photos I shot for an NPR radio segment about urban dance competitions -- and points us to his own gallery of "pictures of breakdancers on the street in Boston and Cambridge." [Boing Boing] 11:54:35 AM   comments[]

Friday, August 6, 2004

Textured teeth wipes. Oral B has launched "Brush-Ups" -- "textured teeth wipes" that you put over your finger and give yourself a quick toothbrushing with. [Boing Boing] 10:48:58 AM   comments[]

Sunday, July 18, 2004

Granular eruptions. Researchers at the University of Twente in the Netherlands have created an experiment that beautifully demonstrates how sand can exhibit liquid-like properties. These photos are stills from a video the scientists recorded at 1,000 frames-per-second of a marble-size steel ball dropping onto loose, fine sand. The surreal footage may aid geophysicists in understanding what happens when an asteroid smashes into a planet. From the abstract of the scientific paper: "According to Shoemaker, the 'impact of solid bodies is the most fundamental process that has taken place on the terrestrial planets,' as they shape the surfaces of all solar system bodies. A lot of information on this process has been extracted from remote observations of impact craters on planetary surfaces. However, the nature of the geophysical impact events is that they are non-reproducible. Moreover, their scale is enormous and direct observations are not possible. Therefore, we choose an alternate and of course downscaled experimental approach in order to guarantee reproducible results." For a link to the movie of the experiment, scroll to the bottom of the page. Link [Boing Boing] 3:18:42 PM   comments[]   Smoking money made by removing the insides of coins. This guy carves away the inside of coins from many nations, leaving nothing behind but the face on the "heads" side and a bit of metal in the shape of a smoking cigarette, creating the impression of a "smoking coin." [Waxy] 1:50:34 PM   comments[]   Alice in Wonderland precursor manuscripts scanned and posted. A Dutch university student has scanned in an original manuscript for Alice's Adventures Underground, Lewis Carroll's precursor to Alice in Wonderland. [Waxy] 1:49:15 PM   comments[]

Saturday, June 19, 2004

Spacebloom: A Field Guide to Cosmic Xflora. "Spaceblooms are autonomous, self-propelling and self-propagating cosmic plants belonging to the class of startonguites." This is the site for Spacebloom the book, a futuristic vision of flowers in outer space "written in a clear concise language that is understandable to few." For more on cosmic agriculture, follow this link. [Smart Mobs] 2:04:35 PM   comments[]

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