Category: Inspirational Designs

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Inspirational Designs

All Hail the Beard Champion

I am in awe of this hairy gentleman. His dedication to the art of growing a beard is unparalleled. David Traver from Anchorage, Alaska has been crowned the beard world champion. Competing against 300 entrants in the 2009 World Beard and Moustache Championships, Traver’s 20.5 inches of coarse beard hair cultivated over 2½ years was intricately dyed several colors and woven into the shape of a snowshoe. He walked away with commemorative gold pan and a salmon fishing trip.

Traver will now shave the prize-winning beard off because as you know once a man’s reaches the apex of facial hair, there’s nowhere to go but down.

Read the full story at Anchorage Daily News.

[via Buzzfeed]

Categories
Awesomeness Inspirational Designs

Paint Swatches Make Great Wallpaper

In these dark economic days one has to save wherever possible, and to beat the credit crunch this creative person has ransacked a local hardware shop of those free paint swatches and stuck them up on their wall. It adds a brilliant splash of colour to the wall and no cost at all (especially true if you raid the company stationary cupboard for glue sticks).

It’s a genius idea don’t you think? I’d be tempted to do the same but I keep getting followed around our DIY shop by the security guards, hence making the mass-stealing of swatches nigh impossible. It’s my beard, it freaks them the fuck out.

[via Trend Hunter]

Categories
Gadgets Inspirational Designs

Tweenbots: A Cute Social Experiment

NYU arts student Kacie Kinzer created the Tweenbot as part of an art experiment. The bot was made out of cardboard, had a beaming smile, and a flag plonked on its head told people of its intended destination. She placed the bot in Washington Square Park and wondered:

Could a human-like object traverse sidewalks and streets along with us, and in so doing, create a narrative about our relationship to space and our willingness to interact with what we find in it? More importantly, how could our actions be seen within a larger context of human connection that emerges from the complexity of the city itself?

In New York, one might have expected the smiley-faced bot to ignored, stabbed, or reported as a suspicious “terrorist object”, but its journey completed without any heinous acts being committed to it. Pedestrians stopped to help the little guy get past the various obstacles it faced in the park.

Here’s a video of the experiment:

More about the adorable bot’s intrepid journey at Tweenbots [via Huffington Post]

Categories
Arty Awesomeness Inspirational Designs

Epic battle: Pirates vs Ninjas

As far back as I can remember (so last week then?), there has been massive debates as to who would win in a fight – pirates or ninjas. The internet meme has spawned web comics , a viral Facebook application allowing members to join either the Ninja or Pirates, and various video games have made reference to the eternal fight.

And Etsy user SaltyandSweet has created a Ninja Vs Pirate Mobile so your babies can experience this ultimate showdown first hand.

See the Ninja Vs Pirate Mobile at Etsy [via Neatorama].

Categories
Awesomeness History Inspirational Designs

Don’t mess with this scooter

I’ve always thought that scooters or vespas or whatever you call those silly little motorbike-type things were just well…silly. Until I saw this baby on Neatorama.

Apparently, these awesome scooter-canons were born in France after World War II. Devasated by years of war and German occupation, the French could not afford to buy or build sophisticated military equipment. Never ones to give up when the going got tough, the French made the best of what was available, and came up with the brilliant idea of mounting 75mm recoiless rifles on scooters. Click here to read more about these little devils

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Eating and Drinking Hints & Tips Inspirational Designs

Electric Cigarettes

Electronic cigarette from the Daily Mail

On the topic of smoking gadgets – here’s one that offers you a nicotine high with none of the side effects or nasty additives.

Apparently you can smoke electric cigarettes (which are battery powered) indoors at work and in restaurants because they use pure liquid nicotine. So there’s no secondary smoke to harm the people around you.

Check them out on youtube: the new electric cigarette

And check out a full range of products on Smoke51.

The Daily Mail’s article has more information.

Categories
Inspirational Designs Science & Technology

Reason: The Washing Machine of my Dreams

Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter had a theory says that when the economy is floundering as it is now, innovators will lead the recovery. And a British entrepreneur is out to prove that theory with Reason, probably the most simple, unique, and perfect washing machine in the world.

This washing machine has two reservoir pods containing 1.5 liters each that automatically dispense the right amount of detergent and softener depending on the weight of your filthy laundry (it accepts a maximum of 10 kg), making it economical and eco-friendly. Simply pull out the drawer-like drum, drop in your laundry, push one button, and walk away.

The first batch of 200 individually handmade and numbered machines were sold in the UK via an online auction in February. More auctions inEurope, USA, and Japan will follow.

More info at the Reason Washing Machine website – via iGreenSpot.

Categories
Awesomeness Inspirational Designs

Crazy Artwork by Florian Kuhlmann

Florian Kuhlmann makes very detailed, intricate collages from hundreds and thousands pictures that he finds on the Internet. And being the nice guy that he is, he puts the original high-res artwork onto the Web under a Creative Commons 2.0 license so everyone is free to download the images.

Here’s a small gallery of the medium-sized images.

More images can be found at Sellingthe.net – via Doobybrain.

Categories
Featured Inspirational Designs

Going Analogue: Liberia’s Blackboard Blogger

These are the days of our Tweets and WordPress-powered blogs. But in Liberia, a country which has been without constant electricity since the 1990s, bloggers need to think of other ways to get news and opinions across to people. Alfred Sirleaf is one such blogger who uses a simple method to overcome the electricity problems. his “Daily News” is written on a blackboard by the side of a major road in the middle of Monrovia.

He recruits people from the city and around country to report news to him. Not only does he use symbols like army helmets to get information to the illiterate, but he also offers advertising sections (prices vary depending on the location on the blackboard). He also has ideas opening up identical locations in other parts of Monrovia and the country.

Here’s an interview with him.

Good on you Alfred!

Read the full story at AfriGadget.

Categories
Awesomeness Inspirational Designs

Social Collider: Revealing Twitter Connections

I love bacon. Some people love Javascript; It’s the cat’s meow (I prefer dog’s bollocks personally) and Chrome Experiments is a series of visualizations that let you see the kinds of things that JavaScript is making possible.

One interesting concoction I like is the Social Collider, a visualization tool that reveals cross-connections between conversations on Twitter. You can search for usernames or topics, which are tracked through time and visualized. The tweets that resonated with others horizontally link to users or topics that relate to them. Posts that did not resonate with anyone just connect to the next item in the stream. It gives a pretty good graphical representation of the impact of a Twitter user, a phrase, or a trend.

I probably haven’t explained it well so head to Social Collider and check it out.