Johnathan Post has a very impressive new method for seeing 3D content on video screens without shutter glasses. While there are some obvious reasons why this particular method isn’t going to catch on, I really am vastly impressed with his ingenuity.
Inspiration Fail
Some ideas come in a sudden flash, as all of the pieces come together in your mind. This is great unless it happens at three in the morning waking up from a drunken stupor, as illustrated below:
Winkers Jeans. For those who would really like their butt to be the first thing people notice about them, and the last. This almost seemed like it had potential, but no, it’s just weird, and not in that good way.
Glowing toilet paper. Funny, but why not make something that isn’t a consumable glow, like the holder? It just seems like a good way to end up with people asking you why your butt is glowing. Â (at amazon)
A scooter attached to your dog. There are so many accidents waiting to happen here I shudder to think of them all. (via Gizmodo)
Ahh, the never ending battle between people trying to price gouge captive consumers on their beer, and crafty(ish) guzzlers trying to find sneaky ways of smuggling in cheap beer. There have been some interesting attempts over the years, this is not one of them. You fill the seat with beer and then you can sit on it while you drink it, resulting in a cold butt and warm beer, followed by a warm butt on a hard seat. What happens when some lard ass sits on one of these and explodes beer all over the nearby populace? (on Amazon)
This is a live-feed App for the IPhone called E-Mail and Walk. It turns your backgrond into a live view from the camera. This will be great to keep people from falling down manholes while texting. I think it will more often be used while driving. (Via I-Tunes)
The Uncomb
Keeping up those savage, boyish good looks isn’t always easy. The trick is getting everything placed just right in such a fashion that it looks like you didn’t do anything.
Finally, Martà Guixé has come to our aid with a grooming tool designed for men’s needs: The Uncomb. Did some well meaning individual try to comb your hair? Just leaving the office and losing the suit and tie, wanting to feel like a real human being again? Just pull the uncomb out of your back pocket and give it a few passes for that perfectly tousled look.
Hopside Down Glass
Why would I put something as awesome as this glass which appears to contain an upside down beer bottle into the imperfection category? Because the glass is double walled. I had a glass like this once. It was an exiting novelty, until the day I dropped an ice cube into it and it shattered. The walls were paper thin. I was all set to buy this glass if it were a normal thick glass with a shaped interior. It isn’t on sale yet. I’ll check back in later and see if I can find out more.
Honorable Mentions for Jan 09
A few things that caught my eye but didn’t merit a post to themselves:
How to use butane and fire to mount a tire that has come off its rim
The Ibex has now set two huge scientific records. It was the first animal to be cloned after extinction, and subsequently the first animal to ever become extinct twice. Better luck next time guys, this has great promise.
USB drive that masquerades as a floppy drive for those annoying things like bios updates that still tend to require them.
Flashlight hose nozzle. Why you would garden in the dark is beyond me. Most people have lights in their yard. This thing needs to be water powered at least.
Washing machine built to take the whole basket. It looks great, but the more I think about it the less impressed I am.
Toaster Trebuchet catapults your toast with great accuracy.
Please consider this to be an open post as well. Feel free to post a link to your blog, throw up a link to something you think should be featured on this site, or talk about what is on your mind. All comments will be moderated, so don’t be spammy.
Fog Bubbles
Every once in a while I see a new product where the inspiration was good, but the execution was weak. This fog filled bubble machine by Gemmy is a prime example. First off, there is no reason to make a product this tacky. I know it is targeting Halloween, but the fluorescent orange box with a skeleton isn’t impressing anyone, and it makes it even less impressive the other 364 days a year. The product uses a fog fluid made of mineral oil or glycerin to make fog bubbles. Bubbles are nasty enough being made out of soap, I don’t want to be cleaning mineral oil and glycerin off of everything, and they have potential health consequences when inhaled.
I do think it is a fun concept. There are other ways of making fog. There is dry ice, which doesn’t solve the problem of havking to buy an extra product. It would be safer, but between the CO2 and the cold. probably far too heavy. Smoke might work, but probably reduces the life span of the bubbles, and comes with its own set of problems. I think I would use an ultrasonic fogger. I used one for my pumpkin (actually a watermelon) this year to great effect. It uses ultrasound resonance to break up the water into very fine fog.
Robbery
Not all innovations are used for the good of the people. As an armored truck driver walked into a bank with a bag of cash, he noticed a worker with a dust mask and a pump sprayer. Unfortuantely for the guard, the sprayer was full of pepper spray. After this cleverly disguised individual grabbed the cash, he ran to a nearby river where he had an inner tube stashed as a getaway vehicle. To discourage pursuit, he had put out a craigslist ad requesting workers and listing the required clothing for the job: An exact match for his own. His decoys had been told to meet in the area of the bank, and didn’t realize they had been duped until after the robbery.
Update: It looks like our thief was a bit sloppy. Three weeks prior, he had left a can of mace, a wig, a two way radio, and a safety vest behind a dumpster near the bank. Someone noticed him picking up the items and wrote down his license number. The tip, combined with DNA evidence made solving this one almost too easy. What a Wile E. Coyote moment. Adding this to Imperfection.