Home » SIMPLY COOL (Page 25)

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  NES Controller Business Card Case Gives Away Your Geekiness, Possible Age

  SIMPLY COOL

  I stopped carrying business cards a couple of years ago. Unless I was attending a trade show or a large event, I find them a waste of pocket space, more than anything else. The NES Controller Type Card Case, however, makes me want to carry a stack again. Created by Banpresto, the business card holder is decked out as authentic-looking NES controllers. Sporting an anodized aluminum body, it comes in a conventional folder design with two compartments – one for [...]

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  Scientists Create Universal Mirror, The Exact Opposite Of An Invisibility Cloak

  SIMPLY COOL

  An invisibility cloak reflects light at the exact opposite direction as its source, basically making it look like there’s nothing in the way between you and the object you’re looking straight at. A universal mirror, on the other hand, is its direct contrary, bouncing light back at the exact same location from where it came. Scientists in Europe and Asia have now been able to produce the latter, a mirror that basically reflects everything back to the same source, regardless [...]

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  Fish Hotel: Vacation Destination For Your Gilled Pets

  SIMPLY COOL

  Fish can survive long durations without food.  They have water, after all (just kidding).  But, seriously, leaving your swimming pets to fend for themselves even for just a week isn’t that great of an idea.  That’s the motivation behind the world’s first Fish Hotel, a large aquarium where you can bring your beloved water creatures before jettisoning out to live your vagabond lifestyle. Located at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, the one-of-a-kind pet lodging is pioneered by the D-reizen Travel Agency, presumably, [...]

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  SwissMiniGun: 5.5 Centimeter Double Action Revolver

  SIMPLY COOL

  When someone mentioned “the world’s smallest gun,” I was expecting something along the lines of what Will Smith was packing in MIB.  Surprisingly, that one was still too big for the SwissMiniGun, a real working pistol that holds the distinction of being the smallest rim fire ammunition available today. No bigger, it seems, than a regular house key, the SwissMiniGun is a miniature double-action revolver, with complete mechanical parts as you will fund in a regular handgun.  It comes with [...]

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  Igloo Satellite Cabin: A Way, Way Cooler Tent

  SIMPLY COOL

  Always wanted to live in an igloo?  You might have a chance to make your childhood fancies come true without moving to the north pole, after all.  The Igloo Satellite Cabin lets you live inside the protective shell of a functional dome-shaped igloo that’s capable of providing shelter under any weather condition. The product page claims it’s the same cabin used for safe and reliable accommodation in many remote areas over the last 25 years.  Built to live through any [...]

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  Dumpster Pools: Garbage Receptacles Turned Summer Fun

  SIMPLY COOL

  Dumpster diving anyone? Brooklyn-based creatives Macro|Sea salvaged trash receptacles around the city and repurposed them into modular swimming pools just in time for the summer. From the side, the setup looks like an assembly of dumpsters in the middle of a scrap yard. Once you make your way to the top, however, you end up with a gorgeous aboveground pool that looks like the perfect spot for cooling off under the sun. A project from the trio of Jocko Weyland, [...]

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  M/V Auriga Leader: World’s First Solar-Powered Cargo Ship

  SIMPLY COOL

  While it’s a more or less established fact that commercial cars won’t be able to make use of any sort of solar-based powertrains soon, larger vehicles are a whole other story.  Huge cargo ships, which offer plenty of exposed surfaces, are actually a more likely candidate. The M/V Auriga Leader is the first cargo ship to take a step in that direction, wearing a total of 328 solar panels on its top deck to help supply 40 kilowatts of energy. [...]

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  One-Off Transformers: 13-Inch Omega Supreme Animated Figure

  ENTERTAINMENT, SIMPLY COOL

  The gigantic Omega Supreme, as depicted from the last animated series, was one of the most important Transformers ever.  He also happens to be a widely ignored one, with Hasbro neglecting to fashion a decent action figure for the one that sacrificed his life to end the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons. As such, it isn’t a surprise that his character has become the fodder for individual hobbyists to try to fashion.  Currently being auctioned now on eBay [...]

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  Your Very Own Semi-Robotic Doppleganger

  ART, SIMPLY COOL

  Want to have your own brainless android twin?  I’m not sure how much it will cost to commission your likeness with the Xian Chaoren Sculpture Research Institute in China, but you have to admit, there’s something amazing with their semi-robotic doppelganger creations. Rated as a Model Company by the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Arts, the company produces simulated silica gel sculptures based on real people, which are touted to feature a level of artistry and craftsmanship that are among the [...]

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  Aerodynamic SENZ Umbrellas Let You Laugh In The Face Of 70 Mph Winds

  SIMPLY COOL

  Unusually strong winds call for unusually sturdy umbrellas – and, no, an umbrella that pretends blue skies are upon you won’t be enough.  SENZ umbrellas are built for exactly that kind of weather, resisting strong gusts of wind like a cool cat brushing worries off its shoulder. It won’t be the prettiest umbrella you’ll find.  In fact, it looks deformed, with one side purposely shorter than the other.  Far  from being a factory reject, though, the SENZ umbrella has been [...]

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  Camera-Powered Interactive Poster Changes Displays When People Are Watching

  FEATURED, SIMPLY COOL

  We’ve seen posters that alter their displays automatically before. So far, though, what we typically get around public places are advertisements that change their visuals at specified time intervals. This award-winning ad for Amnesty International takes the technology a step further, adjusting what it shows based on whether people are looking at it. The public service ad, which makes a point of how domestic abuse happens when nobody’s looking, shows an image of a happy couple when it detects pairs [...]

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  Realtime 3D Air Traffic Simulation Makes Being A Traffic Cop Cooler Than It Sounds

  ENTERTAINMENT, GADGETS, SIMPLY COOL

  Being a traffic cop is by no means cool. Working as an air traffic cop, based on what I’ve seen in movies, is hardly any more glamorous. Lufthansa’s Real-Time 3D Airtraffic Network Simulation, however, makes me want to change my mind. Installed at the flight control tower of the Lufthansa Brand Academy in Frankfurt-Seeheim, the display is a real-time 3D visualization of all 16,000 daily flights taken by Lufthansa and Star Alliance planes. Instead of just watching the whole thing [...]

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  All I Want Is A Treehouse

  HOME, SIMPLY COOL

  When I think of tree houses, my mind conjures up images of a makeshift room, sloppily put together with spare wood and a big “NO GIRLS ALLOWED” sign. Yup, you can blame Saturday morning cartoons for that, since I never really experienced a tree house growing up in an apartment building. To my surprise, some folks actually do take erstwhile children’s playrooms seriously fashioning them to look like classic Italian abodes, Loch side retreats and fake Tudor mansions. Hell, some [...]

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  Zero Gravity Wedding: When Sci-Fi Fans Get Married

  SIMPLY COOL, TO DO

  While we’re still waiting for the inaugural space wedding, here’s news to tide us over.  A New York couple just finished exchanging vows in zero gravity and are, officially, the first pair to do so. Lovebirds Noah Fullmore and Erin Finnegan earned the honor after getting hitched inside a Zero Gravity Flight, which simulates the weightlessness experienced by astronauts in space without actually leaving the earth’s atmosphere.  The ceremony occurred inside a converted Boeing 727 jet, which achieves the zero-gravity [...]

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  Life-Size, First-Generation Bumblebee Stands At A Front Yard In California

  ENTERTAINMENT, SIMPLY COOL

  If you build it, they will come.  While that’s not always true (especially nowadays when everyone seems to be building something), it couldn’t be more fitting for life-size replicas of Transformers in your backyard.   That’s exactly what Tom Rhoads of Lemoore, California is doing and the first one to rise looks smashing – a first-generation Bumblebee from the original Transformers cartoons. While Hollywood has fashioned the affable character into a Camaro (with a special edition model, no less), Bumblebee used [...]

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  New Ice Suit Keeps You Sweat-Free During Hot Summer Days

  FASHION, SIMPLY COOL

  During especially hot summer days, using deodorant is probably not enough to keep the nasty sweating away.  While the rest of the world remedies the problem by doubling their spray (and roll-on) volume, Tokyo finds itself with a subtler, more fashion-forward approach.  Dubbed as the “New Ice Suit,” Japan’s professional crowd gets to don themselves with specially-designed business outfits that boast armpit-cooling power. Before you go off imagining a technologically-advanced jacket with superhero-like freezing abilities, I’d like to stop you [...]

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  100% Solar-Powered Plane

  SIMPLY COOL

  We’ve already seen a number of pure solar-powered cars make their way around long stretches of open road successfully.  This month, the Solar Impulse project is expected to take one step closer to doing the same for aircrafts when they unveil their much-awaited HB-SIA solar-powered plane. An airborne vehicle presents unusual problems that their land-travelling counterparts aren’t really privy to.  For one, solar panels and battery cells will add exponentially to the aircraft’s weight, which can mean serious engineering problems [...]

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  Mechanical Wedding Band Hides Diamond For Delightful Surprise

  FASHION, SIMPLY COOL

  Wedding bands and engagement rings are pretty straightforward affairs, with the most exquisite pieces frequently the ones with plenty of details and precious stones.  When jewelry maker John Welden was faced with making one for his fiance, he decided to go the other way around, crafting something more creative than the typical memento, yet avoiding the tackiness that frequently happens with rings that try to be different. Since his would-be wife wanted a simple band without any stones, Welden decided [...]

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  Yacht Express: So That’s How They Deliver Boats!

  SIMPLY COOL

  How do you deliver a boat from one country to another?    As it turns out, you put them in an even bigger boat that makes the trip. When it comes to taking boats across the continents, the float-on-float-off Yacht Express from Dockwise is the undisputed king and the largest of its kind.  A semi-submersible, it sinks into the water in order to pick up two dozen or so yachts that it can carry across its deck.  Once they reach [...]

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