CoolThings.com | Cool Stuff, Cool Gadgets, Cool Gifts & Things - Part 208

Latest Stuff

URWERK UR-CC1 King Cobra Brings Sportscar Displays To Timepieces

FASHION

Got enough money for a high-end sportscar but would rather buy a wristwatch instead? Try URWERK’s UR-CC1 King Cobra, which sports retrograde linear displays that bring to mind overactive dashboard panels from barreling high-performance classic roadsters. Borrowing from the Patek Philippe Cobra prototype watch from 1958, the King Cobra tells time by way of a jumping cylinder for the hours (bottom of the face), a retrograde cylinder for the minutes (middle) and a rotating disk for the seconds (top). URWERK [...]

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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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The i.Saw – A USB Chainsaw

GADGETS

Just when I thought I’d seen (or that ‘i.Saw’) it all, it seems I was wrong! The crazy world of USB powered everything continued to grow. The latest innovation is a chainsaw that runs off your USB hub! Because of course you never know when you will need a chainsaw while you’re typing away on your laptop, right? But this thing is USB 2.0 compatible, meaning you just attach the USB cable, plug it into your computer and you can [...]

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Koji Suzuki’s Novel “Drop” Printed In Toilet Paper Form

ART, ENTERTAINMENT, HOME

Like to read during toilet hour? Then you’ll love “Drop,” a nine-chapter novella printed across an entire roll of toilet paper strictly for your perusal while performing…errr…relief duties. Written by Koji Suzuki, the same Japanese horror writer behind the hugely successful “The Ring,” the novel is a second-person narrative (yes, it puts the reader as a central character) that tells the tale of a goblin who lives inside the walls of a public restroom. That’s definitely one way to spook [...]

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River Surfing At Habitat 67 In Montreal

TO DO

Surfing is one the greatest sports ever. Only surfers can understand what they get out of paddling out into the shark infested waters and catching waves. These waves don’t even have to be big, just surfable. We as surfers cannot even imagine planning our vacations in landlocked areas. (disclaimer: I am a surfer and love it). But imagine surfing next to an apartment complex in Montreal. You say impossible, I say Surf’s Up. This actually is perpetual view along Habitat [...]

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Messless Charger: Stylish Charging Station

GADGETS

Charging docks are normally unsightly pieces of accessories – large blocks of plastic with protruding connectors. That eyesore typically grows in expanse the more devices it can charge. The Messless Charger marries a multi-charging dock’s utility with enough aesthetic sensibilities to fashion an attractive piece for the home that you wouldn’t mind seeing on top of a table or a shelf. Created by Italdesign Giugiaro, the “messless” name is obviously a reference to the peripheral’s ability to charge multiple devices [...]

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Calvin Klein’s USB Shades Shields Your Eyes, Carries Your Files

FASHION, GADGETS

I guess it had to happen. With USB flash drives turning up in all sorts of shapes and sizes, seeing one decked on a pair of designer specs isn’t all that difficult a proposition – as strange as the association might seem. Calvin Klein’s upcoming USB Shades fit in a deck of flash storage on one detachable arm, allowing you to carry your data while clad in an eye-protecting piece of accessory. Unless you live in the dankest place on [...]

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Have a “Smashing” Time at the Battle of the Oranges

TO DO

Had enough of Mardi Gras already? Too many plastic beads stuck at the bottom of a kitchen drawer? Time to look for another spring festival then. If you happen to be taking a trip anywhere near Piedmont region of Italy next spring the Battle of the Oranges is well worth checking out. Once a year the usually reserved people of the Piedmont town of Ivrea go a little bit crazy. As the culmination of a week of Carnival the locals [...]

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Jules Underwater Lodge

TO DO

Ordinarily, if you checked into a hotel and found out it was underwater, you’d insist upon your money back and then complain about the flooding to your holiday rep! But visitors to the Jules Underwater Lodge in Key Largo, Florida, actually pay well over the odds for the pleasure of having their accommodation underwater! The Jules Underwater Lodge is pretty much exactly what the name suggests. It’s a lodge and it is underwater. In fact, even to get in you [...]

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Acceleglove: A Programmable $500 Hand Sensor

GADGETS

Everything works better with an accelerometer. Even gloves. The Acceleglove sports one motion-detecting accelerometer on each finger, sending feedback to an attached databoard that can interface with a computer. It comes with its own open-source SDK, so you can program any application that you want to work with your hands. Developed by AnthroTronix, a company based in Silver Spring, MD, the Acceleglove can track the wearer’s hand movements across a 3D space, registering them on the computer. Current drivers can [...]

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Fatlace’s Limited Edition Meister CMGK Brings Color To Sexy Black Timepieces

FASHION

San Francisco-based retailer Fatlace recently celebrated their 10th anniversary and prepared a wonderful piece for the occasion. In commemoration of the event, they teamed up with popular watchmaker Meister Watches to produce the CMGK, an attractive black wristpiece with a variety of color accents across its face. CMGK’s billing is an acronym for Cyan, Magenta, Green and blacK, which make up the color palette used on the timepiece. The watch carries very understated looks, with the added hues providing a [...]

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Bald Man’s Comb: Grooming Supplies For That Time Of Your Life

ENTERTAINMENT

It’s your birthday. You’re another year older, hopefully a year wiser and with your top just a tad thinner than it has always been. You open up your presents one by one, suddenly chancing upon one with a plastic over-the-head strap in tow. Oh, good, someone gave you a pair of headphones. You sit back and hope it works better than the last cheap pair of cans you bought a month ago. As you pull out the headphones, however, something [...]

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Clock A Day Turns A Dry-Erase Board Into A Customizable Timepiece

HOME

Bored with your wall or desk clock? Rock a new one regularly with Clock A Day, a clever timepiece that you can literally outfit to your fancy whenever you feel like it. A small, personal-size whiteboard with a fully-functional timepiece mechanism installed, the contraption sports a three-handed analog clock on the left-hand side of the panel, while leaving the right-hand area clear. All surfaces can take a regular whiteboard marker, allowing it to be written on and cleaned up like [...]

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Capital Fringe Festival – Washington DC

LATEST

There are 84 ‘fringe festivals’ held annually, around 20 of which take place in the USA. Capital Fringe takes place, well, in the capital. Make sense, I suppose! This year’s festival will be held in 11 different locations around Washington DC over 17 days and will comprise of some spectacularly creative and outlandish, eccentric events. There will be one act plays, musical performances, stand up comedy shows, poetry, dance, improvisation, clowns, mime, jazz, hip-hop and then a whole other category [...]

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Concerts in the Park – Sacramento

LATEST

Entertainment in summer 2009 promises to be cheap and easy in Sacramento. No, that isn’t an offensive sexual innuendo. It is in fact a genuine observation. In an initiative that began on at the beginning of summer and will end on August 14th 2009, every Friday will see cost free concerts held outdoors in California’s state capital. The event is somewhat unoriginally called, ‘Friday Night Concerts in the Park,’ and is an idea that has been brought to fruition by [...]

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Paratrooper Tactical Folding Mountain Bike Makes Pushing Pedals Look Bad-Ass

FEATURED, WHEELS

Planning to drop off a plane into the middle of the jungle and bike your way out for your next vacation adventure? Probably not, but just in case you do, you should look into hauling Montague’s Paratrooper Tactical Folding Mountain Bike. Used by military personnel for real-world operations, it was originally designed as a ground mobility vehicle for airborne units. Creating little to no thermal and acoustic signatures, it allows ground troops to be able to travel virtually undetected. For [...]

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120-Zipper Dress Is Modular And Dangerous

FASHION

As the film There’s Something About Mary demonstrated so graphically, one zipper can do a great deal of damage. Add 119 more of them little metal fasteners and you’ve got yourself the potential for a whole lot of danger. Of course, the same thing also allows a dress to be more modular and that’s exactly what the 120-Zipper Dress from Sebastian Errazuriz purports to be. Each stripe on the dress corresponds to one zipper panel that connects that particular fabric [...]

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George Foreman GIPOD200 Electric Grill Gets You Great Barbecue, Good Tunes

HOME

Want to listen to music while you’re scorching some burgers and steaks in the backyard? The George Foreman GIPOD200 grill combines succulent barbecuing talents with an integrated iPod dock and speakers. That means you can rock out to your favorite Michael Jackson ditty, all while preparing a family-sized meal. Designed for both indoor and outdoor use, the GIPOD200 is an electric grill with a generous 200 square inches of nonstick-coated surface. Like other George Foreman models, it drains fat into [...]

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Draganflyer X6 Heli Cam: Hi-Speed, All-Direction And Vibration-Free

GADGETS

In the world of RC helicopters, there’s a great divide between model choppers that people fly out in the park and unmanned military vehicles designed to spy on enemy locations. Draganfly’s series of heli cams, particularly the award-winning Draganflyer X6, slots right in between – easy enough for the casual hobbyist yet powerful enough for police and industrial applications. When it comes to quick aerial surveillance, few technologies can lay claim to what the Draganflyer X6 can do. Sporting six [...]

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