Latest Stuff

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  Japanese Smile Detector Evaluates Smiles, Makes It Better

  GADGETS

  Customer service employees, for the most part, are doomed to spending their hours wearing fake smiles and cheerful faces.  In Japan’s Keihin Electric Express Railway, it gets worse: they make sure that the pretend geniality is as close to authentic as can be with “smile-checking” software. Part of the morning routine for Keihin employees is to take a picture with the biggest smile they can muster.  The photo is then picked up and processed by the company’s evaluation app, which [...]

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  Day Trips to Chernobyl

  TO DO

  Forget streets lined with stalls selling tacky pencils, hats and other memorabilia and pricing it at four times what it should be just because it has the logo of some tourist destination on it. This day trip is a little more… well…. derelict. The word ‘Chernobyl’ probably doesn’t strike happiness into the very core of your being. That’s because most of us will be aware of the unfortunate event for which Chernobyl is now most famous: The nuclear disaster of [...]

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  Slow Down Your Teens With Ford MyKey

  WHEELS

  There’s a common school of thought that teens tend to drive too fast. These new drivers get a little bit too confident too quickly, it seems. Unfortunately, the road accident statistics back this up. However, 2010 will see the release of a gadget from Ford that aims to put parental minds at rest a little and have Mums and Dads sleep a little easier at night. The Ford MyKey is set to revolutionise how parents can control their teenager’s driving [...]

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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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  Funny Tutorial: Photography Rules For Complete Idiots

  ENTERTAINMENT, WEB

  Want to learn photography but don’t know where to begin?  Learn the basics from The 78 Photography Rules For Complete Idiots, a mostly-factual, partly-inane and completely funny illustrated piece that details some of the key ideas you’ll need to learn before you start snapping stills. Created by Latvian photographer Ivars Gravlejs, the pieces of advice range from the obvious (“Before photographing, take the lens cap off”) to the useful (“If you take a picture of a self-portrait, try to hold [...]

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  Box Of Applause Lets You Congratulate Yourself For A Job Well Done

  GADGETS

  Feeling underappreciated at work? Get the Box of Applause, a small, classy-looking container that isn’t really hollowed-out enough to hold anything… except a round of cheers especially for you. Decked out in pine wood and varnish, the box sports a hinged top lid that you can flip open to let out a chorus of pre-recorded claps and cheers. It measures 4.5 x 3.5 x 4.5 inches and should slot easily in any open space on your table. That way, you [...]

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  Trace of Time Combines Day-Planner And 24-Hr Clock With Clever Results

  GADGETS

  If you like using a planner to schedule you day, you might want to look at this more dynamic alternative.  Called the Trace Of Time, it’s a wall clock that integrates a day-planner within the same time-telling face. Designed by Il-Gu Cha, the  Trace Of Time sports a 24-hour display on a writable surface.  The idea is to pencil in your appointments right next to the corresponding indicator, while the lone hour hand slowly makes its way through the clock. [...]

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  Rubik’s 360 Ready To Baffle Puzzle Lovers Starting Next Week

  ENTERTAINMENT, TO DO

  Tired of solving Rubik’s Cube over and over? Prepare yourself for a new challenge as the iconic puzzle gets a modern follow-up 35 years after it was first invented. Called the Rubik’s 360, it’s debuting in UK stores next week Ditching the cubic form previously used in Hungarian professor Erno Rubik’s first two puzzles (Rubik’s Cube and Rubik’s Revenge), the 360 uses a transparent spherical design with six tiny domes on the shell. Inside the sphere are two smaller clear [...]

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  Marvell Sheevaplug: A Functional Computer The Size Of A Wall Plug

  GADGETS

  Looking for a small computer to play around with?  Try the Marvell Sheevaplug, a low-powered box that plugs directly to a wall outlet with enough processing power to run some Linux flavor, along with a nifty app or two. Measuring no larger than the typical power adapter for handheld gadgets, it fits a functional computer setup inside.  While it’s not going to replace your desktop anytime soon, it should offer enough capabilities to allow for some for some dedicated functions, [...]

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  Michael Jackson’s Private Arcade Collection In An Explorable Panorama

  ENTERTAINMENT, FEATURED

  Ever wondered how massive Michael Jackson’s personal arcade collection looked like?  You can stop wondering now.  The entire assemblage has been photographed and posted online in a fully-explorable 360-degree panorama for your viewing pleasure. Set to be auctioned off earlier this year, the impressive collection is shown as it was arranged at a warehouse in Beverly Hills.  Yep, that’s not Neverland there, so try to look past the dilapidated ceilings and shoddy walls, pinning your attention instead on the massive [...]

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  Gengis Khan Warrior Training

  TO DO

  When I take a trip, it’s to treat myself. I relax and take in better weather, beautiful places and a whole lot of fun. But for those of you who prefer a more self torturous approach to your vacations, you might be interested in this. Recently featured in the BBC book, Unforgettable Things to do Before You Die, this Gengis Khan Warrior Training cultural and activity vacation is certainly intensive. Gengis Khan was the founder of the Mongolian nation and actually conquered [...]

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  Walls Notebook Lets You Deface New York City Legally

  ART, ENTERTAINMENT

  Want to practice your graffiti skills without actually vandalizing private property? Work your drawing talents on the Walls Notebook, an erstwhile regular sketchbook filled with background images of blank walls and other urban surfaces. Designed to be used both as a sketchbook and a regular pad, each sheet comes bearing an image of an empty New York City facade. These include a good variety of graffiti-friendly surfaces that you can deface to your heart’s content, including building walls, park benches, [...]

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  The Ledge Offers A New View From The Skydeck – Straight Down

  TO DO

  Afraid of heights?  Then you’ll be horrified with the Ledge, a series of glass balconies at the Skydeck in Chicago, where you can enjoy a view of the city that’s never been seen before – 1,353 feet straight down. The balconies extend 4.3 feet from the Sears Tower’s walls, right on the 103rd floor of the popular skyscraper.  From there, visitors can stand (in horror, we presume) and get an unobstructed view of the city, all while doing their best [...]

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  Finger Dance Alarm Clock Wakes You Up To Dance Dance Revolution

  GADGETS

  Just like Shape Up (which we featured a couple days ago), the Finger Dance Alarm Clock offers to wake you up while providing a more difficult mechanism for turning it off.  Instead of rousing you into consciousness by some form of exercise, though, it performs the deed by compelling you to play a round of Dance Dance Revolution with your fingers. Instead of being able to hit snooze when you want to sleep a little longer, the Finger Dance requires [...]

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  Enigma Battleship Turns The Classic Turn-Based Strategy Into A Drinking Game

  ENTERTAINMENT, GADGETS

  Corrupting fairly innocent childhood games into a way to get shit-faced drunk is a wonderful pastime that we’ve probably all been guilty of at one time or another. The Enigma Battleship Drinking Game, however, takes it to new heights, touting an entire game board, complete with colorful lights and squares sized just right for a shot glass. Currently just a design concept instead of an actual product we can all destroy our brain cells to, the Enigma plays much like [...]

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  Anti-Paparazzi Flash Purse Destroys Photos With Blinding Light

  FASHION, GADGETS

  Love the fame, hate the paparazzi? For celebrities like you who don’t want their pictures splattered across tabloids everyday, there’s the anti-paparazzi Flash Purse, a small clutch bag that fires back a blinding flash so no decent photo of you can ever be taken. Created by NYU grad student Adam Harvey, the purse is designed for carrying by non-publicity-starved celebs who’d rather keep their best angles for that next paid photoshoot than a spot on Perez Hilton with some inanity [...]

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  Stunning Papercraft: Castle On the Ocean

  ART

  Some papercraft projects are triumphs in design, allowing you to fashion gorgeous-looking creations with just a few folds of paper.  Others, like Wataru Itou’s massive and meticulously-detailed “Umi no Ue no Oshiro” (Castle On the Ocean), are just pure labors of love. How else can you describe paper art that’s as intricate?  Built by hand, the artist slaved over the miniature castle for over four years before deeming it ready for the world to see.  Can you imagine cutting and folding [...]

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  RIPT Fusion Does For Men What Push-Up Bras Have Done For Women

  FEATURED

  Push-up bras and corsets are only two of the many false advertising machinations women have been afforded with ever since I can remember.  Now, men have their own version.  The RIPT Fusion shirt gives you the appearance of a bodybuilder’s physique without having to spend a single second in the vicinity of a fitness trainer and protein shakes. Described as “a classic men’s undershirt injected with steroids,” the RIPT brings all the necessary traces of muscle to misshapen men worldwide. [...]

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  Chronofighter Tourist Trophy Is Huge, Manly And Looks Like It Has A Grenade Pin On The Crown

  FASHION

  Some folks like colorful watches, while a few prefer difficult timepieces. My personal favorites are big watches with lots of moving components like the Graham Chronofighter Tourist Trophy, which does it one better by adding a lever over the crown that looks like a grenade pin. London-based watchmaker Graham teamed up with the Tourist Trophy Isle of Man races for this commemorative piece, one of which was awarded for every race winner during the motorcycle tournament’s two-week run last month. [...]

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