Han Solo carbonite desk
From Tom Spina Designs.
Made On Earth
Temperature regulating coffee mug
Klaus Sedlbauer and Herbert Sinnesbichler, of Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics (IBP), think coffee is perfect at 58 degrees C. So they built a coffee mug that automatically maintains that temperature, tending to cool its contents above 58 degrees, and releasing heat below 58 degrees to warm them back up. It works by use of an interstitial phase change material (PCM, Wikipedia) between the aluminum fins, which has a solid-liquid phase change temperature of 58 degrees. Above 58 degrees, the PCM melts and absorbs heat, and below 58 degrees it freezes and releases heat. Supposedly it can keep a cup of coffee at ideal temperature for 20 to 30 minutes.
Fist sledgehammer
Spotted in the online portfolio of design firm Martus & Silvio, of Grand Rapids. It’s a sculpture, technically, entitled “Early Tools,” but I’d have a hard time not using it at least once, Office Space style, on something that really made me angry.
Reductionist Jack-'o-lantern
An engineer’s solution to the Jack-‘o-lantern problem if ever I saw one. [via There, I Fixed It]
Driving a car with an iPhone. A freaking car. For reals.
John Boiles, who earlier this year showed us how to control an RC car using an iPod’s internal accelerometer (and also how to control the lights on a dance floor in more or less the same way), is a member of Austin, TX, based engineering collective Waterloo Labs, who have up-gunned his iPod technology to control steering, breaks, and acceleration on a full-size automobile. Definitely not the safest hack I’ve ever blogged, but probably the most impressive. Great work, lady and gents.
Designer hobo barrel with laser-cut Philly street map
Although I’ll admit to some cognitive dissonance at the notion of an expensive custom-made object intended to evoke homelessness, there’s no denying the purely aesthetic qualities of this fireplace by John Briscella. I’d really like to see what it looks like with a fire burning inside, and, while I’m at it, maybe some video of the 5-axis laser cutting out all those little pieces… [via Dude Craft]
Lego bone dragon
From Flickr user necromancer7. [via The Brothers Brick]