Inventor News
News for the Inventor in all of us...
The latest on smart, cool, interesting, bizarre, wacky and fun inventions, innovations and ideas.
Aston Martin's Lagonda SUV Concept Spies Well-Heeled Chinese Drivers
by China.new
Aston Martin Lagonda Limited, famed for its high performance GT sports cars favored by the likes of James Bond, reckons its future lies far to the east of MI6 headquarters in the garages of China's rich and famous. The super-luxury 4x4 Lagonda SUV is expected to cost a pretty moneypenny and would likely leave 007 shaken, not stirred.
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Add new comment Coin Laundry Calls When Your Clothes Are Clean
by Steve Levenstein
Kyoto Laundry Service announces "Hello Call”, Japan's first coin-operated laundry voice information service. Got things to do and people to see? No problem, your machine will phone when it needs more detergent, more change or more repairs.
1 comment Facebook's IPO Morality Tale: If The Green Shoes Fit, Wear Them?
by Ron Callari
Facebook's reversal of fortunes in such a short span of time has played
out almost like a modern-day morality tale. The fall-out of the social
network post-IPO, after such an enthusiastic build-up was telling. While it lined the
pockets of some (namely investment bankers), it deprived the 99
Percenters (or Dumb F*cks
as Zuckerberg so adroitly labeled them back in 2004) full-disclosure,
resulting in a subsequent short-fall on their FB investment.
Chengdu's Love Zebra Crossing: Street Hearts for Sweethearts!
by China.new
Cross your heart and hope to... live? In an effort to ensure the often bumpy road to romance gets off to a smooth start, the Chinese city of Chengdu has provided a Love Zebra Crossing painted up in lovely red & white.
Self-Stirring Pot Puts New Spin on Stove-top Cooking
by Steve Levenstein
Is stuck pasta your kitchen nightmare? A Japanese dentist has created a stir with Kuru-Kuru Nabe (“Pot Round and Round”), a cooking pot with sculpted sides. Turn up the heat and watch basic thermodynamics go to work so you don't have to!
Peak Download: Internet Access Arrives at Remote Tibetan Village
by China.new
A pilot project to provide network services for a tiny Tibetan village has allowed residents to connect to a wider world many did not know even existed. The project, sponsored and funded by China Telecom, also provides villagers with internet-ready computers, Tibetan-language web development and skills training.
Dog Ramen Puts Some Growl In Your Bowl
by China.new
Dog Ramen, an ethnic Korean specialty made in China's northeastern Jilin province, contains real dehydrated dog meat along with instant noodles, seasonings and spices. Hungover Chinese college students thirsty for some “hair of the dog” can now shake off the DTs like a bad case of fleas.
Chinese RoboCop Keeps An Electric Eye On Crime
by China.new
A robot policeman equipped with a CCTV cyclops eye and a navel-mounted panic button is the new face of crimefighting in China. Though fixed to the pavement and unable to chase feeling suspects, the ersatz RoboCop nonetheless has brought peace to the mean streets of Kunming.
Japan's First Police Cat Rats Out Criminals
by Steve Levenstein
Beware the long paw of the law! Potential lawbreakers in Kyoto, Japan had better think twice before engaging in criminal acts because Iemon, Japan's first police cat, is on patrol... when he's not curled up asleep at the station, that is.
Google's Autonomous Car Gets Its License To Drive In Nevada
by Myra Per-Lee
You can talk on your cell phone, even text, check your email, eat your
lunch, tun-in your radio, change a CD.... You can even take in all of
the distractions along the Strip in Las Vegas... if you hop a cab. Or, you can take the Google autonomous car, currently a Toyota Prius, without a driver.
Do You Have Enough Klout To Fly The Friendly Skies Or Land The Perfect Job?
by Ron Callari
Klout is to 'personal influence' what Google is to 'page ranking.' While
the Big G's algorithms determine the relevance of the Internet's every
web page, Klout supposedly ranks the influence of every person online.
As a 3-year old start-up, it's raison d'être is to measure influence
based on the digerati's ability to drive action.
How Many "Dumb F*cks" Will Rock Facebook's IPO Like It's 1999?
by Ron Callari
The term "Dumb F*cks" has hung over Mark Zuckerberg like a dark cloud during the course of the last 8 years. Not because his nickname "Zuck" rhymes with the expletive, but because the CEO of today's largest social network derided his early FB users as such. In 2004, when first percolating the idea of FB in a Harvard dorm room and asked how he attracted so many followers so quickly, he off-handedly responded they were following him blindly, like "Dumb F*cks."
Panda on a Plane Eats Shoots and Leaves
by China.new
Did a Giant Panda and his carer recently enjoy their flight to the United States comfortably seated side by side on a China Airlines jet, or are we just being (ahem) bamboozled?
Saddle Leather Computer Mouse for Skin to Skin Luxury
by Steve Levenstein
Desktop computer users tired of caressing a bland, boring, cold plastic mouse all day can click up to some luxury thanks to Japanese specialty retailer Atelier Wazakura. The so-called Kawanezumi (Leather Mouse) features our favorite handy peripheral swathed in soft, supple Saddle Leather. Giddyup!
Heat Conducting Designer Ice Cream Spoon Softens the Hardest Häagen-Dazs
by Steve Levenstein
So your ice cream's too hard but waiting for it to soften at room temperature can be agonizing. “If you wait, you might wait too long and it turns into liquid,” explains Japanese architect and designer Naoki Terada. “All this frustration, all this calculating. It had to stop somewhere!” Now thanks to Terada, our long national nightmare is over.
Anti-Psychotic Drugs Overused In Nursing Homes
by Boomer Babe
....The Globe study found that more than one in five U.S. nursing homes are
using anti-psychotic drugs for those suffering from Alzheimer's disease
or other ailments associated with dementia - approximately 185,000
people who have not been diagnosed with a psychosis.
KFC Japan Serves Beer & Booze Beside the Bucket
by Steve Levenstein
Forget that Happy Meal, at KFC Japan it's Happy Hour! Want a double with that Double Down? Perhaps a cocktail with your cock-a-doodle-doo? Tokyo's newly opened KFC Route 25 restaurant has begun serving beer & booze by (or at least, beside) the bucket.
From "This Land Is Your Land" To "99 Percenter Song" OWS Guitarists March On NYC (Music Video)
by Ron Callari
Legions of guitarists, string players, troubadours, and DIY-shaker makers will converge on Bryant Park May 1, 2012 for Occupy Guitarmy,
as part of the Occupy Wall Street May Day initiatives for social and
economic justice. And you're all invited. Just show up at the Gertrude
Stein statue at 12 Noon on that date and get ready to jam all the way
down to Union Square.
China's Taobao Internet Mall Offers Beautiful Girl Delivery Service
by China.new
Special delivery indeed: China's Taobao internet mall is boosting their business with the aid of “beautiful girls” who personally deliver customers' orders for a small extra fee.
Singapore Coke Machines Give Out Cold Drinks for Warm Hugs
by China.new
If you think machines have no compassion, you've either been watching too many Terminator movies or you haven't visited Singapore lately. The Southeast Asian city-state is where you'll find The Coca-Cola Hug Machine: you supply the hugs, it provides the Coke.
Tsunami Soccer Ball and Volleyball Kicked 3,100 Miles to Alaska
by Steve Levenstein
Now ain't that a kick: signed soccer and volleyballs found washed up on an island off Alaska several weeks apart are to be returned to their surprised but grateful owners. The balls may be the first identifiable pieces of debris from Japan's devastating March 11th, 2011 earthquake and tsunami to reach North American shores.
Starbucks To Phase Out Crushed Bugs From Pink Drinks & Pastries
by Toby
Just as I was introduced to Starbucks coffee-free Strawberries and Creme Frappachino, I learn that its lovely ballet pink color is not from the mix of deep ripe strawberries and luscious thick cream. Darn that I had to find out that a cactus feeding bug found in Central and South America is the mother of the color in Starbuck's pink drinks and desserts. Yum. Chopped cochineals.
Helen Keller Sunglasses: Insensitive Insult or Respectful Tribute?
by China.new
When you wear Helen Keller sunglasses, “You see the world, the world sees you.” One wonders what the real Helen Keller, blinded by illness at an early age, would think of the Chinese company who came up with that jarringly inappropriate motto.
Burger King Japan's Bakin' Up a Big Bacon Bargain
by Steve Levenstein
Got a yen for bacon? Got a hundred yen? Then get your appetite to Burger King Japan! For a limited time only, the popular fast food chain is offering customers a whopper of a deal: 15 strips of bacon on almost any Burger King Whopper for just 100 yen.
Bioengineered Stem Cells Produce Hair On Bald Mice
by T Goodman
A recent experiment by the department of organ technologies at the Tokyo University of Science was successful at bioengineering hair follicle growth in bald mice. Though these images may look small in the scheme of bioengineering organs, the development is very important, both for those who would like to replace their 'rugs' with something more credible, and for the future of other bioengineered organ replacements.