Join The Tornado-proof home can go underground
Considering all the tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, that continue to destroy homes, these architects at 10 Design in Hong Kong have come up with a way to protect a home with a simple yet elegant solution: tuck the house into the ground.
The house has a set of hydraulic levers that are activated by high-velocity winds that can pull the house into the ground to safety. Once the house is underground, the roof locks to make it water and wind proof.
I have to admit that I like the aesthetic of the design, as it is very futurist. I’m not certain how much space it has, but I have to admire its shape. It kind of looks like a boat, doesn’t it? I’m not certain that is a good sign. Perhaps this thing should cast off in case of a flood.
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Presenting the world’s first moving building!
Some of us live or have lived in mobile homes, but what if an entire apartment building could be moved?
This three story apartment building is the first of its type to be moved, anywhere. It was first installed in Turku on the southeast coast of Finland, but it can be moved with a crane. In fact, the owners plan on moving it to a new location somewhere else on the coast.
In fact, you can watch a video here of it being moved on a large raft. The building can actually be transported on the road as well, and, as much as I would like to see that, I don’t have any footage of it.
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Back to the Future II shoes real, and making a killing!
I’m surprised that we haven’t covered this already, or if we even need to cover this. Nike has finally released the NIKE MAG, which are the shoes that Michael J. Fox wore in Back to the Future II.
Nike plans to release only 1,500 of these iconic pairs of shows, and they will go up for auction on eBay. So far, the ones they got now are going for $4,000 a pop.
I don’t believe that Nike intends to put the MAG on the market. However, they have a commercial for it already that you can see after the jump. The commercial has Christopher Lloyd reprising his role as Doc Brown from the Back to the Future trilogy. As the ad states, there are not power laces, but just wait until 2015. At least they have the LED lights.
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Defusable Alarm Clock
I think we all know from movies that bombs are always in the form of rolls of dynamite, a few colored wires, and red numbers that let everyone know when they are going to go off.
I figure that something with that awkward of a design just has to be made into a clock timer. If you let the timer count down from 10 to 0, it will “go off” in the form of blinking lights. Unless you can cut the proper wire, the timer will freeze, preferably at 1 second left, for extra suspense.
You can watch a video after the jump, and you will see how it works. You will notice the guy says “whew” after he defuses the bomb. Just let you know, the faux-bomb changes its wire every time.
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Amazon delivering to 7-Eleven lockers in Seattle
As a gadget reviewer, I receive a lot of things delivered to me. Seldom do I get anything from Amazon, but the World’s Biggest Bookstore is now working on a way to change the way we receive deliveries as we know it.
Instead of letting the package come to you, now you can come to it. Amazon is setting up lockers at 7-Eleven mini marts in Seattle, where the company is based.
Amazon customers will be told that their order is ready to pick up through a notification email, and will be given a pin number. They can soon journey to the nearest 7-Eleven, input the number on a touchscreen, and open up their locker to receive their product.
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Lucasfilm’s Sandcrawler office in Singapore
Lucasfilm Animation is going to have a new office in Singapore, and it is designed to look like a famed Star Wars vehicle, the Sandcrawler.
The shiny iron and glass is not like the desert brown of the Jawas’ sandcrawler, and it really is only shaped like the iconic tank contraption from one side. On the other side, it is horseshoe shaped and shows a lush garden that resembles the forests of Endor rather than the desolate desert of Tatooine.
In all honesty, I am not certain why Lucasfilm needs an animation studio in Singapore. Perhaps the work on Cartoon Network’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars is done from this country. If Lucas is setting up office here, then perhaps he has greater plans for more animation. Perhaps he can conjure up some original animated series instead of recycling the old ideas of a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
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Angry Birds arrive at China’s parks
I’m quite sure that if you happen to own a smartphone or a tablet, chances are pretty high you would have a version of Angry Birds running on it, and just in case you’ve been trapped in some cave somewhere in the hills of Afghanistan for the past couple of years, here is a quick primer – in the game of Angry Birds, you will use your grasp on angles to launch different kinds of birds at green pigs in an effort to destroy them.
We’ve seen the game get translated to a physical format at CES earlier this year, but this time around, a park in Changsha, China, has come up with a real-life version of Angry Birds. Yes sir, the leap from virtual reality has been made to actual reality, and it goes without saying Angry Birds is a universal phenomenon with hundreds of people already having thronged their way to the Window of the World Park in order to give the game a go.
Seems to be a huge moneyspinner for Rovio, the developer of Angry Birds, if this continues to takes off (pun not intended) and soar, assuming Rovio is officially behind this idea and it is not some kind of counterfeit money making scheme at Rovio’s expense. You never quite know with China…
Crowd Buster fights the mob with pepper spray
This particular pack reminds me of the instrument that the Ghostbusters use to distribute slime. That was in Ghostbusters II, in case you don’t remember it.
In the case of this “Crowd Buster” (which is its actual name) it puts out some serious negative slime in the form of pepper spray. It can do this in mist mode or pellet fire, and it is sure to make a mob cease and desist.
As an added bonus, the Crowd Buster can dispense a dye that can stick for up to three weeks. This way, the cops can identify whoever is hit by the Crowd Buster after the mob is done. Yes, this comes in handy for all sorts of crowd busting, before and after.
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