Being shot into space puts spacecraft under extreme stress—but did you know that the sound of the rocket launch can damage a craft? Inside the Large European Acoustic Facility, engineers recreate the incredible noise of a launch to make sure satellites can survive it. According to the ESA, "no human could survive" the sound.
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Building permits are wonderful things: They protect us from slum conditions and scammers, and they make money for our local governments. But permits can also pose a major financial hurdle for independent home builders—and rules are meant to be broken, man.
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White Heat is a classic gangster film from 1949, starring James Cagney. It is a thoroughly Los Angeles flick, filmed almost exclusively in the Greater Los Angeles region, including scenes shot at Warner Brother Studios in Burbank. The film is considered a classic for many reasons—but what’s interesting in terms of Gizmodo is its depiction of, at the time, cutting-edge technologies that were adapted by the police to track down Cagney’s gang.
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Point this “Polaroid” (you’ll get why there are quotation marks later) at someone and tell them to say “cheese.” Chances are, they’ll grin and wait expectantly for the flash to go off…
…however, that’s not what will happen with this particular one, because you’ll only get a slice of cheese instead. It’s actually a cheese slicer in the form of a vintage Polaroid instant camera, and how it slices and delivers the cheese is all sorts of awesome. You just move it across a block of cheese and voila – instant cheese slices! I don’t recommend trying this with an actual Polaroid camera.
The Say Cheese Instant Cheese Slicer is available from GamaGo for $10(USD) – at least until Polaroid’s lawyers see it.
[via Thrillist via Incredible Things]
Despite the move to eBooks and tablets, papers and printed reports are still a part of life. At least, they are, if you had a course in school where you had to turn in papers and all. Writing the actual paper is hard enough. While printing is relatively easy, stapling everything gets a bit complicated, especially if you don’t have a big-enough stapler.
Cue the Center Stapler, which is designed to staple the center of the book or papers so you don’t have to use half of a regular stapler and bend the wire ends manually.
The device has a bottom that can be separated from the top part, so both parts are on opposite sides of the paper. One part “connects” to the other by way of magnets. When you’re ready to staple, just push down and you’re done.
The Center Stapler is a concept by Daehyun Kwon, who was nominated for a 2013 SPARK award for the design.
[via Yanko Design]
You might be able to get away with riding a scratch-free bike around the city, but locking up a scratch-free bike? Good luck, buddy; that’s gonna leave a mark. Ottawa-based design consultancy The Federal Inc. devised the colorful Loop rack to give your beloved frame a soft spot to rest against—a high-strength steel chain wrapped in a thick layer of flexible UV-resistant rubber.
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Sure, early hominins used fire for upwards of a million years. But when did early hominins start acting like humans—for example, cooking in the same spot each night? The new discovery of an old (really old) hearth at an Israeli dig site could hold the answer.
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It might not look it, in bright and vibrant primary colors, but this beautiful new Babylon stationery range by Lexon is inspired by the striking forms found in rock strata.
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Dating back centuries, the names of our everyday colors have origins in the earliest known languages. According to linguists:
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New York City can be cruel and punishing, but it sure looks delightful in these pixelated GIFs from designer Nana Rausch.
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