This bizarre contraption is a urinal that lets guys do their thing, then gives them a place to wash their hands without moving a step.

My first reaction on seeing this was "eeew, that's gross", but the more you think about it, the more it seems to make sense.

The dirty sink water is used to flush the urinal, so the treehuggers will like the way it saves water. It also takes up a lot less room than a separate sink and urinal, so they can fit more into a small bathroom reducing the waiting times.

Because the sink is right there, it might also encourage the less hygienically inclined to wash up. Or shoot for the sink instead... but as george Castanza says... "It's all pipes! What's the difference!"

Yeongwoo Kim's Eco Urinal concept won a 2010 iF Concept Design Award from International Forum Design.

Keep those ideas and inventions coming and be sure to send a prototype to me and I'll review it for you right here on dannisblog.

Danni~

*facepalm* what ridiculous idea will they think up next for cars... a car bra? Oh wait, they did? Okay... how about testicles? They did that too? So they have eyelashes, a bra and testicles... They're turning cars into drag queens! How about some earings for the side mirrors?

I'm a little worried about the trophy wife in the third picture slamming a half bottle of wine before climbing in her compensation wagon and going on a killing spree.

Carlashes are eyelashes for your car (to compliment the thong). They're $25/pair (plus an extra $20 if you want crystal-stud "eyeliner"), and aimed at the women who already have enough trouble driving without constantly wondering if everybody is noticing how cute their car looks. Completely unacceptable. That said, somebody's about to have the prettiest Explorer in Los Angeles!

Here's a bunch more pictures in case you're actually wondering if Carlashes are right for you (no, they're not).

 

 

Classy! If your husband or boyfriend has those tailgate nutsacks, then you probably totally want these for your car. I bet you have a tweety bird tattoo too.

Keep those ideas and inventions coming and be sure to send a prototype to me and I'll review it for you right here on dannisblog.

Danni~

The time between the wars – the Great War and WW2 was one of great loss and uncertainty, but also one of invention, creativity and new ideas. The horrors of WWI shattered the belief that progress would continue and reason would prevail. New ideas and patterns of life developed in the 1920′s and in the way that people looked at the world.

The fast pace of technology in the 20′s brought us the lie detector, the traffic signal, bubble gum and Penicillin. An all-electronic moving-image television system somewhat similar to that used today was invented and demonstrated in 1929.

The 30′s were no less invention-intensive bringing us the jet engine, helicopter, tea bags, sticky tape, ballpoint pen and the first photocopier.

However, somewhere between these great world-changing inventions there were some fun and sometimes even hilarious inventions the world has forgotten. I especially like the police revolver with the camera. That should be standard issue today. We’d have a video camera that started recording once the revolver was drawn which would go a long way to exonerating a police officer in the event of a disputed shooting.

It’s a bumper crop of Vintage Danni for your enjoyment.

Revolver Camera (New York, 1938)

 

Colt 38 carrying a small camera that automatically takes a picture when you pull the trigger. At the left: six pictures taken by the camera.

Bike Tyre Used As Swimming Aid (Germany, 1925)

A group of youngsters tied a bike tyre around the body as a swimming aid.

One Wheel Motorcycle (1931)

One wheel motorcycle (invented by Italian M. Goventosa de Udine). Maximum speed: 150 kilometers per hour ( 93 Mph).

Amphibious Bike ‘Cyclomer’ (Paris, 1932)

The Cyclomer, a bicycle on land and water can ride with a load of 120 pounds.

All Terrain Car (England, 1936)

All terrain car able to descend slopes up to 65 degrees.

Radio Pram (USA, 1921)

Pram provided with a radio, including antenna and loudspeaker, to keep the baby quiet.

Radio hat (USA, 1931)

Portable radio in a straw hat, made by an American inventor. (Is that a giant spliff?)

Bulletproof Glass (New York, 1931)

Bulletproof glass, demonstration by the best rifle man of the New York police, 1931.

Extensible Caravan (France, 1934)

Extensible caravan, built by a French engineer.

Piano For The Bedridden (UK, 1935)

Piano especially designed for people who are confined to bed.

Glasses For Reading In Bed (England, 1936)

Hamblin glasses. A pair of spectacles especially designed for reading in bed.

Electrically Heated Jacket (USA, 1932)

Electrically heated vest, developed for the traffic police in the United States. The power is supplied by electric contacts in the street.

Car With Shovel For Pedestrians (Paris, 1924)

Kind of shovel on a car. Purpose: reducing the number of casualties among pedestrians.

Early GPS (1932)

Sort of TomTom, early tripmaster. Works using rolling key map. The map passes the screen in a tempo that depends on the speed of the car.

Folding Emergency Bridge (Netherlands, 1926)

Folding bridge for emergencies, invented by L. Deth can easily be transported on a handcart.

Faxed Newspaper (1938)

In 1938 the first wireless newspaper was sent from WOR radiostation in New York. Photo shows children reading the children’s page of a Missouri paper.

Face Protection From Snowstorms (Canada, 1939)

Used to protect ones face from snowstorms. Canada, Montreal, 1939.

Gas War Resistant Pram (England, Hextable, 1938)

Keep those inventions coming and be sure to send a prototype to me and (especially if it's a BMW motorbike) I'll review it for you right here on dannisblog.

Danni~

I really didn't realize how many calories and fat grams are in raw walnuts! Wow!

Dieting just got much easier — or maybe it got harder? The Perfect Portions Digital Food Scale will tell you the exact nutritional value of anything you put on top of it, leaving nothing to mystery. And not giving you any excuse to fudge how many calories you think might be in a handful of M&Ms. The device uses a database of 2,000 common foods, and has space for 99 programmable foods as well. It can track your calorie intake and break down your nutritional intake for the day – handy for anyone on a strict low-sodium or low-cholesterol diet.

You can pick up this bad boy for $50 at the Sharper Image. Yes, that means you can pick up a “back massager” while you’re there. Which will make you feel better about not eating that handful of M&Ms.

With the Perfect Portions Digital Food Scale, you can quickly discover the sugar grams in your candy, the fiber in your cereal or the sodium in your crackers. This nutrition food scale makes a great support tool for anyone making healthy choices and tracks your total daily intake.

• Digital nutrition scale tracks carbs, calories, sugar, sodium and fiber
• Track your total daily intake
• Nutritional food scale has a database of 2,000 foods
• Add 99 custom foods to the digital food scale
• Easy to clean, stylish glass design
• Small, just over 9” x 6” in size

Keep those inventions coming and be sure to send a prototype to me and (especially if it's a BMW motorbike) I'll review it for you right here on dannisblog.

Danni~

Fires: they burn houses down and ruin lives. But they also make fireworks work. smores smore and pipes smoke. OH THE DICHOTOMY! But what's a fire department to do when they get a rush-hour call that a child has set a recycling bin full of his sister's Barbies ablaze and the fire has spread to the neighbor's yard? Order pizza and crack a cold one? I think not...

The City of Liverpool in England has come up with a novel solution, and is testing a couple of specially equipped firefighting motorcycles. The bikes can be deployed when a full response from a fleet of full-sized engines isn't required, such as small car fires or so-called 'anti-social' fires.

The bikes will carry both a tank of water, and a supply of fire extinguishing foam, and the riders will wear special suits that are designed to work for both riding and firefighting.

Smart thinking, Liverpool. I'm almost tempted to move back home. Whoa whoa whoa -- I said almost. Call me when there's a firefighting jetpack.

Ok, Ok, Singapore has had them since 1998... that still doesn't beat Liverpool.

• Most successful football team in england
• Most successful band of all time
• City of culture
• World heritage site
• The 3 Graces (The Royal Liver Building, The Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building)
• Best looking ladies in the UK
• And now, FIRE MOTORBIKES!

Keep those inventions coming and be sure to send a prototype to me and (especially if it's a BMW motorbike) I'll review it for you right here on dannisblog.

Danni~

Now this is something I can really get behind. I love my Droid but damn if it doesn't feel good to use a regular phone handset every once in a while. Well, here's the solution. The Moshi Moshi!  Say it again... Moshi Moshi!!

Comfort comes to any cell phone, smart phone or computer with the MM02 Curve mobile handset by French designer David Turpin. The ergonomic design allows you to communicate by phone comfortably--and safely. When plugged into a cell phone, user can keep talking while checking out a PDA's email, the internet or calendars. A high-quality speaker and microphone provides clear communication. The weighted base and silicon mat protects phone from wear and tear. Connect to computers for VOIP calls--the ultimate communication and business tool. The Curve is compatible with all 3.5mm jack phones and computers, including the iPhone, BlackBerry, MacBook and iPad. Mac computers can also use it out-of-the box for Skype or other VIOP applications.

How cool is that? Somebody buy me one... oh, and a droid too because I don't really have one of those yet either. Check out the video below for a super sexy English guy showing you all the Moshi, Moshi features.

Those English guys are so dreamy...

Keep those inventions coming and be sure to send a prototype to me and I'll review it for you right here on dannisblog.

Danni~

One day in 2006, stuck in bumper-to-bumper Bay Area traffic, Amir Abolfathi had a eureka moment. Formerly vice president of R&D for Invisalign, a company known for transparent dental braces, he had recently been chatting with a friend who was working on hearing aids. Abolfathi knew that bone was a good sound conductor. What if he could somehow make a removable oral hearing aid—one that could channel sound from wearers’ teeth to their ear through the bones in their head?

That moment of freeway inspiration gave rise to the SoundBite, a device designed for sufferers of single-sided deafness, which strikes about 50,000 people every year in the U.S. After his friend, Michael Benninger, an otolaryngologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, told him it could really help to solve the problem, Abolfathi set about turning his idea into reality. The biggest challenge was miniaturization, so he opted for a piezoelectric actuator, which needs very little power to generate the vibrations that travel through bone. That allowed him to use a much smaller battery, making the entire insert compact enough to fit comfortably in the mouth.

Invention: SoundBite
Inventor: Amir Abolfathi
Cost: $19 million
Time: 4 years
Is It Ready Yet? 1 2 3 4 5

Made of acrylic, SoundBite snaps onto a user’s molars. A tiny microphone worn in the deaf ear wirelessly beams incoming sound to an electronic receiver in the molar insert,

which transmits sound waves from the teeth through the bones in the jaw to the cochlea, the part of the ear that processes sound. (Traditional hearing aids only amplify sound, so they don’t work for people with non-functioning cochlea.) The battery lasts for six to eight hours at a time and can be recharged in a wall outlet.

The best remedy for single-sided deafness currently on the market is a bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA), which, like the SoundBite, uses direct bone conduction to deliver sound to the cochlea. But BAHA installation involves surgically implanting a titanium post into the base of the skull. Other noninvasive tooth-based systems have been attempted, but none was ever fully developed and brought to market.
The SoundBite restores hearing just as effectively as a BAHA but requires no surgery. Instead it can be popped in and out of the mouth like a retainer. In clinical trials that wrapped up in February, patients typically reported that it restored from 80 to 100 percent of their hearing in the deaf ear and that they scarcely noticed they were wearing it. Lawrence Lustig, the director of the University of California at San Francisco Cochlear Implant Center, is so impressed with the SoundBite that he says he’ll recommend it to people who would otherwise have to undergo surgery.

If the device secures FDA approval as anticipated, it will hit the market this summer for around $6,000. (Surgery for a BAHA can run well over $10,000.) Abolfathi’s company, Sonitus Medical, plans to negotiate with insurance providers to reimburse patients for at least part of the cost. Abolfathi is also investigating other applications for the technology, including wireless, water-safe MP3 players and stealth communication for intelligence personnel. But even if those don’t pan out, he’s satisfied to know that he’s already improved people’s lives. “One patient just e-mailed and told me, ‘I saw Avatar, and it was great. I hadn’t been to a movie in years.’”

Keep those inventions coming and be sure to send a prototype to me and I'll review it for you right here on dannisblog.

Danni~

Ok, this totally cracks me up! Whenever a TV product commercial plays I crack up during the parts where they show us what we're doing wrong and why we need the product. Come on people, have you had one of these ideas and didn’t get it to market first?

Track down a company to help YOU!

Also, bonus points and a shout out on my next blog entry to the person who can tell me what product the guy suspiciously unbuttoning his jeans at 13 seconds is in need of?? Enquiring minds need to know!

Do you enjoy taking long, meditative strolls in remote, forested areas alone? Do you speak fluent Ewok? If you answered yes, you might be more than a little strange, but you’re also a  candidate for the Rescue Balloon!

Designer Jaeseok Han wasn't fooling around when he created this compact kit — intended for hikers who get lost or injured in the wilderness and need to signal aerial search teams. It comes complete with a small, lightweight helium gas cylinder and a long, inflatable red balloon that can peer out from the tree canopy and flag down appreciative rescue workers (as well as passing Imperial Shuttles). Or simply take a dozen or so of these things with you and the next time you get lost blow the lot up and do a Balloon Boy to freedom. Go Falcon!

Since it doesn't bet your life on flare guns, cellphones and fancy GPS devices that can run out of ammo or batteries, I really do love the simplicity of this concept. So for the sake of seasoned adventurers and the navigationally challenged among us (I had a personalized chair at Disneyland Lost & Found throughout my childhood years), we hope the Rescue Balloon makes it to production someday.

You know that thing you've been thinking about? That one you know is a great idea just waiting to happen? Now's the time! Take it from Danni. Everyday you let that great idea slide is one day closer to somebody else grabbing that idea from you and making their first million. So let's get your idea patented and on it's way to market.

Love - Danni~