Remote-controlled beer-can catapult and cooler

It’s a cooler, with a catapult in it, remote-controlled. Just load up 12 cans of beer, and have them launched to you whenever you’re thirsty.

And it doesn’t matter how thirsty you are — it can reload in just two seconds.

Awesome?

ShootABrew is available for pre-order. It’s $300, and they don’t say if it’ll ship before Christmas or not.

Curvy escalator looks like the future

The only reason that escalators can’t curve is because the steps are square. Round ‘em off, and those curves can happen. Yes, please!

I guess the problem is that the handrails would either move at different speeds (depending on whether they were on the inside or the outside of the curves) but that could be solved by using segmented handrails that expand and contract …. or just by using smooth metal that doesn’t move.

Please install a spiral escalator somewhere! (NOT Dubai!)

Seven things you didn’t know were invented by kids

What, you’re already all grown-up, and you don’t have a profitable patent yet? What are you waiting for?

Women’s Day has a nice list of seven things that were invented by kids — and these are serious inventions, from toy trucks to trampolines to television. Seriously.

Okay, sometimes the definition of “kid” is a little stretched — maybe you have the idea for a Popsicle when you’re 11, but if you don’t actually do anything until you’re 24, does that count?

Awesome ice cube tray

Grant and I are no strangers to ice cube trays. He has one of those old fashioned metal ones where you pull back the lever to crack the ice into cubes, and we have several of those silicone ones that come in the shape of bottles, or Christmas trees, or whatever, and bend like Gumby.

The most common ice cube tray, of course, is the standard plastic version, where you twist to crack the cubes. I’ve always thought they were kind of a hassle. Ice cubes always ended up on the floor, or just not cracking perfectly.

Ice cube trays and how well they work doesn’t really affect our lives, I know, especially when it’s so easy to go and buy a bag of pre-made ice that doesn’t have any of that gross freezer burn smell. But some ingenious soul has come up with a better ice cube tray:

Awesome. Really, how has no one thought of this before?

So, you always wanted to be a satyr

It is difficult for me to believe that these have never before been invented, but there you go — there’s something new under the sun.

Anyway, if you’ve ever dreamed of walking with reverse knees like a horse or goat, you can strap a pair of Weta Legs on, and go to ‘er. For about a thousand bucks.

(From Coilhouse, via BB)

Bring your own bike lane (night-time only)

This is a pretty cool concept, not yet in production. Using super-bright LEDs, this clip-on gizmo projects the outline of a bike lane behind your cycle, so cars coming up behind you have a bit of subconscious nudge to give you room.

I’m not sure what it would look like if you were rounding a corner, or if you were wobbling back and forth a bit, like many cyclists do, but the idea I find appealing.

Of course, how long before it gets co-opted by advertisers?