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For people who don’t have time to bathe or access to fresh water, a South African college student has a solution: a shower gel users simply rub onto their skin. One small packet replaces one bath, and users never need any water. Ludwick Marishane’s inspiration was a lazy friend, but his invention will be a boon to people who live in areas where clean water is in short supply.
The gel, called Drybath, kills germs, moisturizes the skin and exudes a pleasant, light smell, unlike hand sanitizers, according to Marishane’s website, Headboy Industries. [Continue reading.]
Image via Science History and Facts.
love this
Necessity is the mother of invention.
And why hasn’t this blown up yet?
oh
oh yeah
(via macabretea)
Phonebloks
Don’t get me wrong, the new iPhones look interesting. But this is an excellent idea for the future of cellphones.
(by Dave Hakkens)
Completely agree with the OP. This is a very democratic, sustainable, and innovative path forward for cell phones. I hope such an idea can catch on.
I support this 100%.
The look people give me when I tell them I plan on having my phone for as long as I possibly can
The look people give me when I say the words “planned obsolescence”
Please don’t tell me that built in obsolescence isn’t something you learn about in school over there? because it was a huge thing they talked about in our design&tech classes.
I used to get looks over keeping my slide phone from 2008 up until the end of last year, but it looked awesome, it worked just fine (Until it didn’t) and I didn’t give a damn that it wasn’t an up-to-date smartphone and the internet didn’t work on it. I don’t understand people that want to trade up all the time. Like don’t you get attached to your electronics? I do, I give them names and everything :<
Dear Apple:
Make it real and you could conquer the world.
Signed:
Practically owned by you anyway.
(via callmegallifreya)
The Cube desktop 3D home printer by 3D Systems
Putting this on the Xmas list!
MASS MARKETED 3D PRINTING IS HAPPENING.
I REPEAT, MASS MARKETED 3D PRINTING IS HAPPENING.
Replicators. They exist.
(via andrewcentrism)
We’ve done it, we’ve reached the pinnacle of human evolution
OR WOULD I?
Where is tumblr user pizza?? How did John Green show up before pizza on a pizza post?
Once again, modern technology matches my upcoming book.
Damn, I’m good.
Look for “Hevun’s Rebel” in my Smashwords profile. Coming soon!
(via the-gay-is-over9000)
More energy from less coal with almost zero pollution
Any bets as to whether or not this actually becomes a thing?
Making Do
Once, when I was a kid, the people running the one electricity company in Queensland at the time had a huge workers’ dispute. So huge that the electricity was shut off for a large amount of time.
Such worker’s action did highlight how necessary the employees were, but it also inconvenienced the people who had no voice: the public.
The politicians and the higher-ups could afford their own generators and weren’t effected by the blackouts. It may be one reason why they lasted for months. But that’s not the point I’m trying to make, here.
The point is, my poor, blue-collar household managed just fine without power. Because my mother was old enough to remember what it had been like in the bad old days.
We boiled water in an improvised copper, made out of a forty-four gallon drum. We did our washing in big buckets with broomsticks and plungers, and got most of the water out with an old mangle we still owned.
In this day and age, the above paragraph needs some translation. A copper is a sort of cauldron [they used to be made of copper, I guess] in which hot water was manufactured by boiling it over a fire. A mangle is a couple of cylinders hooked up to a crank. You carefully insert wet fabric, turn the crank, and it squeezes a majority of the water out. Beats the living crap out of wringing things dry by hand.
We still had kerosine lanterns. The stuff you’re lucky to find in antique shops or kitch decorators. And you’re even luckier if they still function. We had a primus, a camp stove, and candles. We had a battery-run radio so my mother could keep up with her news addiction.
It was sort of fun, in it’s way. Sure, it was hard work, and we got a bit sick of baked beans and other one-pot wonders. And my parents, to their detriment, taught me to be a rotten little capitalist at Monopoly. If I was older, I have no doubt they’d have also taught me to be a card shark as well.
The fun part was listening to the mundanes moan about how tough they had it without power. They couldn’t get their clothes clean. There was no way to stop the kids driving you mad in the dark. Everyone was moaning because there was no ice-cream.
I was possibly the only kid in my school who was a little disappointed when the power went back on. I still looked forward to summer thunderstorms and the inevitable power failures that came with them. I could fleece my parents in Monopoly and we’d swap stories in the light of the kero lamps.
Thirty-so years later, I own a primus camping stove, and make certain I have a stock of candles and a Monopoly set. I have a wind-up radio, so I don’t have to depend on batteries that rot. I want to share the fun of making do in the dark. The slightly unholy glee of knowing a bit more than the other guy.
It’s a pity the skills of the past are the fading hobbies of today. We need to keep them up.
Because sooner or later, the infrastructure we depend on may just fall over.
I tell my kids, jokingly, to be “prepared for the zombie apocalypse”. It’s not all knowing how to shoot them in the head. It’s knowing how to live without infrastructure. These are, not exactly essential skills, but necessary ones.
Even if you don’t want to do it the old-fashioned way, everyone should know how to do so. Just in case.