Doug Aamoth's blog
Energy Seed generates street light from old batteries
By Doug Aamoth
What a smart solution to the problem of improper disposal of alkaline batteries! The "Energy Seed" concept comes from designers Sungwoo Park and Sunhee Kim. It's basically a receptacle for old batteries that collectively harnesses the leftover juice from all the batteries that are placed inside and uses it to power an LED street light.
This is a great idea for just about any environmentally-conscious neighborhood, but I'd actually l » READ MORE
Weekend Project: Disappearing Trap Door Pool Table
By Doug Aamoth
Summer's over, the kids are back in school, and weekends are starting to slow down a bit, right? So why not take the weekend to dig yourself a giant rectangular enclosure right in the middle of your living room, add a big lifting mechanism, and drop in a nice pool table?
I have no idea how hard it'd be to set up a system like this, but I'm pretty sure you'd want to know what's directly below the floorboards and be confident t » READ MORE
'Sustainable Dave' doesn't throw anything away for an entire year
By Doug Aamoth
Dave Chameides wants to show us how much trash we throw away each year. The average amount of trash generated by single American every year is around 1,700 pounds. That's almost an entire ton! What Chameides - known as "Sustainable Dave" to his friends - is doing might not be the best idea if you create anything close to the average amount of yearly trash: He's not throwing anything away for a whole year.
He keeps all of his » READ MORE
Turn a Cereal Box into a Gift Box
By Doug Aamoth
This isn't the first time that people have made cereal boxes into gift boxes (see this Curbly post for more ideas) but this method looks pretty cool in that, when all is said and done, you can't really tell that it was a cereal box to begin with.
You'll need a hot glue gun, scissors, and a cereal box. That's about it, so get eating -- that box isn't going to empty itself!
LINK: Gift Box from a Cereal Box [Instructables.com]
A couple cool things I spotted inside a Japanese recycling center
By Doug Aamoth
Just got back from Japan on a tour with Panasonic to see some of the company's eco-friendly initiatives. While inside one of their recycling plants, I spotted this cool table made from a washing machine drum. This particular recycling plant handles home appliances like refrigerators, washers, dryers, air conditioners, and television sets. They're able to recycle more than half of the materials in each appliance back into new » READ MORE
Portable fireplace? Sure, why not?
By Doug Aamoth
It was only a matter of time, huh? For a mere $3,300 you, too, can carry a briefcase-sized fireplace between the home, the office, the kids' soccer game, wherever!
And when Conmoto, the company that makes the TravelMate Mobile Fireplace, says "wherever," they mean "wherever". You can use this thing "on the carpet, on the dining table, next to the sofa, on the terrace, or in the garden." Try that with a space heater!
I'm not 100 » READ MORE
'Fanaway' fan features retractable blades
By Doug Aamoth
Ceiling fans: a necessary evil in most urban dwellings. I don't happen to be bothered by them, but plenty of people aren't too keen on having a giant, many-armed apparatus as the focal point of their ceiling.
The Fanaway is an attractive light fixture that hides retractable fan blades until the fan's switch is flipped on. At that time, the fixture begins spinning and the centrifugal force caused by the rotation causes the fan blades » READ MORE
Very cool lamp made from old cassettes
By Doug Aamoth
I've long since gotten rid of my old cassette tapes but if you've got some sitting around, this is a very cool-looking project. This "Cassette Tape Lamp" was designed by Transparent House out of San Francisco and quite simply consists of a bunch of old tapes inside their transparent cases, glued together. The light patterns that the tapes give off look really cool. Note to self: find some old tapes.
via Technabob
The Shark: Simple, awesome idea
By Doug Aamoth
After a recent scuffle with Ikea's gigantic Expedit bookcase (I wanted to assemble it, it didn't want to be assembled), I really wish I would have had something like the Shark.
The concept is simple (and unfortunately, it appears that the whole thing is still a concept); You place the Shark between your thumb and forefinger and it helps you align screws and nails against a wall for easier, faster fastening. We've all held a wobbly » READ MORE
LunaBlocks: LEGO-like furniture for the rest of us
By Doug Aamoth
The idea of sitting on LEGOs seems like a good idea until you remember that everything's mostly made of hard plastic with little nubbins sticking out everywhere. So maybe these LunaBlocks, which only look like LEGOs but are actually made from squishy-yet-durable polypropylene, would be a better, more comfortable option.
Comfort doesn't come cheap, though, as you'll need to order them from France and EACH block costs between $20 and $ » READ MORE
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