GADGET REVIEWS Just another GADGET NEWS

While cyclists can choose whether or not to protect their heads, a helmet is mandatory for motorcyclists pretty much everywhere in the western world (except Naples in Italy, if the amount of lid-less kids on scooters is anything to go by). But what if you could make the helmets even safer? Not by beefing them up, but by reminding car-drivers that inside the hard outer shell is a soft melon, or a nut that could easily be cracked open?

That’s exactly what these novelty helmets do. Designed by Republic of Kazakhstan marketing company Good, the concept skid-lids feature printed heads, brains, walnuts and yes, melons on their outer shells. And while the idea seems to be more about fun than safety, seeing a giant brain on the outside of somebody’s skull would certainly cause a driver to look twice.

There are even more distracting designs in the gallery (a breast with a pierced nipple and a peachy bottom feature in the “Sex-Preoccupied Collection”, for example) but the best remind us just how delicate the human noggin is. Sadly, it seems that these are not a future product line, although I know I have definitely seen a version of the lame 8-ball design out on the streets.

Any suggestions as to what would make a great helmet design? Put them in the comments.

Genetic experiments on motorcycle helmets [Good! via Geekologie]

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Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Amongst the real gadget gems in Sierra Club Green Homes 50 green Gadgets list, there are some hilariously under-thought items. For every solar-powered Nintendo Wii system, theres a Helios Solar Grill (the monstrosity above), which actually pipes heat from its parabolic sun-gatherer through to the grill on the other side, and manages to look like the kind of Jetson-junk inventions I drew as a kid.

Our favorite, though, has to be the Wind-Helmet Power Generator, a device so wilfully and impractically green that it is almost like the practice helmet Luke Skywalker wore in Star Wars, blinding the wearer to the obvious before them. The blurb:

The Wind-Helmet has a windmill in your helmet. Wind flows over the helmet, through the propeller in the rear, and stores energy in a set of rechargeable batteries for later use. Although there are a lot of power chargers out there, the Wind-Helmet allows for you generate power with something you will already be using. [emphasis added]

This is extraordinary. Lets take a look at the bike and consider what else you will already be using. Spinning wheels, perhaps? Wheels which have been used for decades to power the bikes lights, or even trickle-charge iPods? Wheels which can generate power either with a dynamo or an almost drag-free rare-earth magnet setup?

But, you know, a giant, Tron-style helmet with a bunch of fans and turbines inside, hooked up to a battery pack via a cable is much more efficient, dont you think? We have a couple of suggestions ourselves. What about a pump somehow operated by the turning wheels which would squeeze air into a pressure tank. It would then squirt out into a turbine and the energy produced then stored in batteries.

Or what about giant loops of cable buried beneath the road, and bikes loaded with magnets. Bike lanes could be painted in swooping zig-zags to make riders cross and double-cross the subterranean wires and power whole cities. Or perhaps that is a little impractical?

We kid, but there are a bunch of handy little widgets in the gallery, too. Did we mention the solar-powered Wii? Amazing.

50 Green Gadgets You Can Use To Help Save The Planet [Sierra Club. Thanks, Emma!]

Posted under Gadget Reviews