Hasta La Ideas

Smart Stuff reader and tipster Austin L. writes to let us know of this smart almost 100 years old design for an outdoor kettle. The Kelly Kettle is manufactured by Patrick Seamus Kelly in Ballina, County Mayo, Ireland, the fourth generation of the Kelly family associated with the Kelly Kettle. The kettle, sometimes also called the volcano kettle, uses a double walled metal flask that is heated via the internal chimney. This provides fast boiling, safe and weather protected handling (no open fire) and virtually no fuel costs, since the kettle is promised to burn almost anything from newspapers, tinders and small twigs to dried camel dung. The kettles are available in two sizes; 1 pt. for EUR 55:- (USD 66:50) and 2.5 pt. for EUR 62:50 (or USD 75:50) from the Kelly Kettle webstore. Thanks, Austin, for the tip!/Ed.br

We got this little tool when we bought some paint a while back. It is a pretty smart tool for opening tin paint cans without ruining the edge of the lid. Something that happens to us a lot when we try to pry them open with a knife or screwdriver. The extra feature of a beer bottle opener was not lost on us, and we hope you will appreciate it, too. We know that US beer bottles have twist-off caps, but ours do not, so fur us it is a pretty handy tool.br

We’re taking the day off to get all the Christmas stuff in order. We’ll be back in a couple of days with some more stuff. If you have the time, check out the cool Charlie Brown Pathetic Christmas Tree we just posted on Cool Finds. To all of you who don’t do Christmas, we wish you a happy holiday. See you soon!brbr

Small children sometimes need surgery, too. And sometimes they need anesthesia. But, as nurse Monica Dahlstrand experienced when assisting during an operation, ordinary masks do not work very well with small children. She started thinking of a better way. Babies find comfort when breast fed and they also find comfort with pacifiers. When brought in for surgery, babies, like adults, have not eaten for some time. But unlike adults, babies have very little impulse control, making it difficult to put them under and keep them there for the duration of the surgery. But, by combining a baby sized anesthesia mask with a pacifier, Monica Dahlstrand made the whole process of performing surgery on babies much easier. She has won several inventor’s prizes and the pacifier mask is protected by a world patent. More on the Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology website (Swedish only).brbr

It is not impossible (maybe even probable) that we will see this idea in production one of these days. The integrated glove and handset is meant for situations when it is too difficult or too dangerous to handle the actual phone or an ordinary headset. The glove communicates with the phone in one’s pocket via wireless connection (Bluetooth?). The glove is called Wanted and it has been developed by Lena Berglin at Textilhögskolan (University College) in Borås, Sweden.brbr