Hasta La Ideas

Kyushu University is one of Japan’s leading research-oriented schools. I was looking at this shot of their facilities and was struck by these chairs:

They’re so strange-looking and functional, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like them. They’re part of furniture manufacturer Itoki’s Scrum series, designed specifically for educational institutions, and I really dig them. Plenty of space on either side to stow a bag. (Unfortunately I couldn’t find any better images of them–online Japanese furniture catalogs suck.)

They strike me as a more accessible in-chair-storage solution than those Vyper Industrial shop chairs. I’d like to see the two of them mashed up, even if “Vyper Scrum” sounds vaguely like some kind of slur.

A few years ago we ran the story of Inakadate, a village in Japan that developed rice paddy art (known as tanbo) in order to draw tourists. Click here to see some epic shots.

When the village first started doing this in the ’90s, they didn’t really have the perspective thing figured out, and they only had three strains of rice to represent different tones. Thus an early ’90s take on the Mona Lisa didn’t look so hot:

This month, however, they revisited it and nailed it:

The image to the right is a sort of Japanese analog in artist Kuroda Seiki’s Lakeside painting.

This year we also get to see how the farmer/artists are able to calculate where to plant the seven different strains of rice, in order to get the perspective correct from the viewing platform:

The villagers now use seven different strains of rice, allowing for more tonal variety. Between that and the skewed blueprint, the results are vastly improved over their early efforts. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the patience it takes, waiting for the images to emerge:

May 31

June 16

June 23

July 1

July 22

There’s a few more images on Inakadate Village’s Facebook page.

The fossils of a plesiosaur (a marine reptile with a long neck and four long flippers, that existed in the Mesozoic era) found in a 100-million-year-old riverbed in Morocco’s Sahara Desert contribute to the theory that “saltwater sea creatures may have lived in freshwater systems.” Remarkably, researchers at the University of Bath have applied this theory to Loch Ness and its fantastical monster, Nessie, telling the BBC that the idea of a plesiosaur  surviving in the famed Scottish lake might have been “plausible”—but noting that they did become extinct some 66 million years ago. Read more about the discovery and what it means at the BBC.

Image courtesy of Dr Nick Longrich

The Ocean Cleanup is gathering floating garbage, and Clean Up the Lake is collected submerged garbage. An organization called 4ocean also gathers waterborne trash, and is now using a robot to clean the beaches adjoining the water.

The remote-controlled BeBot Beach Cleaning Robot, created in collaboration with Searial Cleaners and Poralu Marine, has WALL-E’s tracks and a sifting mechanism similar to equipment you’d see on a farm. The quiet, emissions-free, solar-powered electric vehicle sifts to a depth of 10cm (nearly 4″) to pull cigarette butts, plastic bottles, shards, bottlecaps and candy wrappers out of the sand. It can hold up to 100 liters of waste, to be dumped and sifted through by workers.

Here it is in action:

As a weekend warrior ready for an Overlanding expedition, what do you want from the trailer you’d be towing along? If it’s robust off-roading capability, water, power, work desk, lots of storage, and overnight accommodation; you can strike a deal with BluOasis’s BlueMobile.

Based on a Humvee trailer chassis, this ultimate off-road-ready trailer is ideal for Overlanding or off-grid camping. This we say because, in addition to its military-grade off-road chassis, this guy can generate its own solar power and water from an onboard atmospheric water generator.

Designer: BluOasis

We have definitely been through hordes of trailers with impressive off-grid capabilities, but the differentiator here is that the BlueMobile packs 1.5kW of external solar panels and water-making capabilities in a petit form factor mobile trailer. The deployable solar panels on the rooftop would be nothing without matching power storage. The BluMobile trailer puts power storage on the forefront with a 15kWh lithium-iron-phosphate battery pack.

BluMobile trailer is primarily designed as an off-grid base camp of sorts for adventurers or perhaps a tiny accommodation with requisite supplies on a remote job site. The trailer features 4,250 liters of internal storage that can accommodate your equipment and cargo. As an RV it also makes room for up to four people to sleep in. The additional room for a queen-size bed (besides a double bed below) is made possible with the pop-up roof.

It’s not the most comfortable trailer, but for off-grid living, the BluMobile uses BluOasis’s water generator which condenses humidity from the air and runs the separated water through a UV-enabled filtration system. At about 60 percent of humidity, the atmospheric water generator can generate 38 liters of drinking water in a day, which can be stored in an onboard 150 liters tank.

The power requirement for remote working, cooking, and overnight parties is all taken care of by the interesting electrical setup connected to the solar panels and storage batteries. Without the solar panels, the BluMobile starts at $24,500. The cost of the trailer appropriate for permanent off-grid families – increases with add-ons and customization.

The post Built on Humvee trailer chassis, tiny BluMobile produces its own power and water for unmatched off-grid life first appeared on Yanko Design.