Hasta La Ideas

Our newest flashlight is charged by induction while it sits in its holder in the wall power outlet. That means it is always charged and ready for service when it is needed. One other smart thing is that it automatically lights up if the current is lost, for instance in case of a power outage or when you remove it from the charger. While charging it emits a soft blue light to make it easy to find. It has seven LEDs, three power settings, and it is promised to provide about five hours of light when fully charged. We have not had the time to test this, however. Available in black, silver or white from Clas Ohlson where it is SEK 149:- (about USD 23:-).brbr

Michael Pritchard of Ipswich, UK, has invented a bottle that makes foul-smelling, infected or polluted water drinkable in seconds. Pritchard hopes the bottle will find use in disaster regions where access to clean drinking water is vital. The military, however, seems to become his first customers. The military think the bottles will have huge benefits for soldiers who hate drinking iodine-flavoured water. Michael Pritchard’s water purification bottle can clean up any water – including fecal matter – using a filter that cuts out anything longer than 15 nanometers, which means that even viruses can be filtered out without the use of chemicals. That is pretty amazing, but it does not come cheap. The bottles are GBP 190:- (about USD 383:-) a pop.brbr

We had the opportunity to test one of these lemon squeezers at Formex the other week. And since we do have a certain faiblesse for all things lemon, it has to be included on the site. We often use lemon in our cooking, and for drinks of course. Thus we think every well equipped kitchen should have a least one lemon press or lemon squeezer. This particular silicon squeezer is called Luki after its designer Luki Huber. Huber has designed a whole collection of stuff for Spanish Lékué. With this you just put one half lemon into the squeezer, open the spout, and squeeze. If there is any juice left in the lemon when toy are done, you can replace the stopper and keep the whole thing in the fridge until next time. available from, among other places we are sure, Amazon-, where you get two of them for USD 13:-.brbrbr

How on Earth do you make a 2WD motor bike?i Well, the front wheel gets its power through a drive shaft that runs through the frame via a knot joint under the handle bars to a gear box right above the front fender. From there the power is distributed via a chain, just like the one on the back wheel. The Rokon bike is not like any other. It is a work horse without the fancy stuff featured on many other bikes. It has no speedometer, no odometer, no fuel gauge and no warning lights. Nowadays it has a spring loaded seat, but this was an option for many years. You start it with a pull string, like a lawn mower or an old outboard motor. On the other hand, the Rokon bikes have a bunch of other smart features. The front disc brake is placed behind the front light, hidden from dirt and moisture. The hitch (of course they can pull a trailer) is movable to allow the back wheel to be in contact with the ground at all times, and the wheels are hollow to allow storage of extra fuel or drinking water (between 3.17 and 4.5 gallons depending on wheel size. You could also cross a stream by letting the bike float across. The motor is a 6.6 hp four-stroke. It is not exactly a racer, but torque and power has been the priority, here. The Rokon is popular among hunters and fishermen, and it has also been used by US Special Forces in both Vietnam and the Gulf. Brazilian and Jordanian Special Forces have also acquired the bike. A Rokon Trail-Breaker is about SEK 60,000:- (plus VAT) in Sweden (That is about USD 9,000:-). More on Rokon USA.

A hydraulic bicycle lift like this would make it pretty simple to hang the bike on the wall. It appears to have been meant for garages or storage rooms, but it could serve just as nicely in the hall of our apartment. (We don’t like to leave our bikes outside overnight). Perhaps painted white. The hydraulics are supposed to be the same as is used in liftback trucks and cars. Found on Brookstone where it is USD 49:95. brbr