Hasta La Ideas

We all have stuff we more or less always want to carry around with us (cellphone, keys, sunglasses, you name it), but few have any good place to put said stuff when you are at home. The hall furniture is probably in a similarly chaotic state in everybody’s house. This, however, is a rather clever way of creating some de-cluttering; a small storage box combined with a coat hook for the hall or entrance. This way everybody can have their own little box with room for their must-have-stuff. Designed by Luca Nichetto for Bosa Ceramiche in 2005.brbr

We have been nominated in the Blogger’s Choice Awards in two categories; Best Blog About Stuff and Best Shopping Blog. If you like Smart Stuff we’ll be very happy if you want to vote for us!brbr

When you burn coal in coal power plants, one by-product produced in the process is fly ash (Wiki). Most of this fly ash is collected by the power plants smoke cleaning gear, and the gathered ash can either be sold off as a component for the cement industry or, which is more common, be disposed of in landfills. This is a growing problem. According to calculations, hundreds of millions of tonnes of fly ash has to be disposed of in the world yearly. In India alone, fly ash landfills are now reported to cover 160 square kilometers (some 40,000 acres). But there may be a solution in the works. Henry Liu (above), a retired American engineer, has developed a method with which fly ash can be used to make building bricks. The fly ash brick, which is made under high pressure, becomes as strong as concrete, and compared to clay bricks, it has several environmental upsides. It requires no mining, no high temperature firing in kilns, and having fly ash in buildings is a lot better than having it in landfills. Henry Liu is now reported to be working on getting his bricks in production some time during 2008.brbr

There are quite a few indications that the melting polar ice caps and glaciers will cause the sea level to rise. So if you are about to sign a contract for some sea-front real estate, you may be well advised to think it through one more time. One day you may end up with more sea than property. On the Flood Maps site they have used Google Maps and NASA’s topographical data to illustrate how the world’s coast lines will change with every meter of sea level increase. Living in Stockholm, we don’t seem to run the risk of getting our feet wet. But for those contemplating beach front property in the popular resort towns of Skanör and Falsterbo in the south of Sweden, a bit of caution may be advisable. The left map shows the present coastline. The right one the coastline after a 1 meter rise. And, if you live in Denmark, Britain or Holland you should really have a look…brbr

It is always hard to pick favorites, but in retrospect some gadgets, inventions and ideas almost always seem to be smarter or more fun. Here are our 5 favorites from May 2007:

The clay pot fridge.
How to apply basic physics to help give people a better life.

DeVillain folding electric guitar.
Not because we play the guitar, but because it was so improbable.

Q-drum.
Smart water barrel for third world countries.

Compacting waste bin.
Not just because it compacts the trash, but because it uses solar energy to power itself.

Sunlight in the basement.
A smart way of supplying sunlight (almost) everywhere you might want it.