This tip comes from Jon B. at Humans.ca in Canada. (Yes, he works for the company that sells these shower curtain rods, but that’s okay as long as the thing is smart.) The curtain rod itself is pretty self explanatory, so we’ll just add that it is available in white, chrome and gold-ish and it is USD 40:- at Bed, Bath Beyond or USD 37:- on Amazon-.brbr
We’ll break the series of reader contributed tips for this very interesting and clever item we just found on Core 77. According to Hân Pham – inventor of the Antivirus cap – unsafe handling of syringes, needles and other medical sharps cause more than 200,000 HIV infections each year, plus millions of Hepatitis cases and other injuries. The solution above, utilizing an item available in great numbers (the used soda can) adding a smart lid to make disposing of needles and other infected sharps easy and safe could save lives. If this invention, an Index:2007 Awards nominee, is not in production, it should be. Check out the Index:2007 list, among the nominees are several we’ve already mentioned on Smart Stuff during the past year! ;-)brbr
Frequent tipster Magnus I.B. is back with a guest review. This time he shares his experience with the fridge vegetable bin liner. He writes (our translation and slightly edited):brbrIt’s a perforated and slightly spongy mat mad of a non-slip material. You cut it to size and put it on the bottom of the vegetable bin in your refrigerator. With the mat in place you can take the vegetables out of their plastic wrappers and bags (not cucumber or salad; they need the wrappers to keep their moisture), which keeps them from collecting the moisture that makes vegetables spoil faster. Besides, it looks a lot nicer with the vegetables out of the wrappers. And if something would spoil anyway (like a piece of forgotten cucumber turing into a messy mush) you’re still good, since the mat keeps the fresh vegetables away from the goo. I have had mine for close to two years and I would not want to have to do without it.brbr
Thanks, Magnus, for the tip and the review! Now, if you want one of these mats, too, they are available from (among other places) Canadian web-shop Ashton Green for CAD 3:95. A similar mat is on Amazon- for USD 2:49.brbr
An increasing number of people are suspicious to the food they are offered in stores, and recurring stories of filth and re-stamping in the food industry does not improve the sentiment. Some merchants seem capable of gambling with their customers’ health and lives to make an extra buck. If that is your mind-set it will be pretty easy to put a fresh best-before date on a stale steak. However, there’s countermeasures. Smart Stuff reader Dag N. found this tool at Sharper Image, and Dag thinks every home should have one. Or at least every restaurant. The SensorfreshQ meat tester is an electronic nose that sniffs the air above the meat and analyzes the bacterial activity with four sensitive sensors. The machine is promise to work with both (uncooked) meat and poultry and it is USD 89:95 at The Sharper Image or on Amazon.brbr
This tip comes from Helen M. who, we suppose, like to have coffee al fresco. And in that case we can not but agree, because there is hardly anything that can top the smell and taste of freshly made coffee in the wild. If anything, it might be freshly fried chanterelles on a clear autumn day right at the best chanterelle patch…. But to the issue at hand. Helen thinks this coffee maker is worth a mention, and we agree. The kit contains a cooker with a one liter vessel and a burner, a coffee press, a container of propane and a bag of coffee to make four cups. Right now it is SEK 999:- (approx. USD 142:-) on sale at Naturkompaniet. Expensive? Er, yes, but…brbr
This is from Jonas S. of Creative Design, and we know he is just looking to peddle his own goods here, since his company is the one selling these things. But, since we know about it, we can take it into consideration. And now we have told you, so you know, too. After all, that we must say that this thing looks pretty cool. We have been experimenting with freezing vodka bottles ourselves, but it has always been a bit of a hassle. You can hardly ever find just the right size for the water vessel; it is always way too big and thus it always takes forever for the thing to freeze. Now the IceJacket promises to make all that a bit easier. Just put the bottle in, lock the container, fill up with water and put it in the freezer. It is USD 35:95 plus shipping.brbr
We must first sincerely apologize to all the good people out there who’s been sending us tips and during the past couple of months. We have been pretty busy and has not really had the time to get into the mailbag and go through all your kind contributions, and post the best ones. But now we will. We have quite a lot of reader contributions stacked up for your enjoyment, and today is just the first! Keep’em coming, we love you!brbr
It seems a lot of blogs are fond of making monthly roundups. Maybe it is a good idea. Maybe a lot of smart stuff gets forgotten about when it could be appreciated by more people if we were to make such a monthly roundup, too. Let’s try it. Here’s our five favorite posts from the past month (it’s kind of hard to pick five but here goes):brbr
• Extra long finger plastersbr
• The inkless penbr
• The California car dusterbr
• The Multimirrorbr
• Electric power shifter for bicyclesbrbr
If you have missed any of these, we suggest you click and have a look. We do not think you will be disappointed. /Ed.brbr
Now, as all our regular readers surely know, we prefer a good Nomex oven mitt anytime for handling hot pots and pans. But at the same time we understand that everybody else does not. So for all those out there who prefer a more mechanical way of handling hot pans and such things, here is the push/pull oven hook. We do think it is pretty clever. And it is not very expensive, either; just USD 5.99 (about SEK 42:-) on Walter Drake. brbr
We suppose Shimano has done pretty much everything in bicycle gears except an automatic, so it was probably due. The new (?) technology is launched under the Coasting brand (almost unreadable site), and as far as we can gather it may be available in four bikes from three manufacturers; Trek, Giant and Raleigh. If any of them will hit Europe and Sweden is shrouded in uncertainty, by we think at least Trek has an importer, so maybe… The bikes shown are no sports rigs, they are more like something you’d pedal to the store with. The power shifter is located inside the oversized chain cover, and, if we are not mistaken, it’s powered by a dynamo in the front wheel. The actual gears are located in the rear hub. You’ll find a longer text on the Bike Gallery web site.brbr
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
