Perfect for falconry.
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Snatch and Grab
Categories: tech -
RIP Carbon Motors
Recently, I read some sad news, Carbon Motors has folded. I can’t say I’m surprised. Starting a car company, especially a niche car company is hard. It is sad because E7 concept seemed really thought out, and that’s what I liked about it. I’m a bit disappointed I didn’t write more about Carbon Motors three years ago when they first showed up on my radar. The E7 was was billed as the only purpose built police car in the world. The front seats had cutouts for utility belts and a sucky to blow cool air on the driver’s neck. The rear seats had suicide doors and seatbelts rigged with the latches records the outside so that officers didn’t have to lean over prisoners when securing them in the back. The car also was supposed to come full of gadgets like nightvision cameras and NBE detectors (no doubt to enable police departments to offset the cost of the vehicles through antiterrorism grants).
Apparently getting enough orders and/or bringing the manufacturing cost down for profitability became a problem for Carbon, because they eventually ditched the patrol car, and started shopping around a rather boring paddy wagon.
Sadly, Carbon Motors’s online presence is completely gone, save for the wayback machine.
A salvaged picture of the paddy wagon is after the jump.
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Super Hero Avenging Team
Categories: installation / sculpture
I think we all look forward to the day Mr Incredible, and the whole Incredible family team up with the Fantastic Four.
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BloodMobile
Categories: photo
Actually, I suspect it’s destined for something much more mundane, like a fertilizer plant.
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Throwie Lights
Nothing like tape, an LED, and a coin cell, and an Orangina bottle to impress your wife. -
Pope Emeritus
Categories: other
Well, we now have a “pope emeritus,” the first one since 1415. Now all we need is an antipope, and we’ll have everything. What I find interesting is speculation about Benedict XVI’s new title. I may not be a practicing catholic, but I am taken back that Benedict XVI is keeping his name, and the title of pope, and the vestments of office. He should revert back to wearing black, and not be called “pope” anything. The “former bishop of Rome” was a good compromise, since it’s a title that’s held by the pope in addition to pontiff, and sounds more pedestrian. Personally, I think “Ratzinger, emeritus bishop of Rome” would be perfect, but he apparently didn’t want to give it up. At least he’s traded in his pointy hat for a baseball cap.
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Robotic Couture
Dutch designer and V2_ collaborator, Anouk Wipprecht and Austrian hacker Daniel Schatzmayr (thingiverse twitter) dress features a hexpod perched around the shoulders of wearer, or perhaps it’s a dress with tripod epaulets. Normally the legs simply slowly wave, but when something triggers the proximity (sonar?) sensors, the legs suddenly pull in tight, as if the dress has become scared.
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Intimacy by Rosengaarde
The “Intimacy” clothing line is an on going project about how people reveal themselves to others. The clothes feature panels that can fade from opaque to transparent by applying an electrical current. As Daan Rosengaarde put it in a recent interview, “With some people you want to show more and some people you want to show less. We thought it would make complete sense that the dress would be proactive in that: either you have control or you lose control.†To this end, sensors in the clothing monitor the wearer’s heart rate and turn the dress transparent as the rate increases.
The first version of this dress was designed back in 2009 by Maartje Dijkstra along with V2_Lab. Building on this work, Intimacy 2.0 was designed by Anouk Wipprecht in 2011. Studio Rosengaarde is currently accepting proposals for version 3.0, which will feature men’s suits that turn transparent when the wearer lies.
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BarBot
I’ve been strongly considering making a barbot (a.k.a. a drinkbot), even thought don’t usually drink at home. I haven’t given much thought to its cosmetics, instead I’ve been focusing on mechanics of the bot. I figure, the mechanics will dictate the form, and if one sprinkles enough LEDs on it, can look look fine.