bookofjoe

Rehearsals.com — 'Video of musicians rehearsing for upcoming tours'

This website went live today, brought to us by none other than Major League Baseball.

Internet 2.0 indeed: those are some strange bedfellows, the Pussycat Dolls and Barry Bonds et al.

[via Frank Ahrens and his "Web Watch" column in yesterday's Washington Post]

9-Volt Battery + Whatever = Interesting Stuff

Exhibit A: The Pak-Lite (below).

Exhibit B: The wonderful Designer Emulation Kits of Mark McKenna (below).

Exhibit C: ZER00:00 the clock (top).

[via Shawn Lea and everythingandnothing]

Student Driver Car, Fruitmobile and the Electric Muffins

Those were just a few of the 266 vehicles taking part in the annual Everyone's Art Car Parade in Houston, Texas on May 13.

Ralph Blumenthal covered it for the New York Times and his story in yesterday's paper was accompanied by photographs of some of the vehicles.

The Student Driver Car is up top.

Below,

the Fruitmobile.

Then there's the George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars Tribute car,

the Yarnmobile

and the Electric Muffins.

Sweet.

World's Cheapest Universal Translating Device

It costs $4.90 and requires no batteries.

If you drop it — even into water — it still works.

From the website:

Point at a picture - no language translator needed!

Just point to what you need with this photo language translator.

No more struggling to pronounce foreign words and misspeaking!

With this slim picture book in your pocket, there's no need to juggle different language translation guides as you travel, and no frustration trying to quickly get an electronic translator to work.

This pocket-sized picture dictionary has hundreds of photos of things you might need in a foreign country: transportation, lodging, first aid, toiletries... over 1,200 items!

Great gift for someone who loves to travel but isn't multi-lingual.

Carry in a pocket or purse — just 5" x 3½" x ¼".

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You can have a lot of fun trying the book out without even leaving town.

Simply go somewhere where no one knows you and pretend you're from another country

and ask for help while using the book: most amusing.

Trust me: I'm a doctor — and I've done just that.

$4.90.

Sunny Day Bench — by Gabriele Pezzini

It was unveiled at last month's "Open Your Mind" exhibition in Milan and the designer hopes to find a manufacturer.

Linda Hales wrote about it in the May 20 Washington Post Style section, as follows.

Sitting Solo

Study the behavior of people in an urban park on a sunny day.

Watch how some hover and then dart for a free bench.

Notice how those who do not want to share will sit in the middle, arms spread defiantly, as if to say, "Mine."

Designing products is all about observation.

In the best-case scenario, a designer will perceive something in the chaos of the everyday that calls for change.

Gabriele Pezzini appears to have absorbed the antisocial behavior of urban park sitters before redesigning the bench for an exhibition, "Open Your Mind," presented last month in Milan.

He's hoping to find a manufacturer who shares his mind-set.

The Sunny Day Bench has a standard-width back with plenty of room to stretch one's arms.

The issue of personal space is resolved by providing room for only one to sit.

And none for those who lie down to sleep.

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[photo via designboom]

iPod Remote Control with Display

I like it when the accessories cost nearly as much as the thing accessorized.

Makes my Bizarro World heart flutter.

But I digress.

From the website:

iPod Remote Control with Display

Unlike typical remote control devices for the iPod that merely send commands, this handheld device controls any docking iPod's functions from up to 150 feet away and has a built-in LCD screen that receives and displays iPod song information.

This device is ideal for use with iPods not regularly kept within reach, including those attached to speaker sets or connected to home stereo systems.

The unit lets the user adjust the volume, view playlists or artists, and view both current and subsequent songs from distances that are too far to read the iPod's screen.

The remotes radio signal works through walls, ceilings, and floors.

Requires one AAA battery (included).

3"H x 1-3/4"W x 3/4"D.

6 oz.

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In Black or White.

$139.95.

LifeStraw — Personal Mobile Water Purification Tool

Created by Danish inventor Torben Vestergaard Frandsen, LifeStraw® is a plastic tube with an iodine/carbon filter designed to let people drink water safely wherever they happen to find it.

A May 4 BBC story has more, including one expert's thoughts on why the device is not, in the end, a panacea for the Third World.

New straw to kill disease as you drink

A new straw that purifies water as it is drunk is hoped to be part of a solution to water-borne disease killing thousands in developing countries.

Water from most sources can be drunk if done so through the LifeStraw say the makers of the product.

Created by Danish innovator Torben Vestergaard Frandsen the straw is made of plastic and resembles a flute.

Inside are filters and a chamber impregnated with iodine.

These remove the bacteria from the water as it is drunk.

"You basically just suck the water through it," said Alan Mortensen, business director of the Public Health Water-Bourne Disease Control - which produces the LifeStraw - told BBC World Service's Culture Shock programme.

"You just need to suck a few times to get the water through all the filters."

The company that makes the LifeStraw, Vestergaard Frandsen, emphasise that it hopes the invention can help to meet the UN's Millennium Development Goals on providing access to clean drinking water.

In the developing world, one person in six does not have access to drinking water, and 6,000 people a day die from water-borne diseases.

The LifeStraw, however, is designed to filter these out - it includes a disinfectant filter which kills bacteria, and active carbon which removes parasites and gives the water a better taste.

Mr Mortensen said that using the straw, it would be possible even to drink water from the notoriously polluted Thames river in London.

"You'd definitely have a bacteria-free drink," he said.

"You might still taste some of the algae, but you could do it, no problem."

He added that as the straw is aimed at the developing world, it is being made it in China, where production costs are lower.

It is priced at around $3.50 (£1.85) a straw.

Each one will last for around 700 litres, around six months to a year.

However, a spokesman for UK charity WaterAid, which works to supply clean water and sanitation in 17 of the world's poorest countries, condemned the device as overly expensive, and said it was not a real solution.

The organisation's Paul Hetherington said that while he thought the LifeStraw is an 'amazing-sounding idea,' he did not ultimately think it would help.

"$3.50 sounds like very little to you and me - but most people in those countries earn less than one dollar a day, with which they have to feed their families," he said.

He added that he felt the problem is that many people live very far away from their water, often walking a total of 20km or more carrying a weight of 25 kilos.

"That's what takes it out of them - the long journey," he explained.

"The LifeStraw isn't going to prevent that long journey, even if it does improve the water they drink.

"They're not going to have the education, because they're not going to have the time. It's girls in particular who suffer, because it's women and girls who have to collect the water.

"It only costs a charity like WaterAid £15 per person to provide them with water, sanitation and hygiene education, which, provided there is decent water resource management in the country, will last them a lifetime.

"At that rate, $3.50 is expensive."

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[via Rodes Fishburne and futurewire]

Biome Lifestyle Handmade Organic Cotton Roll-Up Bed

Crunchy.

From the website:

A compact and comfortable roll-up bed useful for any occasion.

Hand-made from high-quality organically-grown cotton using natural colourfast dyes.

175 cm long x 61 cm wide (69" x 24").

£62 ($116; €91).