B5 Network - Tech, Gadgets and Weird Things

A knife is possibly the most universal tool ever invented. A folding knife offers all the functionality of a regular knife and adds portability.

At one point in history, someone from Switzerland, a country famous for it’s hot chocolate (and watches as well as banks), decided that “possibly” simply won’t do when talking about their army’s supplies, and created something now called the Swiss army knife – the most universal tool of them all (however, the lethality of the knife was reduced due to a smaller blade).

Of course, soon civilians decided they want those knives too – the small size and the variety of functions makes them great to have in the great outdoors…err, I meant in the wilderness. And, just as surely, soon there were quite a number of variations of this tool – some were actually more like parodies.

Well, the Backpackers’ Cutlery Set is one of those parodies that turned out to be actually useful. The tool (top-right in the picture, near the belt case) splits into two parts – spoon/knife/pick (bottom-left) and fork/screwdriver/bottle opener (bottom-right) – a great idea actually – alternating between a knife and a fork would be difficult. If I may be so bold to say, this is the best pocket cutlery set ever created (not that pocket cutlery sets are often created).

The Cutlery Set costs £5.99 at GoBaz.

Anyone here has a habit of visiting clubs from time to time? I am speaking about the ones where darkness, strobe lights and overrated pop music (and maybe light alcohol, and (legality depending on the country) sometimes light narcotics) rule tens (hundreds?) of entranced humans as they attempt to move in tune with music while trying to use their brain as less as possible (believe it or not, these words are by a guy who frequents such clubs 1 – 2 times a week).

And with such numbers of somewhat zombie-like people, one naturally attempts to get noticed by being different from the mass. The popular means to achieve that include glowing bracelets and glowing sticks. Nice little toys, eh? Look great after dark, match any style of casual clothing (can’t really expect such things to look good when wearing a business suit, now can you?). Problem is, these things are so cheap (well, they are cheap when buying in high quantities, from a supplier. Clubs often sell them for 5 – 20 times the original price) and there are so relatively few laws applying to them, that they are a pretty common sight. And who cares about stuff that everyone knows about?

Well, how about flashing (no pun intended) a truly glowing smile? With these flashing mouthpieces (made from rubber. Should be more comfortable than the plastic vampire teeth mouthpieces you might have tried), with 4 ultra bright LEDs each shining simultaneously, your smile will be hard to miss (by the way, believe it or not, ultra bright is an actual LED classification).

The Flashing Mouthpieces are £1.99 (discounts are available if you buy more than one) at Glowsticks.

Do you remember those times when rock concerts were a regular and ordinary occurrence? When rockers dressed in the weirdest of rags and that still passed off as tasteful? When rock was still rock and not heavy pops?

Well, as most of that took place in the golden 80s, most of you probably don’t (neither do I) due to being too young to remember that. I have, however, seen many hours of video recordings. And I find one tradition particularly attractive. During a power ballad, people would whip out their oil lighters (a typical example would be a Zippo lighter) and raise them above their heads, creating a sea of small lights. Now, however, usually what people do (on those rare occasions when real rock is performed) is just use disposable lighters – if they are not totally mutilating the tradition by just using their cellphones. In my eyes, that is a step down.

Well, the Big Daddy Lighter is something that could be actually considered as an improvement (sort of). 4.5″ wide x 6.5″ tall x 1.5″ deep, this lighter produces a 3.5inch (~8.5cm) high flame - something that my inner (or, in the opinion of my friends, outer) pyromaniac simply loves. However, the flame is pretty thin, as it uses standart Zippo wicks (and zippo flints, before you ask) – so, while the flame is thin, at least the parts are replaceable.

As you can see from the pictures (do look into the pictures on the website), the lighter is slightly too big to be called “pocket-sized”, though some people do report being able to keep it in their pockets. Naturally, a lighter this size takes much more oil than regular sized ones – about three cans of Zippo fluid are used to fully fill this giant.

The Big Daddy Jumbo Lighter (without the fluid inside – shipping regulations) costs $14.95 at Vat19 (this is the best price I came across).

Back in the days when the concept of a modern times gadget was laughable (not necessarily referring to the middle ages) people had to face a task of finding something to amuse themselves with each and every day. That is, of course, excluding those that had to work from daybreak till dawn to be able to live (depending on the time period, that could be the majority of the world).

Well, those that could afford some fun used to take part in a wide variety of activities. Those considered artistic would draw or attempt to write works of literature. Others, less talented would attempt to sing or dance (in this aspect, the world didn’t change much – that still happens far too frequently). And those who regarded themselves as intellectuals would pit their minds against opponents in an old Indian game called ‘chess’.

However, time goes by, and times change. And today’s product is a great proof of it. I’m rather certain that if you attempted to use this chess set in , oh, the middle ages or so, you would be roasted in a huge bonfire (not a particularly pleasant way to leave this world). Nowadays, though, you’ll get only some strange looks at worst (depends on who you are – no one would think it’s weird for me to own such a set).

On a 12 inch (~30cm) square board (which reminds me of a dungeon) that has 4 skulls in place of legs), you and your opponent pit your skeletal head armies against each other (there are black and white skulls).

This set could actually solve one problem that quite a few chess fanatics have – lack of willing opponents. Most people don’t particularly like chess, or they lack patience for it. But really, who could resist playing with something like this?

The Skulls Chess Set costs £29.95 (could be cheaper, but souvenir glass chess sets tend to be even more costly). Found at Gobaz.

Here’s a riddle for you (I’m not ripping off ‘Brainiac’, am I?): who is dead, yet walks, moans and says “Ughhhh….BRAAAIIIIINS!”? That’s right, a zombie.

Side story: recently I had to pull through an evening with a lot of masked (and incredibly loud, louder than I’ve ever been at least) six year old nuisances children. Anyhow, when the reason for my torture adults asked them to tell them what they knew about zombies, everyone started shouting some thing or another about Frankenstein or mentioned eating flesh and brains. When asked about vampires, all they could say was “they drink blood”. A question about Count Dracula returned zero results. A strong evidence that zombies are more famous than vampires, wouldn’t you say?(that or those kids were brain-dead, which isn’t so hard to believe after 6+ hours with them)

So, what do you need to do if you want to join this society of living corpses? Well, basically, walk slowly and in the strangest way imaginable, moan, have a glazed look and the classic part – eat brains. Now, raw brains might not be incredibly appetizing, and a zombie is technically too stupid to cook (though cooked animal brains is considered a gourmet dish). Solution? - fake, edible brains.

The Brain Mold allows you to use gelatin to produce an edible jelly model of the left hemisphere (slightly bigger than the average though, but chances are your’s are too). All of the brain parts are there, so the jelly can be used for educational purposes. Still, nothing beats good old brain-eating-zombie routine (there’s a recipe included to make the brain jelly brain-colored just for this purpose).

The Brain Mold is 7.89$ at PrankPlace. Affordable enough, and if you think of it, the faces of your guests when you serve them brains have an estimated price of priceless

Hey, gadget lovers! Are you enjoying the summer? How do you like the weather? Personally, I just love the warm, and yet not really hot days. The perfect stereotypical summer. The weather is so stable and consistent that no one really expects any surprises…….say, for example, like a freak snowstorm.

Now, unless you live in the polar regions, obtaining a sizable amount of snow in this time of the year could prove to be quite a difficult task. I suppose it could be done if you’d set the freezer and the air conditioning system to work well above it’s usual limits, but that is not recommended (really, don’t, it’s a bad idea).

You can, however, turn to the next best solution – artificial snow, that comes in 8oz (~0.24 liters) jars. Sure, the amount doesn’t look like much. But here comes the best part. You only need to add water for the jar of powder to inflate to approximately 2 gallons (~7.6 liters) of snow.

A little personal input:
Take a cheap one-time-use pen, and throw away everything but the main body. Pour it full of instant snow powder and plug all holes with toilet paper. Then repeat the procedure with other pens. Put the prepared pens in a plastic bottle. Then just add water to the bottle (and DO NOT put the cap on). In a few minutes, the bottle will start spewing snow. Results may vary depending on the amount of powder used and water used and the type of toilet paper (it should ideally dissolve easily, but slowly).

Or, you can prepare the pens the same way, but put them in a bottle that is half full with ice (freeze it beforehand). Make sure to put the bottle in as warm a place as possible. This way, the snow will be slowly pouring out for an hour or two. With a little creativity this could be a great addition to any party.

A jar of instant snow powder costs $11.99 at KlearGear.

Since childhood all of us have been taught a variety of rules that were meant to ensure that we don’t kick the bucket before we are meant to. They included looking before crossing the street, not playing with fire (well, I ignored this one), not putting metal objects into the power socket and most certainly not touching any exposed wires with electricity flowing trough them.

Knowing the last rule, the people visiting you will certainly feel uneasy seeing a working light bulb with exposed sockets. And there are too many reactions to predict (albeit all of them amusing) the way they will express their shock when you touch the exposed parts and start shaking, with your body acting as a conductor for the electric current, measuring a grand total of…..12 Volts.

Yes, as realistic as this gadget looks, the electric current coursing through it is only 12 Volts. Meaning you can touch it with no fear for your life (the downside is that you’ll have to fake the trembling – pretty hard, as the trembling is pretty fast, though most of your friends probably don’t really know how a human body reacts to electrocution). And when your acquaintances are all familiar with the trick, it can serve as a rather original lamp.

The 12Volt bulb costs £49.95 at GenieGadgets. True, it’s rather expensive, but can you really put the price on the years of your friends’ lives you’ll be taking from them with your little (and completely fake) electric accidents?

A little astronomy lesson for you, gadget enthusiasts. The Moon is Earth’s only natural satellite, and the 5th biggest satellite in the Solar System. It completes it’s orbit around Earth in 27.3 days, and repeats the lunar phases every 29.5 days.

On some more humorous note, the Moon was for a long time considered to be made of cheese. For those interested, this isn’t actually something created to fool kids. The idea was born from a phrase John Heywood wrote in his Proverbes (1546) - “The Moon is made of a greene cheese” (greene means new; not old; not aged).

In the old days, people used to believe that the full Moon awakened a beast inside a man and turned one into a werewolf (a number of superstitious people still believe it). Another superstition, that is still incredibly popular, is that full Moon causes lunacy (a quick lesson in languages: Moon translates into Latin as Luna). Also, it is supposedly the celestial body that’s supposed to be ruling over me, and doing a poor job at that (My zodiac is Cancer.).

Nonetheless, on a bright night, the Moon is a truly beautiful sight. However, if you’re not a night person (you’re missing a lot), you can have the next best thing – a Moon in your room.

Measuring 260 mm x 260 mm x 60 mm, the fake Moon has 12 phases, which you can shift through manually using an included remote control or leave them to change automatically. The Moon has a light sensor that allows it to turn on as soon as it gets dark, and turn off 30 minutes later in order to preserve the batteries, however, you can turn off the battery saving setting. You even get a CD with a 15 minute audio tour of the Moon and it’s relation to other planets.

A personal Moon will cost you £29.99 at CrazyAboutGadgets.

A typical office in most countries is imagined as a a cold prison with cold, hard concrete walls and windows with bars (well, okay, maybe the windows don’t usually have bars). To lighten the atmosphere, corporate workers have taken up the habit of personalizing their workspace – bringing in family photos, potted plants and so on…

Of course, certain members of the society just can’t help but try to show off by bastardizing the tradition. For example, changing the old traditional photo frames with digital ones. That, however, is old news – digital photo frames can be found in most electronics’s stores. A digitalized version of the potted plant, however, is far more original.

Well, in truth, it’s more like a digital version of the flower pot (electronic flowers still are behind natural ones in all aspects, except maybe longevity – depends on the type of the flower). The USB greenhouse is in all ways a small copy of a modern greenhouse.

Growing a plant in this USB greenhouse is a piece of cake. The included software monitors the plant’s growth and reminds you when to water it. The light on the top of the greenhouse (a sort of an artificial sun) has controllable intensity. Even the soil is provided! Included in the package is a pack of Marigold (a yellow flower) seeds, however, there’s nothing keeping you from using your own seeds. How about growing your own strawberries?

If you want to be questioned about your attitude towards potted flowers, the USB Greenhouse is £29.99 at Drinkstuff.

What’s a party without cold drinks? And what better way there is to keep them cold than popping a few ice cubes.

Now, the idea of ice cubes is good and all, but some of us like to show off, so we look for an ice tray that produces ice cubes in a form that is more imaginative than a cube. I have already seen ice trays that produce such forms like jewels, flowers, cylinders and even duckies…However, none of them look as good as these…

A single ice tray has three molds, each with a different guitar design (specifically – Les Paul, classic and Fender). Making ice guitars is easy – just place the plastic guitar neck in the mold and pour water in. Then just leave it in the freezer.

Once frozen, the guitars are 5.5cm long, and since the necks are from plastic, they can serve as stylish spoon to mix your drinks (do take into account that ice melts, so such spoons won’t hold out for a long time).

These guitar ice trays were found at ParamountZone, and cost £5.95.