I love smart ideas. This one struck me as particularly clever - using “kid power” to run a pump by hooking it up to a merry-go-round. What a great idea - harnessing a small part of the boundless energy of children, without any negative impact on them.

If we could think up elegant solutions like this for every problem we face, this world would be a vastly different place.

Check out InstaSnow, another “if you’re trying to find the perfect present for me” type of product. Totally useless (as far as I can tell), but incredibly cool, nonetheless. Here’s the main page that has links to different video files of different formats showing a demonstration of the stuff, as well as links for more information about it, and here’s a direct link to the high-quality Windows Media version of the video.

What do you get when you cross workout videos with a video game console? You get Yourself!Fitness, a new game that is being developed for Microsoft’s Xbox this fall, and for Sony’s Playstation 2 console for late this year.

I think this is a brilliant idea - and I expect that this will prove to be the beginning of a new market space. What better way to exploit the processing power of a modern game console then by using it to improve on what is already a very solid industry, that of exercise videos. Imagine celebrity versions, as workout videos already have - that’s the obvious next step. But the interesting thing is trying to imagine where this market might go!

From boingboing.net:

Amateur digital photographer R. Todd King has posted a set of startlingly gorgeous photos of the snow and ice festival in Harbin, China.
“The temperature in Harbin reaches forty below zero, both farenheit and centigrade, and stays below freezing nearly half the year. The city is actually further north than notoriously cold Vladivostok, Russia, just 300 miles away. So what does one do here every winter? Hold an outdoor festival, of course!”

Below is one of his photos showing buildings made entirely out of ice, with coloured lighting inside. Unbelievably beautiful, and other-worldly.

What do you get when you cross a contemporary band like Radiohead with bluegrass music?
One word: Rodeohead.

Read the response of AccordianGuy, a Filipino-born Canadian, to a racist blogger who maintains that non-white Canadians are somehow less Canadian. AccordianGuy (Joey DeVilla) is my newest hero.

A Tablet PC is in my future, and it’s probably in yours too, if you use computers very much throughout your day. Of course that future may be still a few years down the road, but that’s why it’s called the future, right? Anyhow, check out this video on Channel 9, which shows some of the improvements that have been made to Windows XP Tablet Edition for the most recent version. Incredible stuff.

If you are a proud Canadian, like me, you will enjoy these video clips taken from Rick Mercer’s “Talking to Americans” series, in which he poses facetious questions to notable Americans, to see what kind of reactions he can get.

Personally, I think this is the best TV Canada has ever produced, aside from any televised hockey game.

This kicks SO MUCH ASS! As a kid, I was a die-hard Lego fan. I still have a huge box of Lego somewhere (I think under my parents’ house) just waiting for my son Josh to get old enough to use it. Of course I’ll have to “help” him, and try to refrain from stealing all the good pieces when I do so. Ahem. Anyway, check out this Lego robot someone built that can solve a Rubik’s Cube. If that isn’t cool, I don’t know what is.

I first mentioned the Chillow on the old JasonClarke.net site, before the server exploded into flying chunks of worthlessness. Anyhow, it’s a soft device that you put inside your pillowcase nearest to your head, and it stays at room temperature all night. I can’t count how many times I’ve vowed to invent a device that will keep my pillow cool throughout the night, and as we move into the warmer weather, I thought it was appropriate to link back to it.

Anyone that decides that they absolutely must get me a present should seriously consider one of these. Or a mansion… I’m flexible.

This is the story of a guy who figured out he was being scammed by a buyer on eBay, and went to great lengths to turn the table on him. He creates a fake powerbook, and ships it to him. The incredible thing about all of this is that the whole thing was documented in real time in a forum at somethingawful.com (note you have to scroll down to see the posts), with an “undercover agent” watching and listening and posting in real time (scroll down to the post by “rhig”.

Don’t you just love the internet?

I posted this on jasonclarke.net just before the server bit the big one. Here it is again for your listening pleasure:

If you have a moment, (which you must, if you’re visiting this site), you absolutely have to visit www.songstowearpantsto.com. This guy takes the contents of emails, and turns them into little mini-songs, no longer than one minute and 11 seconds long. Listen to at least three of them, to get a feel for what he’s doing, and make sure you read the descriptions first.

My personal favourites are:

* IT WAS TOO HOT!
* IT HAS A CERTAIN JE NE SAIS QUOI

And, of course:
* Sasquatch and the Bologna Caper: A Cover of Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag