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Researchers from Northwestern University have developed a breakthrough battery technology that features both high efficiency of re-charging and better electricity energy storage. Compared with ordinary batteries, the new lithium ion batteries allows for using 10 times longer and recharges 10 times quicker. Generally it could keep your cellphone charged for a week and recharge in 15 minutes; when applied on electric cars, the battery can power it to run 500 miles with 10 minutes of charging.

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Squeeze these soft balls to dispense seasoning! While you squeeze them, you’ll not only see the seasoning coming out of these balls continuously, but also you can feel how tiny the salt and pepper are… Oh God, that’s really bit of weird.

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Simple but practical, Survive Outdoors Longer’s (SOL) “Survival Blanket” costs you only six dollars while offers you much more help than you can ever expect. It’s made of “vacuum-metalized polyethylene” that reflects 90% of body heat and resists shredding, thus to ensure the users a warming shelter when they accidently need to survive in the wild. To provide you with more help, the blanket even comes with printed wilderness survival tips on the surface. So if you feel cold, put on the blanket. If you don’t know what to do, look at the blanket. Things will then go easy.

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Welcome to learn about another world’s best invention and this time we’ll show you new artificial muscles that can contract and twist, made by researchers from the University of Texas using cylindrical übermolecules. By twisting together “untold billions” of microscopic, straw-like carbon nanotubes into filamentous strands of “yarn”, the researchers have successfully endowed the artificial muscle with an outstanding nanoscale motor capable of spinning at nearly 600 rpms.

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The greatest thrill you ever get is going on the roller coaster? Of course it is, but next time you can experience another exciting roller coaster that is actually without a roller coaster but some stairs instead! Built in German, the Crouching Tiger and Turtle is a work by sculptors Ulrich Genth and Heike Mutter, allowing people to ascend a height to enjoy a distant view by walking up the roller coaster, which is not the most exciting roller coaster but apparently the safest one.

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Pull and fix to provide your electrical appliances with enough electricity, to use an outlet is just as simple as that. Composed of 5 pods along a 15 foot-long cable, the Pod Power is an extension cord that brings the outlets to you, and in the meanwhile keeps your cables tidy and organized. With adhesive stripes included, the Pod Power can be stuck onto walls or tables once you’ve already adjusted the distance between the pods.

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Well, we’re now in a pizza world: when we feel hungry, we eat some pizza; and when we feel sleepy, we go to bed with a pizza…Bit of crazy, right? But still funny. Made out of hand-dyed cotton and lined in red satin, the pizza sleeping bag is also warm and comfortable, allowing you to have a nice dream in which the pizza may appear too.

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What will the futuristic architecture look like? Japan-based Kisho Kurokawa’s “Nakagin Capsule Tower Building” may offer us some inspireations. Put forward in 1972, the tower building was constructed of 140 individual pods that could be changed and moved freely, thus to create a modular building with full functions. In the designer’s assumption, the 140 pods should get replaced about every 25 years so that the whole building could have a 200 year life span.  To let many more people get in a close touch with the “Nakagin Capsule Tower Building”, Kurokawa recently showcased one pod at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, in which the visitors would find a full-furnished house for temporary living.

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Undoubtedly it’s not the first time we introduce some lens accessories for iPhones, but an iPhone Lens Dial that combines three different types of lens? Oh, it’s still the first. On that dial you’ll find a wide-angle, a fisheye and telephoto lens, which can be easily shifted between each other via a rotation. Thus when you’re on a trip, you could take various kinds of photos and share them on Tweet with your friends instantly with your iPhone and such a functional lens dial.

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With a density of 0.9 mg/cc, the world’s lightest material is put forward by researchers from UC Irvine, HRL Laboratories and the California Institute of Technology. The material features a unique “micro-lattice” cellular architecture, 99.99% of which is air and only 0.01 percent is solid metal. Thus it weighs incredibly light, even about one hundred times lighter than Styrofoam, and can stand safely on the top of dandelion. Even so, the material still comes with a good mechanical behavior, including complete recovery from compression exceeding 50 percent strain and high energy absorption.

“Gelpoly” is a surface protection and surface ornamentation adhesive film that features an excellent self-tackiness and removing ability. Showcased during ‘The 19th Korea International Sign & Design Show (KOSIGN 2011)’, the new sheet is mainly made of polyester film, also with a special Olefin elastomer resin.  Except for its easy adhesion, the film is even re-adhesive with water.

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Can you believe simply with ordinary thread and nails we can create amazing portraits like these? Completed by Pamela Campagna and her husband Thomas Scheiderbauer, each piece took them nearly a month and inspired by their old photos. I don’t know which word could express my appreciation for their wonderful work… Really well done!

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So you’re living in a small apartment and cannot spare any space to place your shoes? If so, we suggest you try to put your shoes vertically, with Martina Carpelan’s wall-mounted shoe rack. Measuring 32cm H x 90cm W x 12cm D, each shoe rack would accommodate up to four shoes and maybe you can create a unique “shoe wall” if you do have many shoes to organize.

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Mickey bulbs for Mickey fans. From designer Hong-kue Lee, these LED lights are especially created for kids, to bring them closer to the world that Mickey lives in.

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Almost in every part of the world we can find creativity, which now exists in Finland too. There in that country, Miina Akkijyrkka shapes some huge cows using old vehicles. By arranging different parts of cars to become sections of the cows, the artists cleverly created unique metal cows featuring a lovely appearance.

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