Funny and Stupid Ideas: 16 August 2006

Anti Smoking Ashtray

Will this ashtray help you stop smoking? Maybe ... because this has a big visual impact, because is a part of your body.Some smokers may feel something inside, when they finish their ciguar.

Anti Smoking Ashtray

Even though this clock is called Time cube, the most interesting shapes in this construction is the triangles. When the clock is 12 the cube is whole, but at all other times of the day the triangles are moving around. Cool idea for a watch.
Time cube

Exhaust pipe spinner

I would probably categorize this funny little item under ‘weird’ rather than ‘cool’. It’s a spinner that you are supposed to mount on your exhaust pipe, and when you step on the gas the spinner starts rotating and literally pops out.

Exhaust pipe spinner

Spinner exhaust tips [shoplaser.com]
Exhaust pipe spinner

Hanging Monastery

The monastery dates back over 1400 years to the Northern Wei Dynasty. However, most of what you see today are reconstructions made during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties.

The caves behind the pavilions contain religious statues. One cave room has the statues of Buddha, Confucius and Laotsu comfortably sitting side by side. This is noteworthy because simultaneously advocating Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism was rare in ancient China.

The pavilions are constructed almost entirely of wood (except for the decorative multi-hued roof tiles).

The pavilions "hang" partially because long timber poles support them from underneath (see photo). However, the greatest structural support comes from unseen rock ledges upon which parts of the pavilions sit - and from the cantilevered wooden beams deeply imbedded into the cliff.

The Chinese name of the Hanging Monastery is Xuankong.

The monastery is also known as the Hengshan Hanging Monastery. It gets its "Hengshan" descriptive because it is located at the foot of Mount Heng (Hengshan), one of the five holy Taoist mountains of China.

Location:The Hanging Monastery is in Shanxi province - and is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Datong city, which is about 300 kilometers (180 miles) west of Beijing.

Hanging Monastery

The keyboard organizer

A few months ago I published an article about the weirdest keyboards ever. Since then I’ve got quite a few keyboard press releases. None of them have been really interesting, but today I got a mail about this really cool keyboard called the ‘Keyboard organizer‘. Check it out, it’s brilliant!

Keyboard organizer [keyboardorganizer.com]

The keyboard organizer