Gizmodo: rain

Samurai Sword Umbrella: Fight the Rain With Honor

Sean Fallon — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:20:00 EST

Whip out your samurai sword umbrella and do battle with Mother Nature. Should you be defeated, the only honorable way out is seppuku—although that would be especially nasty with an umbrella. [ThinkGeek via Uberreview]

Mazda Kiyora Recycles Rain Water for Drinking

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:00:00 EDT

This is the new Mazda Kiyora, a concept car that is not only designed to consume less gas and produce less emissions, but to collect and purify the most important liquid on Earth: Water. You know, for drinking. If you are into that kind of liquid, anyway. When you drive the Mazda Kiyora through rain, its roof channels the falling water into a specially-designed Lifesaver purification bottle. The bottle, called Lifesaver Bottle Citi, is placed in the middle of the car's interior, between the front seats, for easy access by all passengers.

Designed for Mazda by LIFESAVER® systems, the LIFESAVER® bottle citi™ is the world’s first ultra filtration water bottle to be installed in a car. It removes all waterborne pathogens and other pollutants creating safe sterile drinking water for the driver and passengers.

Taking advantage of rain as a natural resource, the roof of the Mazda Kiyora channels rainwater firstly through an activated carbon filter and then into a specially commissioned drinks bottle designed for Mazda by LIFESAVER® systems.

The LIFESAVER® bottle citi™ is located between the front seats for easy access, and uses state of the art ultra filtration hollow fibre membranes. With a pore size of 15 nano-meters these membranes remove all microbiological contamination including bacteria and viruses without using chemicals, delivering safe fresh drinking water to the driver and passengers any time. The bottle is removable so can be taken out of the car and used to gather water from other natural sources such as rivers, lakes and streams.

I wonder if car manufacturers couldn't do the same with hydrogen cars, minus the special purification system, condensing the vapor coming out of the car exhaust into a bottle. Or if they want to really make it fancy, include a espresso machine.

For a more detailed look at the Mazda Kiyora, check Jalopnik's coverage from the Paris Motor Show. [Lifesaver via Inhabitat]

UFO Cap Makes You Look Like Spin Top, Repels Rain and Women

matt buchanan — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:30:21 EDT

Sure, you could wear a raincoat if you don't feel like carrying an umbrella, but does it really keep you dry? I didn't think so. And are raincoats "the wings for your arms"? No. UFO Cap does all of that and more, like keep away pesky girls asking you out for drinks. Sadly, it's Korea-only for now, but I'm pretty sure they'll be glad to ship one to you. [UFO Cap via io9]

Gigabyte's Cool Rain Memory Cooler Was Blade Runner Prop in Past Life

Haroon Malik — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 18:00:00 EST

OK, Gigabyte's Cool Rain Memory Cooler was never featured in Blade Runner, and yes, we called it stupid overkill, but just look at it. The watercooled unit, which we mentioned earlier, can accommodate memory in dual channel form, has a radiator that flips open, uses two heat spreader units and a blue LED. If only our sneakers looked this sci-fi. (Yes, we liked LA Lights.) [Newlaunches]

Cranky Benches Roll Off Water After It Rains

Wilson Rothman — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:50:04 EST

Anybody who likes to go to the park after a good rainstorm knows the butt-soaking hazard of still-wet bench. Some design gurus in Korea decided to solve the system with a simple crank: give it a couple of turns, and the soggy slats at the top roll to the bottom while the dry slats below revolve back on top. This "rolling bench" innovation solves the problem of water, which will definitely evaporate or just drip off, but it doesn't solve the problem of other park-bench friendly substances, say the blue puke of a kid who's gorged himself on cotton candy. What do you got for that, O Mighty Design Gods? [Yanko]

Oversized Shower Head Lets You Pretend the Star Trek Transporter Room Has Sprung a Leak

AddyDugdale — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 07:25:30 EST

Italian bathroom manufacturer Zuchetti has brought out a 20-inch shower head for an altogether phatter bathroom experience. With 400 nozzles, the XL has all sorts of different spray effects and there's even a model with LED lights, for the full-on Transporter experience. [Trendir via Luxury Launches]

Sprout Umbrella Design

Jason Chen — Tue, 01 May 2007 17:00:05 EDT

Even though it doesn't rain all that much here, we're suckers for an awesome umbrella design. Whether it's the lightsaber-grip umbrella,the lightsaber-shaft umbrella, or this Sprout umbrella, we're all for umbrellas.

What's special about this umbrella is the way it unlocks. You turn the knob to unlock the canopy, which then forces the knob down the umbrella and the canopy up through the shaft. You get the idea, so we'll quit all this knob and shaft talk now before someone gets hurt. – Jason Chen

Matt Swinton's Design Site [Coroflot]

Sprout Umbrella [Yanko Design]

Lightsaber Umbrella Uses the Force to Stop the Rain

Travis Hudson — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 17:40:24 EDT

Now available for your handy dandy arsenal of lightsaber gear is this umbrella. No longer will your lightsaber MP3 player, Skype phone, universal remote or MacBook be lonely. I feel like such a nerd describing this, but the umbrella's handle is a black lightsaber and no part of the umbrella lights up, which is very unfortunate for the diehard fans out there. It is available for $100 and would be perfect to shield yourself and your imaginary date on a rainy evening. –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via uber-review]

PupHut: Dog Truck Shade

johnb — Wed, 10 May 2006 11:04:46 EDT

While the PupHut sounds more like some sort of strange pizza place, this is actually a tent for dogs who have to spend their afternoons lounging around in the beds of 4x4s.

The hut protects Old Yeller from the sun and wind—but not the hydrophobie—and even comes in Mossy Oak for hunters and farm boys. Priced at $179.95, it's a pretty ingenious way to keep your pup cool and dry.

Product Page [PupHut]