Posts Written by Paul Strauss

Artist Herschel Shapiro makes amazing geometric wall art. He starts by 3D printing petal-like shapes from sustainably sourced bioplastic, then sands and paints each piece to produce color gradients before attaching them. The sculptures are available for purchase on the artist’s Etsy shop in various patterns and colors. His limited-edition Maelstrom is our fave.

The internet is packed with April Fools Day pranks today, and this is one of our favorites. Lexus put together this hilarious commercial for a fictitious and fragrant feature for their new GX 550 SUV – a “Scent Mode” that helps you connect with nature even when you’re stuck in city traffic.

This LED accent lamp features color-changing facets you control with your phone. The GLORB is 9.8″ across, or about as big as a basketball, and includes a tabletop stand and a ceiling hook. It’s got a USB-C port, so it can run on a wall charger or a battery pack, can react to music, and can sync multiple units together.

This cool, single-purpose device connects to your phone and displays album art. Instead of a standard screen, it uses a grid of 4096 individual RGB LEDs to create artful, pixelated images. It works with iOS and Android devices and is compatible with Spotify, Apple Music, Sonos, and last.fm.

Tic Tacs are one of the world’s most popular breath fresheners. How did these little pill-shaped mints come to be? Weird History Food takes us all the way back to the origins of bad breath control and its evolution toward the minty flavors we know today. It turns out the same company that created Nutella and Kinder eggs came up with the Tic Tac.

8BitDo’s latest retro computer keyboard is inspired by the Commodore 64. The 87-key mechanical keyboard is finished in C64 grey with rainbow graphics. It offers Bluetooth, 2.4GHz, and USB wired connections and comes with a joystick and jumbo-sized buttons. Compatible with Windows and Android. Pre-orders start shipping on 5.28.24.

North of the Border and Studson Studios both like to make weird, creepy, and nerdy sculptures. For fun, they recorded voiceovers for each other, with Adam reporting on Studson’s literal Mario Kart build and Studson voicing Adam’s wonderfully demented McDonaldland official Mayor McCheese. Those thin layers of clay really do look like Velveeta.

Most guitar players use their fingertips or a single guitar pick to strum. After “accidentally” 3D printing a triple guitar pick, engineer Mattias Krantz thought it might be fun to play with even more guitar picks at the same time. His compound guitar pick looks like it would a pretty good back-scratcher too.

It might not be a muscle car, but the Dodge Hornet is more fun to drive than most compact crossovers. It has a zesty powertrain, dynamic handling, and a sporty interior with premium materials. We spent a week getting to know this fully loaded 2023 Hornet GT Plus model, though the 2024 model is identical.

Do you like music and math? Then you’ll dig polyrhythms. JLChnToZ (Vistanz) created this captivating video that displays a representation of these complex and often hypnotic sounds in concentric circles. For maximum effect, put the video on full screen, dim the lights, and crank up the volume.

Nico Fischer is an amazingly skilled parkour athlete. This clip shows Nico bouncing between two walls with such command that he looks like he’s defying gravity at times. He couldn’t decide if the moves were more Spider-Man or Prince of Persia, so his pal Aziz came up with a more appropriate superhero name, “Elevator-Man.” More wall-climbing antics here.

These modern folding pliers adhere to Windeler’s minimalistic aesthetic. They measure just 4.13″ long when folded, so they’re pocket-friendly. They’re made from stainless steel and anodized aluminum, and their full-size plier jaws feature a wire cutter. Windeler also integrated their Polnetik magnetic connector to attach modular tool blades.

Bungee cords are handy for tying things down, but their open hooks can come loose easily, especially without enough tension. Nite Ize’s smart HookLock bungees have locking hooks, ensuring secure and reliable attachment at both ends. Available in color-coded 24″, 36″, and 48″ lengths.

Speedbag Bard has a unique talent – he can punch a speed bag in time with music. Here, he shows off his bag skills with a rhythmic performance of the hit Gorillaz track Feel Good Inc. His YouTube channel is packed with other speed bag covers, includingPost Malone & Swae Lee’s Sunflower, and Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger, and Sisqo’s Thong Song.

E-paper, or E-ink displays, use tiny color-changing capsules to display high-contrast, daylight-readable images with a minimum of electricity. David Zhang shows off a neat use for an E-paper screen—an always-on desktop display with widgets for the time, date, weather, and device status of his computer. It’s not for sale, but David did share source code.

This backpack from Coalax is ideal for photographers who need to carry a lot of gear. Its exoskeleton design allows for modules to be attached and detached, including an optional 335Wh power pack. Its main compartment has dividers for cameras and lenses, and outside, you’ll find an extendable and adjustable selfie stick for hands-free shooting or lighting.

Damascus steel is made by pressing layers of forged metal together. HANS shows how he made a gorgeous dagger using thousands of steel bearing balls. The resulting metal pattern is something he calls Dragon Skin. After making the blade, he fabricated a brass crossguard and a wooden handle. It’s based on a design by Neels Van Den Berg of Black Dragon Forge.

From Batman to Beetlejuice to Birdman, Michael Keaton is a man of many personas. Keaton sat down for an interview with GQ to talk about some of his most iconic characters, their sources of inspiration, and how he got inside their heads. For some roles, the costume and makeup provided enough of a hook, while others required him to dig much deeper.

This bargain-priced gadget packs more than ten tools. Its carabiner-style clip attaches easily to your belt loop or backpack, and its fold-out blades include Phillips, Torx, hex, and flat-blade screwdrivers, a SIM card tool, and a small knife for opening boxes. It also has a bottle opener and a fold-out phone stand. Made from stainless steel.

Jared Owen presents another fascinating animation of a complex machine—or, in this case, multiple machines working together. In this video, he walks us through the automated donut factory, which you can find at many Krispy Kreme locations. These machines can crank out up to 3000 donuts per hour. Our favorite part is the glaze waterfall.

Science expert Joe Myheck shows how he made a unique crown fit for a mermaid queen by pouring a crucible filled with molten metal into a vat of water-absorbing Orbeez gel beads. The metal he used is called Nordic gold – a colorful alloy composed of copper, aluminum, zinc, and tin.

Valtcan’s keychain storage canister is longer than most, so it can store toothpicks, rolled up dollar bills, pills, or even a AAA battery inside. It’s made entirely from titanium, and has a waterproof O-ring seal. Measures 3″ x 0.6″ outside, and holds items up to 2.5″ x 0.45″ inside.

Flasutie shows off an insane toy gun that looks and works like an oversized revolver. It fires plastic projectiles using a high-voltage igniter and oxyhydrogen (HHO) gas as a propellant. Before building the main weapon, he made a single-barrel unit to test its firing system. Despite the TPU bullets being relatively soft, they could still leave a mark on unprotected skin.