My family and I do our best to use recyclable bags for grocery shopping whenever possible. And while it’s a great way to save some pennies and tossing excess plastic bags, it’s a pain to stash bulky bags and a hassle at checkout. It needs to change and Nanobag aims to do so. The Small, Adjustable Shopping Bag Nanobag 4.0 is the newest lightweight shopping bag from TipTop Things. You would think, since the bags are a mere 0.05 mm thick they would rip as soon as you drop a head of soggy lettuce into it but no, these babies can carry up to 66 lbs (or 30 kg) easy.…

How do all those selfie-shootin’ video pros snag that smooth video? Well, outside a tripod or a wall and roll of duct tape, they’re likely using a fancy gimble device to steady their on-screen antics. While you can find a few in the $120 price range, you could also just make your own. *gasp!* Yes, but don’t worry, Louis Desmarchelier (aka Loud3D) has the perfect setup that (if you already have a 3D printer) will only cost a small amount of time, material, and support removal to achieve stable, multi-axis, video shootin’ bliss. The smartphone stabilizer design is a pretty standard multi-axis gimble with a handle and a threaded rod…

We love well-designed toys here at SolidSmack but still, you may be thinking, “This is just a plastic turtle”. Well, believe it or not, this wee plastic turtle is a toy… and a bit of a dark, foreboding, guilt-laden memorial to all the marine life killed off by mindless waste disposal. But more than that, it’s turning waste into a beloved turtle toy for a child or your own collection of turtle memorabilia. Shaken by the number of animal deaths caused by oceanic waste and the theory that, in 2050, there could be more plastic in the oceans than fish, Claire Matthews created Greta The Great – a plastic turtle…

It may sound like a movie plot starring you and Tom Selleck, but a team of engineers at The Washington University in St. Louis, led by associate professor of biomedical engineering, Baranidharan Raman, has spent the last few years developing cyborg insects. A $750,000 grant, which was given to the team in 2016 from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), has since been used to study the extraordinary olfactory senses found in locusts to sniff out certain chemicals. Yes, like a bomb-sniffing dog, but smaller and with a tendency to devour crop fields. The idea behind the study was not to invent a new method of uncovering explosives but to…

Anyone who has spent any amount of time baking/cooking/experimenting will know the tedium of measuring ingredients but outside of pre-measured packets what could make it easier? Cass Caps work much like your ordinary measuring cups, only instead of a key ring of clinking metal cups, you have a specially designed cap-of-sorts that screws onto your spice jar. Say what? It’s true. Have a look. You set the caps to one of two options: either at ¼ tsp or ½ tsp. Once you’ve set the measurement, you just turn the bottle over, give the cap a twist, and you’re done. Need more than that? Just twist it multiple times for larger…

I apologize for not publishing a Friday Smackdown in so long! What happened??W! Well, I took a little break over the summer and got carried away with the laziness. Do keep sending exciting and interesting things you see throughout the week and I’ll wrap it up with the best inspiration, art, music, photography, and more I’ve found as well. On to the smackdown. Clouds of a silver razor haze settled over the timber’s edge. The strength of their small band was buffered with sticks and logs, hibiscus pools, and old stump wood stools. They could fasten the cords to its base, lift it to steady its legs, but it would…