Street Use

ClothesPin Tracking System


Jan Chipchase found this cool order tracking system in a resturant in Singapore.

200706014-Tokyo-53-Thumb

200706014-Tokyo-57-Thumb

Posted on June 23, 2007 at 3:28 am | comments


Baby Carriage Mobile Vendor


Reader David Sarpal writes: “My sister is visiting Colombia right now and she happened upon a street vendor who has arrived at an ingenious re-use of a baby carriage as a street vendor.”

Carriagevendor-1

Posted on June 22, 2007 at 7:42 pm | comments


Toilet Ring


Design student Andrew McClandlish sent me this image which was part of a large collection of anonymously photographed street use images from China which has been circulating on the internet for years. But I had not seen this contraption before. It is obviously a clever solution to someone who simply does not want to use a squatty potty.

Toiletring

Posted on June 20, 2007 at 4:39 pm | comments


Three Wheeled Cabs in China


Reader Bryan Lauas sent me a couple of links for 3-wheeled utility cycles. He pointed me to Vincent Budnick‘s nifty site where I found some pictures of three wheelers in China. Here’s what Vince had to say:

Dalicab
Dalitruck

A lot of small transportation and service needs are cheaply met by rear wheel drive motorcycle based three wheelers. These are mostly the familiar 150cc motorcycles outfitted with a two-wheel rear axle, and some kind of frame or enclosure.This yellow beauty is a taxi in Chingqing, which is a high altitude northwestern city, so it gets cold. I doubt if it has heat, but I’m sure that the hard shell makes for a much more comfortable ride than the more open configurations below.Both vehicles below were photographed (at night) in Dali. Dali is in a southern region, and is pretty temperate even in January when we were there. I’m not sure of the gearing, but the area there is quite hilly, and these bikes have very small engines.

Kunming3Wheelb

Posted on at 12:16 am | comments


Foam Hard Hat


This foam cushion tied to the worker’s head in India is reputedly a hard hat substitute. The picture is from this humor blog so I don’t know its veracity. It is much more likely a piece of padding to hauling iron pipes since the common way to transport heavy things in india is using the head/spine for support.
Foamhat

Posted on June 12, 2007 at 2:57 pm | comments


Self-Made Guns in Chechnya


The only caption in this wonderful collection of homemade guns found on the English Russia site (thanks rob) says “Shots of the various self-made weapons seized by Russian army and police in Chechnya.”

Chechyngun
Russiangun
Machine Gun
Shouldergun-1

Posted on June 7, 2007 at 4:38 pm | comments


Beer Bottle Solar Hot Water Heater


Beerbottle Heater

According to the Internets, this Chinese farmer is getting hot shower water from this roof of beer bottles and plastic tubing. This version of the story was seen on Ananova (sent in by reader Arnaud Betremieux). The account says “I invented this for my mother. I wanted her to shower comfortably,” says Ma Yanjun, of Qiqiao village, Shaanxi province.Ma’s invention features 66 beer bottles attached to a board. The bottles are connected to each other [with plastic tubing] so that water flows through them.Sunlight heats the water as is passes slowly through the bottles before flowing into the bathroom as hot water, reports China Economy Network. Ma says it provides enough hot water for all three members of his family to have a shower every day.And more than 10 families in the village have already followed suit and installed their own versions of Ma’s invention.”

Posted on June 6, 2007 at 4:17 pm | comments


Street Retail in China


A hair salon and a massage store have set up on the street in China. Who really needs walls? You get a much better view outside than watching a TV. And when it rains, no one goes out shopping anyway.

Streetmassage
Streetsalon

Posted on June 1, 2007 at 7:28 pm | comments




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