lights

These Quirky Lamps Were Inspired By Traditional Japanese Culture

Dutch furniture designer Wieki Somers is based in Rotterdam — but for her latest collection of bizarre lamps, she travelled east, to the land of the rising sun, where she found inspiration in the form of Samurai flags, Geisha culture, and traditional Japanese gardening techniques.


Turn Off This Cordless, Motion-Sensing Lamp By Simply Knocking It Over

Even fans of extreme minimalism still need on and off switches — after all, what good is a beautiful lamp if it doesn’t work? Industrial designer William Lee has figured out how to banish the on/off switch using a simple tilting mechanism that knows to kill its soft glow when the lamp’s been knocked over.


Don’t Fear The Dark, Or Loki, With These Badass Avengers Nightlights

If they can defeat Loki’s forces, The Avengers shouldn’t have much trouble battling your child’s fear of the darkness at night. At least not with these slick Avengers-themed LED-powered nightlights designed to look like Captain America’s shield, Thor’s hammer and Hulk’s fist smashing through a bedroom wall.


Get Out Of The Way: A History Of How Ambulance Lights Save Lives

For as ear-piercing as ambulance sirens are, you’d think they’d be better alert systems. Truth is: they’re shockingly ineffective. Drivers register the sound only at close proximity and at very low speeds. Guessing from which direction the ambulance will appear is always tricky too — especially when the new Daft Punk is turned up really loud.


Mona Lisa’s New LED Lighting Shows Her Off Just As Da Vinci Intended

Working with Toshiba, the Louvre has recently completed an upgrade to the Mona Lisa’s lighting. It will ensure the museum’s guests will be able to experience the painting as it was intended to be — no matter the time of day or what else is going on nearby.


This Technicolor Installation Lets You Paint Sydney Harbour With Light

The Sydney Harbour Bridge? Beautiful, sure, despite its sombre suit of grey steel. But every night from now until June 10, the bridge’s arches will get a magical, multicoloured makeover, thanks to a kilometre of fibre optics and thousands of programmable LED bulbs.


Yank On This Bulb To Let There Be Light

Finally, there’s a solution for those who can never find a hanging light’s pull switch in the dark, or those who do find it and end up yanking it off. The battery-powered hanging Tuggit Pullbulb is the light and the switch all in one, so it’s easy to find as you fumble around your dark garage.


A Chandelier Light Bulb Is Unreasonably Adorable

There are things that are adorable but make complete sense: babies, puppies, kittens, small phones, you get the point. Then there are things that are cute that make no sense: monkeys eating bananas, a ball of yarn and so on. A miniature chandelier would usually be sensibly cute. But putting that miniature chandelier in a light bulb? Boy, I don’t know why I love this so much.


How To Turn Burning Gas Into A Lamp Without Blowing Yourself Up

If you were a coal miner in the early 1800s, the light you used was an openflame oil lamp — even though mines were sometimes filled with “fire-damp”, a volatile mixiture of air and methane gas. Explosions were inevitable and threw bodies from mine shafts like grapeshot from a cannon. Humphry Davy became a national hero when he found a remedy in 1815: surround the lamp flame with mosquito screen.


You’ll Never Break This Awesome Rubber Lamp

If you’re a complete klutz, you could do with Cologne designer Thomas Schnur’s Rubber Lamp. Not only does it look awesome — you’ll never break it either.


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