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Umbuster Brass Knuckle Umbrella Now For Sale
Posted by Sean Fallon at 5:45 AM on November 25, 2008
The internet design concept phenomenon known as the Umbuster has finally jumped out of that nightmare you have about an old man beating you to a pulp in the street into cold, hard reality. That's right—you can start using this knuckle-dusting umbrella to bust up rainclouds and jawbones right now for the equivalent of $US287 (assuming that it is legal to own in your area that is). [Srulirecht]
Japanese researchers in Japan have developed a clever way to turn an entire umbrella into one giant speaker. Made of bamboo and paper, the Oto-Shigure uses a built-in amplifier connected to four tiny vibrating motors located on the tips of the umbrella. And before you imagine the streets of Tokyo turned into one giant cacophony of sounds, the cool thing about this invention is that the music can't be heard by anyone except the person under the umbrella:
Designer guru Art Lebedev--creator of cool 
Unbreakable Fighting Umbrellas have been around for a little while now, but today we know of one government that actually uses them to protect its president. That government is the Philippines, and the protected president is Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. She wouldn't have it any other way. Further testimonials for the US$180 multi-purpose weapon/rainstopper from Secret Service agencies beyond the Philippines are just as glowing: "Your product is simple and affective as we saw in your video. I can carry it everywhere. Many other agencies wanted to know where they could purchase this umbrella," said one proud customer on the Unbreakable Fighting Umbrella product page. If you haven't seen the video yet, it's worth a look, for nothing else than the fact that Thomas Kurz ("the world's foremost expert on flexibility training") uses one of these rainstoppers to chop a watermelon in two.
First I thought "ah... what a cute gimmick" about this Is.a.Brella thing, but then I realised the essential cleverness of the design. You're in a rush to get on the train on a rainy day: furl your Is.a.Brella, leap aboard, slide it into the bottle cover keeping it compact and tidy, and stop all those trapped raindrops from splashing onto people nearby. Neat, and pretty unusual looking too. So I get it... but what I don't get is the marketing-speak from the website, auto-translated by Google.
If you have purchased a bottle of purified water recently, you know that it can be crazy expensive to get a drink that doesn't taste like it was filtered through a bucket of pennies. Still, if you live in a rainy climate and you can't bear to drink out of the tap, this Filterbrella concept could be your ticket to clean, pure, freebie water one day. Using a canopy made out of compostable polylactic acid plastic blends, Filterbrella channels rainwater through activated carbon filter in the rod, straight to a bottle that can be removed and fitted with a cap. Sounds like a great idea, but I still prefer to waste my umbrella water in a 
Here's a simple concept: An umbrella stand that directs wet umbrella run off to a plant-filled tray. I one day hope to live in a modern house with modern furniture surrounded by geometrically symmetric patches of indoor lawn, so I enjoy the idea of this immensely. [
Sure, you could wear a raincoat if you don't feel like carrying an 
Much like a tandem bike, this concept tandem umbrella by designer Jasmine Rasnahan has a romantic vibe to it. However, it also has some of the same flaws. For example, I am 6'3" and my girlfriend is 5'3"—therefore it would be next to impossible for couples of vastly different heights to walk around comfortably under this thing. Second, it makes everyone around you want to puke. Personally, I say bring two umbrellas—or better yet, one gigantic umbrella. It is even more romantic that way and not nearly as lame. [
