What a Concept 2

I have decided to make the  "What the ____! The "What a Concept" Post" into a weekly offering.  Not just because of its success, but due to the fact that I run across bad ideas, good ideas, and plain scary ones constantly.  So every Friday a new concept, or maybe two will be offered.

Another feature of the concept post is going to be a rating scale.  Simple really, it will be from 1-6 on the Hipster scale.  The more Hipsters on the scale, the more ridiculous, more Einstein, the more brilliant.  See the scales below, then continue on for the 2nd edition of the "What a Concept" post.

Ridiculous!

 Brilliant!

Bring Back Butter!

The concept:  To build a pedal-operated machine that churns butter and powers a toaster. It's basically a modified bicycle that attaches directly to an old hand-crank butter churn. It also charges a battery that is hooked to a power converter so it can plug in a toaster.

Creator:  Tim Eads

"After it's built i'll set it up outside art openings and in public places and churn butter. I want it to be something everyone can participate in by pedaling, but also enjoy freshly churned butter on warm toast. This is not a business venture or a way to make money. All the butter and toast will be given away. It's simply my way of making life a little better for people."

Nothing says life is good like a sweaty guy churning butter on a bike, then slathering it onto toast.

He also plans to modify the "machine" to make ice cream and an assortment of other love handle generating things. The funding and donations to start this heady project was approximately $1500. Did ya get that? $1500 to hook a bike to a toaster and a butter churn. Bargain huh.

 

  

At first I was torn, I like butter, toast, and Ice cream. Then a thought occurred, I can buy these things at the store. If I want to use a bike to get my butter, I ride it to the store. There is the angle of using it to demonstrate how to make butter and the process that occurs to produce it. What is wrong with a butter churn? You can get one at an Amish community for less than $100. Add the cost of a toaster and I will even throw in a ice cream maker (hand crank style) and the total comes to less than $200 for it all. All that and you can still ride your bike to the store if you don't feel like making it from scratch. But this is art, you can tell by its lack of practical reason. 

Overall this concept is utterly useless and a waste of the $1500 that was donated to it's creator. For the creator, not such a bad deal, he made $1500 to spend a weekend bolting an eggbeater, bucket, generator, and toaster to an exercise bike with a go-cart seat. The $1500 probably went to buy him a new single speed hipstercycle to replace his Huffy that he stripped down for parts to make it.

 

Rating ~ 6 Hipstars