"Godshaw and his associates at Autodesk's Pier 9 fabrication facility ended up creating an 80-inch diameter wheel with a 24-inch-wide base. The wheel moves thanks to four skateboard wheels underneath. A preexisting standing desk was simply fitted inside the wheel."
I love my standing desk, but I've got to say no to the hamster wheel. For one thing, my standing desk is motorized for use at different levels, including sitting, and the wheel doesn't accommodate that. Second, I care about my view beyond the computer screen, which is a big picture window looking out on the trees. The hamster wheel blocks the view.
By the way, I've looked at these motorized treadmills designed to go under a standing desk, but I wouldn't want to stand on that when I wasn't walking, and it would be in my way when sitting. I think if I want to walk while reading, I'll walk out in the real world and listen to an audiobook, and if I want to walk while writing, I'll walk in the real world and think. Or dictate. You know, it would not look that foolish to dictate while walking around the neighborhood. With iPhone headset, I would look no different from someone having a phone conversation.
But, anyway, the human hamster wheel is adorable, and having something with wheels rather than a motor seems nice for the indoor environment. (Except now I'm thinking about children and fingers.)
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18 comments:
"Now I am thinking about children and fingers". Something you and Meade care to share?
For half a century or longer there were no guards over electrical outlets, no bicycle helmets, no locked up bleach, no adults in attendance at all child play,. The swings were high and steel and chain, there were steel monkey bars, there were no seatbelts, children rode in the beds of pickups, loaded guns were propped in the corners of bedrooms,. Children loaded wood burning fireplaces and stoves. Children threw rocks at targets, used slingshots, made projectiles from sharpened pencils.
Survived. Thrived.
You can leave out the video of the guy moving from the hamster wheel to crawling up Richard Gere's butt.
It's a metaphor.
"Designing a hamster wheel big enough for a person takes some serious design skills"
No it doesn't. A high school shop class could design and build a better one.
But hook the hamster wheel up to a generator. Then do the same with all the thousands of deskbound proletarian papershufflers, and presto! you've devised the production of more urban electricity than could ever be produced by 'sustainable' green gimmicks on cloudy windless days.
And you've solved the urban obesity problem at the same time.
While I don't have a problem with the concept of a hamster wheel ( for someone else, not for me, thanks ) this one look terrible. The radius is way too small, forcing the guy to take awkwardly short steps. Also the motion is not smooth enough. Notice the guy is forced to brace himself against the desk. This design is unusable.
Reading at the link, they decided not to include a braking system. Better to let the guy smash his face and sustain massive facial and dental distress when he stops, and the wheel doesn't.
Not sure if that is a bug, or a feature?
During my working life I frequently thought that all the stress and tedium and physical effort associated making a buck were pointless and futile and that the meaning and beauty of life were being denied to me. A hamster desk will undoubtedly intensify those feelings. I bet a lot of hamster desk workers will commit suicide within the first week of its installation.
Sounds better than that "hamster ball" Zorb thing that fell rolled off a Russian mountain last year and killed someone.
Next: how dice onions, clean and cut up a chicken, and safely perform other culinary tasks while on your kitchen exercise treadmill.
Coming soon: How to rebuild a carburetor, replace head gaskets, and other shop jobs while on the garage treadmill.
This human hamster wheel thing is old, old, OLD!
If you have real cultural depth you know exactly who these persons are:
1) Zeno of Elea
2) Edgar Bergen
3) Tom Servo
Now, if you possess real cultural depth you know who Tom Servo is. And if you know who Tom Servo is you'll likely know Mystery Science Theater 3000: the Movie. And if you know the movie you'll likely know that the set designers on that film built a human-scale hamster wheel for Mike Nelson to exercise in, complete with a human-scale watering bottle.
Human-scaled hamster wheel
If it pains the feet to continuously tread an uneven surface over prolonged periods, the released product will fail immediately out of the gait.
I immediately thought about the hamster non-view too. Wondering if they could make it from plexiglass, at least in the very middle, in line with the person's head.
I'm trying to imagine being able to concentrate enough to work effectively while in one of these things. And I'm failing.
When you're flaking out reading FB or something, sure. But when you're holding a complex structure in your brain? No.
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