Techie Tuesday: !xNjam

The Gods Must Be Crazy 

This ceramic gadget designed by 73-year-old Ockert Malan, of South Africa, helps control the removal of the cork from a bottle of champagne.

With the look and feel of bone tool, !xNJAM is named after the click sound a bushman makes when given a sip of champagne.

According to the SABS Design Institute:

"This tool assists and controls the removal of the stopper from a bottle of sparkling wine. It resembles the smaller doughnut-shaped stones associated with the San culture. The combined design of the !xNJAM and its packaging incorporates an ancient SAN design into a product for use with a modern agro-industrial product.

The tool is manufactured using a ceramic technique (slip casting and decoration with a clay slip) to create the look and feel of the San artifact."

At the moment this is only a prototype, sadly, it will not be available for this New Year's Eve.