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All posts for the month March, 2010


I’ve seen a variety of cool materials in my days but I’ve never thought about using one to act as a cup holder after pouring in a hot beverage as this Heatswell project by Amron does.  I’m very curious to find out if the actual forms can be controlled. I’m guessing the forms don’t retract either, but if they did, I’d imagine a whole line-up of clothing that changed forms based on the humidity in ones environment. Watch the video above or here. (it gets much more interesting after 1:35)


Woa, awesome project, from way back in 1997. Making shoes to make everyone level. What are the social behaviors now…

“Berlin-based artist Hans Hemmert (famous for his work with balloons) threw a party where guests wore shoe-extenders to make them all the same height of 2 meters. Aside from bringing the partygoers all to a common eye level (and eliminating the awkward postures of party talk between the tall and the short), the gathering is lent an infographic nature by the shoes: all made from blue foam, the person’s real height is read in the visual uniformity of the sole instead of at the head—like a walking bar graph.

This (completely underpublished) project, entitled “Level,” is from 1997, produced for the Personal Absurdities show at the Galerie Gebauer Berlin. Finding it now, in 2010, I can’t help but read it as a design event, getting directly at the basic qualities that shape our interactions with others—what does it mean when we all share one height?

Hans Hemmert is part of the art collective Inges Idee. Check out their site for more amazing projects in public space.”

via core77

Hidden within a quiet alley in Boston’s Leather District is a restaurant experience inside a cozy brick and beam environment with dim lights echoing eclectic music while your senses feast on intricate creations at a placed called O Ya .

I’d heard numerous rave reviews (nytimes , yelp) about O Ya since it’s opening 3 years ago, and with delight experienced what just might have been one of my favorite sushi meals in Boston. The combination of a warming environment, attentive personal service, a carefully crafted menu, and an execution to freshness and details made out for an fantastic experience… damn it was good!

Read the rest of the review after the jump which has several photos and reactions to each dish, including the full O Ya menu.

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Back in January, EG conference attendees experienced the premiere screening of Life, a new series by Discovery and the BBC on nature after their Planet Earth film! On March 21st at 8pm EST, LIFE will premiere on TV and I highly suggest watching it.

From water running lizards, to frogs that bounce like rubber balls as a defense, an intense new understanding in frog tongues, to the most beautiful bird gestures I’ve ever seen. Get a glimpse of the film on the LIFE site, or on a few video clips below:

The Bouncing Pebble Toad
Queer Eye for the Straight Vogelkop Bowerbird
In Love with Weedy Seadragons
The Jesus Christ Lizard


By far my favorite talk at this years TED was cell biologist Mark Roth talk about Suspended Animation! Unbelievable! TEDsters were running around the bar asking for Hydrogen Sulfide after the talk.

“Mark Roth studies suspended animation: the art of shutting down life processes and then starting them up again. It’s wild stuff, but it’s not science fiction. Induced by careful use of an otherwise toxic gas, suspended animation can potentially help trauma and heart attack victims survive long enough to be treated.”

Watch the video above or here.


One of my favorite talks at TED this year was Dan Barber talking about ecology in food, and in this talk, the amazing eco system of a fish farm. Watch it above or here.

“Chef Dan Barber squares off with a dilemma facing many chefs today: how to keep fish on the menu. With impeccable research and deadpan humor, he chronicles his pursuit of a sustainable fish he could love, and the foodie’s honeymoon he’s enjoyed since discovering an outrageously delicious fish raised using a revolutionary farming method in Spain.”

Also while watching this talk, I twittered out about his amazing talk on humane foie gras which is a pretty amazing story behind the history to foie gras and that it isn’t a French discovery… it’s Jewish. Watch the talk here.