food

I have not been blogging much here, as I am hacked quite often causing lotsa headaches, but in the past few years I’ve been posting the facebook page which will become the norm fyi.

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www.facebook.com/designverb 

Perhaps one of my favorites talks this year at TED…Ron says it all. Plant Some Shit!

“Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central LA — in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs. Why? For fun, for defiance, for beauty and to offer some alternative to fast food in a community where “the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys.”

Ron Finley grows a nourishing food culture in South Central L.A.’s food desert by planting the seeds and tools for healthy eating.”

via TED

My favorite gathering is happening in beautiful Monterey CA next week at a magical gathering known as The EG Conference April 12-14.
If you take a peek at past and this years eclectic presenters, you’ll be as amused and curious as I am every year to attend this brain safari of wonder.
If your attending, please let me know, or pass this post around to friends that might be interested.

As a special extension to EG this year, they are offering the entire live web-stream of the event for $200, but they are also offering me a special link for friends at half price! Yup, $100 for a few days of live, provoking, entertaining, talks.

To get a hold of this special gift, go here and  learn more about EG Everywhere! You get to see all the spectacular talks live for $100 vs the $4000 ticket price!  Sign up, call your friends up, have a 2-3 day Salon at your house with food and drinks, and get inspired! Then perhaps decide if you can attend the actual conference to experience the rest of the magic!


You know that saying that about Wine needing some time to “breathe”, or letting it get some air. Well it is true, and you can either open the bottle many hours earlier, pour it into a large glass decanter, or into one of those gadgets that add bubbles to your glass as you pour which result in a gargling sound. But did you also know the fastest and most efficient way is sticking a hand blender into that classy looking glass of wine, or as Tim calls it, “beating the sh*t out of it”?

It might not look that appealing but boiling it down to scientific terms, you want more of the wine surface to touch air…and the blender does just that. Anyhow, read or watch the post via Tim Ferris who learned about this through Nathan Myhrvold at tims post… otherwise i’ll mirror it after the jump.

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AJ Jacobs:
“What’s harder than Living Biblically? Try following every bit of the latest health advice. A.J. Jacobs, author and human guinea pig, shares the results of his latest yearlong quest to become “the healthiest man alive.””

This is one of the more whimsical but good to know lectures from TEDmed 2011. I’m in the mist of doing the Tim Ferris Diet and lots of AJ’s points are in this talk.

via tedmed


My favorite conference (which is from a list of many) is coming up again April 12-14 2012. This breath-taking conference is the EG Conference (Entertainment Gathering) that gathers in beautiful Monterey CA. I’d be able to write a entire book about why this is the most fascinating gathering I have been to in 10 years, but in simple words, come experience an eclectic gathering filled with mystery, surprise, emotion, connections, and entertainment for a few days in beautiful Monterey…. you will leave imagining the entire world differently, with a different perspective, and a twinkle in your eye again for curiosity, to perhaps create magic.
Come join, this year will be my 4th in a row.  Let me know if you can make it and I’ll be sure to connect. Tickets are almost sold out.

ha, these are awesome. I’ll have to get some of these for my next wine party.

“These made my day. Corkers are a design collaboration between Oded Friedland and Reddish Studio forMonkey Business are push pins that you can prick into wine/champagne corks to turn them into little creatures! The options are ?Monkey?, ?Deer?, ?Buffalo?, ?Bear?, ?Bunny? ?&? ?Crow. The packaging turns it into a fun wine bottle hang tag/gift ~ perfect for the next bottle of wine… Take a peek at more details up close on the next page.”

via notcot 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy


For those unfamiliar with SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), you must read and dig into this crazy Act that can and will pretty much screw up any freedom and innovation like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Reddit, etc if it happens. Please sign up to petition against it HERE. Learn more about it from the video above from Chris Hayes.


Ooo, STEM is a simple design for a whimsical functional outcome. For a fresh zest of citrus on your food or drink, no need to cut it open…just stick it in and zap away (though I seem to recall zest being better from the fruits skin)

“A brilliant Quirky object currently undergoing production is the Stem, a quick, novel and efficient way to get that citrus zing without breaking out the knives.

Spray it, don’t squeeze it! Stem is designed to allow a cook to spray juice directly from a citrus fruit. No longer do you have to cut and squeeze your fruit to get the juice out like a common cook. With only one finger you can now spray citrus juice on your favorite foods evenly. Let Stem add a little zest in your kitchen and on your food!
Price and release date is TBA, and while you can’t do anything about the latter, they’re taking a survey on the former at the link above.”

via core77

This blew my mind away. NeverWet is a treatment to makes any surface liquid resistant. It’s a Hydrophobiccoating that repels any liquid, even thick liquids like syrup, paint, ketchup, etc and repels them off any surface (much like you see on plant leaves). Check out the video above and be awed when you see the white shoes come out of the muddy wet pool. Imagine all the crazy magical applications.

They even applied it to an iphone and let it sit under water for an hour and it was fine.  Personally I want to treat all my furniture with this stuff, then treat my car, shoes, rugs, etc…. No word on if it is toxic or not, and the product is expected to be available to consumers in 2012.

“At Ross Nanotechnology, we have developed a super hydrophobic coating that completely repels water and heavy oils. Any object coated with our NeverWet  coating literally cannot be touched by liquid. Any liquid placed on this coating is repelled and simply rolls off without touching the underlying surface. Not only is this amazing to see, but it solves a myriad of problems.”

via NeverWet

I’m not sure what I found more awesome about this new ketchup packet design from Heinz: the fact that “engineers” got to drive around in a used minivan eating fries with ketchup; or the cute little “to dip” and “to squeeze” labels helpfully printed on top.

Full article at time.com