green

Incredible talk by Bill Gates about his vision to solve the worlds energy crisis at TED2010:
“At TED2010, Bill Gates unveils his vision for the world’s energy future, describing the need for “miracles” to avoid planetary catastrophe and explaining why he’s backing a dramatically different type of nuclear reactor. The necessary goal? Zero carbon emissions globally by 2050.”

via TEDtalks

tadpole.sleeping.bag

Happy Holiday to everyone. I’ll be out in Hong Kong for the break and will be back with some goodies to post most likely dealing with food, shopping, and culture.

If you have not already, please join the Facebook Fan page here which I post to often but write less and it’s open for fans to post to as well. I’ll post a few goodies I shared on the fan page below recently for the holiday break:

Tadpole like sleeping bag (pictured above) Reminds me of Selk bag.
Newspaper laptop sleeve holder. I’ve gotta get this!
TED launches Best of Web.
Cool jacket..I like asymmetric clothing which is hard to come by for guys.
LED lights save energy, but don’t melt snow
Ping Pong office convertible table
Awesome silloutte clock!
xylophone table

JOIN THE DESIGNVERB FACEBOOK FAN PAGE HERE!


Thought: Whoever taught us wine taste better in a glass container over  plastic, paper, or styrofoam container? Did we learn, or just observe and accept the norm?  Do we drive our own opinions, or just accept the norm?

Weird: San Paolo subway Fat seats.
Tech: ThisWasExpensive.com Info Viz chart, domain price vs visits.
Architecture: Wooden House
Trick: How to fix a car dent, with hair dryer and can of air video.
InfoViz: How different groups spend their day


The TED conference has transformed dramatically over the years thanks to the launching of TEDtalks which I’ve posted on several times. This past year, TED launched another brilliant event called TEDx which allows individuals to host their own local unofficial TED like events. Since March 2009 several events have taken place around the world. How awesome!

A few weeks back, I attended the TEDxBoston event which I wanted to post about, but had no videos to share. As of today, TEDx videos from around the world can be viewed and shared on the TEDx YouTube Channel as well as play lists from each location like TEDxBoston. I’ll post the TEDxBoston videos after the jump, and make sure to watch the last video with our favorite Ben Zanders conducting the Youth Orchestra of Americas.

TEDx YouTube Channel

Continue Reading


Far Foods by Designer James Reynolds

“Alternative packaging for supermarket produce, highlighting the distances that some foods travel from and the resultant carbon dioxide released during the journey. The receipt features a boarding card style tear-off strip.”

Awesome! I’ve always wondered when food labels would change my buying decisions.  Some receipts tell you how much to tip , but none have been more eco-educational than this concept.  Forget calorie counting, lets count carbon miles from food transportation. I’d definitely buy something for a bit more, knowing it used less carbon miles than another product. Think how the word Organic or Local has become such a  buzz… hopefully one day, the carbon food miles will do the same =)

via swissmiss

I finally watched Food Inc the movie!

“In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.”

I found Food Inc to be a disruptive glance into the hidden political powers ruining the food industry where profits overwhelm the integrity of farmers and quality in healthy food.  As the film says, you’ll never look at food the same way. You’ll be left appreciating local farming, an understanding in how an individual can influence large corporations, and cringing to take action which you can here. They also have a book you can buy: Food Inc.: A Participant Guide: How Industrial Food is Making Us Sicker, Fatter, and Poorer-And What You Can Do About It

Go watch the film, get everyone you know to see it,  and don’t bring too much food into the movie while watching. Start buying from farmers markets, eat organic, get local schools to serve healthy meals, and have restaurants display nutritional facts. Food Inc will not scare you away from food, but it’ll influence your food buying decisions while giving you a better idea in how some foods are manufactured, treated, transported, and concealed.

Food Inc website

Last week, I had a brief interview with architect and product designer Michael Graves about his recent collaboration with [yellowtail] wines in creating a limited edition set of glasses which will be auctioned off this month on Ebay with profits going to the American Association of Museums.

I’ve always had an interest between the blurry design intersections in space and objects. Graves is one of few successful architects to bridge the object world most notably known for his Universal designs along with a line up of products sold at Target.

The brief interview with Graves and a video explaining the project more after the jump along with images of the 3 glasses his team created.

Continue Reading

Art: Spiral of Michael Jackson
Work: 10 basic productivity tricks
Web: Etherpad, real time sharable writing board
Green: almost waterless washer…or 90% less water
Read: How industries Fail by Michael Nielson
Architecture: really cool large cube space.
Art+Design: Space Jello mold competition
Fun: Airplane toilet trick video
Odd: Fish with human like teeth
Style: Neat floors

I’ve seen clouds, real clouds, and web clouds, but I’ve never see cardboard clouds, created by Fantastic Norway,  which give a pixelated environment of brown clouds which looks pretty awesome in a huge warehouse space. If you have a huge space to do something, go make cardboard clouds! Reminds me a bit of the styrofoam robots!

More pics after he jump!
via core77

Continue Reading

I’m one of those crafty types that fold the paper sleeve you get with chopsticks in a restaurant to make a neat little stand to rest the sticks on, though usually I’ll get lazy and just fold the sleeve a few times. We’ll, if your one that likes disposable chopsticks, but want something a bit more clever, simple, and fun, check out these Bambu SnapStix which add an extra cut on the back end of the chopsticks which snap off to become a stand. sweet!

You can get them for about $2 each.