– New Dillar Scofidio + Renfro website is up!
– Ninja Cat video!
– Punching Cat vs Printer video.
– Kenny George, a 7’9″ college Basketball player! (video)The dude dunks standing!
– A peek into the Youtube Headquarters.
– SugarKane asymmetrical glasses.
– Magic Mirror technology … making any shirt a customized ad…scary!
– Remote Control your houses energy with Ploggs.
information
Photographer Thomas Kalak sent me his new book “Thailand – Same same, but different!” containing a colorful variety of street improvisations containing creations in leveling objects in challenging environments, sourcing water in unique ways, making broken products useful, converting objects into other uses, and a variety of other everyday needs. The photos are simple, mind-provoking, and very humorous once you realize the entire story. You’ll look at an image, wonder what they were solving, realize the initial problem, then understand how they solved it. Each image is a puzzling fun story in itself.
We live in a culture where resources are abundant, but at times we also find ourselves sourcing our needs around what we already have. The art in improvising is one of the most elemental needs in creativity just as “perspective” is to creation. Just because something is made to do “this” does not mean it cant’ do “that”. Thomas has created a wonderful simple book giving us a lens in seeing such beautiful samples in Thailand!
A little bird tells me this is selling out fast! Get your orders at RupaPublishing.com or direct here!
A few pictures from the book after the jump provided by Thomas!
Continue Reading
EveryMomentNow.com has a pretty cool interactive visualization by designer Craig Mod depicting the amount of news published about both presidential parties Obama vs McCain. The obvious shift in news occurs in early September during McCains wild announcement for Palin. Will be a good visualization to watch out for in the weeks to come, though it sometimes acts up being viewed in firefox.
I post about Sir Ken Robinson way too much, but he rocks so watch this 2 part interview about “Schools Killing Creativity” (part 1, part 2), and of course if you don’t know who he is, watch his TED talk afte the jump with the 2 video interviews. (some of my favorite ted talks here)
Continue Reading
A few weeks have passed since all eyes gazed into the late night 2008 Beijing Olympic broadcasts, but many of us aren’t aware of the wonderful events happening now in Beijing during the 2008 Paralympics. I cant seem to find anything on TV but you’ll be able to watch online at UniversalSports.com or ParalympicSport.tv. (opening Ceremony here)
After seeing photos from Boston.com I’m going to tune into the Paralympics with even more anticipation with events I’ve never seen. Events where blind people run, run with partners attached by arm, play soccer blinded, where game rules change, where a disability creates an amazement of ability, fencers do battle in wheelchairs, volleyball is done on the ground, where advanced prosthetic legs launch runners beyond belief, swimmers power themselves forward with just their arms, and several other amazing accomplishments.
Give a look at the incredible pictures after the jump carefully then imagine being able to do what they are doing. I’ve tried walking more than 20 feet with my eyes closed and running is just beyond my imagination. These athletes rock!
For the creative side, this reminds me in a project given during RISD ID: Design a cell phone for Edward Scissor hands. The point is to imagine, create, and enable a product, function, or even experience when an ability we might all be accustomed to is not possible. The solution solves the problem and at times surpasses the original. So I guess a thought for design is to always consider the non obvious when approaching a project to innovate. When designing a phone, you might wonder how to input by sight, smell, sound, your face, feet, etc. This might sound odd, but I can guarantee this is how some of the most innovative ideas surface!
36 images after the jump mirrored from boston.com
Continue Reading
T9(predictive text) inventor Cliff Kushler revolutionized the mobile industry with his auto-word-complete T9 system and just announced Swype which basically takes the same idea as T9 but uses all the letters your fingers crosses over to auto complete text in a touchscreen! (uhmm, iphone)
According to their website this is the next fastest input method after a full size keyboard. The video makes this technology seem ingenious but you never know until you give it a try . “Give us a interactive flash page we can give it a go with, dammit!!” Okie, yes, it’s new and ya’ll are shopping for vendors, so I’ll have to wait bit to give it a go…maybe CES, or early product launches. I want I want!
via newluanches
If ya haven’t heard the news already, Google’s finally launched their own browser to take over the rest of the world called Chrome… o how we love to be taken over! Some cool little features, so go ahead, download it and let Chrome take ya over!
Wow… Ubiquity by Mozilla labs is pretty freaking cool. Kind of an advanced user type of plugin, but some definite worthy features I’ll adapt to over time.
“Today we’re announcing the launch of Ubiquity, a Mozilla Labs experiment into connecting the Web with language in an attempt to find new user interfaces that could make it possible for everyone to do common Web tasks more quickly and easily.
The overall goals of Ubiquity are to explore how best to:
* Empower users to control the web browser with language-based instructions. (With search, users type what they want to find. With Ubiquity, they type what they want to do.)
* Enable on-demand, user-generated mashups with existing open Web APIs. (In other words, allowing everyone “not just Web developers“ to remix the Web so it fits their needs, no matter what page they are on, or what they are doing.)
* Use Trust networks and social constructs to balance security with ease of extensibility.
* Extend the browser functionality easily.”
Add the ubiquity plugin here.
Thought of the week: Keep trying and believe.
– A peek into Jetblues new restaurant terminals!
– Made in USA shirt in Chinese.
– Flower Foaming Fire Extinguisher.
– Wifi Heatmap..kinda nerdy, but kind of works.
– How to get into any club by pretending to be a DJ.
– A very bad paramedic!
– Free the airwaves!(internet for all!)
– Windows Error page projected during Olympics opening Ceremonies!
A few of my favorite magazine subscriptions just ended and my shelves are packed full of old issues while my sustainability side urges me to save paper…what to do!
Aha, “Mygazines.com is your free place to browse, share, archive and customize unlimited magazine articles uploaded by you, the Mygazines community.”
Sweet. I’m not sure who’s going to scan and upload all the pages each month, but it seems like someone does because most of my favorite magazines are on there with really nice scans, along with a snazzy GUI for navigating them. None of the fancy $100 mags, but the basic sets from the airport are up there!
Avatars have always been a hit online along with emoticons and especially after the Wii came out with the awesome Wii Mii’s. So why not create your own Manga Avatar here!
I’ve mentioned Barry Schwartz many times throughout designverb, but why not mention his talk again at TED. Watch it, wonder, question, and talk about this paradox! (Buy the book “Paradox of Choice“!)