via two.risd.edu

In the event that you don’t have a chance to see fireworks you are welcome to fire up this old piece and hover/click on the days at the bottom of the visual. Interestingly during the summer in Japan it is common to light fireworks as a kind of “natural air conditioner.” The belief is that on a hot, muggy day in the countryside there’s nothing to make you cooler than watching fireworks because of their relative hot-ness to the heat you experience yourself. A similar tradition in Japan is to have a wind chime in the window of your house because on a hot day, when you hear the chirin-chirin (Japanese onomatopoeia for “ring-ring”) you are said to feel cooler because the sound amplifies the psychological effect of the wind. Stay cool! -John

Check out these chinese cops in Jinan, China as they do some drills in preparation for the Olympics! Chinese police must be pretty loaded to be able to afford that many segways…

via BBC News

Ride the city is a website that helps you find the safest route around New York City. The website make use of google’s mapping technology to plot routes based on your preference, either safe or fast. Interestingly they included cautions sign to warn riders of accident-prone intersections, via http://www.crashstat.org/

Visit RIDE THE CITY

Treehouses and pleaching have been around for quite awhile, but never have they been combined like this. Eco-architect Mitchell Joachim a part of the ecological architecture non-profit Terreform which has designed a dwelling which merges with its environment and nourishes its inhabitants. The “Fab Tree Hab” presents a new vision of symbiosis between a house and its surrounding ecosystem. 

continue reading "Grow your house"

“A bicycle is stolen in England every 71 seconds. So how do you solve this problem

through the power of design? According to design student Phil Bridge, make a bike

so cheap that there’s no incentive to steal it. And the intrepid design student did

just that, by building a bike for about $30 made out of cardboard.”

continue reading "Cardboard Bike"

created by FH Potsdam Interface Design student Omer Yosha

This piano concept integrates hand gestures as a means to create and distort sound. The video below demonstrates how one is able to manipulate sound on this new sleek digital instrument.

via Coolhunting

A massage-based video game controller, panties with wings and an inflatable dress were just a few of the concepts exhibited recently at the NYC gallery Eyebeam to launch Sabine Seymour’s new book “Fashionable Technology.” In this video, we interview Sabine about the burgeoning field and her lifelong obsession with fashion. She also helps us peruse the exhibit, chatting with the designers and artists behind each piece to learn about their inspiration and process.

To see all the projects, buy the book from Amazon.

“3rd year Industrial Design students at Victoria University, earlier in june, presented the prototypes of the 3D printers they had designed. The challenge was to design and make a “green” 3D printer in 4 weeks with a limited budget. The students innovative thinking looked at ways to make use of waste material and repurpose it into new objects. ‘Stack’ used the waste paper from generated by a bank and a ’steampunk’ sewing machine to create layered forms based on an interpretation of the banks statistical data.”

‘Nexus’ created forms by building up layers of bubbled gelatin. The results had some pretty amazing visual qualities.
continue reading "Student-Made 3D Printers"

via BBC world news

By Dave Harvey
BBC Points West Business Correspondent

The Airbus A400M is expected to replace Hercules aircraft used in Iraq

It has been 26 years in the making. Arguments have raged between Europe’s capitals over its design, its cost and where it should be built.

But later, in Seville, the King of Spain will unveil the Airbus A400M, built for air forces across Europe including the RAF.

A grand ceremony has been promised. Journalists, politicians and VIPs are flying in from Germany, France, Italy, and the UK.

A 50-seater plane has been chartered from Airbus UK’s headquarters at Filton, outside Bristol.

But the plane will not fly on Thursday. It will not even fire its engines…click here to read more.

Have you ever been asked to draw a cartoon car? Well, this is how to do it. Visit Duck Design

turn this….

into this