If the Happiness Hat, created by interactive artist and designer Lauren McCarthy, senses that you aren’t smiling, it shoves a metal spike into your head until you do. A ruthless device to help you train your way to what McCarthy calls “Improved Social-Interacting.” She demonstrates in the video below:
 | Although no one ever seems to tire of the sexy devils, bumble bees, and bunnies skimping around town on Halloween, the outfits that take the prize are the ones that make us laugh. The guys always get me to smile with their kissing booths and giant banana costumes, but a girl with the confidence to goof around with her look makes a memorable impression! A route certain to turn heads is the creative one, and while they all can’t be found in stores (like last year’s Sarah Palin and Joe The Plumber), if you can cue in to some of pop culture’s latest cover-story conundrums or recent icons (think, literally, Rachel Zoe), you’re a goofy god. Sure to flaunt your funny bone, however, is a classic like some num-nums or a young one, and a slew of other clever, time-appropriate ensembles! Yeah, the overused pirate or pixie gear this Halloween will look cute, but nothings cuter than the gall of a girl who can walk around town wrapped in a giant gorilla hand.! Click through this slideshow to see some of the funniest costumes to goof about in this year. |
The World Monuments Fund has announced its 2010 World Monuments Watch, a biennial list of at-risk cultural heritage sites. The new list consists of 93 sites from 47 countries. Along with the famous and ancient—Machu Picchu (pictured), Pakistani petroglyphs, Bhutan’s fragile Phajoding monastery—the list highlights the plight of modern architecture. Fifteen sites, including Connecticut’s Merritt Parkway, date from the 20th century. Modern buildings on the 2010 Watch include Frank Lloyd Wright‘s Taliesin and Taliesin West, in the United States, and the now-abandoned Sanatorium Joseph Lemaire, in Belgium. Also making the list is Las Pozas, the “Surrealist Xanadu” created by eccentric British artist Charles James in Xilitia, Mexico. Constructed in the mid-20th century, the series of canals, pools, and architectural follies is now crumbling and being engulfed by the surrounding jungle, according to the WMF.
“With a greater number of urban centers and cultural landscapes, this year’s Watch reflects a growing understanding that heritage cannot be preserved in isolation, but rather must be addressed as part of a broad physical and social context,” explained Erica Avrami, WMF’s Research and Education Director, in a statement accompanying the 2010 list. “Not all sites on the Watch are in imminent danger. Many face challenges on the horizon, providing the opportunity to engage in dialogue and decision-making now, so as to avoid problems in the future.”
Read on for the full WMF 2010 World Monuments Watch list.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Un travail du studio Nexusproductions basé à Londres, sur ce spot présentant la fonction Internet et localisation de Google Maps de l’imprimante HP Photosmart Premium. Une bande-son de “A Punk” par Vampire Weekend, produit par Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.
Designer Alex Mikhaylov has completed the brand identity and interior for a language school in Moscow, Russia. (more…)
Korean design firm SDesignUnit (blogged here a few times before) has just sent us a new project entitled Steckmasse, which means floral foam in German. This project proposed the reappropriation of everyday carrying containers to transport flowers. The idea is to use these pre-existing and already engineered carrying methods over (or in addition to) the more conventional flower packaging made from plastic and paper cones. I could totally imagine walking into a store and picking up a single flower in a tetra-pack and taking it right to my office.
A couple more after the jump.
When it comes to dressing up like comic book characters for Halloween, this chick doesn’t mess around. She easily could’ve been Wonder Woman or Bat Girl, but she went oldschool and got made up into a halftone dot-printed comic character.
Check some costume-in-progress pics here
[via Albotas]
We’ve already done one post about silly conservative crackpottery this week and we know it’s fairly passe anymore to point out the focused agenda of Fox News, but sometimes we just can’t resist. What forces our hands to type these very words is this story on Fox’s website: “Cross-Like T-Shirt Design at Penn State University Sparks Controversy.” It’s about a limited-edition t-shirt put together by the university for an upcoming game, the design of which features a vertical line crossed by the name of the school at chest level, making it look like a bit of Christian iconography. It wasn’t intended to be religious and it functions with the university’s established branding, but the story latches on to the six people who have complained to the school about all of this. From there, they talk to university staff, the designer, and students of a variety of faiths, seemingly trying to dig out some juicy quotes about this “controversy,” as described in the piece’s title. The problem is that no one seems to have much of an issue with it, at times even seeming to call out Fox’s attempt at making this non-issue story bigger than it is:
Nick Mangus, a senior majoring in East Asian studies, described the controversy as “ridiculous” and said images of crosses can be seen virtually anywhere, even in “tiles on the floor.”
“Honestly, I think it’s basically people just trying to stir up controversy over something that’s ridiculous,” Mangus said. “If you don’t want to buy it, don’t buy it. It’s that simple. You don’t have to try and force everyone else to change their ways because you think it’s offensive.”
We’re all for raising a ruckus when lines have been crossed, almost always when it involves one group trying to force the other into following its beliefs. But there’s just no “controversy” here. This isn’t a case of trying to silence Christians, despite what the headline wants to hook you with from the start. Instead, it’s just a bunch of quotes that don’t add up to much more than “Why are we talking about this?” For further reading, here are some more thoughts on the whole matter from a local Penn State blog.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Un concept intéressant de luminaire réalisé par la société coréenne DMO House. Une forme graphique fine et efficace, avec de discrètes lumières LED cachées dans un cadre en 2 dimensions. Prévu pour être fixé au mur, voici plus d’images du projet dans la suite.
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