Hasta La Ideas

Last year we wrote about the Knee Defender, a pair of plastic gizmos that an airplane passenger can use to prevent the person in front of them from reclining. We wrote it up in utter dismayed fascination at a product directly designed to increase one’s comfort while inconveniencing another; we called it the “Me-first” approach to product design.

Now it’s in the news, after a flight was diverted and a man and woman tossed off the plane for arguing over the thing. On Sunday United flight 1462 was en route from Newark to Denver when a fortysomething woman tried to recline her seat. She could not; the fortysomething man behind her, using his laptop on the seatback tray, had deployed the Knee Defenders. United officially bars their use, and this is what happened next according to the AP:

A flight attendant asked him to remove the device and he refused. The woman [whose seat was barred from reclining] then stood up, turned around and threw a cup of water at him, [a law enforcement official] says. That’s when United decided to land in Chicago. The two passengers were not allowed to continue to Denver.

USA Today subsequently interviewed the inventor of the me-first device. Unsurprisingly, he passed the buck:

“Sometimes people do things they shouldn’t do on airplanes, but as far as I know this is the first time anything like this has happened,” involving the Knee Defender, said Ira Goldman, the man who invented the device in 2003 and continues to sell it online.

“United could make seats that do not recline, but they have not chosen to do so,” said Goldman. “In the meantime, the Knee Defender says right on it: ‘Be courteous. Do not hog space. Listen to the flight crew.’ Apparently that is not what happened here.”

What do you guys think, is this an irresponsible product design, or do you have the if-you-design-a-car, someone-will-use-it-to-rob-a-bank, it’s-not-my-fault attitude about it? And do you think we’ll see more me-first product designs in the future? One popular NYC pet peeve is guys who sit on the subway with their knees spread wide open—what’s the ID fix for that?

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A few weeks ago I wrote to Erin and said, “I’d like to review Sugru for Unclutterer.” She was intrigued, so I ordered a set, and after weeks of using the product I wanted to share the results of my test-drive with you.

Sugru is a “self-setting rubber” invented by Ireland’s Jane Ní Dhulchaointigh. It feels like Play-Doh when initially removed from its package and then hardens, yet remains flexible, after being exposed to air for about a day. People are doing all sorts of creative and useful things with it, and that’s why I wanted to review it.

For me, part of being an unclutterer means a commitment to frugality, and I use the New England definition of frugal: nothing is wasted. Since Sugru lets you repair or improve on a huge number of devices in and around your home, it prevents those things from becoming clutter.

Packaging

The Sugru packaging includes a list you can populate with future projects, instructions, many photos, use ideas, and a super handy color chart. I received four colors (other combinations are available), and the chart explains how to combine them to produce a variety of hues, so that you can match whatever you’re trying to fix or improve. The Sugru itself comes in sliver, 0.17-ounce packages that resemble the condiment packs you might find at a fast food restaurant.

Use

My goal was to both fix something and improve something; both were met easily. As mentioned earlier Sugru is nice and soft out of the package, with that “I just want to squish it forever” feel. (Note: that the color does come off onto your fingers. Not a lot, and it’s easily removed with a wet wipe, but still worth noting.) Its consistency made it an obvious choice for my two projects.

The first thing I did was to fashion a DIY iPhone cable holder out of a LEGO minifig. I put a bit of black Sugru on his back, pressed him to an inconspicuous area of my bed’s headboard* and the next morning he was ready for cable-holding duty:

The second project was the “fix.” I have an Amazon Fire TV that runs a little hot. So, I decided to add some feet. After molding some black Sugru into little balls and sticking them on the bottom, the device now has a nice cushion of air between itself and the surface it occupies.

At this point, I had the bug. There’s a cabinet in our house that never says shut. It’s old, the latch is misaligned and the humidity of summer makes things even worse. There’s a perma-gap that lets the door swing freely. Sugru to the rescue! I applied enough white to fill the gap, let it harden and now the door stays shut and only opens when we want it to. Wonderful.

The only caveat I found was that, once a pack is opened, you best use all it contains. I was unable to re-seal a pack and even putting it in a tiny zip-top bag — with as much air pushed out as I could manage — didn’t prevent the leftover from hardening into a solid, unusable slab. Fortunately, each pack contains just 1/17th of an ounce, so it’s easy to use the whole thing.

Conclusion

In the end, it’s great stuff. It’s occasionally obvious that you’ve used Sugru, so if a clean look is what you’re after you might be a bit bothered by the homemade look of your fix. Color matching helps, as long as you have the colors required to mix your target color. I like it, though, because it can help prevent slightly broken things from becoming clutter. Be sure to check out the Sugru gallery for more ideas for how the product can be useful around your home and office.

*My wife’s insistence. Really.

Post written by David Caolo

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David M. Phillips est un scientifique qui a toujours eu une grande passion pour les insectes. Ce dernier a profité de ses connaissances et de sa maitrise des microscopes pour nous dévoiler les structures anatomiques de différents insectes invisibles à l’oeil nu. Des clichés impressionnants qu’il a pu réunir dans un livre appelé Art and Architecture of insects.

Photography by Jeff Enlow for Core77

Once again, we were thrilled to support NYC’s fledging Bike Cult Show as an official media partner and offer exclusive coverage of the late-summer exhibition that is shaping up to be the region’s premier handbuilt bicycle show. The second year delivered on its promise to be bigger and better than the first as organizers Harry Schwartzman, Benjamin Peck and David Perry upgraded to the massive Knockdown Center event space in Maspeth, Queens, for the event that took place over the weekend of August 16–17.

Once again, we showcased a handful of the exhibitors in the weeks leading up to the show—Bryan Hollingsworth, Brian Chapman, Mathew Amonson and J.P. Weigle—who were happy to share their stories and talk shop about bicycles and much more.

And in case you missed it, last year’s builder profiles included several of this year’s exhibitors as well: Johnny Coast, Jamie Swan, Rick Jones and Thomas Callahan and the late Ezra Caldwell (to whom the show was dedicated).

Besides the Knockdown Center, this year’s Bike Cult Show also included off-site events at the Rapha Cycle Club, The City Reliquary and at the Brooklyn Bike Park.

» View Gallery

Bike Cult Show 2014 Builder Profiles:
» Bryan Hollingsworth of Royal H Cycles on Saying “Yes” to Clients, the Decline of the Fixed-Gear, and More
» Brian Chapman Shares the Eight Secrets to Making a Living As a Custom Framebuilder
» Mathew Amonson of Airtight Cycles on Avoiding the G Train, Seeking a Master Framebuilder, and More
» J.P. Weigle Reflects on 40 Years of Framebuilding – A Photo Essay

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News: architecture critic Martin Filler has said he regrets making an error in a book review that accused Zaha Hadid of showing a lack of concern for worker conditions on her World Cup stadium project in Qatar.

Zaha Hadid filed a law suit last week against Filler and the New York Review of Books after allegedly defamatory comments about her attitude to migrant workers were published as part a review of Rowan Moore’s Why We Build: Power and Desire in Architecture.

Hadid accused Filler and the magazine of publishing “a personal attack disguised as a book review” and exposing the architect to “public ridicule and contempt”.

The legal claim also said he had taken comments made by Hadid earlier this year about the deaths of migrant workers in Qatar out of context.

It said that Filler had accused Hadid of “not taking responsibility and showing no concern” for alleged worker deaths on her own project for the Qatar 2022 World Cup – the Al Wakrah Stadium – which had not started on site when the comments were made.

Filler has now said he regrets making an error in his article.

“In my review of Rowan Moore’s Why We Build: Power and Desire in Architecture, I quoted comments by the architect Zaha Hadid, who designed the Al Wakrah stadium in Qatar, when she was asked in London in February 2014 about revelations a week earlier in the Guardian that hundreds of migrant laborers had died while working on construction projects in Qatar,” said Filler in an official statement published on the New York Review of Books’ website with the review.

“I wrote that an ‘estimated one thousand labourers… have perished while constructing her project thus far.'”

“However, work did not begin on the site for the Al Wakrah stadium, until two months after Ms. Hadid made those comments; and construction is not scheduled to begin until 2015. There have been no worker deaths on the Al Wakrah project and Ms. Hadid’s comments about Qatar that I quoted in the review had nothing to do with the Al Wakrah site or any of her projects.”

“I regret the error.”

Filler had been referencing comments made by Hadid at a press conference in February this year for the re-opening of her Olympic swimming pool.

Asked about conditions on construction projects for the Qatar World Cup, Hadid responded that it was responsibility of the Qatari government not architects to address issues relating to worker deaths.

“It’s not my duty as an architect to look at it,” said Hadid. “I cannot do anything about it because I have no power to do anything about it. I think it’s a problem anywhere in the world. But, as I said, I think there are discrepancies all over the world.”

“I have nothing to do with the workers,” she added. “I think that’s an issue the government – if there’s a problem – should pick up. Hopefully, these things will be resolved.”

Filler did not mention any other aspect of Hadid’s claim, which was filed with the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Thursday. The architect was seeking “actual” and “exemplary” damages from the literary magazine as well as all legal costs related to the case, a retraction and removal of the article.

New York Review of Books editor Robert Silvers told the Guardian the magazine had made an independent decision published Filler’s statement.

“We have done this entirely on our own. This letter contains the facts that should be made public and the regret that we thought was appropriate,” said Silvers who said retractions at his publication were “very rare”. He did not mention damages.

Oren Warshavsky, a partner at legal firm BakerHostetler, who is representing Hadid in the case, said that the architect and her legal counsel were considering their response.

“The decision to file a lawsuit is never one made lightly,” said Warshavsky. “Ms Hadid carefully considered the issues at stake to her professional career and reputation, and came to the conclusion that the filing of the lawsuit was the correct action to take.”

In an earlier statement about the claim, Warshavsky had said that a correction or clarification would not be “appropriate or sufficient”.

The post Critic apologises for Zaha Hadid
“error” in book review appeared first on Dezeen.