It seems like Samsung’s really in a monitor-measuring contest with its competition. Slated for a debut at CES2020, this is the Odyssey G9, an ultra-wide QLED gaming screen with a 49-inch diagonal and a mind-bending 1000R curvature. Launched under Samsung’s Odyssey tag, the G9 is targeted towards gamers, with a ridiculous 32:9 aspect ratio, 5120×1440 resolution, ultra-fast 240Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time. While it isn’t really 4K, the G9 is the world’s first Dual Quad High-Definition monitor (basically the equivalent of eight 720p screens arranged in 4*2).
The G9 is so incredibly wide, it practically covers your periphery, and with a curvature so tight, it gives you more screen in a smaller footprint. In fact, with a radius of 1000mm, it might be perhaps the most curved PC monitor we’ve ever seen. Touted as a monitor specifically designed for the hardcore gamer, the G9 supports AMD’s FreeSync technology, and will even be compatible with NVIDIA’s G-SYNC. Our favorite detail? That glowing blue ‘arc-reactor’ of sorts at the back of the monitor (which should either cast a beautiful halo on the wall behind you or very clearly piss off the coworker sitting opposite you). Samsung hasn’t said a word about the price of this monitor, but something this stunning surely won’t come cheap.
Harboring identity statistics that do not impact our health or wellbeing
On the morning of 2 January, I purchased my first monthly MetroCard of the decade. The act made me wonder if I had actually bought 12 of them in 2019 or if my travel schedule had prevented it. I didn’t keep track. I could have looked through Mint to see my transaction history—but I didn’t. Instead, I opened my iPhone Notes app and went to one titled Film, TV and Books 2019. These, I kept track of. My year began with Bandersnatch and ended with Bridesmaids. I read only seven books; a paltry, embarrassing figure (I should have recorded articles, as well, I suppose). I saw 30 seasons of new television—all through streaming platforms. I watched 23 films for the second, third, fourth or 15th time. And I caught 81 films for the first time; some were seen in theaters, others as screeners or, of course, on Netflix, Disney+ or Amazon Prime. It’s the third year I’ve kept these statistics. The quantified self movement began years ago to track actionable data, but I wonder if I’m trying to quantify the notion of taste.
Screengrab of David Graver’s 2019 music consumption via Spotify
As with many of my fellow Spotify users, I captured my year-end Wrapped details and shared them on social media. I live for these bits of information too (before Spotify provided the stats, I used Last.fm)—even though this year the pushback I received was aggressive. In the COOL HUNTING office, we have a company Spotify. This means that the numbers from my personal account reflect only transit time and when I’m home (where I’m clearly watching movies). Anyway, I accrued 16,672 minutes. “That’s low,” someone responded. “You’re a disappointment,” someone else said. I was shocked to learn that Lana Del Rey was my number one for the year, but unsurprised that Fiona Apple was my top for the decade. I continue to obsess over these details. And yet, there’s nothing more I will do with them.
Screengrab of David Graver’s lifetime check-ins via Swarm
I track a lot of my cultural consumption. I use Delectable to note and rate the wines I drink. I’m a huge advocate of Foursquare’s Swarm, which I use to life-log multiple times each day. I put just about everything into my Notes app. None of this is done for the sake of productivity. There are no goals behind my listening habits or filmic consumption. I do not take the data and analyze it. I also realize that none of these factoids define who I am as a person, just where I put my free time.
Screengrab of Josh Rubin’s 2 January 2020 macronutrient intake via LoseIt
We are all familiar with the value in quantifiable self observations. COOL HUNTING’s founder and Executive Creative Director Josh Rubin wears an Apple Watch to gauge fitness and activity (among other things). “I also use LoseIt to track everything I eat,” he says. “Just the simple act of logging my food keeps me mindful of what I’m eating, in turn keeping my macronutrient levels and total calories in check,” he says. “And LoseIt integrates with Apple Health so the activity tracked by my watch leads to calorie bonuses. Really, I wear the Apple Watch so I can eat more food.”
Rubin and his husband, our Executive Editor, Evan Orensten also use TripIt for travel management and data-tracking. “For a better visualization of flight details, while on the go and in summary form, we use Flighty which integrates with TripIt,” Rubin says. Flighty’s end of the year recap came in useful—beyond showing one’s stamina and jet-setting, it helped Orensten ascertain an appropriate way to offset his carbon footprint. Both Rubin and Orensten’s tracking intends to elicit change.
Screengrab of Josh Rubin’s 2019 flight log via Flighty
No change will result from my records. I’ve checked in to 63 bagel shops since I joined Foursquare on 29 September 2009—and 1,417 bars. I have no intention of going to fewer bars and more bagel shops.
So, I log taste. Many of us log taste. “When the numbers are totaled, what do they mean?” our Editorial Assistant Evan Malachosky asks. “Do they mean anything?” I don’t have an answer. Malachosky, a food and drink aficionado, documents meals and menus in his camera roll. Benjamin Netter, co-founder of October, who’s off to Y Combinator with a new project, meticulously logs everything in Google Maps with time-stamps. His motivation is recollection, too. A fellow film-lover, TransferWise product manager Geoffroy Barruel uses his IMDb account “partly to remember movies I’ve seen and partly as a to-do list.” This is tracking taste without the intention of reporting.
I can’t help but feel that my efforts at logging taste amount to a Buzzfeed quiz-style of self-reflection. It coincides with our societal fixation on classification. We collect and allow the collection of so much data about ourselves, passively and actively. Rarely, however, does it offer value beyond a brief tingle of satisfaction or twinge of grief. As Katie Olsen, our Managing Editor, says, “In all honesty, I try not to count by numbers or quantify too much of what I’m doing—it makes me feel like I ‘should’ be doing more/less of many things and it’s not good for the way my brain works.”
In the office, Malachosky asked us to imagine a circumstance where we all had public-facing social media profiles that we were unable to edit, composed solely from data accrued using apps and compiled from check-ins, streaming insights and life-logging. Now that’s haunting. Numbers do not quantify taste. At the end of the day, or year, it’s not really about what the data says, if we choose to share it, or if it amounts to any sort of enviable currency, so much as the fact that we own it. It’s ours to use… during that unlikely moment when it’s necessary to share with someone that I saw 81 films in 2019.
Hero image of the flavor network by physicist Albert-László Barabási and his team at Northeastern University
London-based design firm New Territory’s Interspace chair concept aims to better the coach-class flying experience. In advance of the project, the New Territory team learned that seat pitch was typically associated with comfort, but what passengers really need is the ability to shift their weight or rest against something soft. Thus, they’ve developed a padded wing system that folds out from one’s seat back and grants a cushioned surface to lean on. Anyone who has ever rested against a window or fellow traveler for several hours will understand the value. New Territory also partnered with the UK-based SWS Certification Services to gain airworthiness approval already. Read more at AFAR.
To prevent desertification (the eventual progression of land from fertile to arid) in a region of Egypt where the issue is prevalent, scientists are rerouting sewage waste water from nearby cities, passing it through natural purification processes, and using the nutrient-rich solution to fuel the growth of a “green wall.” Named the Serapium Forest, this oasis exists in the barren area around the Suez Canal and is home to eucalyptus, teak and mahogany trees. The 500-mile forest is just the beginning of an effort that is to be mirrored across 10 countries in Africa and China. Read more at Good News Network.
Designed to magically ‘turn air into water’, the Limbe is a new sort of dehumidifier that works without electricity, giving its user access to drinking water throughout the day. Its unique leaf-inspired design harks back to how water droplets condense on the surface of leaves, while its 3D printed intricate PET structure helps guide those water droplets down the ‘veins of the leaf’ into Limbe’s central axis which collects the water in your regular plastic drinking bottle.
Fabien envisioned the Limbe as an easy way to allow people with no access to running water, to easily capture atmospheric water vapor for drinking purposes. While the Limbe works best in high-humidity areas, it can work wonders in deserts and drought-struck regions too, gathering condensed fog in the early hours of dawn, filling up a single bottle. Plus, its ability to be printed or even molded at a relatively low cost means anyone can dehumidify air into drinking water… without electricity!
Love motels in Santo Domingo disguised as grand palacial structures and quiet communities feature in this photo set by American photographer Kurt Hollander.
The Happy City series documents a number of motels used for sex, built among car repair shops, gas stations and parks on the outskirts of Santo Domingo – the capital city of the Dominican Republic.
“The images are of a group of huge, extravagant love motels located on an industrial highway in Santo Domingo,” Hollander told Dezeen.
Hollander, who spent four days taking the images, has captured the exterior of the structures. All are devoid of people to leave an element of mystery to the activities that take place inside.
“The photographs, taken at dawn or dusk and without any people in frame, are intended to accentuate the emptiness of this architecture of desire, leaving it to the viewer to imagine what goes on behind the closed doors,” Hollander said.
Bold, illuminated signage adorns a number of the motels, whose names include Obsession, Te Javi, Cariño and Happy City – after which the series takes its name. Each motel has a different design, ranging from ornamental buildings to those that resemble small villages.
“Even though they were all built around the same time and were bankrolled by many of the same investors from China, each is a lavish tribute to a different architectural vernacular,” the photographer added.
“Some of the motels were designed to look like exclusive suburban communities, with small houses spread out along inner courtyards flanked by palm trees, while others look like regal palaces with majestic cupolas.”
Happy City – one of the newest motels in the area – is fronted with decorative stone and white garage-like doors and Obsession’s complex is made up of a series of volumes painted in pastel hues that Hollander likens to “toys for tots”.
Red hearts detail one, while another features gabled houses with terracotta-hued elements.
“Each motel is carefully designed to protect the identity of the local couples – married, in love, in lust – that choose to stay there for an hour or two,” Hollander continued.
“As tacky or kitsch as they might appear to the educated eye, these love motels provide an ideal setting for good sex, something this uptight, overly materialistic world sorely needs.”
While capturing the series, Hollander also found a number of traits typical to love motels like loud music and “groans or shouts”.
“The motels are specifically designed to keep people from seeing and being seen, and thus there is never any interaction between guests and staff or guests and guests,” he said.
“This invisibility allows people of all sexual persuasions to use these gigantic love motels as their own private pleasure palaces,” he added. “Although the sexual activity is always out of sight, loud music is to be heard coming from all directions, often accompanied by loud groans or shouts.”
Happy City is Hollander’s latest work that focuses on the architecture of sex. His other projects include Erotic Videochat Studios, which captures the “tacky innocence” of Colombia’s erotic video studios.
Dutch duo Vera van de Sandt and Jur Oster have similarly created a photo series that captures the moods of intimate spaces designed for sex. Called Love Land Stop Time, it shows the interiors of Brazil’s “tantalising” motels.
Product build-up and extra dryness can plague the scalp in colder months. Kyn’s scalp scrub—made with coconut-derived Sodium Lauroyl Methyl Isethionate, charcoal powder and various essential oils—doesn’t necessarily foam like regular shampoo, but with a little elbow grease, will deep clean your scalp. With a very faint scent, this sulphate-free potion detoxifies and exfoliates, and helps your scalp remove build-up, produce fewer flakes, and remain healthier overall.
Sultry and smooth, Skip Marley and H.E.R.’s collaborative single, “Slow Down,” combines reggae and R&B influences to underscore a true duet, with each artist shining. H.E.R. (aka Gabriella Wilson) lends her award-winning vocals, while Marley (the grandson of Bob Marley) offers charisma and flirtatiousness—with the latter emphasized by the accompanying video.
Intended for all-genders, this botanical-infused lotion works as a post-shave hydrator—both to prevent irritation and to give newly shaven skin a bit of a boost. With soothing notes of sandalwood and neroli blossom, this lotion would also do well in a morning or evening routine, even if it’s not post-shave.
Nowadays, speaker designs are getting innovative by the day! However, there’s a certain appeal to modular speakers that I simply cannot deny. One such example is Mindaugas Petrikas’ Hevi speaker. Crafted from a mixture of rough concrete and wood, Hevi is a 360-degree modular speaker, with a warm and rustic aesthetic. With a glossy plastic plate stuck right in the middle of it, a surreal modern contrast is created to the otherwise homely materials, that are wood and concrete.
What makes Hevi even more interesting is that it dissociates into two speakers! The top portion of Hevi consists of a mid-high frequency speaker, whereas the lower portion is a mid-low frequency speaker. The two can be detached, allowing you to carry either of the speakers wherever you wish. The compact upper speaker is, of course, the more portable option, something you could even carry for your outdoor adventures! When combined, both the speakers create a resounding high-quality sound.
Both the speakers face the glossy plastic curved plate, forming an intricate reel, and the plate allows the sound to bounce off it, moving outwards to create a 360-degree audio experience. The sound will reach every part of the room. Amped with Bluetooth, Hevi also comes along with a 3.5mm jack, aiding a wired and wireless experience. Both components of the speaker can be charged simultaneously. Not to mention, Hevi’s pleasing neutral aesthetics allow it to perfectly merge with the interiors of any modern home, making it not only a speaker but an attractive decoration piece.
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