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A Sheet Metal Fabricator's Nifty Snow Shovel Hack

Lares Blechwarenfabrikation is a German fabricator that turns metal sheet goods–tin and stainless steel–into premium bakeware. Their stock-in-trade are items like this:

However, on their Instagram they posted a photo after a winter snowstorm at the company HQ in Waibstadt, Germany. And it looks to me like they’ve used their sheet-metal-fabricating skills to produce a snow shovel with a nifty design feature:

It’s possible I’m mistaken and that the shovel is store-bought, but I have a feeling a company engineer rigged it up. (And if s/he’s reading this, I appreciate your design!)

Tei Shi: ¿QUIÉN TE MANDA?

Columbian Canadian artist Tei Shi announces her upcoming EP Bad Premonition (out 17 March), sharing the track “¿QUIÉN TE MANDA?” Co-produced by Chairlift’s Patrick Wimberly and Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Jake Portrait, the lush bilingual song synthesizes the digital and retro, merging swelling synths, rhythmic hand-clapping and floaty vocal runs. As with the EP as a whole, it details the singer-songwriter’s frustration with the music industry and loss of creative freedom. “The saying ‘Quién te manda’ is difficult to translate into English. It means ‘who sent you,’ but in sentiment, it means something like a combination of ‘who told you to do that’ and ‘told you so,’” says the artist. “It’s a way of telling someone they messed up, and the blame is on them. I’ve always loved this phrase, and with this song, it took on an empowered meaning for me—in telling off someone who wronged me. At the same time, there’s a question of ‘quién te manda’ to myself… of realizing my own role in being manipulated.”

An Interesting School Design Feature: The In-Floor Hangout Area

The influential Dutch architect Herman Hertzberger, who at age 90 is a professor emeritus of his alma mater, UT Delft, is a designer whose “flaw” I can respect. He was an early proponent of Structuralism, which in a nutshell says “Hey don’t forget that actual human beings have to live and interact inside these places we design,” and the knock on Hertzberger has been that he’s less concerned with how something looks and more concerned with how something works for the people who use it.

As one example, in response to criticism that his design for a concert hall in Utrecht was ugly, Hertzberger stated in an interview with Holland’s DUIC newspaper:

“Oh well, in the end it wasn’t really very nice from the outside, was it? A beautiful exterior was also not my first task as an architect. It could have been a bit cozier, but I have always had the music experience as a starting point – unlike a lot of other architects who would go for a beautiful exterior. When people have experienced beautiful things indoors, they no longer see the relative ugliness outside. The outside is therefore not the most important thing for me. I have been accused of that.”

In any case, I wanted to show you this interesting design detail from the Montessori School in Delft that Hertzberger designed in 1966. This is in the middle of the school’s kindergarten area:

Hertzberger explains on page 154 of his book “Lessons for Students in Architecture,” which expanded on lectures he gave while teaching at Delft:

“The floor in the hall of the kindergarten section has a square depression in the middle which is filled with loose wood blocks. They can be taken out and placed around the square to form a self-contained seating arrangement. The blocks are constructed as low stools, which can easily be moved by the chidlren all around the hall, or they can be piled up to form a tower. The children also use them to make trains. […] [The] square hollow gives a feeling of seclusion, a retreat, and evokes associations with descending into a valley or hollow.”

If you like this idea for adults, be sure to check out “The Design Benefits of Sunken Conversation Pits.”

“We just love ours.”

The World’s First “Super” Magnet For Testing Nuclear Fusion

UK firm Tokamak Energy reportedly developed a set of magnets, dubbed Demo4, that have a magnetic strength almost a million times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field. These high-temperature, superconducting magnets will be used to explore nuclear fusion, a process that results in near limitless clean energy. These “super” magnets might be a breakthrough in the process, which requires strong magnetic fields that can control and confine extremely hot hydrogen fuel (which later becomes plasma that is hotter than the sun). Learn more at the Independent.

Image courtesy of Tokamak Energy

UFO-like pendant lamp hides a power socket that turns any table into a workstation

Lighting fixtures above dining tables are almost a necessity. After all, you need ample lighting to enjoy your food, especially with other people. These often long tables, however, sometimes serve purposes other than dining, especially in the past years when people found themselves stuck at home and having no suitable place to set up their office or school work. That, however, can be a bit inconvenient when you need to plug some devices or tools in and wall sockets are too far away. To adjust to the changing landscapes in homes, a few furniture and appliances have started taking on multiple roles, like this circular pendant lamp that offers not only light but also power for your laptop and other electronic equipment.

Designer: Studio Natural

This is one of those ideas that sound so natural after hearing it that you almost wonder why no one or few have ever done it before. After all, lamps already connect to a power source, usually on the same line as other appliances. There are even power outlet accessories that screw into bulb sockets, turning those unused sockets into an additional source of power for other appliances.

The Avro pendant lamp uses that very same concept and implements it in an attractive and convenient manner, turning any table into a multifunctional piece of furniture, depending on what’s hanging down from the lamp. In normal circumstances, the lamp simply hangs by itself, providing light that can be dimmed or brightened depending on the activity happening below it. A softer light, for example, might perfectly set the mood for a relaxing dinner, but something brighter might be needed for games and work.

Things take an interesting turn when you realize there’s a power socket right below the lamp’s diffuser. You can easily plug in a laptop charger if that’s all you need, or perhaps a stylish extension cord to share the power around. Granted, it might look a bit weird with a cable dangling off a lamp, and the lamp itself needs to be at a height you can easily reach while standing up. It’s still a more convenient and more accessible way to get power, though, at least compared to scrambling for a distant wall socket or tripping over extension cords snaking across the floor.

The lamp itself is an attractive decor hanging over your table. Although supposedly named after an aircraft, Avro looks more like a stereotypical UFO, especially with bright light emitting from its bottom. Its aluminum surface, available in bright orange, blue, and white colors, makes it also look like a toy, like a spinning top that reflects light to the point of being a source of light as well. Whichever way you see it, it definitely brings a bit of life to a space while also indirectly bringing additional functionality to any table beneath it.

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Wyrmwood Gaming Re-Releases Popular, Wildly Functional Modular Gaming Table

Furniture and accessories manufacturer Wyrmwood Gaming is re-releasing their innovative Modular Gaming Table, a popular design that was waylaid in recent years by supply shortages that have since been resolved. The MGT is essentially a dining table whose surface can be removed in panels, revealing a sunken gaming or crafting area beneath:

Magnetic slots around the perimeter of the table, both inside and out, can be fitted with accessories to hold, well, anything and everything:

If you’ve never seen one of these before, it has to be seen to be believed:

The tables can be configured in a variety of heights, dimensions and shapes:

They’re made from solid wood, also buyer-specified:

There’s even an optional box filled with slotted foam inserts, to hold the table leaves when they’re removed:

Wyrmwood, which manufactures the tables in America, says they’ve built some 10,000 to date. For the re-launch, they chose to run a Kickstarter campaign as a means of managing both pre-orders and rolling batch production (the company can produce 100 tables per week, or 400 a month), selling them in ten separate delivery-window “waves” of 400 buyers each. A reservation amount of $299 is required (with the final price to be determined once the user goes through the company’s digital table configurator tool, available to pledgers in two weeks’ time). After the campaign went live, the company hit their $1,000,000 target within hours.

I’m in awe of the sheer amount of accessories the design team has devised for the tables. If you’re a furniture or accessories designer, you’ll find this 17-minute rundown both bewildering and inspiring:

Vegan Milker Device Lets You Make Your Own Almond Milk, Oat Milk, Rice Milk Etc.

Spanish manufacturer Chufamix makes this Vegan Milker, a kitchen countertop contraption that lets you make your own milk from nuts or other vegan staples.

One catch is that you do have to provide a 300- to 650-watt hand mixer. With that in hand, the company says the Vegan Milker can produce “almond milk, coconut milk, rice milk, oat milk, soy milk, hemp milk, pipe milk… and it also allows you to mix various types of seeds in the same milk and make rice and hazelnut milk, oat milk and walnuts, sesame and spelt…the possibilities are endless.”

Additionally, it can make “all kinds of horchatas, natural juices, yogurts and vegan cheeses. For more information, go to Vegan Milker’s specialized recipe blog.”

As for how the device works:

The video for their top-of-the-line Mulsi 3D model ($68) shows a bit more detail:

The only thing I couldn’t find an explanation for, is how it spits out that solid puck at the end–and apparently you just cook the thing up and eat it?

Cake Slev concept is a powerful electric cargo trike for city hauling needs

Swedish electric motorbike and moped maker, Cake has a very unique take on two-wheelers of the current generation. Be it the Kalk, Ösa, Åik or Makka – each one of them caters to modern city life, serious off-roading skirmishes, or cargo hauling requirements. They all have a compelling enough reason for the buyers to choose them over any other option on the market.

Inspired by the design philosophy at Cake, Ivan Zhurba has proposed the design of a Trike cargo bike bearing the Cake branding. The design of this electric vehicle is based on the Ösa line-up of zero-emission commuters by Cake, and it is quite obvious.

Designer: Ivan Zhurba

Dubbed “Cake Slev” the electric commuter aims to enhance the possibilities of transportation and delivery of mid-sized cargo. The front section on this one is heavily modified to expand the traditional functionality, and make the bike function as a family bike, daily commuter, or cargo hauler when needed. From what I see, it is for the most part, a delivery bike that can double up as a joy ride for the kids at home.

Cake Slev can be loaded with an eco-friendly felt cover that has magnetic buttons, making this cargo trike a very practical all-weather delivery vehicle. The rear wheels have covers to keep the all-season dirt away from the main body of the bike. Ivan has preserved the color theme and the basic design language to preserve the traditional brand aesthetics and asceticism.

From what I can comprehend, the trike is more suited for small businesses requiring a compact vehicle to move around cargo. The high riding position ensures it stays put in any rough riding conditions and  clear of any inclement weather consequences. The assisted electric motor produces enough torque to get it going at steep inclines. The large electric battery is stored under the saddle to keep the center of gravity bang in the center. Remember, it’s mostly going to be a cargo hauler with all the load at the front otherwise.

The post Cake Slev concept is a powerful electric cargo trike for city hauling needs first appeared on Yanko Design.

Psychedelic Liberation Training Explores Decolonization Through Hallucinogens

Charlotte James’ program aims to decolonize the self and dismantle ethnocentricity within the burgeoning industry

Throughout her first decade of participating in ceremonial psychedelic events, Charlotte James—founder of the educational platform The Ancestor Project—remained one of very few people of color in attendance (if not the only). “The question started to rise more and more: why are there not more BIPOC people in this space, especially because a lot of these medicines come from our traditions?” she tells us. The thoughts led James to explore the roots of the industry, how psychedelics can be used as a tool to decolonize the self and how to dismantle ethnocentricity within the burgeoning industry. She’s since shared this knowledge through workshops and free resources and now she’s guiding others in using hallucinogens for decolonization in Psychedelic Liberation Training.

Open for registration on 1 March, the program is a 10-week online course that coaches clinicians and enthusiasts on using sacred plants to uncover biases and work toward collective liberation. Co-led by clinical researcher Sarah Reed, the training is informed by age-old hallucinogenic practices with origins and traditions that are often uncredited in the new wave of interest in the space.

“When we look at all of the clinical research that’s been done since the ’60s, I think it’s something like over 90% of the participants are white. So the information that we have that we’re building the psychedelic space off of is incredibly biased information. We’re starting to bring in those conversations so that more therapists and clinicians and practitioners are equipped with the tools that they need to approach their own practice from decolonized ones,” she continues.

When we don’t take the time to intentionally question how we have arrived in this moment… we are subject to repeating the mistakes of the past

James says, “I feel like a lot of what’s being talked about in this resurgence is seen as something that’s novel or new, when in reality, it comes from a deep lineage of entheogenic shamanic work, ancestral practices and practices that for a very long time were demonized and suppressed by the dominant culture: patriarchy and white supremacy. When we don’t take the time to intentionally question how we have arrived in this moment in history and in time, we are subject to repeating the same mistakes of the past.”

The program puts this history and social activism in context within psychedelics, and while the two may seem independent of each other, the latter has been a useful tool to develop a foundation for collective liberation—a method which James refers to as “sacred activism.” The out-of-body experiences and changes in consciousness garnered from these tools lend themselves to understanding the humanity of all people and beings, thus unlearning systemic misconceptions.

“One of the beautiful things about working with these medicines is that you are able to transcend ego-based consciousness or what it is to be a human in the 3D,” explains James. “It’s really important that we work with these medicines as a way of strengthening our capacity for compassion and our perspective and understanding that everything is interconnected. And from there, understanding that whatever suffering is happening in the world we’re also intrinsically connected to and responsible for. That’s how all these pieces weave together and why it’s important that we’re talking about systems and identity and discrimination and oppression within the psychedelic resurgence.”

James harnesses the power of hallucinogens to decolonize by structuring the course from the ground up. “I wanted it to be a much more collaborative and community-based approach to sharing knowledge,” she explains. “I developed the curriculum, found the folks in my community that I wanted to bring in to teach as well, because I feel like part of teaching about decolonization work is also embodying that in the ways that we approach the work.”

While the course—taught by Shamanic healers, psychotherapists and other experts—helps participants build a practice that supports and accounts for people of color and systemic oppression, it also focuses on psychedelics’ capacity for healing trauma. This is especially true “for BIPOC folk,” says James. “I feel like a lot of the messaging in our world convinces us that we’re not valuable, we’re not worthy, we don’t deserve softness and grace and an opportunity to heal our ancestry, our intergenerational trauma. I feel like one of the greatest benefits [of psychedelics] is coming back to your divinity or coming back to wholeness, recognizing that you are valuable, you are worthy.”

The course includes a ketamine webinar led by Reed that exemplifies the healing potentials of the practice. In the discussion, she details her own experience with ketamine-assisted therapy and how it helped her accept and embrace the self.

“She was able to disassociate or get distance from the experience of Black womanhood in America to be like, ‘I am a sacred being that is worthy and loved and has the capacity for joy,’” says James. “That has been my experience with medicines as well, just really feeling your spirit within your body and recognizing that no one, no system, can take that truth away from you.” At the forefront of the psychedelic space, James’ program (now on its third annual cohort) radically confronts internalized biases and systemic oppression by honoring traditional practices and growing a community of holistic practitioners.

Images courtesy of Charlotte James