Hasta La Ideas

Can something go viral when you intend it to go viral? Apparently so, particularly as we become more gullible as a society. While Jimmy Kimmel’s twerking fire and hotel wolf videos at least had an element of believability to them, this latest makes me despair for people’s reality filter: Since its launch yesterday, Facebookers have been eagerly promoting this video purporting that Back to the Future 2’s hoverboards now exist.

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I love Japanese over-design. As an industrial designer, are you not awed by their willingness to fire up a whole new tooling line to create some product to tackle even the most minute, mundane problem? Case in point: Check out Mitsubishi subsidiary Uni’s Promark View highlighter, which pushes the tip out to the end of a clear piece of plastic, so you can see precisely where you’re highlighting. The only visual obstruction is the thin straw feeding the water-based ink out to the felt.

The Promark’s chunky body will take up an undue amount of space in your pencil jar or pocket, but perhaps it’s not designed to be stored in either: As this Japanese pen reviewer has noted, the wide, flat cap means it can stand up on your desk.

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Ever since spotting that unique, hinged toolbox that Matthias Wandel did a video of, we’ve been wondering where it came from. The German marque Würth can clearly be seen on Bruhn’s box. The Würth Group is a Germany-based global wholesaler of tools and hardware, but it does not appear that they designed the box; a German manufacturer of cabinetmaker’s tools callled E.C. Emmerich sells an identical box, as does hardware manufacturer Häfele.

Far as we can tell, it’s a German company called Domini Design that actually designed the thing. They call it the Mobilo Box, and it comes in a variety of sizes. The Mobilo Box 43 is the smallest version, “suitable for managers,” as Domini says (read: people who don’t really need to get their hands dirty):

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It’s not a perfect hybrid of these fluorescent felines and trophy handlebars, but close enough. The Finnish Reindeer Herder’s Association is reportedly testing a special spraypaint to increase the nighttime visibility of the 200,000 caribou in their custody. Per AP:

Anne Ollila of the Finnish Reindeer Herder’s Association says the antlers of 20 reindeer have been painted with various fluorescent dyes to see how the animals react and whether the paints are resistant to the harsh Arctic climate.

If successful, animals with glittering antlers will be free to roam Lapland—a vast, deserted area in northern Finland where herders tend to some 200,000 reindeer.

Ollila says reflectors and reflective tape have proven unsuccessful as reindeer have torn them off—and road signs warning drivers of roaming reindeer often are stolen by tourists as souvenirs.

“Don’t patronus me.” (And don’t pretend you get the HP reference)

Made by Swedish company Albedo 100, I assume it’s a bio-friendly retroreflective paint; here’s a demo video of presumably the same paint on a dog and a horse:

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Sure, it’s just a coffee mug with an extra piece of ceramic stuck to it, and two squiggly lines representing a stern mouth. But with a catchphrase like “DEAD OR ALIVE, YOU’RE DRINKING A TEA,” the RoboCup aims to win over those of us raised in the ’80s with its persuasive copy:

– Generously sized crime-fighting vessel—half man, half mug
– Drink away those haunting submerged memories
– Made from a superhuman hybrid of flesh, steel and ceramics
– Produced by OmniCup
– I’d buy that for a dollar! But for you, a mere £12.99

That’s US $21.59, which we recognize is kinda steep (no pun intended) for a mug, and twice the price of a ticket to see the new Joel Kinnaman version. But unlike that 49%-on-Rotten-Tomatoes reboot, this mug will actually hold water (pun intended). It’s for sale on Firebox.

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