Dezeenmail issue #51 is out now – have a look at it here. Dezeenmail is sent out roughly every two weeks and contains a selection of Dezeen’s best stories and comments, along with all our latest competitions and jobs. You can subscribe here.
Mid-day yesterday at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., a new winner of the annual Buckminster Fuller Challenge was crowned. This year it’s the Zimbabwean biologist Allan Savory, who won for his concept Operation Hope, a plan that seeks to rebuild damaged or struggling grasslands by using grazing animals to thin out decay and move seed around. The prize, which was created to mirror Fuller’s enthusiasm for problem solving using a variety of methods, awards Savory $100,000 to, presumably, try putting the project into action. Here’s a bit from Architectural Record, who talked to Savory after he won:
While many environmentalists argue that livestock grazing is harmful to the environment, Savory argues that it can have positive effects. The animals eat dead plants, which can block light required to reach seeds. Leaving those plants to decay on their own doesn’t happen fast enough to offset desertification, he says.
The trick is to let grazing animals roam large areas, as they did thousands of years ago, rather than confine them to small parcels, as many industrial farms do. Spreading them out prevents damage to the landscape, he says. Savory even advocates introducing predators like wolves to farms, to insure the herd keeps moving.
Previously on UnBeige:
Filmmaker Evan Mather Documents Buckminster Fuller’s Failed Dome
Buckminster Fuller: Pack Rat, Friend to Enterprising Children
Buckminster Fuller, in His Own Verse
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
pWhile the iPhone has famously captured a large chunk of the largely urban smartphone market, it is still industry giant Nokia that equips most of the rest of the world with cell phones. A product they’ve just announced that ought to be a big hit in your average dusty rural village is their bicycle-powered phone charger:/p
pimg alt=”0nokiabikecharg.jpg” src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/0nokiabikecharg.jpg” width=”468″ height=”676″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //p
pPower comes from a small dynamo contacting the front wheel and attached to a small circuitry box, juice flows north through a cable, and the phone is attached to the handlebars via a large rubber band. Simple, useful, and a huge boon to the millions of cell phone users worldwide without easy access to a steady supply of electricity./p
pvia A HREF=”http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/06/nokia-announces-bike-powered-phone-charger/” gadgetlab/A and A HREF=”http://conversations.nokia.com/2010/06/03/cycling-for-fun-and-profit/” nokia conversations/Abr /
/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/nokias_bike-powered_phone_charger_16671.asp”(more…)/a
pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/KgyGp7z42KonaRcU3s2dVdMrngQ/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/KgyGp7z42KonaRcU3s2dVdMrngQ/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/
a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/KgyGp7z42KonaRcU3s2dVdMrngQ/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/KgyGp7z42KonaRcU3s2dVdMrngQ/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/p
Ideal for the indecisive or anyone who likes a little variety in their portable beverage choices, the HydraDuo water bottle offers two drink options without having to double fist. Created by the online product development community Quirky—whose luggage scale we previously covered—the reusable BPA-free plastic bottle features two removable 8-oz inner chambers to individually fill with any liquids of your choice.
The bottle’s double-flip top lets you fill and pour from one chamber at a time, while the clear design lets you know when it’s time to refill. Pre-order the water bottle from the Quirky site for $18. When they reach 980 pre-orders, the bottle will go into production (you won’t be charged unless the HydraDuo actually gets made).
French designer Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance has completed the interior of a gallery in Paris featuring a strip of white Corian wrapped around the space. (more…)
While Wikipedia may be the modern encyclopedia for the information-absorbing set, it often lacks the depth needed to fully comprehend involved subjects—for example the Spanish Inquisition or Behavior Economics.
Developed to expand your knowledge while on the go, Sydney-based iMinds is a 12-category catalog of audio books that delivers each topic in eight-minute segments. Over 180 subject matters can be downloaded onto an iPod or any mp3 device and now most subjects are also available in eBook format perfect for the iPad.
Each iMinds book can be purchased individually ($1) or in varying size sets from iTunes, Learn Out Loud or iMinds.
Après le très réussi clip Lily Allen – Fuck You, voici ce film viral esthétique en plan séquence, avec un travail de body-painting sur des jeunes filles fondues dans le décor. Une réalisation AB/CD/CD pour la campagne Axe, avec l’agence Buzzman et une production de Frenzy.
The A&E channel ran a Memorial Day marathon of the first season of its television show Hoarders. After showing all of the original broadcasts, A&E aired a new episode that showed the progress — or, rather lack of progress — of a handful of the show’s participants. Four of the five of the people featured in the new “Where are they one year later?” episode had fully returned to their hoarding ways.
I didn’t watch the new episode and actually heard about it through a blog post on Entertainment Weekly’s website. Learning about it this way was a solid reminder that the show is created for entertainment, and not necessarily to help the participants on the show or teach the audience about the mental disorder. I know from people who have worked with the show that behind the scenes they do try to help the participants, but so much of that isn’t transmitted to the audience. The scary music and the shock and awe storytelling dehumanize the participants, in my opinion.
In the book Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by hoarding specialists Randy Frost and Gail Steketee, the authors say that this recidivist behavior is the norm and should have been expected by the Hoarders production staff. From pages 96 and 97 of the book:
One of the worst experiences for someone with a hoarding problem occurs when another person or crew arrives to clear out the home, usually at the order of the public health department or a frustrated family member … These scenarios almost always leave the hoarder feeling as if his or her most valued possessions have been taken away, which in fact may be the case. Beyond this, most hoarders have a sense of where things are amid the clutter. When someone else moves or discards even a portion of it, this sense of “order” is destroyed. We know of several cases in which hoarders have committed suicide following a forced cleanout.
The time, expense, and trauma of a forced cleanout are not worth the effort if any other alternatives are possible. Although conditions in the home may improve temporarily, the behavior leading to those conditions will not have changed. Moreover, the likelihood of obtaining any future cooperation after such trauma is slim. One Massachusetts town in our survey of health departments conducted a forced cleanout costing $16,000 (most of the town’s health department budget). Just over a year later, the cluttered home was worse than ever.
I continue to have very mixed emotions about the television show Hoarders. I like that the show raises awareness about hoarding, but I don’t feel that it’s necessarily helpful and compassionate information that is being distributed. Did any of you catch the marathon and the “Where are they one year later?” episode? I’m interested in reading your thoughts in the comments.
Again, if you or someone you know is a hoarder, please seek treatment from a licensed medical practitioner. The disorder can be dangerous and treatment has been shown successful for those seeking help.
The following organizations have “find a therapist” functions on their websites that list therapists specifically trained to treat hoarding:
If you’ve been in New York’s Union Square Park anytime since this past long weekend, undoubtedly you’ve noticed the installation that’s recently gone up. It’s “Eleven Heavy Things,” the artist/writer/filmmaker Miranda July‘s sculpture project that she made for last year’s Venice Biennale as part of the group show “Making Worlds.” The now Deitch-less Deitch Projects helped organize an effort to bring it to New York, where it just went up late last week. The sculptures feature heavy things, of course, with writing on them, as well as objects to step into, to rise just above your head (they’re difficult to describe, but because it’s Miranda July, you’re probably already guessing that they’re all slightly cute and cartoonish). Art Info got the opportunity to sit down with July and ask her a bit about bringing it to New York. Here’s a bit:
Were other venues discussed?
Washington Square in New York was first discussed. Which, actually, has a graveyard underneath it. You can’t dig very easily. There are bones. A number of other parks were presented and this seemed clearly like the best one. The great fear is that you’re going to make a park worse. A park’s pretty good to begin with — you don’t want to mess it up. Luckily, I think the installation is pretty delicate. It doesn’t overtake the park.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Voici la nouvelle art-car BMW, dessinée par l’artiste controversé Jeff Koons. Des couleurs vives et des formes allongées, grâce à une impression numérisée sur vinyl recouvert par deux épaisseurs de film transparent de protection. Ce modèle, la BMW M3 GT2, participera aux 24 heures du Mans.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
