Stevie Wonder? Aretha Franklyn? Pink Floyd? Metallica? In Thursday’s episode of the WNYC radio show Soundcheck, host John Schaefer and Tina Cassidy author of Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born, respond to rumors that Beyonce gave birth to baby Blue while soothed and stimulated by a meticulously curated R&B soundtrack. The two explore the role music plays in the modern delivery room as experts chime in insisting that the advent of the iPod facilitating a …
Though the Mindstorms sub-brand of the LEGOLAND empire is specifically intended to catalyze complex thoughts in the minds of young builders, adults love getting in on the game. And this Time Twsiter clock, with its self-solving Rubix algorithm designed by Hans Andersson, is a prime example of grown-up trigonometrical tinkering at work. Click through to see a video of the masterpiece working.
Somebody (and I will point fingers) had way too much time on her hands during the weeks leading up to Halloween. This super-detailed, super-funny (and hopefully super-light) AT-AT pet costume was created by Katie Mello for her dog Bones — that is, an All Terrain Armored Transport as seen in The Empire Strikes Back. Mello is one of the Star Wars-loving artists over at LAIKA/house, a Portland animation studio. Let this inspire you to get your creative …
At this stage in eco-design there’s nothing particularly new about cardboard furniture. Yet the cardboard ‘Build Up’ child’s chair and table designed by Philippe Nigro appears to be a new exercise in what can be sculpted from the paper-based medium. Sturdy, yet simple to put together, the pieces are shipped flat and are then folded, contorted and wedged together to create the final furniture form.
If I had a carbon credit for every time I tell my kid to shut the refrigerator door, I’d be able to travel around the world without leaving a theoretical footprint. Gadget-loving parents need not have that worry thanks to an electronic icebox pet called the Fridgeezoo. Designed to lessen the time spent standing idly in front of an open refrigerator deciding what to retrieve, Fridgeezoo friends audibly remind you that each second that passes equals energy lost.
Cute in a way that only those who love modular design will appreciate, the Frii tri-color recycled plastic bike is an injection molded, snap-together marvel that is light weight yet durable. Dror Peleg, the mastermind behind the bike’s concept design, intends it to be used for “quick trips through the city streets” and hopes that interested governments will see it as a way to usefully recycle landfill-destined plastics. All of the cumbersome design details can be found at …
Playgrounds too safe? So concludes a recent article that’s been making the usual rounds on the Internet. The main contention is that the kiddie sites are becoming homogenized and dumbed down. “We’re now at a point where every playground is pretty much the same. And they’re boring. They’re not challenging,” says playground expert Alex Gilliam who longs for the 3-story forts of his youth.
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Do guarded green parents inadvertently push their kids toward binge consumption? This is a question I posed to myself while sitting at a homey table in a wood paneled diner, considering my own overreaching fathering methods. Waiting for our orders to arrive, my wife Liza and I had attempted to make small talk with our 6-year-old to no avail. Devon’s gaze was fixed on the diner’s television set. It was spewing candy-coated, technicolor hogwash interspersed with undifferentiated marketing hype; and when Devon suggested that we should get him the gun-toting, steroid pumping action figure that had just been advertised, I shot a look of despair in Liza’s direction. “Well, what do you expect? He doesn’t watch TV at home,” she quipped.
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Fantasy and reality beautifully collide in Minimii’s 1:16 scale dollhouse reproduction of designer Arne Jacobsen’s 1928 villa in Charlottenlund, Denmark. Designed by Linda Stenberg and Claus Hojer Hansen, the Danish creative directors of Minimii, the dollhouse features a roof and four walls that may be mounted and dismounted, allowing more children to play at once, a small collection of designer furniture (Egg and Swan chairs courtesy of Fritz Hansen) as well as tiny commissioned modern art pieces, wallpaper and rugs with patterns from Jacobsens aquarelle drawings and many more chic amenities which stay in place via magnets!
LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!
