A Cool Cranking Paper Heart via youtube.

Dan Ariely speaks at EG about his rather mind boggling book Predictably Irrational siting examples on how we humans make some rather odd decisions based on what we see and already know. I’d highly recommend buying this book or following his work! (ps, he also spoke at TED last week)

Mike Rowe of TV show Dirty Jobs speaks at last years EG conference about the 1 time he had to say “timeout” during a shoot and what he has learned from his show. A very intresting perspective and inspirational story that makes you rethink things a bit.

Bill Gates gives a rather compelling lecture while releasing a jar of mosquito’s into the TED audience!

“Bill Gates hopes to solve some of the world’s biggest problems using a new kind of philanthropy. In a passionate and, yes, funny 18 minutes, he asks us to consider two big questions and how we might answer them.”

Q&A session:

A MUST watch from best selling author Elizabeth Gilbert of “Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia.”

“Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses — and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person “being” a genius, all of us “have” a genius. It’s a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.”

The new short film by Blu
an ambiguous animation painted on public walls.
Made in Buenos Aires and in Baden (fantoche)
blublu.org/
blublu.org/sito/video/muto.htm

music by Andrea Martignoni
produced by Mercurio Film
assistant: Sibe

video shown at TED2009

I’m off for the week to TED2009 for this years theme “The Great Unveiling”, but this round I’ll be in the satilite space in the new Palm Springs location. I won’t be blogging too much, but you can follow me on twitter, or if your there, let me know and we’ll meet up. Check out the full TED schedule here or my previous TED adventures.

“Hit it” is a series of furniture, consisting of a table and chairs. They resemble Saloon furniture from western movies, but the difference lies in the material. Hit It allows everyone to feel like a strong cowboy. Saloon fighting will now not only be fun, but safe.”

We’ve all played with stress balls, but I’d love to get my hands on a stress table or chair and smack it around like a cowboy in a movie set! Awesome, I want, I want!
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Brooklyn based artist Thomas Keeley makes some shirts with personality!
via bookofjoe

Mihoko Ouchi and Sherwood Forlee of “Think of The” have created a very pop art like laptop speaker in the form of a quotation bubble. Very simple and rather amusing! Personally, I’d prefer a black rimmed, white speaker to match Ji Lees Bubble Project Stickers, but black works just as well

Available this soon in 2009 for $120.
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I’m not sure what the deal with sharks is this week, but after finding the fun “There’s a Shark in my Soup Bowl” design, I’ve come across another whimsical use of a shark fin for a tea bag holder from designer Pablo Matteoda . Sharky holds your tea leaves in a floating metal fin container while slowly dispersing tea leaf colors into the water creating a shark attack like scene. Fun, but also somewhat terrifying.

Very cool! Maybe it’s the twisting screw bottom, though most likely the draft angles and measurements etched into the crystal glass. Very industrial, very “I want I want!”

“The Ruckl Crystal Glassworks in the Czech republic manufactures an extensive range of cut 24% leaded crystal in a wide variety, from the simple to the extremely complex, with gilt, hand painting and sandblasting.

Inspired by the sometime archaic-seeming world of the engineer, each piece in the the engineering collection is so named for the etched designs on all the pieces involving the dimensions and spec’s of each piece.

The engineering collection also includes three additional lines: involute gearing, basic quotation, and the splined shaft designs.”

via unicahome