Haft2Know

UK Designer Mikael Metthey could potentially become God in the eyes of the world's children with 'Pox Teddy' - a concept toy that if successful, could eliminate the need for syringed vaccinations. (Needle Day was always the most dreaded at school.) This smart little bear exposes kids to a virus in order to foster their natural immunity against harmful diseases. The website below offers some more images, as well as one of Metthey's 'Vaccination Playground'. The future is upon us.

http://www.interaction.rca.ac.uk/people/alumni/05-07/mikael-metthey/projects/project6.html

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Yahoo's latest offering to the world is a site by the name of startwearingpurple.com. It's a promotional attempt on the company's behalf to convince the world how youthful and cool they are -- in short, by trying to own this 'zany' colour. UK's Cadbury does a much better job at laying claim by leveraging purple's royal characteristics, as opposed to its mystical, sorcerer-lady / town outcast appeal. Unfortunately, the whole thing is a little like watching your high-school math teacher perform an algebraic rap to better connect with the kids.

For what it is, there are some very cool features on the site, including the GPS mapping of a small army of Yahoo branded bikes around the world, each fashioned with a camera. As the bike owner rides through his or her life, the camera takes a pic every 60 seconds and immediately posts the images to the site.

In any case when it comes to owning a colour, purple may be 'cuh-raaaazy' to many, but Yahoo is no UPS.

http://www.startwearingpurple.com

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Sotheby's announced last week that in one day, UK artstar Damien Hirst raised more than $125 million at auction. It's a new world record for an auction day of art offered by a single artist. (The previous record was held by a day of Pablo Picasso in 1993, which raised a mere $20 million.) The most expensive piece was 'The Golden Calf' - an embalmed calf with golden horns and hooves that sold for almost $19 million. Hirst could have chosen to have his works sold in a gallery but chose auction because he felt it was a more democratic way of bringing art to the people - the very rich people, that is.

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotResultsDetailList.jsp?event_id=28883&sale_number=L08027

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As the financial engine of the world begins to screech to a near-cataclysmic halt, one Japanese company has found a way for people all over the world to save their money reliably. 'Facebank' works its magic in a way that the 'green-worm-coming-out-of-the-apple' bank never did. Available in a variety of colours and looks and textures, every one of them a little creepier than the last.

http://www.strapya-world.com/categories/2331_3173.html

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If it appears you won't be able to make the trip to Venice for this year's Future of Science World Conference (the fourth annual), here's a taste of what you'll be missing. A trio of entrepreneurs will be unveiling their plan for turning the Sahara Desert into a huge source for renewable food, water and energy. The Sahara Forest Project is a 20 hectare, 80 million euro undertaking that will ultimately produce a titanic bio-entity that could potentially produce enough energy for all of Africa and Europe combined. It'll turn sea water into fresh water, it'll produce steam energy through the use of thousands of little mirrors to reflect the sun's light, and on top of it all, it looks like that.

http://www.thefutureofscience.org

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Well we're colour people so we can't possibly ignore something like this. Cymbolism.com is a new website that attempts to make an emotive correlation between certain English words and the hues at which they hint. Visitors to the site are shown a word and then vote on which colour they believe best represents the featured term. The palette is somewhat limited and the site is still in its early days, but there's something satisfying about it, (and users can suggest their own words for chromatic consideration). The long-term goal is to eventually build a giant inspirational resource of emoto-colour pairings for creatives and crafters alike.

http://www.cymbolism.com

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It's not known exactly when we started naming our weather systems but hundreds of years ago in the West Indies, hurricanes were often named after the Patron Saint of the day on which they hit land. The current system is an annual set-list of names that repeats every six years. If a storm is particularly destructive or infamous, the name will be retired. (Katrina became Katia. 1992's Andrew became Alex.) Originally, all storms were given women's names until 1978 when men's names started being alternated in to share the brunt of the surge.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml

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Fresh off the Olympics, it's a good time to look ahead, not to 2012, but to 2016. Four candidate cities are currently in the running to take on the responsibility of hosting the sporting world for two weeks, eight summers from now. Each of them released their Olympic logos last year, but not all cleared the International Olympic Committee's strict standards of representation. Chicago's original logo for their candidacy was absolutely beautiful. That's it on the left. A stylized skyline, with the Hancock Tower at the centre, burns brightly over its own image, reflected in Lake Michigan. The problem the IOC is strict in its visual representation of the Olympic torch; only officially licensed users are allowed to use the torch, and as a mere candidate city, Chicago doesn't yet qualify. And so, they had to redesign the logo and released the image of the 6-pointed star in its stead. There's something very World Exhibition about the font and star choice. It's a little nostalgic, a little Brave New World and all the time, very human. I do hope that eventually, we get to see more of the original torch though.

While you're at it, check out the logos of the other candidate cities. Whichever one is chosen, there will be some intriguing design avenues explored.

http://www.chicago2016.org
http://www.tokyo2016.or.jp
http://www.rio2016.org.br
http://www.madrid2016.es

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Everyone knows the pleasure of discovering that someone else loves something you do. Be it Family Guy, or NPR, or a Cinnamon Dolce Latte from Starbucks, there's a hint of serendipity that occurs when a common fave is voiced. The people that invented Brand-Mates.com know this and they developed a dating website based on the fantastic idea that people who love the same brands probably have a lot in common. This goes way past merely matching up people that buy the same brand of moisturizer. It's introducing to each other single folks who believe in the same philosophy a brand expresses. This makes so much sense to me that I feel it should have existed already. But it didn't. Until now. Pay a visit to the site and check it out. It's currently in its Beta phase, but should prove watch worthy for some time to come.

http://brand-mates.com

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Every day in Japan, students across the country eat lunches prepared by the school they attend, following a tradition that began in 1890. These meals, called 'kyushoku' are now proving popular in fast-food restaurants and taverns, not because the food is so delicious, but rather because they give Japanese citizens a chance to reflect upon their youths in the public school system. One tavern by the name of "Gakko ni Iko!" or "Let's Go Back To School", in the Shizuoka Prefecture features desks, chairs and a blackboard from a defunct elementary school. The difference in this classroom though, is that alcohol is served with the noodles. It makes me want to visit my old alma mater with a glass in hand.

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