Cool Edition January ‘10




01. The Most Authentic Music Charts

The Most Authentic Music Charts

The traditional music charts are dead. Welcome to www.wearehunted.com. This website brings you a top 99 of songs based on how often the specific songs are talked about on sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and various message boards and p2p forums. So it’s not about sales or downloads, it’s about the music people talk about with their friends.

02. Beethoven’s Ashes Now In Diamonds

Beethoven’s Ashes Now In Diamonds

LifeGem Company is specialized in creating diamonds from the ashes of your dear deceased ones. This is done by extracting carbon during the cremation process. The ashes from composer Ludwig van Beethoven have already been immortalized. The small diamond of 0.56 carats will be auctioned on eBay to raise funds for charities all over the world.

03. London Undercover

London Undercover

London Undercover is run by designer Jamie Milestone. His umbrellas  have a convincing touch of “Martin Parr” Britishness. They are bold, eccentric and colorful, but never loud. Essentially British.

04. The Yes Men

The Yes Men

The Yes Men is a collective of performers and media guerilla specialists who deliberately enact fake news launches and other staged performances to trigger public opinion on sensitive issue. Like climate change, for instance: the Yes-Men fed Reuters with a fake press conference announcing a historical turning point in the US adoption of carbon footprint reduction measures. Also: their newest movie ’The Yes Men Fix the World‘ is definitely worth to watch. 

05. Dyson’s Air Multiplier

Dyson’s Air Multiplier

It is arguably the most creative, futuristic-looking and safest electric “fan” on the planet at the moment. This highly innovative product has no blades, and was developed by roughly 650 experts on design engineering, electrical engineering, hydrodynamics, motor engineering and so on. Moreover, its engine draws on aeronautical technology, and its 10mm wide, round and patented projector is scientifically designed to maximize wind velocity and the amount of wind coming out of it. It comes in the colours white and blue.

06. The City is Ours - The Artist Interpretation

The City is Ours - The Artist Interpretation

On a regular Sunday morning in São Paulo, one of the most aggressive concrete expressways in the city, commonly known as the “minhocão” or “big worm”, was invaded by 22 people and transformed into a huge canvas. In order to stay within the law and keep the city graffiti-free, whitewash was used to paint a variety of flowers on the asphalt, creating a truly beautiful work of art when seen from above. The author of the masterpiece is artist and photographer Felipe Morozini (along with 21 friends), who lives on the top floor of a building that faces the Elevado Presidente Costa e Silva (the official name of the minhocão).

07. Consistent Gucci

Consistent Gucci

Mark Ronson, music producer, cover designer and cofounder of Allido Records, has designed a set of trainers for Gucci. The sneakers started to be sold at pop-up boutiques around the world beginning from the late months of 2009 on. 

08. Young Girl Knows What She Is Worth

Young Girl Knows What She Is Worth

Yolande Dominguez is a Spanish artist who always expresses here art in a polemic and provocative way. One of her last artistic interference was a “post debate”. She stuck orange posters all over Madrid downtown, where people could read: “Young and good looking girl offers herself to”. Then comes a list of traditional “female obligations”, like getting pregnant, taking care of the child, being elegant and nice at social events or pretending not to see the husband infidelities. So this is the offer of the young and good looking girl. However, please, also have a look what she asks in return. That makes also a long list: a pair of Loewe purses every year, 3 pairs of Prada shoes, a Chanel dress, a Dior coat, a Cartier ring, a Mercedes SLK car etcetera.

09. Cake Sniffing

Cake Sniffing

The latest habit for British models is cake sniffing. To maintain their slim silhouette they sit at bars and restaurants, order their favorite cakes but simply smell it. The person who reveals this phenomenon prefers to stay anonymous but says it is more “sick yet fascinating” than the more ‘normal’ anorexia.

10. Intimate Secrets Revealed

Intimate Secrets Revealed

The http://postsecret.blogspot.com/ blog has transformed the obscure side of human beings into a business, creating an opportunity for exposing what cannot be confessed. The posts are submitted by readers using post cards for making an anonymous intimate confession. There are secrets that are plain, poetic, sad, sexy, as well as some spicy ones. The blog has paved the way for several books, lectures and events. It makes sense: what we are really interested in are other human beings. Even more so if they expose themselves…

11. The New York High Line

The New York High Line

The 30 feet high and 1,5 mile long High Line was build in 1930 for transport by freight trains between warehouses and factories in the New York Meat Packing district of Manhattan. Not being used since 1980 property owner lobbied for its demolition, but neighborhood residents advocated for the High Line’s preservation and reuse as public open space. In 2003 an open ideas competition, ”Designing the High Line”, solicited proposals for the High Line’s reuse. 720 teams from 36 countries entered. In June 2009 Section 1 (Gansevoort Street to 20th Street) opened to the public. 

12. Temple of Sublime Beauty

Temple of Sublime Beauty

Yang Maolin, Taiwanese artist, transforms himself and superheroes like King Kong, Godzilla and Peter Pan into Buddhist deities, assigning each of them a position in his new pantheon. The new superheroes play their roles as door-guardians, for instance. Or they protect us all while standing on ferocious beasts. Or they take a more harmonious position within lotus flowers like bodhisattvas –while there is a manga look and feel over it all as well.

13. Memoria Via: Living Intergenerational Memories

Memoria Via: Living Intergenerational Memories

Memoria Viva is a Sao Paulo schools project with children working as neighborhood historians. The children interview the oldest living persons in their ‘barrios’, rescuing neighborhood memories – and preserving them in books. Discovering the origins of the names of the people around you, of the streets you walk through. Asking parents and grandparents where they came from and how they arrived here. At first around 300 school children participated in this educational community sponsored by Bunge Foundation. Now the initiative is spreading across major parts of the South of Brazil.

14. Jalsa: Sofa’s in the Tradition of Yemen

Jalsa: Sofa’s in the Tradition of Yemen

Inspired by the Yemenite tradition of hosting large groups of friends, Israeli industrial designer Lidor Yaish designed the Jalsa sofa. Jalse in Yemenite means: large group of close friends. Jalsa can be utilized for standard seating, or it can be expanded to accommodate up to three times as many guests in a low seated arrangement. When expanding the sofa, three low coffee tables, reminiscent of traditional copper serving trays, can be utilized.

15. Heart Attack Grill - Burgers to Die for

Heart Attack Grill - Burgers to Die for

The Heart Attack Grill, in Phoenix, Arizona, is the most outrageous, politically-incorrect burger joint on this planet – and proudly and deliciously so. There is nothing but burgers – named after bypass surgeries, according to their prodigious sizes and stupendous caloric content - real fries, and “heavy” soft drinks. The waitresses are unashamedly sexy, dress in naughty nurses costumes and carry out mock “checks” on their “patients” before, during and after they’ve eaten, in order to see if they’re up to it. But it’s all done and taken in good humour and whole families enjoy frequenting it.
The creator and owner of this temple of excess is a doctor and a former nutritionist at that, who some 4 years ago simply gave up on trying to make people stick to this or that diet and decided to give them as good a time as can be had on the burger front, even if it may be a short one for some. 


Contact: Carl Rohde, +31 621 243 114, Tilburg, Netherlands (GMT +1)


Contact: Vincent Albers , +31 623 046 643, Amsterdam (GMT +1)

©2003-2008 Science of the Time, in creative partnership with Erwin van Lun (mensmerk.nl)