This is Andre Sousa, a young graduate in Design from Portugal, applying for an internship: “I am extremely communicative, brimming with initiative and self-motivation and more organised and far-seeing than the Secretary of State for Economic Planning… Also, I have a ‘guru-like’ command of all soft wares, including some that have not even been invented, plus a mastery of 17 languages, including 5 dead ones and 6 dialects of as yet undiscovered peoples”. The company did not react (yet), but several others appreciated the point Andre wants to make.

It is bike concept for 2030, winning London’s Future City Mobility Contest this year. It is a bike that stores energy when you pedal it. When you do not want to pedal anymore the stored energy will transform your bike into an electric scooter. Until you want to use the pedals again. Additional idea: the energy you have stored with your bike will entitle you for free public transport if you choose to do so later on.

Design is in this world to make us happy. Full stop. Sometimes its greatness lies in making transparent what contemporary life means, and at the same time making this life more easy, more elegant, more efficient. Like the example above. But also look at the bottom of these written words: two more examples of transparent cool design. Transparent indeed!

In a recent, popular series of blog posts, Italian journalist Dario Olivero articulates his impressions of a travel across Japan. During these travels he is seeking the places, the flavors and the emotions of Haruki Murakami‘s literature. Nobody evokes Tokyo as a metropolis of mystery in the way Murakami does, and most of his readers “feel” they know the city well through his books. Murakami’s novels are often a suspension of disbelief between magic and dream, where mysteries unwind in parallel narrative lines. Set in a Japan that comprises the animistic tradition of ghosts and yesterday’s pachinko game halls, Murakami’s stories are indefinable and undefined. They however are built on the tension of storytelling from the first to the last line, and it is through the power of words, only words, that such miracle of aesthetic - and sometimes ecstatic - sensation is achieved by the Japanese master. Basic implication: Storytelling is the fine art that holds the key to tomorrow’s media content.

Due to the modification of the Turkish Constitution the use of the veil at school is no longer forbidden. As everyone knows this caused an intense turmoil, because the government is now showing to be more Islamic oriented. But a minority within the young generations of the Islamic community seems to have found a special balance: they wear the veil and dress with very modern and colourful clothes. They already have a nickname: Islamic rockers.

By Hae In Lee, Seoul: ‘Time Wash’ is a soap bar, designed by two Korean designer, Shin Su Joung and Byun Min Joung. The soap bars have the form of a tear. On the soap surface are messages inscribed, like ‘As time goes by everything’s gone’ or ‘Time is a great healer.’

In Cold War Kids’ music video the user can control all the band members. He can control what kind of guitar the guitar-player uses, and the way the singer is singing. Etcetera. The four band members have recorded four versions of the song, so it’s possible for you to construct sixteen versions of the single. http://www.mtvmusic.com/artist/coldwarkids.jhtml
Further: in Children Collide - Chosen Armies’ video clip the user can control the camera and zoom in on the different band members. Even more special, you can spin the camera around 360 degrees. http://www.childrencollide.com/
Lastu but not least: Julian Perretta - ride my star. For this video you need a computer with a webcam and a blank sheet of paper. Hold the piece of paper up in front of the lens and click PLAY on Julian Perreta’s website. The videoclip will start playing on the sheet of paper the user is holding - even if you are walking around the room.
http://www.julianperretta.com/ride_my_star/

Mr. Koji Suzuki is a well-known cult horror Japanese author. Worldwide he is known for the Hollywood film “The Ring”. His new novel titled “Drop” was released this Summer in Japan, in a “toilet roll” format, priced at JPN 210.
It is marketed as Koji Suzuki’s bathroom-reading horror novel, and has also a strap line of “the most scary toilet paper”. Koji Suzuki’s latest novel apparently features happenings in public toilets. The novel itself consists of 10 paragraphs per chapter, 9 chapters in total so I guess that it can be read fairly quickly while in toilet.

“Your body contains the most effective medicine for treating almost all kinds of ailments or illness.” This kind of wisdom you can find now in many guidebooks teaching wellness, meditation and health for the Chinese. They are the practical-philosophical bestsellers in many Chinese bookshops – but also pretty popular on online book selling platforms such as dangdang.com (www.dangdang.com). The philosophy is not against medication. But its belief in a healthy lifestyle is firm. Such as getting to sleep before 10:30pm. Such as receiving a specific acupressure massage as the best ailment-killer.

In Taipei, Taiwan dogs act like models in specially dedicated dog fashion shows. They wear funky bikins, striped bathing suits or dotted minidresses. The movement is spreading worldwide, not in the least over the richer parts of Asia, but also in the metropolitans of South America.

TED is a non-profit organization that, founded in 1984 in the United States, functions as a conference for three areas: Technology, Entertainment and Design. As the years went by, the topics have expanded to include Business, Science and Global Issues. Today, the TED world includes: an annual conference held in Long Beach, California; a global conference held in Oxford, England; the TED Talks video website; the TED Prize awards, which offer US$ 100,000 annually to people who demonstrate a non-conventional point of view and a vision that may transform the world; the TED Active, a more participatory immersion and the TEDx, a smaller version of the conference for other countries and locations. This year, the TED world will also include TED India.

Doga, practicing yoga with your dog. For new ways to have very conscious animal owning experiences!

The shoes and backpack on the images are just two examples of Ukrainian artist Bob Basset’s work. Bob says it best when he calls his creations a “World of You Can’t Even Imagine Things”. The objects he makes are extremely varied and you can hardly leave one feeling disinterested.
http://bobbasset.com/
http://bob-basset.livejournal.com/

Having group parties with friends and friends of friends who already have the H1N1 flu. This is actually happening in the UK and USA already, but might go global – as long as the Mexican Flu does not become really pandemic and dangerous.

Click on the link and do the attention test at YouTube. It is amazing and telling. It convincingly shows how clever and ignorant you are at the same time.