GameOver

by Evan Orensten

GameOver is a series of stop animation videos that use people to reenact classic video games Pong and Space Invaders. Created by Guillaume Reymond, founder of the Swiss design firm NOTsoNOISY, the videos were filmed perfomance art-style in front of an audience.

via Spear

LVHRD Bi-Fold Series No. 1: Paul Pope and Mark Denardo

by m ss ng p eces

LVHRD, a NYC-based organization behind ongoing party-slash-competitions (like a vending machine eating contest, a dance-off called "Battle of the Moves," and a New Year's eve Paul Pope with musical innovator Mark Denardo for an evening of audio-visual inspiration. We also met up with some LVHRD members to get their impressions and help tell the backstory of New York's nouveau cultural salon.

Bam Clothing

by Evan Orensten

The technology of making cloth from bamboo is surprisingly recent. Developed by Beijing University in 2002 companies are starting to make clothing using this wonder material. In addition to its organic and sustainable benefits, bamboo fabric feels incredibly soft. It is antibacterial, antifungal and antistatic, properties which are retained even after repeated washings. The weave is exceptionally good at wicking moisture away from the body, and the fabric will keep you a few degrees warmer in winter and cooler in summer. And it's biodegradable. Got your attention?

Bam Clothing is an early adopter of the bamboo clothing movement. All of their products are made using bamboo fabric and natural dyes, and are made in a factory with ethical standards by fairly treated employees. Their bamboo is 100% naturally grown in China, is sustainable, and is grown without pesticides or fertilizer. And for every shirt you buy, they buy 10 sq m of South American rainforest and plant a tree.

Their current products include t-shirts and athletic shirts for men and women. Based in London, they ship worldwide.

Nokia E70: Hands On

by Josh Rubin

It took a week, but I'm now in love with my Nokia E70. I have always been a fan of the butterfly form-factor, but out of the box the new version of Nokia's S60 software felt as convoluted as Windows. After reconfiguring the menus, installing some great applications, finding an acceptable theme and getting it to sync with my MacBook Pro, I feel all moved in and totally at home. This mobile phone is a powerhouse—tons of memory, great camera, hi speed data (including WiFi) and a robust email client.

The E70 is not yet available here in the U.S. so I resorted to the world's largest international mobile phone marketplace, eBay. The handset I purchased was delivered directly from Hong Kong and therefore has the Asian localization of the S60 software. I'm not yet sure how different this build is from the European and pending American versions, but I'm sure there's some variance between regions. Getting the basics set-up was a breeze thanks to Nokia's settings via SMS tool which promptly delivered the correct Internet and picture messaging settings for my carrier, T-mobile. The next step was to get the phone working with iSync on my Mac—it's not yet officially supported but can still be done by installing the Nova Media iSync plugin or hacking iSync yourself—either seems to work properly to get Address Book and iCal to sync with the phone.

Once all my content was there the next step was to make the UI easier to look at—the default color and style theme is way too corporate for me. A couple quick Google searches reveal numerous sites for downloading themes, but finding one to my liking was a bit tricky. I finally found this clean and simple gray theme, which I downloaded and installed. The fact of the matter is that I'd prefer to design my own theme which is doable with the Nokia Theme Studio, I'll just have to steal my bookkeeper's PC because it's not Mac compatible. The S60 software also supports a lot of customization to the menu structures. Once I changed the folder structure and switched to a list view I felt more comfortable (see above).

The E70 comes with Real Player, Adobe Reader and Flash Player, but there are a few more applications I can't live without. Foremost is Google Local Mobile which supports all the same look-up and mapping features as the Web version. I then added Shozu which easily uploads photos to Flickr, and Widsets which is an excellent Web / mobile tool for getting different content on the handset. The browser on this handset is pretty fantastic, though. Pages render quickly, scrolling around a large page is facilitated with a mini navigator view, and moving forward and back between viewed pages is handled with a thumbnail viewer so you can move quickly without having to wait for pages to load (right). What's also great is the ability to use WiFi networks for data transfer whenever they're available.

Obviously I like this phone, but there are still a few bugs that need to be worked out. The biggest of which is that it doesn't seem to be compatible with the Bluetooth kit in my car, which is a problem for hands-free use. Another is the messaging application, which seems to hang and misbehave when there is no network coverage available. Speaking of network access, it won't connect properly to encrypted WiFi networks, so for now I just hop on to the open ones. Smaller, but still frustrating is that the address book will only show entries with last name first—there's a setting to change this but it doesn't work. All of this should be worked out sometime soon and available in a software update at a Nokia Experience Center (more of which are scheduled to open this year).

Blurry photos of the device in-hand after the jump.

Origen 99.9%

by Ami Kealoha

On vacation you want to try the local cuisine, but what is the local cuisine? In Barcelona that problem is solved at Origen 99.9%, a restaurant and retail shop with three locations that specializes in “la cocina Catalana” or the Catalan cooking. Many of the dishes, such as the traditional "Little Octopuses With Chocolate" and a leek and almond soup made from a medieval recipe, are ones you may not find elsewhere.

Several times a year Origen 99.9% publishes a menu-magazine (in Spanish and English) that can also be downloaded and includes recipes, photographs of each dish and stories behind your meal. Articles in the current edition cover everything from pumpkin sausage to hollow "air doughnuts" and the history of the first cafes in Spain.

After dining head to the shop next door and pick out a little something to bring to home with you. Chocolates, jam, honey, olive oil, and wine are just a sampling of the specialties available. Origen 99.9% is the tastiest cultural education you are likely to encounter.

by Amy Sherman

Shuttle Containers

by Ami Kealoha

Stefan Diez' Shuttle containers fall into the category of "Practical Yet Elegant." Interchangable lids (in either porcelain or plastic) with rubber seals switch up the function of of the dishwasher- and microwave-safe borosilicate (think thin Pyrex) glass containers, which come in five different sizes. Produced by Rosenthal-Thomas, uses for the cylinders include airtight storage, drip-free cruets, self-closing carafes, and an ergonomic, rotating juicer. Attention to "the language of shape" and a palate restricted to grey and white make for eye-pleasing aesthetics as well.