CH x Puma Eight-Speed Urban Mobility Bike and World Bicycle Relief

by Ami Kealoha

When Puma recently sent us one of their Vexed Generation and Biomega-designed eight-speed urban mobility bicycles, we thought we'd do a little something special with it. We tasked in-house creative Seth Brau with customizing the bike and he went at it, covering the bike with shapes and patterns in a scheme of primary colors. The upshot is a little tribal, a little crazy and totally Seth Brau. Professionally clear-coated, the artwork will last through all your sweet jumps and epic rides. We decided to auction off the bike and donate all the proceeds (it retails for $1,600) to a worthwhile bicycle-related charity, World Bicycle Relief. Head over to eBay and start bidding on this one-of-a-kind bicycle. (See more images after the jump.

With the "quintessential Puma characteristics of fun and functionality," the bike has an eight-speed internal Shimano hub, integrated wire lock system, twin disc brakes and semi-fold design. It's versatile and has a unique frame design, setting new standards for city travel. The internal low-maintenance Shimano hub makes shifting between gears smoothly and seamlessly, allowing cyclists to climb hills or valleys with ease. This element makes the transition from city to countryside seamless with a simple flick of the thumb.

The bike also features chunky tires and a quick, easy and smart semi-folding mechanism that promises maximum convenience. This easy-folding design makes the bike a perfect travel companion featuring all the benefits of a folding bike without compromising the style or structure. Additional features are found all over the bike.

Twin-disc brakes stop the bike before something else does, providing the ultimate braking power in stop-and-go city traffic. A stylish and lightweight luggage rack holds up to 12kg (26 lbs) of cargo—perfect for transporting your essentials throughout the city. The Puma is also equipped with an integrated wire lock system that's virtually theft-proof. If stolen and ridden without the wire, the loyal bike will self-destruct.

World Bicycle Relief provides people in developing nations and disaster relief situations with access to independence and livelihood through the power of bicycles. They provide culturally appropriate, new bicycles to areas of the world in need where bicycles can really improve the quality of life. These bikes provide access to schools, goods and services including water, food, medicine, hygiene, clothing and tools. They help connect them to health care, education and economic development opportunities.

Simple, sustainable transportation is an essential element in disaster assistance and poverty relief and bicycles fulfill basic transportation needs by immediately providing access to health care, education and economic development. World Bicycle Relief is also constantly working with manufacturers to improve existing designs, sourcing locally as much as possible, at the very least including assembly and coordinated distribution.

Not only do they provide bicycles to areas where they are much needed and valuable to the way of life but they include comprehensive training on bicycle maintenance, enabling communities to continually maintain their new life-improving bicycles. What's more, World Bicycle Relief isn't just about the bikes; they also teach important life skills and disease prevention education to entire communities.

The World Clock Project

by Watchismo

The World Clock Project is a website that displays the current time (in your time zone) using photos of clocks shot around the globe. They're always looking for more shots to fill the empty time-slots and anyone can contribute images (preferably) of public clocks. Submit either using Flickr or email (methods described below).

The brainchild of Shawn Liu and Danny Wen, two New York-based members of the digirati, they say, "We find it intriguing to see a picture of a clock that is located thousands of miles away, but one which tells us the exact time of where we are right now. So we've set out to collect as many pictures of clocks as possible from as many different people as possible from around the world. Our goal is to gather enough pictures to account for all the minutes of the day. Upon accomplishing that, we will create a "digital picture clock" for the community."

Email your clock photos to clocks [at] worldclockproject [dot] org or, if you're already a Flickr user, join them on the World Clock Project Flickr group. See more detailed instructions on their site.

Baska-Jon Sweet Talk Chocolates

by Fiona Killackey

Finally there's a chocolate that will love us as much as we love it. (Well, at least the label will.) For future brides, gift basket companies and discerning-eyed males, the super cute, minimally-packaged Baska-Jon Sweet Talk range is a set of 24 bite-size milk chocolates with eight different cheekily romantic messages printed in Helvetica on the wrapper.

Although an Australian company, Baska-Jon's Sweet Talk range is produced by Union Edel Chocolade of The Netherlands and can be delivered anywhere in the world. International orders take 10 working days and those made within Australia take two-three working days. Be your own Valentine this year and log on to Baska-Jon to get a box for A$6.

Monome

by Tim Yu

Since the multi-use controller Monome first came out a few years back, it's slowly gained a cult following thanks to its attractive and flexible design. If you're unfamiliar with the device, the Monome is an ultra-tactile, interactive and adaptable MIDI interface that takes advantage of open-source software to manipulate any number of musical parameters.

With a pleasing grid-based design, the programmable buttons function as a drum machine, looper, slider or pretty much anything else you'd want to configure. In fact, the Monome's multi-touch interface was around long before the iPhone and some versions even have a built-in accelerometer, adding a whole new dimension to music-making capabilities.

For either Strat-lovers who dabble with electronics or strictly laptop rockers, it's become an asset in the digital music world. Because it requires a bit of athleticism on the part of the musician, it livens up otherwise uneventful electronic performances where artists just press play. The recent release of experimental glitch-popper Daedelus' all-Monome album on 22 January 2008 proves there's plenty of untapped potential. Check it out and purchase it at Alpha Pup or U.K. iTunes for £8.

Like any instrument, the Monome takes practice but there's now a slew of software that's been written for it out there and some musicians have really been cleaning up their chops. Enough of the boring words, it's something best appreciated live—have a look at another video. Purchase the two fifty six (16x16 buttons) for $1,400, one twenty eight (16x8 buttons) for $800 and sixty four (8x8 buttons) for $400 at Monome.

Jane Abma

by Lost At E Minor

Australian illustrator and designer Jane Abma produces detailed illustrations that capture the personality and unique visual sensibilities of the subjects she draws. Her work has always had an inherent sense of balance about it, but now it's tempered and matured with a very selective and impressive use of color.