buzz off makes insect repellent clothing by permeating fabric with permethrin, a pesticide that can endure 25 washings (the ‘product life’ according to their site). this pesticide is only a ‘possible’ human carcinogen according to the EPA, for whom this is the only approved repellent clothing today. now that repellents can be part of clothes, […]
Author Archives: leo
roll-your-own crosswalk
a great invention in our on-going battle to take back the streets: the portable zebra crossing allows you to take possession of the asphalt you need to cross, regardless of whether you’re allowed to. via connor
Posted in guerilla
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living plastic
when i was in west palm this past weekend i saw these blue plastic bubbles washed up on the shore – they looked like shriveled balloons, only they were portuguese man-of-war: although these are highly poisonous, they look just like the plastic bags that wash ashore and fill the oceans. two things: have they evolved […]
Posted in livingbreathing
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sewer king
rotorooter is sponsoring a contest in which this pimped out toilet is the ultimate prize – enough said. via porcelain
Posted in possessed products
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research-o-matic
yahoo’s new pipes allow you to play a little more with the internet by creating your own aggregators of web content (i.e. find an apartment for rent near a park) through a quasi-intuitive graphical interface where the sources of information, operators and user inputs are windows connected by pipes. the programming language works kind of […]
Posted in visualization
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hair machines
when one of your products is described as “it does some treatment on balding head and over-secrete fat pelt” (the ozone active oxygen biopelt, first from the left) it seems to follow that you are selling image over content. and that’s why you need design: to make something with very little technological differentiation (ok, none) […]
Posted in possessed products
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tracking sketch
brandon sullivan has invented a drawing machine that makes a unique piece of art as it is shipped – essentially a pencil-studded ball in a paper-lined box. it was inspired by his earlier vibratory drawing machine, a far cry from tinguely’s originals. what is interesting about this new method is that it could be functional […]
Posted in possessed products
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empathy machine
swamp’s improvised empathetic device is a close cousin of philip k. dick’s empathy machine: a way to stay in contact with humanity’s greater suffering through direct physical empathy – in this case administered by an armband with a needle on a solenoid. the ied pricks you every time a soldier dies in iraq – presumably […]
Posted in product design
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