Rather than lament the passing of traditional values, beliefs and rituals, let’s invent ways to save them. Let’s examine the ‘dying’ practices we value and design new tools, strategies, and products to keep them (or the essence of them) alive.

For its 57th issue, Visionaire draws inspiration from the Smart Fortwo car.

Bruce Sterling points us to a remarkable and timely new term – “hand-me-up”. It’s the act of a member of a younger generation passing along newish, but out-dated technology to a member of an older generation.
Urban Dictionary’s definition:
Where the young generation in a family adopts and purchases new technology product at a fast rate, and old versions (that are in working order but are not up to current standards) of that technology product are given to the parents or older generations of family.
Commonly occurs multiple times on commodity technology gadgets, leaving your parents with many gadgets to play with.

Monocle Magazine have announced their annual index of most liveable cities. Zurich comes in top place mainly for its vast investment in transport; Copenhagen is second for its mix of metropolitan life, great healthcare, low crime rates and a relaxed vibe; at 3, Monocle describes Tokyo as the world’s most livable megapolis and praises the city’s commitment to plant 1 million trees; 4th is Munich which blends history and innovation with ease and is generally a good place to do business; and Helsinki comes 5th partly because it has no Starbucks. Here’s the full list:

The Onion ‘reports’ that we’re spending 90% of our waking hours staring at glowing rectangles…

Last night at London’s Sketch, Smirnoff held their first group of Masterclasses for anyone wanting to become or in the process of becoming ‘a Gentleman’. The ongoing series of classes include classic cocktail making from Tristan Stephenson, a top mixologist and Smirnoff Black Ambassador who demonstrates how to make the best Vodka martini and other cocktails along with advice on ingredients and glasswear. Featured last night was a pop-up barbershop where guests received a 15 minute personalised session from an employee of renowned salon Sharps using free skin care product from Hugo Boss and offering a few tips for future [...]

We recently joined Honda at the New York International Auto Show for the unveiling of a new Honda Element concept car.  Honda, in response to a growing demand for pet-friendly vehicles, has risen to the occasion and created a concept car specifically meant to address the needs of people who frequently travel with their pets:
Developed specifically for the Element, the Dog Friendly™ components demonstrate the potential for a dedicated pet restraint system designed to meet the needs of dog owners. A finalized version of the Dog Friendly Element is scheduled to debut this fall. Major components will likely include:

a cushioned [...]

The Spring 2009 issue of LTD is now available to the lucky few who can get their hands on it.  LTD Magazine is a limited edition lifestyle magazine, which is distributed exclusively to a pre-selected group of tastemakers and available at premium boutiques around the world.
Printing at most 10,000 copies of each issue, subscriptions ($100 / 4 issues) are by invitation only and must be approved by LTD. The content of the magazine covers a wide range of topics including brands, products, fashion, photography, design and interviews. The print magazine is a publication of LTD+, a New York boutique marketing [...]

There is so much serious, snooty editorial about fashion, we always appreciate when Vice comes out with its Fashion issue. Their most recent is no different. From the interview which hails Kai Kühne as a renegade fashion star before getting him to admit that he doesn’t understand fashion, to the article which claims in all seriousness that epaulettes (those ornament-like shoulder accessories on army uniforms) are the future of fashion, to the amazing cover featuring a wild pig (see above), the whole thing is a breath of fresh air.
Vice Magazine: The Fashion Issue 2009

David Scarfenberg at The Boston Globe has written a thought provoking article that ponders the idea that “maybe the slackers had it right after all.” He exalts the often vilified subset of society who have chosen to lead scaled back, simpler lives and sees an unexpected benefit to their slacking, in the fact that a recession won’t be affecting their lives so much.
He explains:
WE MOVED to San Francisco and Brooklyn and Mission Hill. We jumped from job to job. Put off marriage. Never bought a place. And we never heard the end of it. We were drifters, they said. [...]

Graphic designer and infamous graffiti writer Kunie Martins stars in an interview by Austin Peters which gives the viewer a fascinating look inside his head. More commonly known by his tag,  “Earsnot“, he shares his creative and lifestyle philosophy, and how and why he does the work that he does. It’s a truly fascinating look behind an unbridled creative force who is living his life on his own terms, consequences, rules and others, be dammed. Check out the video below.
earsnot
[via Freshness]

Burnwater, a Philippine-based design firm, has teamed up with a lifestyle magazine (Rogue), a literary publication (Story), a recording studio (Wombworks) and a bookstore chain (Fully Booked) to produce a streaming HD video site called Pelicola.tv (”pelikula” is Tagalog for “movie”). The site aims to be an insider’s guide to the country’s cultural hotspots, influential tastemakers and local music scene.
The site’s adfilm revenue model notably follows the growing trend of quality content as advertising, and was admittedly inspired by BMW’s “The Hire” series and the Cartier Love campaign. Other companies can get involved by working with Story to create sponsored short films that will be featured [...]

Uh oh. Parents, you’d better lock the kids up and throw away the camphones – it seems that the younger generation is up to not-so-innocent hijinks online. The recent “Sex and Tech” (download the PDF here) survey by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com interviewed 1,280 teens and young adults ages 13 to 26 about their online habits -and their findings are indeed concerning. The survey found that rising numbers of teens are sharing revealing photographs and boldly flirting online. These behaviors, the argument goes, are ones they would most likely not engage in in [...]

It seems it’s never too early to get your kids started on sharing their thoughts and emotions. Designer and expectant father Corey Menscher has created the Kickbee, a device worn by pregnant mothers that senses a baby’s movements inside the womb and transmits them onto digital networks.  Realizing that fathers don’t have the same intimate physical connection to their unborn children, Menscher wanted a means of experiencing greater awareness and believes that this technology can do just that.
The Java application receives the sensor values and analyzes them. When a kick event is detected, a Twitter message is posted via the Twitter [...]

Movie producer Peter Samuelson worked with students from the Art Center College of design to create a portable shelter option for homeless people. The EDAR (everyone deserves a roof) unit was the result. During the day, the EDAR functions like a high tech shopping cart, and can be used to store possesions and at night it folds out into a spacious, one person tent.
The LA Times reports:
With a donation from former EBay President Jeff Skoll, he took the design to Precision Wire Products, a manufacturer of shopping carts in Commerce. Precision produced a succession of prototypes, at least nine, to [...]