Category: Design

Adult Swim Bumps

One of the things that got my attention other than the cartoons (that Harvey, such a crack up) on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim were the little clips between the shows and commercials. The ‘bumpers’ as they are called, were always something to look forward to. Many times I wish I could have learned more about how wrote them and where to get the music they played. Good thing the BumpWorthy page is around to keep track of all that stuff. I’ve been looking through the old bumps and reliving the fond ephemeral memories of the non sequiturs that would snap me awake while I would be waiting for Sealab 2021 or ATHF to come back on.

BumpWorthy.com – adult swim bumps

Ballistics Recovery Parachute

 

It’s a toss up on what the coolest recent invention has been for civil aviation. Its either the GPS or the recovery parachute. Most people know what a GPS is and might have even look forward to using one however a recovery parachute is something that you don’t want to use unless you are in quite a fix. What is it you might ask? Well, its a device that mounts onto a light aircraft that will fire a parachute out of a mortar mounted on your plane. Why would anyone want to do that? Well, the idea is that if you stall, your engine quits, or even if the pilot has a heart attack the ‘chute will arrest the forward motion of the plane and gently land you on the ground safely. So far the system has saved 184 lives. Thats quite an impressive record. It’s too bad you can’t mount one on a commercial jet (the device would be about half the size of the jet !) but you can use it on small aircraft and even ultralights.

[via Flight Nest]

 Ballistics Recovery Parachute

Toy Ray Guns

Classic Raygun 

The 1950’s were a golden age of science fiction. Books, movies and most of all TV brought strange alien worlds, space ships and evil aliens to people everywhere. And what’s better to deal with an evil alien monster than a trusty ray gun? Over at the Patent Room, The Art of Industrial Design they have collected a bunch of patent drawings (yep, they were patented before being mass produced) of classic ray guns and a bunch of other thing (architecture, trains, cars just to name a few). As an added bonus you can buy prints of up to 24"x36" or each patent drawing.

PatentRoom.com: Early Design and Illustration | Toy ray guns

Perfect Pinhole Camera System

Perfect Pinhole Camera

I wish I could find more information on this item. All I know is that it’s a pinhole camera system that includes variable focal lengths (wide, normal, telephoto) by using different length bodies, multiple slide in pinholes (0.2/0.25/0.3/0.35/0.4 mm) to give it different F stops, comes with different shutters (bulb and a timed one that looks like it’s a gravity shutter), and that it takes 120 film.
The site the mini review is on is kind of odd, it’s one of those little niche Japanese bars that has a certain twist on their business. Its called "Camera & Bar Antiquary". Cameras and booze, sounds like a cool place to hang out at. Good drink and walls of high quality photos. Stop by and have a drink and talk about your hobby with fellow patrons. I need to find one of those here.. or open my own. Hum…

Perfect Pinhole Camera System

Intel’s Great ‘Leap’ Forward

 

No more ‘Intel inside’, now it’s ‘Leap ahead’. New logo (I like mine better), new slogan, same old chips.

The image above is just my own take on they ‘leap ahead’ slogan, it sounds a lot like the ‘Great Leap Forward‘ that was the campaign of the Chinese revolution back in the late ’50’s.  As long as Intel doesn’t announce any ‘Glorious five year plans’ I think it’s going to be ok.

Intel Unveils New Brand Identity

Ark III?

Man, does this look like the Ark from Ark II or what? Well, this won some design awards 

The concept of the GMC PAD is that of an urban loft with mobility. Featuring a diesel-electric hybrid system for propulsion, the engine also serves as a generator for the onboard power grid. The media rich environment is unlike any other, and comes with an endless variety of entertainment, information and security options.

[via Core 77] 

2006 Design Challenge : An LA Adventure