'SWITCH HANGER' - Light Switch

OFF, the light switch hook, provides a hanging function when in the OFF position.  It is a fully functional light switch.  It was designed to persuade people to use less energy by providing a power saving incentive.  You can either hang something on it or turn a light ON - you can't do both.

2009 Graphis Gold Award Winner

Rinser Toothbrush with Power Fountain

Tap water into a fountain for rinsing after brushing.
No disposable cups. No glass to wash or take up counter space.  No changing hands to cup water.  And, no more putting your head in the sink.  Just aim the fountain where you want the water to be.

Uses GreenerStep Snap Replacement Heads

Pop out the old bristle section and pop in a new one so your Rinser Brush will last a long time and you won't have to buy a new toothbrush every three months.

Prototype Rinser
Our little hand held fountain jets high with beautifully slow laminar flow.

Eurostar Paris-London by Christopher Jenner

Born in Cape Town South Africa, still his own main daily inspiration, the British Christopher Jenner has imposed his presence in interior designers’ world, especially thanks to his unmistakable artisanal approach and the massive recourse to the microscopic detail applied to his work. As a matter of fact, the latest two years have been marked by a series of luxurious masterpieces that always stand out of mass products’ crowd: a basic but incredibly definite and precise approach to art, constant celebration of perfection through both the progressive use of technology and the replication of nature’s beauty, which is thought to be, according to Jenner’s words “the ultimate designer”.

Stanford University Offers Free Entrepreneurial Courses

Have you or your students ever wanted a deeper understanding of how their biomimetic designs might become reality? If so, you might want to take advantage of one of the free online courses being offered by Stanford University this fall. As reported in the September 7 issue of the Stanford Report, 16 online courses will be taught this fall.

Course topics range from creativity and technology entrepreneurship, to finance and algorithm design, to writing in the sciences. Anyone in the world with access to a computer is welcome to take the courses. Courses are hosted on a variety of platforms and utilize different combinations of video lectures, discussion forums, teamwork, problem sets, and peer assessment in highly interactive learning environments. The full course list is available online, with links to individual course and registration details.

Although students will not earn Stanford credit for courses, they will receive a statement of accomplishment for any courses they complete successfully.

A few of the courses have already begun, but most are scheduled to begin on or after September 

By Megan Schuknecht 

Hitachi invents quartz glass storage capable of preserving data for millions of years

Hitachi has managed to develop a long-term data storage solution it claims can preserve information for hundreds of millions of years. The technology, announced earlier this week in Tokyo, utilizes a high-precision laser to embed dots of binary code across a tiny piece of quartz glass. From there, an optical microscope (paired with a computer capable of deciphering the imprint) can be used to recover the original data. Hitachi's solution would be able to survive nearly any doomsday scenario you can imagine: the 2-centimeter square of quartz glass is essentially fireproof — the company heated one sample at 1,000 degrees Celsius for two hours and still managed to successfully recover the information etched inside.

That's not to say Hitachi doesn't have any hurdles to overcome. Storage capacity is one such problem, with the multi-layered quartz glass maxing out around 40MB per square inch. That puts in on par with your basic CD-R, but nowhere close to spacious (yet far less reliable) external hard drives. Still, the technology makes for a fascinating way to archive important historical and cultural data.

Ceramic Speakers

Simple materials

The Ceramic Speakers are made from porcelain, cork, and Baltic birch. Each material is minimally finished, left to add its natural beauty to the design. The included amplifier is made from stainless steel sheet metal, with a cast iron base and paulownia volume slider. Aside from the electronic components, plastic is completely avoided in the system’s construction.


Intense detail

Typical speakers are designed to play even the most compressed or poorly recorded track. They gloss over the details that give high-resolution music its depth. The Ceramic Speakers’ custom-made drivers, porcelain and cork enclosures, and Tripath amplifier reveal every nuance. They will show the difference between lossless and mp3 files, and will unlock vinyl’s richness.


Never proprietary

Binding posts, 1/8″ jacks, and banana plugs have been perfected through years of electronic design. It would be arrogant to replace these simple, effective standards with proprietary connectors. Due to their open design, the Ceramic Speakers work with nearly all high-quality components. The terminals also have a utilitarian beauty that the design emphasizes rather than hides.


System includes:

- One year warranty on all electronics and enclosures
- Two ceramic speakers
- Amplifier based on the Tripath 2024 T-Amp with gold-plated binding posts, 1/8″ input, cast iron base
- 16-gauge oxygen-free copper speaker cables with banana plug termination
- Interconnects for RCA and 1/8″ sources
- 120V-240V power supply and adapter (works with US, EU, and Australia/ Asia power mains)


Specifications:

Output: 15 W/ channel Sensitivity: 89 dB
Frequency Range: 70 Hz – 20 kHz
Impedance: 4 Ohm
Driver Materials: Paper diaphragm, aluminum phase plug, neodymium magnet, die-cast basket

Learn more from the Yanko Design review of the Ceramic Speakers by Joey Roth.

GreenDesignTV: BIOMIMICRY IS THE NEW REVOLUTION IN DESIGN-READ

GreenDesignTV: BIOMIMICRY IS THE NEW REVOLUTION IN DESIGN-READ: In the world envisioned by science author Janine Benyus, a locust's ability to avoid collision within a roiling cloud of its brethren ...