What happens when crossing the crazy streets of #Shanghai. In this 50sec video I attempt to illustrate how hectic and potentially dangerous it can be to cross the busy streets of Shanghai, even when the green light is on for Pedestrians. While crossing the street, I had 3 interruptions until I reached the other side, which is completely normal here - cars don’t tend to stop when lights are green for pedestrians. The 3rd interruption was a man on a motorbike, who almost ran me over as you can see in the video, he passed so close to me when I was already mid way through crossing the street.

On a similar note, I saw two people being run over by scooters today, while they were crossing the street on a green light for Pedestrians. Neither of the two scooters stopped to help them after the hit, it was quite a sad and shocking thing to observe. The pedestrians didn’t suffer any serious injuries, but they did remain on the floor for a little while until they managed to get up again. This seems to be a common occurrence in the streets of Shanghai, which unfortunately reminds me to take even more precaution when crossing any street in the world from now on. 

These huge culture differences from European countries like Sweden for example, where cars often let pedestrians cross the street when the lights are red for them, is very interesting, as differences are so vast between human attitudes. It reassures me to think we are fortunate to have the minimal respect for pedestrians in some European countries, where this is not an everyday scene. 

“Say Something Nice” - Improv Everywhere 

Another great ‘staging act’ by New York based Improv Everywhere.
Isn’t it interesting how at first with these kinds of public installations, now one at all wants to approach the ‘unidentified object/installation’, but once the first person speaks into the microfone, many other observe and follow. That is why I love these public acts so much, observing human nature & reactions is so interesting. 

Chopard is the official partner of Cannes Film Festival, and it also handcrafts the prestigious Palme d’Or trophy in its Geneva workshops, elegantly documented in this video. 

I’ve always loved ’ making-of’s ‘, behind the scenes footage. Love this one. Beautiful.

Joulies - Keep you’re beverage at the perfect temperature

This innovative product, started by two engineers Dave Petrillo and Dave Jackson, sits in the bottom of your cup or travel mug. Each Joulie has “a special non-toxic material sealed within the polished stainless steel shell.” That material melts at 140 degrees Fahrenheit. When it does, it absorbs thermal energy. And as the material solidifies again, it releases said energy. Voilá! Your coffee or tea cools to a drinkable temperature much more quickly and stays warm “twice as long.”

100 Joulies were made by hand they raised money on Kickstarter. The engineers’ initial goal was $9,500. They ended up raising more than $300,000…!  You can’t buy Joulies yet, but you can get on a mailing list via their website. When they are available, they’ll go for $50 for a set of five. Watch their case video for more info!
->Follow Joulies on Twitter.  // -> Follow Joulies on Facebook. 

—I actually have this problem EVERYDAY when I make a huge mug of tea/coffee and take it to my working space at Hyper Island… it’s way too hot when I put it down on my desk, and when i remember to have a sip, it’s gone cold!! Great idea.  

VIDEOGRAPHIC: The World in 2100

For the first time the UN has attempted to look as far ahead as 2100, using various assumptions about how fertility and mortality rates might change over the years. The average of these estimates suggests that the global population will cross 10 billion by 2085.

 Published by The Economist.

The new Moleskine Travel Collection

Moleskine has just released a line of beautiful, smart, utilitarian travel bags collection, resembling the eloquence & timeless style of their famous notebooks. This stop motion video, created by Dutch animator Rogier Wieland celebrates the launch of the new collection, simply titled ‘Reading, Writing and Travelling,’ is designed by the renowned Italian industrial designer Giulio Lacchetti.

Check out the new line of Bags on Moleskine’s website.

via Portable

The Hyper Island Hard Facts Video

This is the stop motion video I mentioned in my last post below, that Hyper Island would be releasing soon, and here it is!!  It was filmed during a whole afternoon in one of our lecture studios. Watch it and enjoy!

Credits go to:

Illustration & animation: Claudio Salas
Student: Robin Günther
Voice Over: Madeleine Fia Matsson

hyperisland.se/​stats

An orchestra of 200 old household objects: “The Stupid Orchestra”

Such an incredible idea, displayed beautifully and arranged like a symphony orchestra.  It is the result of  approximately 200 antique vacuums, mixers and washers are transformed into musical instruments. They form an ensemble that the conductor, harpsichordist and composer Michael Petermann, alias weiserrausch.de, has now completed after eight years of preparation: The Stupid Orchestra.

Because he wanted every machine to have a distinctive sound that the audience could discern in the symphony, he chose appliances designed between 1940 and 1975 (which meant a lot of picking through flea markets, specialty dealers and websites)

via Fast Company

Google’s New Like Button : +1

Nice new function introduced by Google, getting yet another step closer to Facebook’s kind of social interactivity. I actually predict this feature will be really successful. It seems to be super useful at least in theory presented in this great video, which communicates the core message & usability so well.

Twitter 5th anniversary video

Here is ESA’s astronaut Paolo Nespoli with Richard Branson, Hilary Clinton, Snoopdog, Martha Stewart and other celebrities from every field talking about how they use Twitter and how it’s such a powerful source of information.

Video by: @briggles, jennadawn & @jbuckhouse

For more information visit: www.discover.twitter.com

Follow Twitter on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/Twitter

IKEA launches exquisite ‘Art of Cooking’ Video Series 

On Tuesday I posted the IKEA cookbook Hembakat är Bäst, now the concept re-emerges again in the form of a video series named ‘Art of Cooking’. Blending aspects of a how-to video and product commercial, each video demonstrates quick and easy culinary methods from preparing sushi, prepping egg yolks, and making espresso. 

The same creative team behind the cookbook, Carl Kleiner and stylist Evelina Bratell produced the ten short videos to get viewers amped about the IKEA shopping experience, food, and eating. View all the videos here, on Carl Kleiners’ Vimeo Channelhttp://vimeo.com/20838317. 

Once again, with this project, IKEA shows their practical, simple, and clear way of how they do business! Maybe they could take this further and create some sort of cooking series that takes a new spin on how to cook, seeing as they use such simple techniques, making cooking seem as straight forward as it can be. 

Via PSFK