Be Smart

I'm a sucker for pretty much all home decor that looks like it was inspired by the 1970s disco era, but even I would draw the line at a flashing dance floor in the middle of my living room. On grounds of cost if nothing else.

A good compromise would be this groovy multicolored light-up table which looks expensive but is actually a DIY project involving a $50 Ikea table and a lot of LEDs.



Make one of these (or get someone to make one for you), then you can turn off the lights, turn on the table, crank your Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, kick back with a snowball (that's a cocktail, in case you're too young to remember) and you have yourself a party.

Just don't try to dance on the table, will you?

Via Unpluggd.

When Marc Stephens and his wife Jo decided on a home birth for their fourth child, the expectant father thought it wouldn't hurt to watch a few YouTube videos about worst-case scenarios: what to do if your midwife doesn't arrive in time, that kind of thing.

When Jo woke up one day with very strong contractions and that worst-case scenario came true, he had to step up to the plate and try and remember everything he had learned from the Internet.
"The videos gave me peace of mind. I think I would have coped, but watching videos made things much easier," Mr Stephens told the BBC.

Thanks to Marc's help, Baby Gabriel (5lbs 5oz) arrived safely and both Mom and boy are doing well. Although I suspect Dad may still be a little dazed...

Welcome to the next generation of shooting video. Pure Digital, maker of the popular Flip Ultra Camcorder has just released the Flip Ultra HD. The compact cutie is designed for one thing and one thing only -- to take record awesome video on the fly with amazing playback quality. Best of all, it does it with relative ease and doesn't break your pocket while you're getting that all-important money shot.

The recent high profile bankruptcies of retailers Circuit City and Steve & Barry's meant the closure of 567 US big box consumer electronic and media stores and 175 mall based clothing stores, respectively. Further, sub-prime mortgages fueled a housing bubble, whose aftermath leaves real estate developments half sold, or worse half built. In the wake of these events, Ellen Dunham-Jones, AIA, and June Williamson have recently published the timely, and on-point book, "Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs" published by John Wiley & Sons. Dunham-Jones directs the architecture program at Georgia Tech and studies urban development and architectural theory. Williamson teaches at the City College of New York, and consults on urban and town planning.

Now that we think of it, it seems rather unfair that the advancements in the field of navigation systems have long been confined to cars, while their less endowed vehicular kin - such as bicycles, for instance - have been subjected to scant attention. Well, the Velocity Cycle Route Guide is a totally cool design concept that has been drawn up by designer Ross Kemp, and exclusively for the bicycle.

Ths futuristic-looking gadget can be hooked to your computer to download the desired route maps and then clamped to the bike's handlebar. And that just about ends your intervention. As you ride along, the Velocity GPS system lets you know the directions you need - by voice as well as by the map displayed on its screen. Taking into account that biking is almost always associated with sports or fitness, the gadget also gives you performance data that you can analyse on the PC. Personally, not only do I think that this is the most good-looking navigation system that I have seen, but I also see several bicycle enthusiasts queuing up to get one, if and when this product gets on the shelves.

Via Yanko Design.