Let me ride

Well I got an email today from one of my triathlon buddies, informing me about bamboo bikes! It seems that bamboo is strong enough to make road bike frames and even mountain bike frames.



You will notice that these bikes are not entirely constructed from bamboo and require- additional carbon or aluminum parts, but I still love the idea of substituting artificial man made parts with one of nature’s strongest plant. I think these bikes are really beautiful on an aesthetic level, but am really sold on the fact that they work as well—if not better than carbon bikes!




After doing some research I stumbled across the website of Brano Meres, a very skilled mechanical engineer, photographer and freelance industrial designer (you can see why he might find it difficult to find enough time in the day for all his projects). The images shown here are his creations and you will want to read his website, which not only discusses how he makes them but also gives updates to the condition of the bike as he rode it over a period of 5 years. I have a lot of respect for those who can merge beauty and functionality together so well.


The story that started my search of bamboo bikes here and one other blog story here.

"When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.”

- Emo Philips

The Robogames are here!

To appease the geek inside us all, the Robogames are back in SF! They rumble (with fire), play Connect Four, an oh yes, dance. And some, like the ones above, are pretty sweet-looking. Personally, I’m in the market for the one that hunts down and debilitates mosquitoes and spammers (uh-huh, mosquitoes and spammers are of the same species as far as I’m concerned).

Helios House

I was driving through LA recently and happened upon this shocker of a gas station (on the corner of Olympic and Robertson). It's a British Petroleum venture to enhance the gasoline consumer experience and to showcase some overall functional and structural sustainability. The design strategically selected materials, lighting and plumbing methods to limit environmental impact. Helios House exceeds current environmental standards for on-site water collection and uses 16 percent less electricity than traditional stations, says BP.

Coined a “living laboratory,” this spot also serves as an educational center, in which specially trained employees actually distribute to the unsuspecting driver guides to greener living. Not a bad way to spread the word!

Designing babies?

Today MSN covered the American Society for Reproductive Medicine's conference in Washington D.C. At the same time there has been a conference here in Europe called R.E.S.C.U.E.S that was organized by The European Stem Cell Science and Eucation Society.

The ASRM conference focused on designing babies, while RESCUES focused on non-embryonic reproductive developments as well as same-sex reproduction.

I'm not sure if all of you are interested in stem cell research,but I read absolutely everything I can get a hold of in this topic. Perhaps therefore I found it a bit disappointing when I discovered that ASRM covered the topic of "designing babies". However, it makes for good conversation for us "designers".

I wasn't able to copy the video link so here is a link to the website:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/HomeMortgageSavings/designing-the-100000-baby.aspx