Back App

Check dis out one time -

http://backapp.eu/en/

Pretty weird name for a chair, eh? It is catchy and memorable, you must admit. I've been having some back problems and started going to a chiropractor and sports rehab guy who has one of these in his office. I tried it out and it's amazing, but it costs like 800 bucks. I mean, my health and back are not worth 800 bucks! Wait a minute...

I picked the most European looking office shot I could find among the press photos.

First First Class

Now You Don't See It. Now You Do.

The Dutch love their bikes, but wearing helmets cramps their cheesy Euro style. Like, you can hardly rock a mohawk with a helmet crushing its spikes, right? Some Dutch chicks invented something they're calling an "invisible helmet," which it is not. The brand name is Hövding. That translates roughly to "Head Smash Pillow Inflater Thingy." Should be easy for everyone to pronounce at least.

Hövding is an airbag for your head. I assume it has gyroscopes, whatever those are, that sense when you've gone airborne or inverted and then deploys the airbag. It probably does a better job of cushioning your brain from trauma than a traditional helmet, but if you can afford a $550 helmet (399 euros), you can probably afford a car, which is like a helmet for your entire body and protects all of it. See what I did there? I just said this was kind of stupid, in spite of being kind of awesome.

The Invisible Bicycle Helmet | Fredrik Gertten from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.

Btw, I don't even know for a fact that they're Dutch, but they seem like they are. I should check the website for clues, but I don't feel like it.

The End.

It's a Cat in a Box!

Welcome to the Future

Imagine a world in which you conjure up an idea of something you might like to build or have, and then, moments later, it exists. That reality is closer than you might think.

TechShop is the equivalent of a gym. You wouldn't (can't, most likely) buy all of those machines for your home, but you can pay a monthly fee and share in the expense with other members. Well TechShop is like that, but for your brain muscle. You have access to $1 million worth of production/design/engineering equipment for a $125 monthly fee.

http://gigaom.com/2013/08/06/how-techshop-is-changing-the-way-hardware-companies-are-born/

Notice the lack of .com domain on this one. Those last few letters are of diminishing value these days. It's kind of like how no one knows what your cell phone number is. If they can find you, they don't need to remember it. And so go domain names...

http://www.techshop.ws/

Introducing the Coolest Kid on the Planet

His name is Alonso Mateo and this is how he dresses -

The Difference Between a Smart Parody and a Dumb Copy That Adds Nothing to the Appreciation of the Original

This is hilarious and insightful and clever -

American Psycho with Huey Lewis and Weird Al from Huey Lewis      

And this is the lame version that the Kanyedashians just made to promote Kanye West's mediocre new album, the blasphemously entitled "Yeezus." Just one more reason to hate those people. I used to love Kanye but I've grown tired of his antics, especially now that the music isn't that great. I can put up with a lot if the music's great. See: Michael Jackson. I'd check out "On Site," song #1 that sets the listener up to think it's going to be a great album, but it just goes down hill from there, until the final song, "Bound 2," a soul throwback to his early work. Sounds like it'd fit right in on the College Dropout, but feels out of place on Yeezus. And plus the album name is not clever at all. Totally bored by it and him in general. And Jay-Z is now releasing, cough cough, um, "Magna Carta Holy Grail." Seriously, Kanye and Jay-Z can go f#$k themselves.

I Dig the Big Dig House

Located in the posh and historic Boston suburb of Lexington, this house was made almost entirely of recycled materials from the largest construction and engineering job in the history of mankind, also known as "the Big Dig."

Tina S

Something tells me this chick's gonna be really famous soon. For at least 15 minutes.



Thanks to my pal Bennett for posting this on fb.

Nice Specs

Check out this Wall Street Journal Online video interview of the co-founder of Warby Parker, Neil Blumenthal. So, as I just typed that name, I said to myself, "that name sounds familiar. Did he go to Tufts, or something?" Plus, he's what Tufts kids are like. So is co-founder, Dave Gilboa. Well, just looked it up and, not only did he go to Tufts, my alma mater, but he was in my very class of 2002. Well I'll be darned.

Go Jumbos!

He went on to the prestigious Wharton School of Business at UPenn, where he met his co-founders.

What does Warby Parker do? Well, in case you didn't click on the earlier hyperlink, they sell prescription eyeglasses for $95. If you've ever bought yourself some glasses, you're probably wondering how that's possible. "Vertical integration," like those drug dealers in the Miami Vice movie that most people thought sucked but I liked so much that I saw it twice in the theater and bought the DVD.

Since you can't try them on in a store (though I saw on line that I can go to the local Standard Hotel on South Beach and try on), you pick 5 frames and they send them to you for 5 days so you can try them out and keep one. It's kind of like a combination between Toms "shoes" (if you can even call them that) and Bonobos, the greatest brand in the history of mankind. Only difference is that they're not outrageously expensive.

I had planned on giving them a shot before learning about the Tufts roots. I am now pretty much definitely 100% for sure going to buy some definitely without a doubt.

Ok, I have to add one more video from Time. Man these guys are awesome! Sorry to keep using that word. I recently decided to use "fantastic" when I would have used the now played out word "awesome," but my hands are kind of tied what with the name of the blog and all. Sorry for blogging.

New 'Vette

'Bout time they made a new Stingray. Oh boy -

This Is Pretty Funny

Jerry Seinfeld on nytimes.com on How to Write a Joke.

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

I am fascinated by comedy and comedians. Not the unfunny ones like that guy with the puppets. I don't understand the appeal and I don't think I've laughed out loud even once at one of his jokes. I suppose there are different types of comedy that appeal to different types of people. Anyway, I am constantly trying to find the humor in things and I find little more fulfilling than making others laugh. I don't know why. It's just a part of me. I'm sure there are psychologists who have studied the phenomenon and have all kinds of theories. But I'm kind of lazy (like a lot of comedians) and don't particularly enjoy or have the patience for scientific research. Comedians are by nature kind of a depressed bunch, and I'm not surprised by it, but I do find it touching just how broken down a man Michael Richards is. You might know him as TV's Kramer. I was curious to know if he and Jerry Seinfeld would discuss "what happened" on Jerry's new online show "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee." It's the most introspective and dark episode so far and I'm going to call it the "Louie" of interview shows. The episode with Michael Richards is well worth a watch and it's only about 15 minutes long.

http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com/

Learn to Tie

Think you know how to tie your shoes properly? Wrong. Seriously. Please watch this video. It has changed my life. As in, my shoe laces don't come untied even when singly knotting them. Got a huge head start on the presenter, considering I'm a young, robust 33.


The subject line is, of course, inspired by one of my all-time favorite bands and songs -


I've never thought about it before, but those lyrics are mildly Satanic. Oh Rock Music, you and your Satanism!

IkeaTV

I despise the Ikea shopping experience, but that's not because the store doesn't provide a good product at a great price. It's because 95% of the people who shop there are complete morons. But this is a "game changer" as they say on TV about absolutely everything that ever comes out, but it actually applies in this case. Ikea has built a piece of furniture called Uppleva, which is no worse than any other name they come up with and is actually memorable unlike Malm or whatever, with a built-in TV and Blu-Ray player, as well as organized spaces and features for other electronics to be well hidden and orderly. This will be huge. But all of the dorky Apple lovers will poo-poo it while they hope and pray that Apple will finally bring AppleTV to market.

RIP MCA

Louis C.K.

Did you know that his name is Louis Szekely? He calls himself "C.K." because that's kind of how you pronounce his Hungarian last name. He's also Mexican, which is pretty funny for some reason. Maybe because of his demeanor and red hair.

He's been my favorite comedian for years, so I'm happy that he is achieving such success, but also a little disappointed now that it's no longer "my thing." That's kind of lame and hipsterish of me. Whatev.

You've likely heard that he sold his latest special directly to fans, and now that he's made $1 million from it, he's giving about half of it away. He just thinks it's too much money for him to have, so he gave a bunch to charity, a bunch to his staff as bonuses, and then used the rest to pay his production costs and himself.

If only more wealthy people in this world were so un-douchey, it would be a much better place. You won't see this guy buying a gold toilet seat any time soon. That's a good thing. He's a good dude. I'm going to adopt his philosophy that he espoused in that comedy special, as quoted in the New York Times:

“You should act in a way that if everyone acted that way, it would be all right,”

RIP Patrice O'Neal

It's not awesome that he died, but his comedy was awesome. And it'll be around forever, thanks to technology. Please go to the following link to read the news and watch a couple of his clips.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/rip-patrice-oneal,65787/

Bonobos Are Pretty Awesome

Not just the horny primates. The pants. And now they sell other stuff, too, like really expensive bathing suits and scarves. They emailed out a 20% off coupon code yesterday (bananas), so you should try that or look up "Bonobos coupon code" and see what's available. You should really do that any time you buy something on line.

I'd prefer to embed this video, but the Bonobos people probably want visitors to their YouTube page to stay and watch other videos about their pants. Great story about some entrepreneurs who have started a great business, selling a fantastic product in one of the worst economic downturns the U.S. has ever seen. Kudos to these dudes.

Appledy App

These are pretty hilarious.

9 Banned iPhone Apps