Tag: var-script

The TSA Wants You– To Design a Solution to Our Collective Airport Security Woes (For a Chance to Win to $5K of Prize Money)

The airport security line is the kind of universally despised ordeal that extraterrestrials, should they exist, would dread; even a seasoned traveler will bristle at the thought of the rigmarole of boarding pass / I.D., uncooperative scanners, doffing footwear, unwieldy bins, more scanners. Not to belabor the point, but it’s a mildly demeaning nuisance at best. What are you going to do about it? Well, it turns out that the TSA wants to know—they recently announced an Ideation Challenge soliciting proposals for expediting the process, specifically for TSA Pre✓ passengers but ostensibly for us plebs as well. “America’s Next Generation Checkpoint Queue Design Model” may not roll off the tongue, but, hey, that’s what we’re up against (…and, as we saw a couple of weeks ago, this is what the TSA is up against ). TSA is looking for the Next Generation Checkpoint Queue Design Model to apply a scientific and simulation modeling approach to meet the dynamic security screening environment. The new queue design should include, but not limited to the following queue lanes: · TSA Pre✓ · Standard · Premier Passengers (1st class, business class, frequent fliers, etc.) · Employee and Flight Crews · PWD (wheelchair access) The Challenge is to provide a simulation modeling concept that can form the basis to plan, develop requirements, and design a queue appropriately. The concept will be used to develop a model to be applied in decision analysis and to take in considerations of site specific requirements, peak and non-peak hours, flight schedules and TSA staffing schedules. Solvers are expected to provide the concept and provide evidence that it works as described in the requirements. As in the MTA’s 2012 ” App Quest ” competition, the Transportation Security Authority is offering a total of $15, 000 as, um, Innocentive . (I know it’s a portmanteau of ‘innovation’ and ‘incentive, ‘ but I can’t help but read it as ‘innocent’—see also Rapiscan ; cf. Dr. Tobias Funke’s business cards .) (more…)

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The TSA Wants You– To Design a Solution to Our Collective Airport Security Woes (For a Chance to Win to $5K of Prize Money)

Onboard Storage Design: Why Vikings Never Fought For Overhead Bin Space

Vikings loved to brawl, with both their enemies and with each other. Viking sagas are filled with tales of even longstanding friends happy to settle disagreements with steel. But as they piled onto their longships to go pillaging, their boarding process was a good deal more civilized than the melee that is modern air travel. For one thing, their storage was one-to-one; when 30 Vikings got onto a ship, there were 30 places to store things. That’s because they carried their seating on board with them, and their seating doubled as their storage. Prior to boarding, the decks of a ship were bare. Each Viking plunked his chest down at his own rowing position. Enough Viking chests have been found, and replicas made, that we can take a look at their design. It’s both intelligent and purposeful. The first thing you notice is that the tops were rounded to shed water, and perhaps to provide a modicum of comfort. (more…)

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Onboard Storage Design: Why Vikings Never Fought For Overhead Bin Space

Big-Ass Screen: LG’s Envy-Inducing 34" Monster Monitor

Images via Robbie Khan / PetaPixel While I’d previously caught wind of LG’s new 34″ monitor , the company’s hero shots showed little more than a rectangle covered in Photoshopped fake screens and devoid of local scale. But I just came across photographer Robbie Khan’s write-up on his , and seeing it with actual work on it drives home how gi-normous this thing is. Like many of us creatives Khan spends long stretches in front of a monitor, and the 34UM95’s 21:9 aspect ration and 3440×1440 resolution would go to good use in his work editing panoramic photos. LG’s product copy points out that they’ve included a “Screen Splitter” feature (both Windows and Mac compatible) that automatically tiles out four screens with a single click… (more…)

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Big-Ass Screen: LG’s Envy-Inducing 34" Monster Monitor

How to Improve the Audio Quality of Vinyl Records with Wood Glue

One of the first things you learn in the ID shop at design school: Wood glue is for joining wood, welding is great for joining metal, acetone is the thing for fusing plastics together. But when you need to attach one of these materials to another, you’ve got to switch over to hard fasteners or something more clever, since wood glue won’t stick to plastics, et cetera. While that’s occasionally a hassle for building multimaterial objects, record lovers have figured out that wood glue not sticking to plastic provides a huge benefit: You can use wood glue to clean LPs. Because Titebond won’t stick to vinyl, but will stick to all the microscopic specks of dust hanging out in the grooves, a layer of wood glue will become like a Biore strip for records. Observe, and be sure to listen to the before and after—the amount of snaps, crackles and pops the glue removes from the audio is astonishing: (more…)

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How to Improve the Audio Quality of Vinyl Records with Wood Glue

Making a Murano Glass Horse in Minutes with a Fiery Finish

Photo by Saffron Blaze via Wikimedia Commons Anyone who has witnessed a glassmaking demonstration can surely appreciate the skill that goes into a craft that dates back to 2, 000 BC. Named after the island from which it originates, Murano glass has been among the very best since the Renaissance, though the market has declined precipitously over the past few decades: according to The Guardian , the number of Murano sculptors has melted from “6, 000 in 1990 to less than 1, 000 [in 2012].” Even so, it’s hard not to be impressed by the practiced hands that churn out the souvenirs, kitschy though they may be, and at least one maestro has added a little flourish to the predictably well-documented process of sculpting a glass horse . This one is well worth watching in full: Post by Francisco Lopez Serrano . (more…)

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Making a Murano Glass Horse in Minutes with a Fiery Finish

How Will the iPhone 6’s Sapphire Screen Hold Up to Abuse? Watch and See

Tech reviewer Marques Brownlee somehow got a hold of what is purportedly the screen for Apple’s forthcoming iPhone 6. Made of sapphire rather than Gorilla Glass, the screen has been rumored to be a big step up in durability. The material-minded will recall that Apple’s current iPhone features sapphire covers for both the camera and the home button/fingerprint sensor, and in those roles it is crucial the material not be scratchable, otherwise the functionality would be compromised. But how will it hold up with a much larger surface area, comprising the entire 4.7″ screen of the 6? On his YouTube channel MKBHD, Brownlee puts it to the test by working it over with a knife and a set of keys, before finally attempting to bend and break it. Have a look: (more…)

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How Will the iPhone 6’s Sapphire Screen Hold Up to Abuse? Watch and See

Conceptual Climate Change: Test the Air in Lima from the Comfort of Your Couch with Air Globe

One of the best parts about skipping town for an exotic vacation is the anticipation of spending time in warmer (or cooler) weather. But what if experiencing that part of the getaway was simply a matter of pointing to a spot on a small, tech-enabled globe (a semi-sphere, if you will)? Just imagine: You could enjoy that ocean breeze without the rigmarole of Airbnb. Well, look no further than the Air Globe , a conceptual design by National Taipei University of Technology Master Degree Student Pei-Chih Deng, currently a contender in the Electrolux Design Lab competition . The premise is that the user can choose a geographical location on the globe and experience its climate within the comfort and convenience of his or her humble abode. The device simulates the ambiance of one’s destination by collecting real-time data on the temperature, humidity levels, smells and even the sounds of the area. The region’s geographical information, weather and name show up on the display for easy reference. Hence the tagline: “Bringing sunny Miami to your rainy Monday”—because no matter where you live, we all know how snowy/blustery/humid/monsoon-y Mondays go. (more…)

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Conceptual Climate Change: Test the Air in Lima from the Comfort of Your Couch with Air Globe

A Brief History of Unusual Objects Designed to Kill People from Far Away, Part 1a: The Mongol Bow

The hard part about killing people is that sometimes they kill you back. (Just ask Prince Oberyn.) So at some point, some primitive pugilist concluded it would be better if one was not within arm’s reach of the person one was trying to kill. One way you can do this is to kill your opponent with kindness. But this can take an unsatisfyingly long time. A more immediate way to kill someone from afar is with a ranged weapon. Spears and slings were relatively simple to make, but no civilization could gain an enduring military advantage with such basic and duplicable weapons. The earliest example of an object that required both design and manufacturing know-how, and which led to a tremendously decisive advantage, was probably the 13th Century Mongol bow. Bows and arrows have been around for tens of thousands of years—depending on who you listen to, we may have had them 64, 000 freaking years ago —but the Mongol bow was a standout. First off, it was made out of something like the carbon fiber of that era, a complicated-to-make sandwich of horn, wood or bamboo, and strands of animal sinew all laminated together with animal glue. The horn provided the rigidity, the wood or bamboo provided the flex, and the elastic sinew laminated to the wood helped store potential energy as the string was drawn. The traditional problem with composite bows was that they tended to delaminate when wet, as water dissolved the animal glue holding them together. Since the Mongols didn’t like the idea that they would have to surrender if it was raining out, and throwing arrows by hand didn’t seem terribly practical, they either developed or stole the technology to produce a waterproof lacquer. By coating their bows with this stuff, they effectively made them all-weather. And the results were simply devastating. (more…)

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A Brief History of Unusual Objects Designed to Kill People from Far Away, Part 1a: The Mongol Bow

Murrine Core: Loren Stump’s Sliced Glass ‘Paintings’ Mark the Intersection of Art and Craft

Reportedly developed some four millenia ago and revived by Italian artisans in the 16th Century, murrine is among those crafts that long predates the much-ballyhooed contemporary craft movement. Yet artist Loren Stump has found a way to breathe new life into the age-old glass design technique, in which canes of glass are fused (in parallel) and sliced to reveal intricately patterned sections. (Picture a Swiss cake roll, or that bakeable play-dough that could be mashed together and sliced to similar effect.) As with Takayo Kiyota’s sushi art , Stump works backward from a two-dimensional image, extruding the picture plane to extrapolate am arrangement of colored rods. Apparently he likes a challenge, considering he tends to to take on extremely detailed historical images like Da Vinci’s Virgin on the Rocks (seen above) and Henry VIII. He also does commissioned pieces, if you’ve got any special requests. Stump started out as a stained glass artist and eventually made the switch to working with molten varieties and creating his own process and tools—including a mysterious vacuum-controlled apparatus called the Stumpsucker . (more…)

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Murrine Core: Loren Stump’s Sliced Glass ‘Paintings’ Mark the Intersection of Art and Craft

That Foamy Stuff You See World Cup Refs Spraying was Invented by a Fed-Up Journalist

There is a graphic design element to tennis courts, (American) football fields and basketball courts, with highly visible lines indicating boundaries and distances. These are fixed in place, as service lines, end zones and free throw lines aren’t meant to move. Soccer, though, has a unique problem that can’t be solved by fixed lines: When a player is fouled, he’s awarded a free kick from whatever spot on the field the foul occurred. The opposing team is allowed to assemble a defensive wall of players at a distance of ten yards from the kicker. The problem is that people cheat. The ref sets both the spot of the free kick and the site of the wall, and as soon as he’s not looking, the two may surreptitiously creep towards each other to improve their chances. Which is why for this year’s World Cup, you’ll see the referees carrying an aerosol can filled with a white foamy substance, and they’ll spray this on the pitch to clearly mark visual boundaries for the both the kicker and the wall. Seconds later the line mysteriously disappers. (Hardcore footie fans have already seen this spray as it’s been in action for years, but this is the first World Cup where it’s been used.) So what is this stuff, shaving cream? Nope. This “vanishing spray” is called 9.15 Fair Play , patented by an Argentinean journalist named Pablo C. Silva. Silva was playing footie in a local league and had a crucial free kick of his blocked by a defensive wall–one that had rushed him to close the distance to a mere three meters. “The referee didn’t book anyone and didn’t do anything, ” Silva fumed to The Independent. “We lost the game, and driving home later with a mixture of anger and bitterness, I thought that we must invent something to stop this.” (more…)

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That Foamy Stuff You See World Cup Refs Spraying was Invented by a Fed-Up Journalist