Posted by admin on Feb 26, 2010 in
style After the weird and wacky creations I viewed at London Fashion Week you would think I’d be unshockable, but these human hair accessories from Bitching & Junkfood managed to evoke a WTF reaction. I’m all for expressing yourself through various mediums, but whilst I appreciate hair artistes like Nagi Noda and Charlie le Mindu, I can’t see myself ever wanting to wear these human hair earrings. Seriously folks.
Read more…
Tags: Bitching & Junkfood, Charlie le Mindu, human hair earrings, Nagi Noda
Posted by admin on Feb 16, 2010 in
random,
style
Due to the fact that I’ll soon be the proud rentee of a one bed flat all to myself, I’ve become a little bit obsessed with home furnishings of late. Whether it’s fantastic chandeliers, wall stickers or even those weirdly rounded IKEA rugs everyone seems to have, they’re all somehow on my radar. One place I never expected to find seriously stylish products was museums though, as my idea of gift shops tended to verge towards staid postcards of Victorian women, or the multicoloured marbles you find at the Science Museum. A recent trip round some the Museum of London disabused me of this notion however, as amongst the myriads of ugly tea towels and books that will remain sealed on coffee tables forever lay a treasure trove of accessories. From lovely lamps to cool furniture, museums seem to be the untapped destination for quirky furnishings, and there are even geeky treasures too!
Here are my favourites.
The Museum of London has some seriously desirable decor, and I’m really bowled over by their great coffee table cum street sign mashup. Their throw pillows and ironic tea towels are also pretty sweet. Read more…
Tags: geeky lights, home furnishings, Lego lights, MoMa, Museum of London, Science Museum
Posted by admin on Feb 9, 2010 in
books,
geekery,
news 
Forget thumbing through novels filled with indescribable stains, the library of the future will provide you with germ free digital copies that can be easily read on your e-reader. The library of the future does away with fines and books that smell of toilets and trauma, instead you’ll have pristine digital versions that time out after 30 days. Whether you’re reading these novels on your iPad or your Nook, it doesn’t matter, as the future of eBooks is all about the software and less about the hardware. Sure, you need a screen of suitable size to peruse your novel on, but once you’ve made your initial purchase you’re sorted.
Once books are fully digitized and able to be rented online from public libraries we’ll know the era of the eBook has truly landed. We’re pretty close already, as so far there are three libraries in the UK that run a virtual lending scheme- Luton, Essex and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead with more scheduled to follow suit.
These schemes are by no means perfect as they have a limited selection of books on offer and the search functions could be majorly improved, but compared to sites which only offer free eBooks (those that are out of copyright) these sites are hugely progressive, as are the counties that have funded them.
Lending libraries mainly work by using a system called Overdrive, which has already been very popular in the USA. Perhaps it’s no surprise that eBook libraries are well established there as they have had eReaders for a significantly longer timer than us, with the major player in their market being the Kindle. The Overdrive system allows you to virtually check out books which you can then read on various devices till they ‘time out’, and then you can renew them. The limited selection of authors may have something to do with royalties, but a quick browse was reasonably impressive, with the latest releases from James Patterson, Meg Cabot, and um, Fern Britton on offer. Read more…
Tags: ebook, ebook library, eReader, essex library, library, overdrive, virtual library