Food as you seldom see it, from a cutaway image prospective, the result of a collaboration between New York City based food stylist Charlotte Omnes, and photographer Beth Galton.

The helmet shaped Rainshader umbrella may just be the break through in wet weather protection technology that we have long been waiting for.

The Rainshader protects people from the elements while watching major sporting events – crucially it doesn’t blow inside out, poke passers-by in the eye or drip on neighbours’ shoulders in crowds. Its cut-away front, based on the design of a motor cycle helmet, lets people see the action while allowing the umbrella to sit low over the head so it doesn’t block the view of those behind.

We don’t buy coffee like we used to… for a period during the seventeenth century, coffee houses in England were issuing their own coffee tokens, as small change was in short supply.

Via Brain Pickings.

Perhaps it’s time we tried another approach in trying to lure extraterrestrials into visiting Earth?

Spacesuit design through the… space age. The final suit, the sleek Bio-Suit, as designed by Dava Newman, looks far easier to wear and work in than some of the earlier versions, but I wonder how robust, how radiation resistant, and what have you, it would be.

Chess has been with us since the sixth century, yet the format of the game that we’re most familiar with has only been around since 1849, with the advent of the Staunton chess set.

According to the most widely told origin story, the Staunton set was designed by architect Nathan Cook, who looked at a variety of popular chess sets and distilled their common traits while also, more importantly, looking at the city around him. Victorian London’s Neoclassical architecture had been influenced by a renewed interest in the ruins of ancient Greece and Rome, which captured the popular imagination after the rediscovery of Pompeii in the 18th century. The work of architects like Christopher Wren, William Chambers, John Soane, and many others inspired the column-like, tripartite division of king, queen, and bishop. A row of Staunton pawns evokes Italianate balustrades enclosing of stairways and balconies.

Chicago’s United Center, an indoor sports arena, can host separate games of ice hockey and basketball, on the exact same floor space, within hours of each other.

Insects, as a food stuff, may be high in protein, and have less impact on the environment than the production of some of the meat we currently eat results in, but bringing people around to the notion of munching on grass hoppers for lunch may take some doing.

Still, if it’s all about presentation, then the consumption of insects may be more palatable than first imagined, especially if the ideas concieved by a group of design engineering students in London, are anything to go by.

91 year old New York City based shoemaker Frank Catalfumo has been plying his trade since 1945. There can’t be too many like him around anymore.

Catalfumo says “we gotta keep moving in life”. True. I also think that if there’s something you love doing, you should never stop either.

As with hamburgers, the way that we produce potato chips, or crisps, says something about our level of know-how and capabilities as a people, given they don’t exactly come from out of nowhere. What I especially like about this insight into their production though, is the animated GIFS used to illustrate the process.