Saturday, May 19

Doing The Social Act in Copenhagen


Though the table-setting suggests I may have wandered into some sort of therapeutic craft class, the krone soon starts to drop that I'm in for an interesting night with hot Copenhagen culinary innovators, I’M A KOMBO.

It's a evening that includes blind-tasting the first course, carving open the table top with a box cutter to get at sauces and baking my own bread roll over an open charcoal brazier. 

When it comes to The Social Act, I'm a konvert. Read about it here in The Irish Times.


Gadgets May 19

It's the sort of thing Q might be pushing on 007. Only it'd probably all fit in a suitcase too. This is the Flying Hovercraft. (Hopping hovercraft just doesn't have the same ring).



Trvel lght wth th nw VSTR Nomadic Pack. Great attitude from Quiksilver surfer-travel spin-off.

















And  Contigo's Autospout don't-spill-it-all-over-yourself Drinks Bottle.

Read it all here on your way back from Twickenham.

Monday, May 14

May 12 Gizmology

It's the love child of a pair of wheely-crossed lovers: the Segway and the Unicycle: behold the SBU.



A floating boombox. And self-service bike stations. In the Irish Times Saturday Magazine.

Wednesday, May 9

How to save the Selp Help Book



It's the view of some that there's nothing more destructive than a self help book. They certainly get bad press. And are often shunned among those that regard themselves as upwardly literate. Alain de Botton begs to differ. He's made self improvement or perhaps, more pointedly, self examination something of a crusade. A stylishly written, beautifully crafted and highly engaging crusade at that. Lifestyle philosophy it's been called - but probably not by AdB - as he's unpicked and parsed modern life. Travel. Love. Proust. Architecture. Religion (or Athesim) have all come under the pen. He took his thinking onto the street with The School of Life where sermons and workshops on making more of life comprise at least some of the curriculum. And a shop of interesting gifts too. Retail therapy cures many a short term ill.

Now comes TSOL's How To series by some fellow teachers at TSOL. De Botton asks us to think more about sex. My piece in the Irish Times on Saturday May 5 was about a bit more, not that you'd know it from the headline here.


Saturday, May 5

Gadgets Irish Times Magazine May 5

Get all Minority Report with a Magic Cube projected portable keyboard. Ditch the cables for USB connectors that clip like pens. And a GPS plotter for sailors that takes tacking into account, The Sailing GPS.



Read it here.

Thursday, May 3

Hitchcock on the mysterious MacGuffin

Love this graphic take on Hitchcock's riff about the much-loved movie MacGuffin. Don't know what that is? You gonna just have to watch the vimeo then.