It is fascinating how utterly videogame-like this is.

As the recent AirAsia disaster proved once again, thunderstorms and airplanes oughtn't mix. So what happens when several dozen or hundred are coming in for a landing and the airport gets hit by a storm? Air traffic controllers and pilots have their hands full, that's what. Check out this radar video of FedEx cargo planes coming into an unknown airport:

Not busy enough for you? Here are passenger aircraft coming into a storm-stricken Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world's busiest for passenger traffic:

I'll never complain about having to circle for a parking space again.

America wasn't always prosperous. Eighty years ago we had plenty of people who tied their pants with a rope and pointed at airplanes in the sky.

So during the Great Depression, the U.S. Government did something smart. The Works Progress Administration, or WPA, was formed to get millions of Americans back to work, building roads, bridges, parks and public buildings.

And in a move that's difficult to imagine now, in 1935 the WPA set up Federal Project Number One, which was specifically designed to support and employ creative folk of all stripes—artists, musicians, writers and actors. Focusing on the first group, over 5,000 artists were commissioned to create posters, murals and paintings. While you've undoubtedly seen the posters created later in the program, when America had entered World War II...

...the earlier and non-war-related stuff you may not have seen. Some were public service announcements warning citizens of the dangers of the time:

The North American International Auto Show aka the Detroit auto show is an unparalleled industry focused event in the car world. It is less well known for debuting new and conceptual bicycles. This year however the show will feature a few notable drivables that steer completely clear of internal combustion. Cameron Van Dyke's FuturePeople is a project that imagines human-powered vehicles for an era when cars have become obsolete but their infrastructure remains. Despite being an efficient and accessible mode of transportation, bikes have a long way to come to commonly replace cars for leisurely driving, large cargo and rider protection. These fully built concept bike-cars draw on new and old ideas about bikes and cars to address those concerns.

The Cyclone is reminiscent of boxy luxury vehicles from the 1920s. Four-wheeled, with a long frame and a wide, leather seated two-person cockpit, it's the most car-like bike on offer. Put on your driving gloves and take an elegant country ride:

Skijoring is Norwegian for "ski driving," and it refers to a sport where a rider on skis is pulled by a horse, a team of dogs, or even a motor vehicle. I think it's similar to waterskiing in that it's extremely fun to do yourself, but not so much fun to watch; you can see scads of skijoring videos on YouTube to judge for yourself.

However, one clip we came across is pretty fascinating. This is 1955 Bavaria where a team of maniacs is engaging in motor skijoring, being towed by a bunch of Porsche racecars, an errant VW and (we presume) BMW motorcycles. If Petrolicious is to be believed, these nut-jobs are traveling in excess of 100 miles per hour:

Legendary products require legendary people. At Shure Incorporated, their professional audio products have earned the trust of performers, sound engineers, and music lovers worldwide. This summer, you'll have the opportunity to join this team and gain some legendary experience in Niles, IL.

As an Industrial Design Intern, you'll work within Shure's award winning Industrial Design team to develop the visual message and user experience of new Shure products. You'll have the opportunity to grow your knowledge of human factors/ethnography, design trends, and manufacturing materials/processes, and leave your mark on Shure by creating the visual and physical cues of product designs that define the Company's design language and product user experience. Don't wait - Apply Now!

In this era of Vines, it's a big ask to expect the current generation to sit through an 8.5-minute video of an architect talking. But this isn't any architect: This is Bjarke Ingels, who was asked to give advice to aspiring architects on-camera.

In the course of sounding off, Ingels touches on a variety of potentially boring topics that he makes interesting, the same as he does with his work. Subjects include: How architecture subverts Darwinism, the Anthropocene, how Rem Koolhaas' background in journalism changed the way Ingels viewed the role and capability of architecture in society, and the importance of architects learning to communicate, early on, with non-architects. Give this a watch:

After a woodworker has cut his/her joinery, prior to final assembly they'll do a dry fit to make sure everything fits correctly. This can be challenging depending upon how complicated the piece is; the more tenons and mortises there that need to be lined up, the more swearing you'll do during the process.

That's why this swear-free video of a team of Japanese master carpenters is so stunning. Not only is the joint insanely complicated and huge, designed to connect two timber-frame beams end-to-end, but they're using a traditional method of tapered pegs to smoothly connect—and disconnect—the pieces:

Not complicated enough for you? Check out this dry-fit where two beams are joined inside of a third piece:

Story by Chris Priestman for Kill Screen.

Corridors are a significant architectural space in a lot of science fiction films. Perhaps you haven't considered this before given the brevity of their screen time. And that's largely due to the corridor's purpose as an interstitial space that connects rooms, meaning they are usually walked or ran through, and not dwelled upon.

One of the first lessons in filmmaking is to cut out any unnecessary footage when editing, and the example used is often a shot concerning a character walking between locations. It's a lesson that informs its student that the corridor is a waste of time, for the most part. Hence, when a corridor does make an appearance in a film, it is never happenstance; it's always for effect.

Take the Death Star in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, which is depicted almost entirely as a labyrinth of imposing corridors to be run through. This builds the idea that the space station is a hive of militaristic activity with soldiers constantly striding through to deliver messages to their superiors. Everyone is walking and talking; people in a constant state of transit in front of the camera.

Later on, the same corridors play host to Han Solo and Chewbacca's escape, forcing them to run and shoot in a half-backwards manner at the pursuing Stormtroopers for the lack of cover. Similarly, in Alien, Ellen Ripley alternately dashes and creeps through the hissing smoke and spinning red alarms of the Nostromo's corridors as it counts down to self-detonation. These narrow, dark passages are the veins and arteries of this enormous starfreighter, which has become host to a deadly creature. The corridors provide nowhere for Ripley to hide but are the quickest way for her to reach the evacuation shuttle that she has prepared for herself.

As makers know, humans tend to be more engaged with objects they had a hand in building. DIY'ers are proud of their coffee tables, furniture designers get a special enjoyment out of sitting in a chair that they produced from raw lumber.

Automakers know this, but they're generally not able to engage their consumers beyond a "design your own pizza" approach, where buyers choose from a bunch of predetermined options, usually through a web portal. So Chevy has upped the ante with their Engine Build Experience program. For five large, new Corvette Z06 buyers can fly themselves out to the Corvette factory in Kentucky and actually bolt the freaking engine together (under the watchful eye of an engine assembly technician, of course).

The program was started back in 2010, when the Z06 factory was still in Michigan, and temporarily halted while Chevy's Performance Build Center was relocated to Kentucky. Now that the new factory's on-line, the engine-building option is being re-launched for March, with a price drop. (In Michigan the DIY option was $5,800.) And for those of you thinking participants just tighten a few bolts, this video GM's posted of the first EBE program actually looks pretty involved:

Established in 2002 in Scotland; award winning 4c Design combines years of experience, creativity and engineering ability to deliver product design engineering solutions. For over ten years, they have combined creativity with engineering expertise, building a product design consultancy dedicated to developing ground-breaking and successful products. In short, they make ideas valuable. They are also looking for a creative Product Design Engineer. Want to join their team?

You'll need +4 years experience as a product design engineer, taking innovations from concept through launch, and analyzing and solving complex problems. A degree in Product Design or Mechanical Engineering or related field or have equivalent professional experience will help too, as will good visual and verbal communication skills, that can explain complex technical concepts simply and clearly to clients and fellow team members. If you have what it takes, Apply Now!

Projects pop-up on peoples radars in various ways. Sometimes information about a person or project comes from many different sources all at once. This was the case for Mandy Lau and her award-winning project, Reach & Match. The project helps visually impaired and autistic children develop their senses, social skills and literacy.

In 2012, Reach & Match was a Student Notable in the Social Impact category for the Core77 Design Awards. In under three years, Reach & Match is now a full-fledged product available for purchase. Core77 spoke with Mandy about bringing a product from idea to market, some of the biggest challenges for designers working in special education and what's next for this learning tool.

Core77: Tell me a bit about the thoughts that brought you to decided on creating Reach & Match?

Mandy Lau: I have always been very interested in social design and creating effective solutions through design. For my bachelor degree in Product Engineering, I developed a few projects for people with physical limitations as well as blind and vision-impaired people. I also enjoy my other work in art therapy with children and adults with special needs. During my postgraduate research in Industrial Design, I started looking into braille literacy and blindness.

Architects among you: Is there anything more pleasing than seeing things in plan view? That godlike perspective that reduces those pesky humans to mere ovals and gives you omniscience over the grand scheme of things?

Perhaps it's no coincidence that Gdynia, Poland-based photographer Kacper Kowalski started out as an architect. But after five years of study and four years in the trenches, Kowalski ditched architecture and switched over, full-time, to flying planes and taking photographs.

I hold a special hatred for glitter, because people sometimes use it in my photo studio and it takes me forever to clean it up. So I find this new business, ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.com, deviously brilliant.

Yes, this company is for those of you willing to spend money to irritate an enemy. They've stocked up on glitter—which they call "the herpes of the craft world"—and they intend to use it:

There's someone in your life right now who you fucking hate.... So pay us money, provide an address anywhere in the world & we'll send them so much glitter in an envelope that they'll be finding that shit everywhere for weeks. We'll also include a note telling the person exactly why they're receiving this terrible gift. Hint: the glitter will be mixed in with the note thus increasing maximum spillage.

You've gotta love a company with a question in their FAQ section that reads: "My recipient got glitter in both eyeballs, is now blind & would like to file charges. Help?"

How do we fathom fathoms? Often by referring back to our own bodies. It's startling to realize that the much beloved metric system and the idiosyncratic imperial only became widely adopted in the 20th century. Human Scale is a fun look at how we quantified things before measurement systems became standardized. Leila Santiago was spurred to start the project while working as an international grad student in New York, experiencing innately common systems of weight and height and temperature without a comfortable base of reference.

"When I moved to New York for my master's program, I found it difficult to discuss formal specifics with my classmates around our projects. "Should it be 5 feet deep, or 6?" I didn't know; in essence, I was having to learn the basics again." The little book was a project for a graphic design and illustration class in SVA's Products of Design program, and highlights interesting ways we've made sense of quantities in everyday use.

Larger units, like how much rice a person eats in a year, may be hard to wrap your head around with much specificity, but could have been more palatable information in simpler times... with fewer corner stores. Others, like the distance a dog's bark will travel, are both recognizable and poetic. Taken with their contemporary units, the project is a nice exercise in exploring human communication and history.

In his 20s, Michael Walker worked as a jewelrymaker. But one day his wife gave him a copy of American Blade, a magazine for knife collectors. Walker looked through the pages and figured he'd give knifemaking a try.

That was way back in 1975, and by 1980 he was making knives full-time. His highly-sought-after creations sell for as much as five figures. And they're not just pretty: Walker holds some 20 patents and trademarks for folding knife mechanisms, starting with the "Linerlock" mechanism for folding knives that we'll describe below.

Taphandles is a high energy and collaborative award winning beer marketing firm based in Seattle. They are the leader in supporting the brewing industry with the most innovative and unique product marketing available. Their products consist of tap handles, promotional items, point-of-sale displays, and signage for breweries across the globe. If you're a Junior Designer with "mad skillz" who wants to see their designs turned into production samples in a matter of weeks, this job is for you!

You will contribute to and assist in bringing concepts to life from sketch through to full 3D renderings for point-of-sale products. Your ability to meet tight deadlines with a high productivity rate is essential to this position. You can also enjoy a daily happy hour, playing darts and ping pong at work. What are you waiting for? Apply Now.

Over the last few months, the hot topic of conversation among myself and my female startup friends (and a number of male friends too) has switched from the usual suspects of Shinola, YikYak, Casper etc to an unlikely pick: the New York-based underwear company Dear Kate.

Dear Kate's marketing campaign for their Ada Collection—an underwear line taking its namesake from famed programmer Ada Lovelace—sent a controversial ripple through the press last August in response to its use of high ranking women in tech as underwear models. The small but outspoken company responded publicly to the criticism of 'setting back women in tech' with the hashtag '#notcontroversial,' backed by overwhelming social media support via photos from their devotees outfitted in the company's wares (and not much else).

The incredible devotion of Dear Kate users combined with the ability to strike just the right marketing cord has pushed them into the spotlight, often overshadowing the not-to-be underestimated design and technology credentials of their product. Admittedly, I had mixed feelings about the brand following the launch of the Ada collection, however the quality of their products and attention to the needs of their target audience wins me over every time. As their recent Kickstarter campaign for their new line of yoga pants proves, Dear Kate is doing something very right. The yoga pants use the same Underlux technology as their underwear and solve a number of sensitive issues for their users, unabashedly tackling everything from panty lines to incontinence. I caught up with CEO and Founder Julie Sygiel to shed some light on designing the yoga pants, Underlux technology and outspoken marketing.

Core77: What's the history of Dear Kate?

Julie Sygiel: The business plan for Dear Kate was hatched in my college entrepreneurship class. At first it was a fun, unique idea (especially given that our class was 80% male), and then the longer we worked on it, the more committed I became to actually creating the underwear. Studying chemical engineering in school gave me the confidence to dive in and start learning about technical fabrics. Once I got started, it snowballed into collaborating with textile development teams at fabric manufacturers to create Underlux. Instead of having to totally outsource product development, my science background allowed me to be the one guiding everything from the fabric to the designs to the construction and fit of the product, which is something that I continue to be very involved in today as we develop new products.

How has your background influenced the trajectory of the company?

Aside from my technical background, I've always had an interest in fashion and feminism. I was also a Girl Scout for 12 years and sold over 10,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies so the notion that I could create and then market a product that is fashionable, plus make women's lives easier, was a dream come true. It checked all of my boxes in a way that I didn't know was possible and just felt "right." Once I started working on the business idea, it was addictive and became all I thought about.

Italian design engineer Guido Medana has invented eyeglasses with a new type of hinge called Spine. Created through metal injection molding (although the website, perhaps erroneously, lists the definition of MIM as "micro injection metal,") a series of small "vertebrae" interlock to create a housing for a spun wire cable threaded through springs. The result is a resilient, self-closing hinge.

Dillon Markey is a Los Angeles-based stop-motion animator who works for Robot Chicken and the film director PES. And as we saw in the Boxtrolls video, stop-motion work requires making hundreds upon thousands of minute adjustments. But what we didn't see in that video was the animator stepping away from the stage after each adjustment, the constant back-and-forth dance the artist must do to interact with his capture equipment.

Markey, tired of this dance, sought to create a body-mounted remote control solution that would allow him to remain within arm's reach of the stage. With no such product existing on the market, Markey hacked one up himself with a little help from an electrical engineer. What's most impressive is what they used: A Nintendo Power Glove, a failed game accessory product from 1989.

Here's how they did it. And be sure to pay close attention around 4:25 in the video to check out Markey's brilliant integration of a self-parking tweezer dock.

And we mean quick 'n dirty. For every finely polished shop solution is an equally functional, nasty-looking one that you quickly bang out because you need it. And if there was a museum filled with people's ad-hoc shop creations from around the world, I'd be there once a month.

The Los Angeles-based crafter behind the Cheltenham Road blog needed someplace to store his drill bits. Being numbers-challenged—"I keep thinking if I just concentrated I could remember that 7/32nds was smaller than 15/64ths," he writes—he wanted something that would not only keep the bits in size order, but let him quickly know which bit to grab while pre-drilling for a particularly-sized screw or dowel.