I started using a shop apron about 5 years ago. I'm not sure what prompted me to first put one on, but I very quickly came to rely on it. I stopped losing pencils and my little 6" ruler, and my dust collector remote control was always within reach. Over time I began to add more things like lumber crayons, a tiny block of wood I use when setting up my planes, and a real necessity in my shop: the video camera remote control.

The more I worked with the apron, the more I realized that it wasn't just the stuff I carried around with me all the time, but the ability to temporarily carry stuff. I would mark a tenon with my gauge and drop the gauge in my pocket, do some other stuff, then pull the gauge back out and mark another tenon. A shallow breast pocket became a quick spot to store hinge screws during installation and a screwdriver found its way into another pocket. The key to this is to empty all that junk out once a task is done, or before you know it you're stoop-shouldered and carrying around a 20 pound apron. The shop apron should go unnoticed, and the minute you know its there, something is wrong.

Well after years of wiping glue-covered hands on my apron and spilling all manner of finishes on the front, the apron is far from unnoticed. It has become stiff from all that gunk and now keeps getting in my way while I work.

Fate intervened and I heard about a new business called Texas Heritage Woodworks that happens to be making shop aprons (among other things) that are simply beautiful. Moreover, I could work with them to customize my new apron and add my company logo. After some conversations with Jason Thigpen about what I wanted in my new apron, he was off to the races. About 2 weeks later I had a new apron in my shop.

It is made from high quality double layered, double stitched canvas and leather straps. The hand-hammered copper rivets are a really nice touch, and Jason was able to embroider my Hand Tool School logo on the front. I got to pick a variety of colors, and Jason sent me photos of several samples of my logo on different colors. Of course being a Brown Coat supporter (look it up), my choice was obvious.

I added a few custom touches too which make it my own. First off, Jason recognized my superior left handed trait and positioned the graduated pencil pockets on the "proper" side of the apron. I should also add that the snug fit of these pockets keeps things in place too. I can't tell you how many times my 6" ruler has slipped out and slid under my workbench when I have to bend over to pick up something. Jason had also been toying around with a ring hook that could hold a wheel style marking gauge which fit perfectly with my "hold on to the gauge" habit I talked about above. So I added that, and it sits about dead center on the apron. I can now attest to the usefulness of this feature. It's not a place to permanently stick anything but a quick and easy place to stash that gauge while in the heat of joinery layout. I'm sure it will have other uses too as I spend more time with it.

Next, I added a narrow pocket down by my right hip that perfectly holds my folding rule that hearkens back to 18th century joiners, who usually had a similar rule pocket on their pants. This was one area where my last apron dropped the ball. While I could hold this rule, it would flop around inside the pocket and invariably end up settling crossways and becoming uncomfortable. The fit on the rule is a snug friction fit so it slides in and out easily yet stays put when I want it to.

Then I got crazy and added a monster buttonhole top center of the apron through which I could feed my lapel microphone, thus allowing me to run the wire inside my apron to the receiver in my back pocket. Granted a very specific application for me, but Jason admitted that it has potential as a place to stick headphone cords to a phone or any of those radio enabled ear protection muffs.

So I'm back in business and better than ever with my new apron. The two front pockets are a bit smaller than I was used to in my old apron, and I'm finding that to be an improvement because it prevents me from taking on too much cargo. They hold everything I need and it stays out of my way, which is exactly what I want in a shop apron.

I couldn't be happier with my new apron and want to say thank you to Jason and Texas Heritage Woodworks for their great work. I wish him luck as his business gets off the ground.

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This "Hand Tool School" series is provided courtesy of Shannon Rogers, a/k/a The Renaissance Woodworker. Rogers is founder of The Hand Tool School, which provides members with an online apprenticeship that teaches them how to use hand tools and to build furniture with traditional methods.

As the stereotype goes, women love shopping and men hate it. Thus Shanghai's Global Harbor mega-mall has installed two "husband storage" pods where wives can drop their bored husbands off. The single-occupancy glass pods are kitted out with a chair and a gaming rig loaded up with "retro 1990s games;" apparently the idea is to infantilize the waiting men by having them play the games from their youths.

Apparently it's working (although there is no climate control). As the BBC reports,

A few men that tried out the pods told [original source] The Paper that they thought they were a novel idea.

Mr Yang said he thinks the pods are "Really great. I've just played Tekken 3 and felt like I was back at school!"

Another man, Mr Wu, agreed, but said that that he thought there were areas for improvement. "There's no ventilation or air conditioning, I sat playing for five minutes and was drenched in sweat."

Not everyone is thrilled with the pods, however. As one woman opined on Chinese social media,

"If my husband just wants to go out and play games, what's the point of bringing him out?"

You can make a salary. Or you can make a difference. Or you can work as a Graphic Designer at Herman Miller and make both. About this Opportunity Herman Miller’s Brand Design Team in New York is seeking an experienced Graphic Designer for our consumer facing

The Chevrolet Sprint, which some of you may know as the Suzuki Swift, the Geo Metro or the Subaru Justy, was a dinky little econobox from the '80s, produced by Suzuki and re-badged by GM and other brands. It had a 3-cylinder engine and produced just over 50 horsepower. My buddy had one in college. I drove it once and it was awful.

95 Octane spotted this '88 Sprint for sale on eBay—for $35,000. 

Why such a high asking price? And hey, what's up with those suspiciously large rear wheels?

Well, turns out this particular Sprint is special. As Hot Rod magazine reveals, a North-Carolina-based maniac named Bob Brasfield owned this car and brought it to local auto wizards Fat Man Fabrication to put a little magic under the hood.

Fatman Fabrications (Charlotte NC) built a custom square-tube street rod frame that incorporated the unitized body. They used Macpherson strut front suspension and Nissan truck brakes. The differential is a narrowed Ford 9 with Detroit Truetrac and 2:50:1 gearing. The engine is an all-aluminum twin turbo 402ci* dry-sump small-block built by Duttweller Performance Ventura CA. Only the best components were used: Brodix block/heads Comp roller-cam forged crank/rods CP pistons twin Precision Turbos and Big Stuff3 EFI. This engine dynoed at 954 BHP on pump gas. The transmission is a GM TH350. This is a one-off monster and it's street-legal. Every aspect of the build is fully documented (including dyno sheets).

*6.6 liters!

If I've learned anything from the Fast & Furious movies, it's that you can use this car to get a more expensive car by racing its owner for pink slips. Plus it would be hilarious to watch you smoke a Bugatti in this thing.

This Japanese-market Evita Beauty Whip Soap dispenses its product in an unusual way:

Of course, you mustn't press the dispenser for too long, or else you get decidedly different results.

It's hard to imagine a designer who had a greater influence than Raymond Loewy, whose contributions include streamlined vehicles, iconic logos, a broad array of consumer products, and the interior design of NASA's first space station. His designs were ubiquitous over a period of decades.

Loewy died 30+ years ago and yet one still sees things he designed or products inspired by things he created. The soda dispensing machine at the place where I buy burritos bears more than a passing resemblance to the soda dispenser he designed in 1947.

In the video below Morley Safer of CBS News interviews Raymond Loewy, shows some of his products, and discusses the elements of good design and the philosophy behind his work.

I find it ironic that this pre-internet interview (from 1979; the internet as we know it began in 1990) comes to us courtesy of the Internet Archive. 

Like most city residents, Munich-based businessman Benjamin David dislikes being stuck in traffic. And while swimming is technically not allowed in Munich's Isar River, outside-the-box-thinking David tried it one day, and found that he could paddle to work faster than his car would get him there. Now he jumps in the river as his daily commute:

As for that waterproof bag they mentioned, we poked around and found it's called a Wickelfisch. Created by Swiss designer Tilo Ahmels, the product is a big hit in his native Basel, where lots of folks like to go swimming in the Rhine.

The benefits of the Wickelfisch are twofold:

1. You don't have to worry about leaving your things on shore and potentially having them stolen, and

2. If the current carries you downriver, you don't have to fight your way back to your original entry point. You can just get out of the river wherever it carries you.

Epipi is a next generation EpiPen, designed to improve the experience of the user when manually injecting epinephrine into a sufferer of anaphylaxis.

Circadia is an all-in-one sleep system to track, diagnose and treat your sleep problem. It consists of a sleep tracker that uses NASA inspired radar technology to monitor your sleep habits and a portable wake up light that uses data from the tracker to help you wake up and fall asleep.

This rare Swedish Modern boomerang desk in teak was designed by Goran Strand for Lelangs Mobelfabrik in the 1960s.

It's very similar to (and probably designed to compete with) the version by Peter Løvig Nielsen for Hedensted Møbelfabrik.

Among the similarities are the locking bar cabinet in back and the open bookcase compartment.

The main attribute missing between this model the the Løvig model are the crossbar supports iconic of the Løvig design.

Measurements: 54" wide x 31.5" deep x 29" tall.

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These "Mid Century Modern Find of the Week" posts are provided courtesy of Mid Century Møbler, which specializes in importing vintage Danish Modern and authentic Mid Century furniture from the 1950s and 1960s.

The Core77 team spends time combing through the news so you don't have to. Here's a weekly roundup of our favorite finds from the World Wide Web:

Uber's in trouble again.

When typeface selection goes horribly, horribly wrong (it's supposed to say "glitter").

A smart salt shaker that doesn't even grind salt. 

The history of the ever-fascinating Tuxedo Park. 

in breaking news, native English speakers are the world's worst communicators.

Fascinating article on Pantone detailing how the annual debut of new colors has everything to do with storytelling.

Limited edition Boba Fett watch.

A cow that resembles Gene Simmons.

Out of beer names? I know, same.

Millennials discover the TV antenna, and it's hilarious. "Is this legal?"

Trend Alert: "People are immortalizing their dead loved ones in stuffed animals."

This is probably why preschoolers love YouTube so freaking much.

Hot Tip: Discover more blazin' hot Internet finds on our Twitter and Instagram pages.

A gent named Kjell Inge Røkke is one of Norway's richest men, worth some $2.6 billion. He made his fortune in the shipping and offshore drilling industries. "The sea has given me great opportunities. I am grateful for that," Røkke told Aftenposten. "I will give back to the community the bulk of what I have earned."

As part of Røkke's give-back he's commissioned the world's largest superyacht, a 595-footer with a crew of 30. 

But this will be no idle pleasure craft: Instead the vessel will be managed by the World Wildlife Fund Norway, and the boat's 30 crew members will host up to 60 researchers. There is room on board for 32 shipping containers, in which researchers can create their own specialty laboratories. This REV (Research Expedition Vehicle) will be loaded up with scientific equipment—" becoming a complete state-of-the-art oceanographic research center"—and, intriguingly, will also serve as a cruising clean-up and disposal platform:

…On its way, [floating] plastic rubbish will be sucked up and burned on board without a single toxic discharge. The ship gets the capacity to melt five tons of plastic a day.

"We will experiment on ways to catch plastic out of the sea," says Røkke.

The construction and operating costs of the ship, including the crew's salaries, will all be paid for out of Røkke's pocket. 

"Sea covers 70 percent of the Earth's surface and much research has not been done," says Røkke. "I have a desire to give something back. The ship should be a platform to reap more knowledge and understanding. Researchers and other knowledge communities will hopefully together develop solutions and make a difference."

Sources: Inhabitat, Aftenposen

TerraCycle is seeking energetic and resourceful design interns to join our diverse design team of “Design Junkies”. TerraCycle “Design Junkies” and interns develop concepts, designs, and prototypes for some of the world’s largest brands from hard-to-recycle materials. We focus on creating eco-minded products and experiences that help people understand that they too can eliminate the idea of waste.

Most multitools look like what they are—a bunch of tools cobbled together. Not so much the SOG Baton series multitools. Sleek and minimalist, they don't look like tools until you open them up. 

None have the macho aesthetic favored by Rambo; they're designed for the person who wants an everyday carry multitool that's discrete enough to carry in the office or city.

The Baton Q1 model resembles a rectangular pen with a pocket clip on back. And it is a pen; a ball point tip projects from one end and a can opener/flat tip screwdriver folds out from the other. Folding the body in half exposes a small pair of scissors. The Baton Q1 is a tool for the home and office, and unlike many multitools, not for survival in the wild.

SOG Baton Q2

The Baton Q2 is the same size and general shape as the Q1 but instead of a ballpoint pen it has an LED flashlight. Folding the body in half exposes a 2 1/2-inch knife blade. At the opposite end from the flashlight are the same pocket clip and bottle opener/flat tip screwdriver found on the Q1. You would not know by looking that this was a multitool.

SOG Baton Q3

The Baton Q3 is thicker than the Q1 and Q2 models. From the side it looks like an elongated pocket knife with multiple tools nested inside. Tools fold out from the edge as they would from a Swiss Army Knife. 

One side of the handle contains a bottle opener, can opener, awl, blade, and small and medium flat screwdrivers. The other contains a chisel, Phillips screwdriver, file, and jewelry driver. Bending the tool in half exposes pliers and a wire cutter. The jewelry driver, which can be used to tighten the screws on eyeglasses, is a very nice touch. I've never seen a multitool that had one.

SOG Baton Q4

Scheduled for release the fall of this year, the Baton Q4 is an alternate version of the Q3. It has pliers and a wire cutter in the middle and folding out from one side a blade, can opener, bottle opener, file, and small and medium flat screwdrivers. No tools fold out from the opposite side. Instead, there is a magnetic ratcheting 1/4-inch hex driver built into the end of the body. The tool includes a kit with 12 driver bits but you can use it with any 1/4-inch hex drive bit you like.

The Chairless Chair® is a flexible wearable ergonomic sitting support designed by Sapettiand produced by the Swiss-based company noonee.

The main application of the Chairless Chair® is for manufacturing companies, where workers are required to stand for long periods of time and traditional sitting methods are not suitable, leading to obstacles in the work area. While wearing the Chairless Chair, users walk together with sitting support without obstructing the work space. The position also avoids strenuous postures such as bending, squatting or crouching.

In 2009, roadtrip-loving Soon Park took his wife and two daughters on one heck of a camping journey: They drove all over America, racking up 58,000 miles over a span of three years. Park found himself dissatisfied with the UX of the conventional camping trailer they were towing, and upon their return he began designing a better solution.

That solution is the Skycamp, this easy-to-deploy and surprisingly roomy car-top tent, which eliminates most of the hassles of setting up a traditional tent and sets up in just 30 seconds:

The Skycamp has already been successfully Kickstarted, garnering $2.3 million on a $100,000 target. While the campaign is now closed, Park's iKamper company is taking pre-orders. The basic unit starts at $2,649.

Taihi is a kitchen compost bin that provides users with a clean, smell-free and easy to use method to deal with household waste. This final year design project from Loughborough University uses a Japanese process called Bokashi to compost waste much quicker and more effectively than traditional composting.

Goddard entered into a long term development partnership with American Innovative during their formation of the Tinkineer brand. The Tinkineer team presented us with a well defined concept for a new and innovative STEM education product for young, budding engineers. Building upon the provided concepts and themes, we got right to work developing CAD concepts for a number of modules. These CAD concepts were then prototyped using laser-cut Baltic birch wood.

[Spoilers ahead.] Last night's surprisingly good mid-season episode of "Game of Thrones" was primarily shot outdoors. Even still, there were dozens of scenes we had to freeze-frame and lighten to get a better look at things.

The object that most interested us was Bran's wheelchair. Obviously this is not something anyone in Westeros has ever seen, and early in the episode he explains to Meera that Winterfell's Maester has created it specifically for him.

What's interesting is that this is not just a conventional chair with wheels bolted onto it; looking over the design reveals it to be purpose-built. For instance the seatback is made from straps of leather, presumably as a lightweighting measure as we've not seen this type of construction on other chairs on the show. Look at the contrast between the two interior chairs below, for instance.

The chair rests on a chassis that connects to the wheels. You can see that the rear of the chassis comes to a point. 

We can't figure out why; perhaps the point is attached to a centered smaller wheel that prevents the chair from tipping backwards? In every single shot featuring the wheelchair, this area is always (purposefully, we believe) obscured. 

Similarly, we never get to see what the front wheels of the chair look like.

The chair has been designed with a handle, towel-bar style and placed quite high up, just aft of Bran's shoulders. We feel this is a poor ergonomic choice. Given the rolling resistance--Winterfell isn't exactly paved, and the bearings on that thing have to be shit--we'd imagine you'd want the handles lower, closer to Bran's center of gravity, to make it easier to push.

I've watched and re-watched the scene where Bran's wheelchair is shown in motion, and the lower half of it is completely obscured to the viewer. I believe the version used in that shot is probably motorized.

Here's something else we found of interest. On the show, northern Winterfell is presented as something of a backwater (perhaps mirroring the real-life UK's prejudiced views of their own northern regions). Yet as evinced by Bran's wheelchair, Winterfell's craftsman are apparently advanced in wheel design. Because down to the south, where we see a wagon train comprised of the wealthy Lannisters' and captured Tyrells' vehicles, their wheels look primitive and brutish. They range from slab wheels to crudely-spoked varieties.

Bran's wheelchair, in contrast, has delicate spokes that are twinned on either side of the hub.

One particularly dark (visually speaking) sequence in this episode took place in the cave on Dragonstone. There is at least one shot where we are apparently meant to be awed by the dragonglass/obsidian deposits within the cave, yet we cannot even make them out without artificially lightening the shot.

As for those cave drawings, done by the predecessor race on the show known as the "Children of the Forest," their drawing skills are wildly uneven. The bulk of it consists of crude geometric shapes.

We do see one shot where these COTF have drawn themselves alongside their taller human counterparts.

That drawing is so crappy that if my own child drew it, I'd rip it right off of the refrigerator. 

However, the COTF are apparently much more skilled at drawing White Walkers:

I'm not sure if you could see it on your TV, but the eyes are even somehow rendered blue.

Speaking of caves, back at Winterfell's subterranean crypt, the viewers are again presented with absurdly dark scenes. The screen is so black that you can't even see the bulk of the statues, some of which feature direwolves next to the humans. That's got to drive whatever production artist took the time to carve those statues nuts.

Upstairs at Winterfell, we can see a castle's version of a closed window has no weatherstripping at all. Can you imagine the draft in there?

Over at Dragonstone, we get the now-obligatory shot of the Westeros' Worst Front Entryway…

…as well as this shot indicating they needed a lot of freaking bricks to build this place.

Finally the episode moves down to Highgarden and the climactic scenes of Daenarys laying waste to the Lannisters with her fire-breathing P-47 Thunderbolt. We get a good look at what a dragon strafing run looks like.

We also get a much better look at the anti-dragon weapon designed by Maester Qyburn and revealed in episode two. Although Jaime refers to it as "Qyburn's scorpion," we maintain that the design is based on Leonardo da Vinci's Giant Crossbow. (In our understanding, a ballista/scorpion works with torsion springs; here you can clearly see the thing Bronn is manning has massive leaf springs.)

It's also got a fancy little gunsight!

And we were tickled to see that the weapon came inside of its own wagon with breakaway sides.

We get a good look at the winding wheels, which apparently provide so much leverage that Bronn has a relatively easy time loading the contraption. Speaking of which, we were impressed that this uneducated "sellsword" could load, aim and fire it no problem, despite having received no (onscreen, at least) training. I can't even operate a fire extinguisher properly and Bronn is shooting a dragon out of the sky with this thing. Maester Qyburn is some kind of freaking UI genius.

Finally we see Jaime Lannister sinking to the bottom of a lake, hastened by the weight of his armor and golden hand. Given that armor needs to be unbuckled from its wearer by an assistant, this doesn't look good for Jaime. Then again, maybe Bronn's a strong swimmer too and can get to him in time. Guess we'll find out next week.

Some or most of you understand, intellectually, how an SLA 3D printer works: Light is fired in a particular pattern into liquid resin, curing a thin layer of it. Subsequent layers are built atop (or beneath) the one before. But in this video Bill Hammack, a/k/a The Engineer Guy, breaks down precisely how an SLA 3D printer does what it does, using Autodesk's now open-source Ember DLP model to demonstrate: