Unlike Americans, a community of honeybees can all work together to protect the overall group. Take a look at this:

That's a group of Apis dorsata, a/k/a Southeast Asian giant honeybees, all coordinating their motions to provide a shimmering effect. According to Science Daily, this visual effect "acts as a defensive mechanism, which repels predatory hornets" who are presumably freaked out by the spectacle.

In the video below, you can see the shimmering enacted by multiple hives at once, which is pretty trippy. (You'll also see that patient hornets still find a way to pick off prey.)

This is more of a mobile shop hack:

Your standard in-bed pickup truck toolbox sits snug against the cab. The trade-off there is that you preserve some bed space, but sacrifice convenience; fishing around in a chest-style toolbox can be unergonomic, to say the least.

Farmer Derek Anthofer uses his truck as an on-farm service vehicle, and wanted a better way to quickly access tools as he makes repairs around the property. He designed and built a slant-top steel toolbox mounted to an in-bed pivot, which you can see in the video below. (Also look for the handy pop-in vise he keeps in the modified service trailer.)

Here's an object I would not have imagined could gain any traction before the pandemic: A portable espresso machine designed to plug into your car's 12V socket.

Surprisingly, these machines existed long before COVID; European manufacturer Handpresso debuted them in 2008, and has sold roughly 400,000 units since then. But their marketing department has realized that those on car journeys may no longer wish to pop into a coffee shop along the way, and are touting the "social distancing" feature of their espresso machines for the car.

"…and I told her my name was 'Katrina' but she wrote 'Cat Trainer' on the cup! Yeah, I don't miss those dolts."

They're offering three different models for the car:

The Handcoffee, for standard coffee brewed using Senseo pods:

The Handpresso Auto Capsule, which uses Nespresso capsules:

And the Handpresso Auto, which can use either espresso pods or ground coffee and features a fun(ctional) gauge:

Whether due to COVID supply issues or strong demand, at press time the first two units were completely out of stock.

When encountering a discarded vacuum cleaner sitting by the curb, a tinkerer buddy of mine used to harvest their power cords, claiming they were extra robust. Trashed vacuum cleaners were not an uncommon site in NYC. I've also spotted them out here in the country, sitting at the end of driveways, waiting for the garbage truck.

People throw vacuum cleaners away because they assume they're busted. But a study from the UK's Nottingham Trent University, led by Professor Tim Cooper of the School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment, believes they're making a mistake. "People are throwing them away prematurely rather than maintaining them properly and carrying out relatively simple repairs," said Professor Cooper. "This is a real issue, as the manufacture of vacuum cleaners accounts for the second largest production of greenhouse gases among electrical products."

Tim Krahmer came across this research when he was a student at the Lund University School of Industrial Design in Sweden. Upon learning that many discarded vacuums are easily repairable, he tackled the topic for his Masters project, called Tenok.

"Vacuum cleaners are often thrown away with the motor still working, but re-using those motors is complicated because their dimensions are not standardized, they vary in power, etc. and for that reason they often just go to waste.

"But any waste can become a resource, if we can find a good use for it, so I developed tenok – an open-source DIY vacuum cleaner that can be equipped with most motors, hoses and power cords from disposed models.

"Tenok can be made with the help of rather simple tools and a desktop 3D-printer and the easy-to-build design has even more benefits: While most vacuum cleaners soon trigger our consumer-instinct to dispose and rebuy when their shiny surfaces start to look old, scratchy and icky, this hardly happens to wooden boxes. Imagine a device you can use your whole life because you do not need to rely on manufacturer-specific spare parts, filters, dustbags…

The key to the Tenok system is Krahmer's 3D-printed "Celtic cross," which can be custom-fit to a variety of vacuum motors, even "odd twentysomething years old Bosch motors," Krahmer writes.

The project is from 2019, and Krahmer now has his MFA in Industrial Design. His current website is here.

Here's a nifty way to hold a mold together: In this video industrial designer Eric Strebel shows you how he 3D-printed a mold with threading on both parts, so the whole thing screws together (and unscrews at the end, with a little persuasion):

What's the longest thing you've ever seen on the back of a truck? My guess is pipes. Water, sewage and gas lines require miles of the stuff, and it's carried to jobsites by the truckload. A large job can require hundreds of trucks, all billowing fumes, just to haul the pipe.

These pipes can only be as long as the truck's trailer, and once on-site, must be welded together to the required lengths. That takes time and money, and creates future maintenance needs.

Looking at these problems, a company called Tubi came up with a brilliant innovation: A mobile HDPE extrusion factory that can be set up on the jobsite, squirting out pipe precisely where it's needed.

It can extrude 4-inch- to 26-inch-diameter pipe in lengths of up to 1,000 feet, either as straight stock, or onto coils that can then be unspooled along the route.

Extruding

Reeling and Unreeling

Tubi's mobile factory isn't small; it's broken down into 20 shipping containers that each get lifted by crane onto a flatbed. Those 20 trucks drive to the jobsite, towing silos of polyethylene feedstock behind them. Upon arrival, it takes technicians 72 hours to set the factory up.

The Factory Set-Up Process

Even still, the time and money savings is huge. First off, because they can produce pipe of virtually any length they want, about 90% of the welds on a typical job are simply not needed.

Secondly they can get the factory to remote locations where shipping is impractical. For an irrigation job in New Zealand, "the company's mobile manufacturing unit produced 105 miles of HDPE pipe to irrigate 20,000 hectares of farmland," Plastics News reports. "The logistics of getting that much pipe to the rural area would have been 'spectacularly difficult,' according to a testimonial from a Downer Group project manager, who said minimizing truck traffic was a big consideration."

Thirdly, Tubi's approach cuts down on emissions. Using a 20-truck convoy to transport the factory may sound like a lot, but for a recent wastewater processing job in Florida--where Tubi cranked out 500-foot lengths of pipe on-site--it "eliminated the need for more than 450 trucks to transport pipe from a traditional factory, [Tubi COO Wes] Long said. Fewer trucks means fewer diesel emissions, less traffic congestion and no safety hazards related to unloading the big, heavy infrastructure products."

"The larger the pipe, the bigger the freight advantage is. And, it can eliminate thousands of welds and hundreds of days of installation time. The cost savings are tremendous. I think it's a game-changer."

via Plastics News

German bicycle manufacturer Alutech has released an obscenely expensive e-bike called the CNC E-FANES 29/275. The frame is unusual, to say the least: Rather than being composed of welded tubes, it's CNC-milled from solid billets of 6061 aluminum.

The left and right halves are milled as single pieces, and they're then welded together in the center. The welds are left visible except for the one atop the downtube, which has been polished.

You've got your choice of two Shimano batteries: The 504Wh 8035, or the 630Wh 8036. If you go with the 8035, the bike rings in at €15,999.90 (USD $19,000); if you go with the 8036 and order the extra battery option, the price is €17,198.90 (USD $20,448).

Price sound a bit steep? Well, good news if you live where it's manufactured: "For employees in Germany," the product page says, "it is possible to lease this item."

While double-paned windows are usually filled with argon gas, researchers at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University have experimented with a different material: Water infused with hydrogel.

When sunlight hits the liquid-filled window, the water begins to absorb the heat, blocking it from entering the room. The hydrogel causes the liquid to turn opaque in sunlight, further reducing thermal transmission. The result is that less energy is required to cool the space. As the sun goes down, the window turns clear again and the heat is released.

As a side bonus, the liquid between the panes also doubles as a sound insulator. Testing indicating that it "reduces noise 15 per cent more effectively than double-glazed windows."

In hot-weather Singapore and Guangzhou, where the window was tested, the obvious benefits are that it lowers air conditioning bills and, if used in an office building, harmlessly releases its heat after everyone's gone home.

In Beijing, the sole cold-weather environment where they tested the window, the test results are a bit confusing: They say "The Beijing tests showed that the room using the smart liquid window consumed 11 percent less energy to maintain the same temperature compared to the room with a normal glass window," but they do not say how this was achieved.

In terms of residential use, I could see the windows being used in clerestory applications, but I think most folks would prefer shades--i.e. user-controlled opacity--for windows that they want to look out of. In any case, the researchers report that they're looking to get the window into production.

These days every major auto manufacturer is at least considering the autonomous driving future, but settling on what the interiors will actually look like and do is an unanswered matter. In concept videos we've seen, for instance, unused steering wheels can still be summoned at a moment's notice.

Lexus LF-30 Concept

Japan's Kyocera, however, isn't a major car manufacturer; they make cell phones and consumer electronics. In other words, they've got a vested interest in keeping you staring into screens. Perhaps that explains their Moeye concept, which envisions steering-wheel-free car interiors. Here's what happens to the dashboard, in their vision:

I…don't like that "invisible dashboard" mode. I'd love it if I was actively driving and this gave me a better view of the road, particularly with some kind of night vision; but in an autonomous car, I think having a lower field of view but no control would convey an unpleasant front-seat-of-a-rollercoaster feeling.

By the bye, which do you think we'll get first: Driverless cars, or flying ones? (Getting both features in one seems inadvisable.)

Even before the pandemic was in full swing, Fiat Chrysler had decided to merge with Peugeot parent PSA. The deal will bring the Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroen, Dodge, DS, Fiat, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Ram and Vauxhall brands all under the same umbrella.

The resultant company will be the fourth-largest carmaker in the world (behind Toyota, Volkswagen and Daimler), and will have a new name: Stellantis. Yesterday they unveiled their new logo, but first let's look at the individual logos of the 14 brands:

And here's the new Stellantis logo:

By both the name and the logo, I'd guess this was a financial services company, not an automaker.

So what does "Stellantis" mean? The press release says "[the] Latin root 'stello' means 'to brighten with stars,' which oughta piss Subaru off.

In the Stellantis logo, you'd think there'd be a pattern of 14--representing the 14 brands--somewhere in the stars, but there isn't (count for yourself below). So this one's a bit of a head-scratcher.

The companies expect the merger to be finalized by early 2021, and I guess we'll then start seeing this logo popping up on trunks.

Like many of us, Michigan-based entrepreneur Terence Jackson, Jr. observed that Amazon, GrubHub and other delivery-based services were changing the way we live--and for the deliverers, how they make money. But unlike many of us, he came up with a unique way to participate in this economy. "These companies made life easier for people and created economic growth worldwide," Jackson told The Detroit News, "and I wanted in."

Jackson's novel idea was to deliver an entertaining experience, not a product. To that end he acquired a 53-foot semi-truck trailer--and converted it into a mobile bowling alley with an elevated lounge area.

Some design concessions had to be made; Jackson went with 25-foot lanes in order to leave room for the lounge, and used lighter 3-pound bowling balls to compensate. But the alley still features automatic ball return and automatic scoring for the two lanes, as well as customer-controlled lighting, temperature and stereo system and an 80-inch flatscreen.

Jackson named the business Luxury Strike Bowling, and he operates within a 30-mile radius of the company's home base in Southfield, Michigan (outside of the radius costs extra). Rental packages start at $500 for two hours. You can learn more here.

Unintended consequences of technology: As wireless earbuds have (supposedly) made lives better for thousands of consumers, they've also created a headache for railway workers in Japan. The country's JR East rail company reports that "There were about 950 cases of dropped earphones at 78 stations in the Tokyo area between July and September, making up one-quarter of all cases of dropped items."

Here's why that's an issue: In safety-conscious Japan, when you accidentally drop something off of a train platform, you never climb down there yourself; you notify a platform attendant. They are not allowed to climb off of the platform either, and safety regulations turn this into a two-man job: One attendant must serve as a safety lookout while the other tries to fish the dropped item out of the ballast (the gravel track bed) with a grabber claw.

If you drop something big like a book or a bag, it's no problem to grab it with the claw. But for a tiny wireless earbud, the worker must use the claw to pick up all of the rocks around the earbud just to create the space to grab it.

If they cannot get it, which is often the case, they must wait until the end of the day. Once the last train has left the station, the attendant is then allowed to climb down to the ballast and find the missing earbud. "It's burdensome," one worker told the Japan Times.

JR East tackled the problem with a public awareness campaign, anthropomorphizing wireless earbuds into a little dude that's trying not to fall out of your ear:

And letting you know what a pain it is for the attendants:

The company also contacted Panasonic and asked for help. Panasonic responded by modifying a cordless vacuum with little hollow fingers that aren't strong enough to suck up a piece of gravel, but which do have enough suction to snag a wireless earbud.

Here's video of an easy retrieval (a shoe) and the chore of excavating for an Airpod, followed by the Panasonic vac in action:

Anyways, if I was one of the designers working on the first pair of wireless earbuds, I probably would not have anticipated this sequence of events.

The earliest Industrial Design Drawing 101 assignment I can remember is drawing cubes in perspective. We drew hundreds, then thousands. Once the professor felt perspective had been mastered, we then modified the cubes with voids and projections.

The assignments were more tedious than challenging, and I always thought a grade-school art class could learn the same thing. So I was a bit surprised to learn that a company called Splat makes an eponymous object that's essentially a template for drawing isometric cubes with ellipses in the faces.

The company bills Splat as "a powerfully simple approach to teaching design for STEM," saying that their "aim is to collaborate with industry and schools to help students develop authentic design skills, for success in the classroom and beyond." Here's how children are meant to use a Splat:

And the results it's meant to yield:

I'm divided here. Drawing in isometric ought be even easier than drawing in perspective, and I think you'd want the student to develop this ability freehand; drawing freehand means you typically get it wrong in the beginning, then improve your understanding and accuracy, gradually machining the ability into your neurons. If you nail it the first time because you're tracing a template, does that not hobble your ability to grow, and skip that all-important failure step?

I have no experience with education, and would like to hear opinions from those of you that do. Yea or Nay on the Splat?

(If you've not yet read our history of Bruce Meyers and his iconic Meyers Manx, check it out.)

Meyers Manx, the iconic dune buggy company started by Bruce Meyers in the 1960s, has been sold. Meyers, now 94, and his wife have handed the reins over to Trousdale Ventures, a VC firm run by Phillip Sarofim. "We are putting together an international dream team of passionate and creative souls to carry on the Meyers Manx legacy of fun, freedom and expression that Bruce and Winnie created," Sarofim said in a statement.

As part of that dream team, Freeman Thomas has been named CEO and Chief Creative Officer. For those of you who don't already know of him, Thomas is an auto design veteran and Art Center grad with a slew of credits. A J Mays contemporary and sometimes colleague, Thomas' name is on the Audi TT, the '90s VW Beetle revamp, the Dodge Charger revamp and others. "As I became an automotive designer, the philosophy of Bruce Meyers became a huge inspiration," Thomas said. "I am sure I am not alone in thanking him for injecting a huge dose of disruptive creativity into the automotive scene."

As for what they'll be producing, Autoweek found out as much as they could, which admittedly wasn't much:

"Without getting specific, Thomas said there are definite products afoot, including some with battery electric power. 'I do I have a lot of ideas,' the former VW, Audi and Porsche designer said.

"The products will be built on Volkswagen chassis, just like the originals. That will make the creations affordable to a wide audience, or "accessible," as Thomas said, but it will also get the company around cumbersome and expensive Federal safety standards."

Divisive politics is great for at least two industries: News media, and manufacturers of corrugated plastic election signs. As in many communities across the country, the lawns of the rural county I live in are covered with signs--big, small, sometimes in multiples--announcing support for their candidate.

With the election now…over, those signs aren't doing anyone any good--but should not be thrown in the trash. Canadian packaging company Cascades points out that corrugated plastic is "a highly recyclable plastic from the polypropylene (PP) category (code #5)." And Inteplast Group, manufacturer of brand name Coroplast, writes that "in most cases, standard Coroplast® sheets are 100% recyclable and we encourage Coroplast® sheets to be recycled. Due to the durability of Coroplast®, it can often be reused."

So what products does recycled Coroplast get turned into? Inteplast lists automobile battery cases, signal lights, battery cables, brooms, brushes, ice scrapers, oil funnels, bicycle racks, rakes, bins, pallets, sheeting and trays, while Cascades recycles the stuff into park benches, picnic tables, garbage cans and patio boards.

Alternatively, if you believe in rumors, you could hang onto your Presidential election sign for another four years; there's talk that both of the current candidates may be running against each other, again, in 2024.

How do you get your groceries home? In the city I loaded up a backpack at the supermarket, biked home, hiked up the steps to my apartment, and dropped the backpack on the counter for unloading. Here in the country, we load up disposable plastic bags (thanks, pandemic) at the supermarket, drive them home, hump all of the bags fifty feet across gravel to the house (we can't get the car any closer due to the landscape), then drop the bags on the counter for unloading.

However, I'm guessing the vast majority of you drive your groceries home, park in a paved driveway or garage, and carry the bags to your kitchen. If you do, Australian entrepreneurs Jeanne & Jeff O'Donnell have a product for you. Their Shoppa Cart folds up to fit neatly in your trunk, and allows you to do away with bags altogether:

I think the design has some good features, like the purse hook, and the cupholder and smartphone holder seem to reflect how most people shop these days.

The idea of doing away with bags altogether is also alluring: Load the car at the store, unload directly into your kitchen cabinets.

The design would not have worked for me in the city (stairs, no elevator in my building) nor here in the country (gravel path to the house). But I think it would work well for those living in the paved world of the suburbs.

I have three points to raise: One, where does the cart "live" after you unload it? Do most folks have the space in a closet or garage? Even folded up, it seems to take up a decent amount of space.

Two is the size/capacity. It may be adequate for couples or singles, but the average American family I see coming out of the local Walmart would need three of these.

Three, there's one design feature that doesn't make sense to me--the little "safe" in the bottom of the basket:

As shown it's holding the car keys-- which means that when you return to the car, you must displace all of the groceries to get that bottom flap open and unlock the car. There'd be no place to put the groceries while the car is still locked. Beyond that, I thought the whole point of this design is that you don't have to unload the cart until you get home.

Those gripes aside, I like the concept a lot. What I'd really like to see is more ideation in this space, with a class of ID students all submitting design variants.

As far as I can tell, the Shoppa Cart is only available in Australia, and runs AUD $300 (USD $218) with all of the accessories.

The White House is basically a mega-mansion, with six floors providing 55,000 square feet. Yet only the President and his family live there; why? The Executive Residence on the second floor, shown below, is essentially a massive 9,000-square-foot apartment; they can't carve out a couple of rooms for the Veep and his fam?

Executive Residence at the White House. (By SVG: ZooFari; Raster: GearedBull - SVG work by ZooFari, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Apparently not. For security concerns, the Veep is housed in a different building.

For most of American history, the Vice President was responsible for his own housing. But in the 1960s, after President Kennedy was assassinated, Congress looked into setting up an Official Residence for the Vice President (presumably so they could stuff it with security). As with most government plans, this took years to execute.

By the early 1970s, they'd settled on a house, specifically this one:

The house in 1895, seen in its original terracotta brick.

Built in 1893 in the Victorian style (specifically the Queen Anne sub-style, typified by an assymetrical façade, a wraparound porch and a turret for good measure), the house is located on the grounds of U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., less than three miles from the White House. Originally built for the Observatory's superintendent, the house had served as residence for a variety of admirals and naval officials.

The U.S. Naval Observatory. The house is in the lower left of the photo.

Once the house (which is officially referred to by its address, Number One Observatory Circle) was ready, Gerald Ford was supposed to be the first Veep to live there; but Nixon resigned before Ford could move in, so instead the Ford family's stuff was diverted to the White House. (I'm picturing a bunch of cardboard boxes that said stuff like "VP - Living Room" with the "V" crossed out.)

The house in recent years, decorated for the holidays. There appears to be a security tent erected beneath the entryway awning.

Next Ford's Veep, Nelson Rockefeller, was given the house; but when you've got Rockefeller money, a little 9,150-square-foot Victorian is JLW ("just like whatev's," a phrase Rockefeller may or may not have used). So Veep Rock only used the house for parties.

In 1977 Walter Mondale was the first Vice President to actually live there, and every Vice President since has followed suit.

The Mondales and the Carters in the house in 1977. Carter's face says "This place is JLW."

At least here, VP Mondale gets to sit at the head of the table.

The wraparound porch, seen during the VP Gore years. Wicker FTW.

The Pences host a Halloween bash. Something has either gone very wrong with the barbecue grill, or they're running a smoke machine.

VP Pence hosting a gathering of people who like to wear blue suits.

The big question now is: Are the Pences currently breaking out a bunch of Sharpies, bubble wrap and Uline cardboard boxes, or is everything staying in the cupboards? It's anyone's guess.

From the Continent, there is an antique style of dresser called a semainier. "Semaine" is French for "week," and the semainier contained seven drawers, each holding garments for a day of the week.

Examples of semainiers

Canada-based furniture designer/builder Heidi Earnshaw has produced a modern update on the semainier with her Seven Day Dresser. Absent are the baroque design elements and fancy veneers; Earnshaw, whose style melds Scandinavian, Japanese and Shaker influences, opted for quarter-sawn white oak in a minimalist, open-frame and rectilinear design that still manages to look gentle.

A single brace on the back prevents racking, and is the only evidence of metal fasteners I can see. The rest of the unit appears to be constructed using traditional joinery.

Formerly a longtime Toronto resident, Earnshaw is one of the many creative-types who has given up the city for country life; last year, prior to the pandemic, "I packed up home and studio and moved to a tiny hamlet in the Ottawa Valley," she writes. "It had been a long held dream to live in a rural place and when our studio building on Sterling Road inevitably sold, the time felt right."

You can see more of Earnshaw's work here, and I also recommend checking out her Instagram.

Here are some examples of ergonomic "doorknobs" produced by Linear Locksets:

They don't look like ergonomic doorknobs--because they're not knobs at all. Rather than rotate, they latch and unlatch doors via push/pull motions:

And yes, they're lockable:

"When I was renovating my mother's house, I was faced with a lack of choice of ergonomic DIY hardware, particularly the availability of ergonomic door furniture," writes Australia-based inventor and engineer Thuan Nguyen. "Ergonomic door furniture was a must for my mother as she suffers from chronic Rheumatoid Arthritis and using her fingers and wrist movement was painful when she needed to open a door in her house."

Unable to find anything on the market that met his needs, Nguyen designed the mechanisms and hardware and managed to get Linear Locksets into production. Check out their lineup here.