According to Pratt Institute's website, Industrial Design students have been assigned to make those "Isolation Chairs" from last month…

"Isolation Chairs" made by students in Industrial Design Studio II (via @PrattInstitute/Instagram)

…but apparently not everyone's thrilled with the curriculum. The Daily News reports that a group of undergraduate Pratt Institute students have brought a lawsuit against the school, demanding a tuition refund in the face of inadequate online instruction.

"The online learning options being offered to Pratt students are subpar in practically every aspect, from the lack of facilities, materials and access to faculty," a lawyer for the students wrote in the suit. "Students have been deprived of the opportunity for collaborative learning and in-person dialogue, feedback and critique."

…The Pratt Institute lawsuit argued that the university's design focus makes remote, online learning even less feasible for students.

I can't imagine how one would go about teaching Industrial Design from afar. If you're an ID student, whether at Pratt or elsewhere, please drop us a line in the comments--I'm intensely curious to hear how your online classes are going.

Harmon Brothers is the name of the social media ad agency that created the unforgettable Squatty Potty video spot. They've cranked out a number of other ads that also went viral (Poo-Pourri, Purple mattresses, Chatbooks, Lume deodorant), helping propel those businesses into multimillion dollar companies.

To help product companies that are struggling during the downturn, Harmon Brothers has announced they're giving away, sweepstakes-style, a $100,000 video marketing campaign. As long as you've got "a product or service that solves a real problem for real people," you're eligible to apply to their "$100K Poop to Gold Giveaway," as it's called.

Ten semifinalists will be chosen, and the Grand Prize winner gets the free campaign. But the other nine aren't left to hang: They get free coaching and/or a year of free access to the online Harmon Brothers University, where they've distilled their formula for going viral into online lessons.

Here are the details of how to enter:

Don't you miss last year, when we were killing each other with weapons rather than airborne droplets? When mass shootings and home invasions dominated the news, a company called Battenshield rolled out their design for a virtually unbreakable door barricade.

It's not the greatest-looking thing in the world, but I will say the functionality of the design is clever, along with half of the installation. The system with the battens simply hangs on the door.

What I'd worry more about is the ability of the average homeowner to install the brackets (particularly over trim with a wavy cross-section) and get the lags driven into the studs.

Interestingly enough, the system was designed by a former SWAT officer whose role was, you guessed it, the "entry team member" who breaches doors.

The video below features three mask tutorials. In the first, industrial designer Eric Strebel's wife shows you how to sew a pleated mask that contains a slot you can slide a filter into; then Strebel shows you how he modified his shop mask for easy on/off; finally, he runs you through making a BU Mask, which is a cardboard mask (designed by Evgeny Maslov, freely downloadble plans at the link) that can also take a replaceable filter.

For tradespeople, farmers and others who frequently need to cover and uncover their shoes (to protect interior surfaces from mud or worse), disposable booties are an unsustainable solution. They're also a pain to take on and off. This reusable and automatically-wrapping design seems much better:

I've been searching for something like this for a long time. On our free-range farm, I inevitably step in the shit of some animal on a daily basis, and pulling my boots off and on every time I need to go back inside to retrieve something gets old.

However, these wouldn't 100% work for my application. While getting them on looks easy, getting them off requires a fair amount of manual manipulation…

…meaning every time I removed these, I'd wind up with animal feces on my hands.

Question for you: How do you reckon these work? I figure inside the fabric is a polypropylene sheet molded into a sprung shape, with raised tunnel-like seams serving as hinges, and when you collapse the tunnels by stepping on them, the spring action is released. [Edit: I believe reader Kyle Lamson has figured it out. See his comment below.]

(Lastly, I was not able to find what company or designer invented these. There are tons of variants on the market. It's possible they were invented by a fellow named Joel Fersaci, whose Step in Sock model is featured in the video above.)

In 1970, Plymouth hoped to persuade Ford Mustang and Chevy Camaro buyers to choose their Barracuda instead. One of Plymouth's tactics was to offer greater customization options.

At the time, the Mustang offered 15 exterior color options:

1970 Ford Mustang Exterior Paint Options

The Camaro offered 18 exterior color options:

1970 Chevy Camaro Exterior Paint Options

Note: This sheet pertains to multiple Chevy models. We have obscured the color options unavailable on the Camaro.

Plymouth went heavy by offering a whopping 25 color options. They demonstrated this to buyers not with a lame sample sheet, but by dropping this innovative-for-the-time rendering into the brochure:

1970 Plymouth Barracuda Ext. Paint Options

That rendering is freaking gorgeous, as are all of the colors. There's not a single one of those I'd decline.

As Hot Rod reports, automotive enthusiast Tim Wellborn, founder of the Wellborn Musclecar Museum in Alabama, had known about the rendering since childhood and recently decided he wanted a real version. According to My Classic Garage, "Collaborating with the Big Easy Motors television show on the History Channel, the Wellborn Musclecar Museum tapped famed builders at The Bomb Factory in New Orleans, LA [and] set out to create a real life version of the original 1970 illustration."

Here's what they came up with:

They did commit to a single color for the driver's side (looks like #17 on the chart):

While the "Paint Chip 'Cuda" isn't for sale, the museum sells both posters and banners featuring its image.

In the sci-fi series The Expanse, set in the 2300s, characters carry smartphone-like devices and are often seen "throwing" data from their device onto a nearby screen for group viewing. Here in humble ol' 2020, designer Cyril Diagne has figured out how to do it, without the histrionic swiping gesture performed on the TV show, and including a capturing step:

Diagne calls it "AR Cut Paste" (though some have commented it's really copy and paste) and has made the code freely available on Github.

Climbing coconut and arecanut trees to harvest their prizes is strenuous, dangerous work, and requires a young body. But in Dakshina Kannada, India, "there is a substantial migration of well-educated youngsters to the cities for white collar jobs," K. Ganapathi Bhat told India's The News Minute. "There is a huge scarcity of employment in labour-intensive sectors like agriculture, especially those skilled in climbing trees."

"Having been born in a family with an agricultural background, it was painful to see the ripe coconut and arecanut either eaten by birds or falling across the fields," Bhat says. At 60 years of age, he's too old to climb the trees himself. But unlike most farmers, he has a Bachelors of Science in Physics, Chemistry and Maths. Thus he cobbled this together:

The bike-based contraption runs on gas, using what appears to be a chainsaw motor. After testing it out for two years on roughly 2,000 arecanut trees on his own farm, Bhat reckons the "mileage" is 90 trees per liter of gas (360 trees/gallon), and that the machine can carry an 80kg (175-pound) person to the top of a 30-meter (98-foot) tree in 30 seconds--safely. If the brakes fail, a backup brake kicks in to jam the wheels in place. As long as your tree isn't mushy and algae-covered (he tested those, too, and found the performance unsatisfactory), you're in business.

Here's more footage of the machine in action, including Bhat jumping up and down on it, to demonstrate that it safely stays in place:

Although he's been approached by several manufacturers, Bhat has turned them down, as he's not interested in profit. "I wish to partner with an organisation that would help me share the technology with the farmers to benefit them," he says. "I do not wish to seek royalties for such a venture. But I want to make sure that this product reaches as many farmers as possible, so that, in some way, it helps in the development of the overall agricultural scenario of the country."

Hello my Creative Friends! I have some wonderful & exciting news to share with you today! I am going to be teaching on Ever After  this year! To celebrate, I am giving away 1 space for this magical art course! … Continue reading →

The post Ever After 2018 Blog Hop & Giveaway appeared first on Regina Lord of Creative Kismet.

Here in the Southwest, we finally had our first day of fall weather with rain and cool temps. It will warm up again for sure, but it sure was lovely!  I made the little painting above while blissfully listening to … Continue reading →

The post Hello October! appeared first on Regina Lord of Creative Kismet.

Under the Crescent Moon This is my contribution to the Day of the Dead exhibit happening now at Tohono Chul Gallery.  This image has a mock frame on it, but the original has a real, antiqued gold frame which looks … Continue reading →

The post Day of the Dead Exhibit at Tohono Chul Gallery appeared first on Regina Lord of Creative Kismet.

I’m so happy to be able to participate in this event.  Many local artists were able to paint and decorate a Mexican ceramic pig in their own special way.  Here is my piggy: For those of you that live in … Continue reading →

The post Year of the Pig Exhibit appeared first on Regina Lord of Creative Kismet.

Dave M. Finklang, CPA/CGMA, MBA, tax partner at Anders, has been named a Best Accountant in St. Louis by Small Business Monthly (SBM). Each month, SBM polls readers and asks them to help identify the best in the region in… Read More

The post Anders Partner Dave Finklang Named a Best St. Louis Accountant appeared first on Anders CPAs.

Occupational burnout is one of the top reasons cited for employees leaving a position or organization. One of the causes of employee turnover is occupational burnout which is defined as a physical or mental collapse caused by work overload or… Read More

The post Dealing with Occupational Burnout in Your Career appeared first on Anders CPAs.

As recruitment processes for many companies continue to change due to COVID-19, virtual interviews are becoming a normal part of the process. There are many similarities between interviewing in-person and virtually, and ultimately, the end goal is the same. Whether… Read More

The post Tips for Acing Your Next Virtual Job Interview appeared first on Anders CPAs.

I’m a little late getting this post up, it’s been quarantine mood swing central around here. There are some days where I feel crazy productive and in a good mood like “hey I got this!” and then those days where I’m asking myself how much time is too much to spend on the couch because

Do the new Distress Oxide colors have you asking “what is the difference between the original Distress ink and new Distress Oxide ink?” Let’s test it!

Last winter i purchased a Polaroid Zip Mobile printer, and decided to give it a first try-out on the road, as it was intended to be used. Here’s my review, and what I learned!

Welcome to National Scrapbook Day on Craft Critique! I’ve got a great giveaway to celebrate with thanks to Graphic 45 – and a simple layout that I hope will get you inspired to scrapbook today! [Disclosure: Some links below are links to Nally Studios advertisers or are affiliate links that pay a commission at no […]

Microsoft recently introduced the Teams application into the Office 365 product stack as a replacement for Skype for Business. While Teams is a replacement for Skype’s meetings and messaging, Microsoft expanded the tool, adding even more capabilities to help businesses… Read More

The post Microsoft Teams: An All-in-One Collaboration Tool for Your Business appeared first on Anders CPAs.