oliver.thiessen

(Van in LA)

Just because the government has the misfortune to shut down doesn’t mean all the expenses federal employees have to pay for are put on hold — far from it. Bills are still due for many affected by the shutdown, but Hyundai Motor says it wants to help any affected U.S. workers by deferring payments they owe on the car company’s vehicles.

Hyundai says that any of the 700,000 employees facing unpaid leave during the shutdown will be given a payment relief on their Hyundai vehicles “for as long as they are out of work,” reports the BBC.

If you happen to be shopping for a new car at the moment, federal employees will also get a 90-day payment deferral. This plan is similar to the Hyundai Assurance Program offered by the company four years ago during the heyday of the recession.

“We recognize the impact on family budgets that the furlough will drive,” John Krafcik, chief executive of Hyundai Motor America, said in a statement.

“Like we did almost four years ago when we launched Hyundai Assurance, this is our way of saying ‘We’ve got your back’ during this uncertain time,” he added.

Eligible customers must have financed their purchase or lease through Hyundai Finance America, so if you’re unsure, check with your dealer to see if you can participate in the deferral program.

Hyundai to defer payments due from US government staff [BBC]

(I’m handing out inner tubes for a popular water slide. Several young men come up; one of them has a tattoo on his side that makes it look like his skin is peeling away to reveal mechanical inner workings. Shortly after they get in line, two little girls come up. They stare at the tattooed man for a few moments, and then one taps him on the leg.)

Girl #1: “Are you sure you can go in the water?”

Tattooed Man: “Uh… I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

Girl #1: “But what about that?” *points to his tattoo* “My mommy says electric stuff can’t get wet.”

Tattooed Man: *grinning* “Oh, don’t worry. I’m an underwater explorer robot. I’m built for that stuff.”

Girl #2: “So you won’t break? Even if you get water all inside you?”

Tattooed Man: “Nope!”

Girls #1 & #2: *gaping at him* “Wow…”

(I work in a small town gas station where you can pump your fuel before you pay. A little old lady—who is probably in her 80s—comes in to pay for fuel.)

Old Lady: “I guess you want my money, right?”

Me: *smiling* “I’d hate to call the cops on you.”

Old Lady: “But it would spice up my day!”

Coworker: “You should let them pursue you!”

Old Lady: “Are there any cute ones on duty?”

Me: “Sherman?”

Coworker: “Eh. But he looks about 12.”

Old Lady: “But you find them young to raise them how you want!”

(erinkphotography)

On the one hand, we’re at least happy that brewers aren’t acting like some retailers and totally ignoring the fact that Halloween comes before Christmas. Heck, they could’ve skipped pumpkin beers and gone straight for the holiday brews. But that being said, customers are a bit miffed that the craft beer industry is falling prey to seasonal creep and tapping pumpkin brews before summer is even over.

Even before Labor Day weekend, which is hailed/mourned as the end of summer (although that’s really Sept. 21), craft brewers were shilling pumpkin and other autumnal beers. And that’s making some customers cranky, reports the Associated Press. We know all about the creep, folks. Let’s hug it out.

“Everyone likes pumpkin beer, but you don’t want it to come too soon. I definitely like to drink it in the appropriate season,” said one Boston customer who still ordered a pumpkin ale, despite its too-earliness.

“I think it’s just a rushing the season kind of thing,” said another pumpkin fan, who turned to Twitter to air his gripes when he saw pumpkin beer on the shelves in mid-August. “I’m guilty of drinking them but it seems like it’s getting earlier and earlier each year.”

But brewers say it’s not up to them when the pumpkins start a’rolling into bars — if people want to buy a lot of it this fall, they’ve got to get their breweries into high gear. All that early preparation means the beer hits the bar sooner as well.

“If you think it’s too early for Pumpkin Ale, don’t go get some,” Schlafly Beer in St. Louis posted on its website in August. “It will still be on shelves for the next couple months (hopefully) and you can pick some up down the road.”

Early pumpkin beers brew dismay among drinkers [Associated Press]

I’m the cashier at a small grocery store. An American customer approaches my till with a pint of milk.)

Customer: “Excuse me, can I get this milk cheaper? It’s cheaper in America.”

Me: “Uhh, sorry. We can’t change the prices for something like that.”

Customer: “Why not? I’m not paying that much for milk. Everything is way too expensive over here!”

Me: “If we changed the prices for everyone simply because they thought it would be too expensive, then we’d probably not stay in business very long!”

Customer: *sighs* “FINE.”

(She slams the milk jug down on the till, and I finish the transaction.)

Me: “Okay, that’s £1.89 please.”

(The customer sighs dramatically again, and hands me a $10 bill. I stare at it.)

Customer: “What?”

(I am thinking she hasn’t realized what she’s given to me. By this point there are a few customers queuing at my checkout.)

Me: “It’s one pound, and 89 pence.”

Customer: “So?”

Me: “We can’t accept dollars here.”

Customer: “WHY NOT?”

Me: “We don’t accept foreign currency. Just pounds.”

Customer: “I’M NOT FOREIGN; I’M AMERICAN! THIS IS A DISGRACE!”

(She ends up leaving the milk, and storming out of the store. Half of the customers in my line can’t help but laugh out loud after she leaves.)

Because there are apparently not enough studies to convince the Food and Drug Administration that controversial chemical Bisphenol-A (BPA) should not be used in just about every form of food packaging, yet another study has been published linking BPA to childhood obesity. Meanwhile, a separate study released today showed a possible connection between a widely used plasticizer and diabetes.

Both studies are to be published in the September 2013 edition of the journal Pediatrics and are currently available for free online.

The first study [PDF] investigated the relationship between levels of BPA in urine and subjects’ body mass index (BMI), as well as other chronic disease risk factors.

BPA is a chemical commonly used in food and beverage packaging in the U.S., though it has recently been banned for use in the making of baby bottles and infant formula packaging.

Researchers looked at around 3,300 Americans between the ages of 6 and 18, comparing their urinary BPA to measures of adiposity, cholesterol, insulin, and glucose. Results were adjusted for variables like demographics, tobacco exposure, and soda consumption.

They found that the children with the highest levels of urinary BPA also had better odds of being obese and of having waistlines out of proportion to the subject’s height. This study did not find a link between urinary and other chronic disease risk factors.

In general, critics of the study bring up two major objections. First, that urinary BPA levels don’t give any indication on whether BPA is actually being absorbed by any organs or tissues as it moves through the body, or if it’s moving through the body without having any effect. Second, some critics contend that the high level of obesity may be due to these people simply eating more food than others.

Earlier this summer, lawmakers in Washington introduced legislation that would phase out the use of products containing BPA, though it is unlikely to pass.

The other study [PDF] published in Pediatrics looks at the possible relationship between DEHP, a phthalate often found in plastics like PVC, and higher levels of insulin resistance, a precursor for diabetes. DEHP is often used in the softening of plastic soda bottles.

DEHP has previously been linked to insulin resistance in adults, but this research sought to see if the same findings held for adolescents.

Researchers looked at data from 766 blood and urine samples taken from adolescents aged 12 to 19 between 2003 and 2008. Among those subjects with the lowest concentration of DEHP in their systems, the rate of insulin resistance was less than 15%. On the opposite end of the spectrum, 22% of teens with the highest levels of DEHP were found to be insulin-resistant.

The researchers hesitate to draw a straight line between DEHP consumption, admitting that it’s possible that insulin-resistant adolescents may simply be consuming more foods containing DEHP, or that they are excreting a higher level than those who are not insulin-resistant.

Our recent podcast “Parking Is Hell” explored the high costs of free parking. Transportation scholar Donald Shoup described one study, from L.A.:

We made 240 observations. When you add it up, the average time it took to space was only three minutes, that’s two and a half times around the block, which doesn’t seem like very much. It’s about half a mile hunting for parking. But when you add up all the people who are parking in Westwood Village, if they had the same average that we had, that adds up to 3,600 vehicle miles of travel a day. That’s the distance across the U.S., and that’s just in the 15-block area of Westwood. If you add it up for a year, that’s equal to 36 trips around the Earth or four trips to the moon hunting for underpriced curb parking in a little 15-block area. 

In South Korea, an oil company has started a campaign to reduce parking search time. The HERE campaign states that South Korean drivers wander 500 meters everyday for parking spots; by cleverly installing a balloon that indicates exactly where open spots are, it reduces search time for drivers. The balloon dips down when a car is parked, and floats back up when the spot is free. The video is worth watching:

(HT: Dan Gibson)

Imagine carrying your shelter with you at all times, like a snail or a turtle. How comforting would it be to simply retreat into your own little habitat when life gets rough? SIBLING, an Australian design collective, has created a pair of shoes that can make that happen.

The Walking Shelter shoes, designed for women’s retailer Gorman, are ordinary sneakers with one huge difference: they hold an entire tent. The nets on the back of the shoes hold a compact shelter that unfolds to encompass the entire body.

When removed from the nets, the tent expands and uses the human body as a frame. It can be used in a number of ways and in a number of situations. We would love to see these shoes (or something similar) donated to homeless people as a way to give at least a little shelter for the nights they spend on the street.

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In this strange circus performance piece, two travelers turn architectural conventions on end, moving an offbeat nomadic home through a comedic narrative via carefully choreographic actions. A bit of theater-to-go, The Wheelhouse features careworn gypsies, and revolves around homeless living but is bolstered by conceptual architecture and compelling acrobatics.

Per the video above and images below, this quite dynamic acting duo from the Acrojou Circus Theatre have taken their show quite literally on the road – audience members have to walk or ride alongside their curious portable stage, consisting of domestic essentials packed into a portable circle.

Doors, windows, furnishings and fixtures are all affixed to the inside of this unbalanced blend of off-kilter architecture and vertigo-inducing set design. Their half-hour performance consists of walking, sitting and laying down inside the circular structure as it winds its way down streets and sidewalks.

A hidden sound system provides the soundtrack for the piece, and the set itself can be deconstructed into three pieces – that bit is perhaps too bad: it would be neat were the rolling architecture a part of their traveling circus caravan.

To celebrate the 110th birthday of deceased British author George Orwell, famous for his dystopian visions of the future, Front404 roamed the streets of Utrecht adding colorful celebratory hats to all kinds of security and surveillance cameras.

Recent news about the National Security Agency has prompted a record-breaking uptick in sales of one of Orwell’s most famous works, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), in which state monitoring reached terrifyingly deep into the everyday lives of citizens.

From the activist artists behind the project: “By making these inconspicuous cameras that we ignore in our daily lives catch the eye again we also create awareness of how many cameras really watch us nowadays, and that the surveillance state described by Orwell is getting closer and closer to reality.”

CCTV has long been a subject for street artists, including the infamous Banksy, particularly in places with lax laws regarding the monitoring of public spaces … which makes sense, considering their works are not always legal, but often caught on tape.

What could be more relaxing than hanging from a hammock in the shade? Perhaps filling it with water, and luxuriating in a bath within that same relaxing shape from Splinter Works.

A stainless steel tap rises up and hangs over one side to fill the carbon-fiber tub (which itself is suspended from the walls by stainless steel brackets). The bathtub is, in turn, drained through the floor.

Lest you wonder where all the heat goes while you soak, there is a foam core to the carbon fiber shell to provide insulation, keeping the water warm. This layer is somewhat hidden due to the tapering of the tub shell around its edges.

Splinter Works founder Miles Hartwell explains the design: “Struck by the synergy between the shapes of two compelling symbols of relaxation, a hammock and a bath tub, we were inspired to develop a piece that would provide the ultimate vehicle for total escapism.”

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Photo via Shutterstock

Ikea furniture is ubiquitous in dorm rooms and apartments all over the world, but it’s difficult to fathom exactly how much of the world’s resources are actually used to make Ikea products. According to Pacific Standard, Ikea uses about one percent—yes, one percent—of the world’s entire commercial wood supply. That amounts to about 17.8 million cubic yards of lumber last year. It’s difficult not to have mixed feelings about so much of the world’s forest going to the production of cheap furniture, but the Swedish retailer isn’t all bad.

Read the rest of IKEA Consumes a Full One Percent of the World’s Commercial Wood Supply

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Post tags: "green furniture", FSC, fsc certification, fsc certified wood, ikea, ikea furniture, ikea green, ikea stores, Ikea wood, sustainable forestry, sustainable wood, timber, Wood, wood furniture

kindamouthy:

Genius!  Finally a practical use for my millions of succulent offspring.