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fangmcgee writes:
Japanese scientists have genetically engineered silkworms to produce fluorescent fibers in shades of red, orange, and green for a series of glow-in-the-dark wedding gowns.
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fangmcgee writes:
After remarks emerged that Abercrombie & Fitch would rather destroy its clothes than see them on poor people, Greg Karber decided to take action. The L.A. writer-filmmaker has started a campaign to distribute the store’s garments to the homeless. In a YouTube video released on Monday, Karber is seen scouring the “douchebag section” of his local Goodwill for Abercrombie-branded merchandise. He then heads to Skid Row in East Los Angeles, home to one of the largest populations of homeless people in the United States, to hand them out.
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fangmcgee writes:
Extruded plastic baubles not your thing? Rapid-prototype firm Hot Pop Factory just unveiled the world’s first three-dimensionally printed wooden necklaces. Named after the northern forest, the limited-edition “Boreal” collection, uses recycled cherrywood filaments instead of the typical powdered nylon. Mixed with a binding polymer, the material emanates the “slightest scent of charred wood” during the 42-minute printing process, according to founders Matt Compeau and Bi-Ying Miao, who use a Makerbot Replicator for their fabrications. The resulting curvature and heat-induced striations, much like fingerprints or the rings of a tree, are unique to each individual piece.
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fangmcgee writes:
An eight-story facility that housed several garment factories and shops collapsed in Bangladesh on Wednesday, killing at least 96 people, injuring more than 800, and trapping a yet-unknown number under the mass of concrete rubble, according to officials. Firefighters and emergency personnel dug through the ruins of the Rana Plaza building in Savar, a suburb of the South Asian nation's capital of Dhaka, just five months after a fire at the Tazreen Fashions factory killed at least 112 garment workers in the worst industrial disaster the country had ever seen. The latest accident comes at time when questions are being raised about the safety issues that plague Bangladesh's booming garment industry, which is second only to China's in terms of exports.
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fangmcgee writes:
When Gap told the world to "be true to your hue," it probably didn't have Indonesia's waterways in mind. Yet the retail giant, which also owns the Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime, and Athleta labels, is among a raft of brands that have turned the Citarum River in West Java into an unnaturally florid chemical cocktail, according to Greenpeace. Published on Wednesday, Toxic Threads: Polluting Paradise details how the company's business relations with P.T. Gistex, who runs the polluting facility, has transformed a once-pristine watershed into a sewer of toxic, hormone-disrupting, and highly persistant substances.
44629369
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fangmcgee writes:
You thought the smartphone wars were bad? Just wait till the battle heats up over the smartwatch. As Samsung goes public with its plans for a wristwatch-style computer, and rumors of an Apple “iWatch” hits fever pitch, the giants of the tech world have just begun to fight. Not that companies aren’t already competing for real estate on your arm, of course. Sony released an Android-powered model last April. The Pebble watch, which raised a record-smashing $10 million on Kickstarter, began shipping in January. And let’s not even mention the plethora of fitness bracelets—Fitbit, Jawbone Up, Nike Fuelband—that are vying for a slice of an increasingly saturated market.
44401169
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fangmcgee writes:
Sweatshop isn’t your average online cow-clicker. As its name implies, the game places you on the floor of an offshore factory that cranks out merchandise for high-street retailers in the West. Your job as manager: to hire workers to assemble hats, shoes, bags, and shirts at various speeds according to their skill level (or lack thereof in the case of the child laborers you also employ), all while keeping your corporate masters happy by raking in the big profits. Although it's a work of satire designed to raise awareness of labor inequities, Apple doesn't approve. The tech juggernaut removed the iPad version of the game from its App Store because it was “uncomfortable selling a game based around the theme of running a sweatshop.”
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fangmcgee writes:
Forget Google Glass; the tech giant is in the footwear business now. Or at least it was at the SXSW series of film, interactive, and music festivals in Austin on Monday. Together with Adidas, the technology giant unveiled its concept “Talking Shoe,” a smart sneaker designed to get people off the couch and exercising. But Google didn’t just see fit to give the shoe the usual moving parts (an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a pressure sensor, Bluetooth connectivity). The sneaker also boasts a personality, one that is alternatively cheering and jeering depending on your level of activity.
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fangmcgee writes:
"Snowballs" are organic-cotton undies that come with built-in ice packs designed to increase male virility and boost sperm production.
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fangmcgee writes:
In 2050, procuring a new wardrobe will be as easy as hitting a button on a Xerox machine. At least, that’s what industrial designer Joshua Harris proposes with his three-dimensional garment printer, a concept device that would harness technologies such as rapid prototyping to bring clothing production to living rooms everywhere. Urbanization, he says, is rapidly changing the way we obtain the things we need to live. One major opportunity for change? The clothing industry.
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fangmcgee writes:
Dita Von Teese did more than show off her curves at Manhattan’s Ace Hotel Monday night. The burlesque star and fashion icon also modeled what designers Michael Schmidt and Francis Bitonti are billing the world’s first fully articulated 3D-printed gown. Created in conjunction with apid-prototyping marketplace Shapeways, the Fibbonaci-inspired mesh number consists of thousands of laser-sintered nylon components, dyed black, lacquered, and embellished with more than 13,000 Swarovski crystals to achieve its “sensual flowing form.”
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fangmcgee writes:
Never let it be said that Barbie doesn’t have an eye for emerging trends. After forays into everything from aeronautics to zookeeping, America’s favorite plastic dilettante is poised to tackle the Next Big Thing: smart clothing. Unveiled at the 2013 Toy Fair in New York City, the upcoming “Digital Dress” doll features an interactive touchscreen frock that lets just about anyone “draw” their own animated designs, no programming experience necessary.
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fangmcgee writes:
Nike made history on Sunday when it debuted the first-ever football cleat built using rapid-prototyping technology. Weighing no more than 5.6 ounces, the “Vapor Laser Talon” boasts a contoured three-dimensionally printed plate designed to provide optimal traction, as well as help football athletes maintain their “drive stance” longer and more effectively, according to the sportswear giant.
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fangmcgee writes:
Beware the Ghost of Thrift-Store Past, warns televangelist Pat Robertson. On an episode of "The 700 Club" on Monday, the 82-year-old advised viewers to pray over purchases from Goodwill, lest satanic forces use them as a conduit for devilish shenanigans.
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fangmcgee writes:
You might want to keep a barf bag and plenty of Kleenex handy; People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has revealed horrifying never-before-seen video of what goes on inside China’s fur farms. Narrated by The Newsroom actress Olivia Munn, the hard-hitting exposé opens with undercover footage of fur-farm workers restraining dogs’ heads in wire nooses and electrocuting them genitally with metal rods. Other workers are shown bludgeoning raccoon dogs, beheading rabbits, and ripping the fur of still-living animals as they writhe in pain.
