Hasta La Gadget!

I hate wasting food. I hate having to bring up that old “kids are starving in Africa” reasoning, but I will anyway, because it’s true. However, I don’t believe in gorging yourself with food either, just so you won’t have any leftovers. There’s always storing them away in the fridge so you can finish them the next day or sharing them with random people through Leftoverswap.

LeftoverSwap is an app that’s currently in development, which lets you connect with people who might be hungry for your leftovers. I’m not kidding.

Here’s how it works: If you’re a giver, simply take a picture of your leftovers, name it and upload it to the app. If you’re a taker, browse the leftovers near you and arrange for a pickup or delivery.

The app’s website points out that some glaring statistics: 4o% of food produced isn’t eaten, but actually goes to waste. Aside from that, 70% of people are overweight, with about 99% not needing that second helping of whatever dish they’re about to pig out on.

It’s too bad though that the people who need your leftovers the most (such as homeless people and streetchildren) probably don’t have smartphones.

[via Geekologie]

Princesses have it all. Or do they?

All of Disney’s tales end with happily-ever-afters. They are called ‘fairy tales’, after all. Dina Goldstein decided to inject a bit of reality into their stories though and came up with this series, which she aptly dubbed Fallen Princesses.

The series features some of Disney’s most well-known princesses living a not-so-happy life after their movies’ supposed happy endings. Snow White is a mother of four kids with a good-for-nothing prince, Ariel is displayed as an attraction in an aquarium, and Jasmine looks like a fierce combatant clutching a weapon in the middle of a raging war.

You check out more images from series in the gallery below.

The entire Fallen Princesses series, along with essays, interviews and commentary is available as a custom-printed book over at blurb for about $57(USD).

[Petapixel via Helablog via Incredible Things]

Sometimes, the right accessories make a person’s outfit come alive. Other times, it’s the accessories being worn that’s actually alive, and that’s the case with Cecilia Valentine’s “Fur is Alive” series.

Her pieces are composed of bulky but hollow 3D-printed pieces that look plain on their own. If they might remind you of animal cages, then you’re spot on, because they were actually designed with that purpose in mind.

Cecilia’s pieces might seem trivial, but they’re really not, because they were conceptualized with a strong message. On her website, she explains that the conceptual line “examines the exploitation of animals in fashion” and was not meant to be worn. She adds:

The designs incorporate living animals in an attempt to harness the true beauty of natural forms in a way that exposes the harsh reality of the fur industry, which is still widely accepted despite years of controversy. Fur is meant to be alive, and murdering an animal for the sake of design or beauty should never be tolerated.

In case you’re wondering, the bird was edited into the photo, while the hamster was “given many treats in return for his help.” Neat-o, and I definitely agree with Cecilia’s stand on the fur industry.

[via inhabitat via Neatorama]

Most people mean well when they give you directions. However, they often give pretty confusing directions that might get you lost when you try to follow them.

Turning these hand-scrawled directions into an art project, though, is New York conceptual artist Nobutaka Aozaki.

His piece is called Here to There and his goal is to make a map of Manhattan using handwritten directions and maps that he asked for from strangers.

Aozaki walks around the streets dressed in a souvenir baseball cap while toting a Century 21 shopping bag around, posing as a tourist. He then approaches random people to ask about directions on the part of the map he’s working on.

Aozaki’s goal isn’t to create an accurate map (those already exist and his method doesn’t really lead to this end), but rather, he wants to keep track of his daily routine and create a mapped diary of sorts for that.

So if you happen to live around that area, take a closer look at the people around you. Who knows? You might actually run into Aozaki himself.

[via Spoon & Tamago via Colossal]

Have you ever had a 12-course meal? The most I’ve had was eight, and I had a hard enough time keeping everything down by the end of the night. However, being too full isn’t a problem with the 12-Course Meal in a Can, for obvious reasons.

Basically, what you get is what you see. All twelve courses have been mushed and pulverized before being packed into a tight layer into the can. Here’s a list of all twelve courses:

• Selection of local cheeses with sourdough bread
• Pickled kobe beef with charred strawberry
• Ricotta ravioli with a soft egg yolk
• Shitake mushroom topped with filled peppers
• Halibut poached in truffle butter in a coconut crepe
• Risotto with foraged ramps, prosciutto and fresh parmesan
• French onion soup with fresh thyme and gruyere cheese
• Roast pork belly and celeriac root puree
• Palate cleanser: pear ginger juice
• Rib eye steak with grilled mustard greens
• Crack pie with milk ice cream on a vanilla tuile
• French canele with a malt barley and hazelnut latte

To be honest, the whole thing looks like some weird, multi-colored meatloaf that went bad a few years ago. But hey, this is as fancy and compact as a 12-course meal can get.

The whole thing was a project by designer Christopher Godfrey, who wanted make a statement about gimmicks in contemporary culture. What do you think? Would you eat this stuff?

[via Geekologie and Foodbeast]