Dieter Rams: back to basics

If you have an interest in design you will be aware of the impact of Dieter Rams on the objects of today. Which makes this video worth a look

Blec le Rat: who needs cake when you have a can

It's hard to believe that Blec le Rat, the pioneer of stencil art, the man responsible for inspiring the likes of Banksy and all manner of other street artists, is 60.

Which does drive home the fact that you could be a graffiti artist as well as a resident at a home for the elderly if you wanted to.

Blec celebrated his birthday with an exhibition consisting of giant sprayed canvases, which, while they may not feature the kind of witicism that made Banksy famous, do feature a certain charm.

McLaren cars: produced in luxury

I've been seeing this copper-coloured sports car driving around my town for a few weeks now and could never work out what it was until now.

It is most definitely a McLaren, judging by these pictures, which is pretty cool in a town where most of the fast cars are Porscehs with the odd Ferrari for good measure.

These are turned out in a state of the art production facility near Woking, Surrey which was designed by Norman Foster and has one of its two floors completely buried below ground. If you're going to build cars for a living, you'd surely want to build £100k sportscars in something that looked like the garage of the Starship Enterprise, wouldn't you?

Via Freshness

Girls Friday: Wang Ruo Yi

Somewhere, in an office ...

Fiat 500 Abarth: coming to America

This has been on my wishlist since it was released in ... oh ... 2008? At the rate I'm going it looks like you're going to be driving it in the US before me (unless you count the test drive).

But just seeing this in its black and red finery has brought the little Abarth back on my radar. 

Incase leather iPad case: skinned

There appears to be jack all to post about at the moment so in the interests of filling your blog-sized hole with something, anything, I thought I might garner your opinion on iPads. I might get one. Just might. I know I'm a bit late but I have never been one of those queue-up-for-hours-for-the-latest-Mac types. I'd have preferred to queue for something like a sweatshirt.

So if anyone could tell me the benefits of an iPad 2 over the much-reduced iPad, and whether getting 64gb carries any kind of advantage if you already have a Macbook on which to store your shiz, and whether I really need the Wi-Fi+3G option, feel free to comment.

In return I give you some pictures of an iPad case (by Incase). Fair deal?

Rapha Continental RBC Gran Fondo: *Sigh*

I had a knee operation last Monday which has essentially put  me out of action in terms of cycling or running until after Christmas. So all I can do is watch videos like this and dream of getting back on the bike. Terrible.