bookofjoe

Universal Plate

Martín Azúa created this one-piece polypropylene tray for eating in 1999.

Why am I just finding out about it now?

Better late than never.

[via Fancy]

Belt Knife: "You will never know you have a knife — until you need one!"

Catchy, what?

I'm not even gonna waste the ink it would take to remind you not to wear this to the airport should you happen to have one. 

Belt knife buckles: $35.

Belts: $25 and up.

"ink?"

[via LikeCool and Somos Bicis]

BehindTheMedspeak: $1,000 human genome sequencing — while you wait

The race to make sequencing a person's complete genome ordinary, affordable and fast is moving ahead more quickly than almost anyone could have envisioned.

Last July Jonathan Rothberg, CEO of Connecticult-based Ion Torrent, predicted that by 2013 his company would develop a chip that could sequence an entire human genome.

Last month the company unveiled its new Ion Proton tabletop sequencer, able "to sequence an entire human genome in a day for $1,000 — a price the biotech industry has been working toward for years because it would bring the cost down to the level of a medical test."

In fact, the technology progression in DNA sequencing is moving faster than Moore's law.

Last week Friday, British-based Oxford Nanopore unveiled its "MiniON," a disposable DNA sequencing device the size of a memory stick capable of sequencing a human genome in six hours.

The company's "GridION," a heavy-duty device, is theoretically capable of sequencing a human genome in 15 minutes.

Within the next several years, every child born in developed countries will have its DNA completely sequenced at birth.

People will have their DNA sequenced throughout their lives on a regular basis, approached as one more routine blood test.

Why?

Because it won't be simply the order of base pairs that will be reported but, even more importantly, the genes that are active and silent at a given point in a person's life.

All of us go through life with any number of genes that, if active, would result in lethal illnesses.

These genes for the most part remain silenced by epigenetic switches.

With the ability to quickly and cheaply "read" the base pair alphabet a given, an understanding of how environment and stress combine to turn genes on and off becomes the prime target of diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

Japanese Kraft Envelopes

From the website:

......................... 

These envelopes aren't meant to be sent out with your electric bill. Styled and constructed like the 1950s-era internal document cases shuttling classified information from one hand to the next, these envelopes are made to last. The string closure, metal rivets, and thick paper mean they can be opened and closed over and over again, and saved for as long as you want to keep the contents.

They measure 6.69" x 4.53" and have two lines on the front (above) for labeling.

The envelopes are great for invitations, homemade cards, or for storing and organizing photographs, polaroids, love notes and other paper ephemera. Or use these for more utilitarian tasks, like saving receipts and carrying around printed flight and hotel information while traveling.

There are six envelopes to a box, and the box is fitted with the same string closure as the envelopes.

Use & Care

Wind the string around the two circular tabs so it's taut but without tugging. Use this with care and it will last you a long time.  

Production & Design

Japanese stationery maker Midori has been in the business since the 1950s. The designs seem pulled from the era, as does the utility and craftsmanship of their stationery. These envelopes are made with old-school craft paper — something you can see in the variations of the printing finish, and feel in the weight and texture of the paper.

.........................

Box of six: $10.

Also available in a smaller version (below)

measuring 4.72" x 3.14".

Box of six: $8.

Disappearing Car Door

"The Retractable Vehicle Door, called the Disappearing Car Door, by John Townsend of California-based Jatech."

[via LikeCool]

Rachael Ray Young Cooks Knife Set

Fantastic color choice by the designer — big ups.

From the website:

............................

The Rachael Ray Young Kids Knife was designed for young cooks so their hands can grip a knife with greater control.

The unique blade and handle design help make slicing and chopping of meats, vegetables, and fruits easier as well as safer for kids.

The patented Gusto-Grip handle helps kids get a firmer grip on the knife.

The knife comes with a cut-resistant glove.

Woven with stainless steel, the glove fits both left and right hands.

Features:

• Blade: 5"L

• Glove: 7.5" x 6"

• Blade protector-case

• Knife tip to base of handle: 8.5"

............................

$19.99.

Change is afoot at bookofjoe as spring approaches

You will notice over the next few days or weeks that a couple things on the site will have changed.

I can only hope this isn't a rearranging-the-deck-chairs-on-the-Titanic maneuver.

But I digress.

Specifically:

• The Amazon box will rise from its position near the bottom of the right-hand column (on permalinked pages with Google ads, the second-from-right-hand column) to the top of its column.

• The Small Parts box currently under the Amazon box will disappear entirely.

These changes are happening because it appears that bookofjoe is finally beginning to show a steady cash flow from the Amazon Associates link, around $200-$250/month.

I receive from 4% to 7.5% of the Amazon price of anything purchased after someone arrives on Amazon via my Amazon box.

The more items that people buy in a month, the higher the percentage, which resets at 4% on the first of every month.

To get to 7.5% requires around 400 purchases in a month, something that's happened once in the two years or so I've had the Amazon box.

I figure that if that box does that well when it's pretty much invisible to most readers who happen on boj/take a look/then click away without scrolling down, it ought to do even better when it's always there up top, ready for a sudden impulse purchase or whatnot.

If everyone yells at me and tells me I have no business messing up the site with an ad at the top of the homepage, and if I myself find it unpalatable or visually too disturbing, I'll move the box back down where it is now.

I've always thought there must be a way to get paid a little for producing boj, and that it's a reasonable thing to do, yet the idea of a PayPal "Donate" button has always rubbed me the wrong way, in that it seems somehow sad and forlorn.

And a wordy explanation under a "Subscribe" button puts me off too.

If only someone could solve the micropayment puzzle, such that site visitors could instantly and without any effort deposit a penny in my account, I'd be home free.

Even at my current traffic level (below),

that would yield $40 a day/$1,200 per month.

And if I could get traffic back up to where it was in mid-2010 (10,000 visitors/day on average), why, that's around $100 per day/$3,000 per month, real money.

So that's the long and the short of it for now.

Human-shaped earring

Maker unknown.

[via LikeCool]

Got S.A.D.? — Sunlight Pill

From LaughingSquid:

"BoraBora is a design concept for a sunlight pill by Quentin Vaulot and Goliath Dyèvre of French design duo Vaulot&Dyèvre."

"The concept was part of the Miniflux exhibition by Gallery Tator for the 2011 Lyon Festival of Lights."

[via Richard Kashdan and designboom]

Turnkey Pencil Sharpener — "A classic with a retro feel"

Designed by Noam Bar Yochai.

5 x 5 x 1.9 cm.

Red or Silver.

$13.50.

[via Svpply]