If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives)

A Fly On The Wall That Can Save Your Life. Lento, The Award-Winning Smoke Detector From Jalo.

Lento is an unexpectedly whimsical but safe and effective photoelectric smoke alarm designed by Finnish designer Paola Suhonen for Jalo Helsinki.

Lento will not only enhance the safety of your home, but you will also add a touch of originality. Forget the boring and unattractive smoke alarms on the market – with Lento an essential everyday object such as a smoke alarm will become an original piece of design for decorating your home and keeping it safe. Installing Lento will take only a few seconds thanks to its 3M tape and there will be no need for screws or a power drill.

The whole surface of the smoke alarm acts as a test button, so there are no tiny push buttons, but the whole external casing acts as a press switch for silencing false alarms and testing the performance. Lento has been developed and manufactured according to the requirements and standards for smoke alarms. Lento is lightweight and has a 5 year battery life time.

Available in pink, green, grey, white or black, Lento was awarded the Red Dot Design Award 2011.

Manufacturer: Jalo Helsinki
Design: Paola Suhonen

Accessories: 5 years
Warranty: 5 year battery life time
Size: Length 188 mm, width 184 mm, height 50 mm, weight 200 g
Colors: Green, Pink, White, Grey and Black
Notes: Operational temperature 0-45C, humidity 0-90%

You Can Buy it here

KUPU - Photoelectric Smoke Alarm, Design by Harri Koskinen
If you'd prefer a smoke alarm that is not quite as whimsical, Jalo Helsinki also manufactures the KUPU, another Red Dot Design Winner that is a square photoelectric smoke alarm available in multiple colors:

You can also purchase the KUPU here

Not Just Sloths, Baby Sloths! I Hope Kristen Bell Has Some Kleenex. A New Book By Lucy Cooke.

Kristen Bell can start crying again*. National Geographic explorer, writer, filmmaker and zoologist Lucy Cooke's first book, A Little Book of Sloth, is out next month and features tons of adorable and silly photos of baby sloths.

above photos and video screen grabs courtesy of Lucy Cooke

The 64 page hardcover book (also available as a digital e-book) contains tons of crazy cute photographs by Lucy Cooke and a percentage of the book's sales will go toward sloth conservation. The book, available to pre-order now is expected to ship on or around March 5, 2013.

Here are a few sample spreads from the book:

Lucy Cooke and sloth:

So why sloths?
Below was the video that started it all off. Filmed at the world's only sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica it has now become a cult hit, has been tweeted by Ricky Gervaise, Ashton Kutcher, Stephen Fry and *obsessed over by Kristen Bell. You can catch the full length, award-wining 'Meet the Sloths' documentary on Animal Planet in the US and UK.

Music: "Scrapping and Yelling" by Mark Mothersbaugh from "The Royal Tenenbaum's" movie soundtrack.

If you too love sloths, check out Slothville, Lucy's headquarters for all things sloth.

images courtesy of Lucy Cooke, Slothville and Simon and Schuster

The 2013 Passionata Lingerie Calendar & Ad Campaign Featuring Bar Refaeli.

Photographer Greg Kadel has been shooting Israeli model Bar Refaeli for Passionata Lingerie in a sexy pin-up style for several years now. The latest video and images for their Spring Summer 2013 collection and ad campaign are called "Home Sweet Girl" and most likely fulfill many a man's dream of having a "housewife" who bakes and gardens while clad in sexy lingerie (Where's the one of her ironing?).

Home Sweet Girl by Passionata:

The making of:

The Calendar:

The calendar is available as a downloadable pdf from their site.

Other images from the campaign:

It should be known that Refaeli has launched an underwear brand of her own, but a much more casual collection for men and women called Under Me.

Urban Goggles From L'Wren Scott's Debut Eyewear Collection.

Fashion designer L'Wren Scott, whose name you may know from dressing many Celebrities for the red carpet, has launched her first eyewear collection, created through a partnership with Munich-based firm Menrad.

Of the new collection, which launched this month, the most unusual are her "Urban Goggles" Sunglasses that have grosgrain ribbons in lieu of temple arms that tie around your head. The versatile style can be worn as a head band or neckpiece.