Journal

You’ll want every single one of these for your pencil case, from an implement for cavemen to a pencil you sharpen by squeezing.

It’s pretty common for teachers to task their design students with rethinking a ubiquitous object, so designers Luka Or and Keren Tomer weren’t exactly going rogue when they asked their third-year industrial design class at Israel’s Holon Institute of Technology to redesign the humble pencil. But what their students came up with transcends the usual half-hearted redesigns, spanning pencils that are applied like paint brushes, pencils shapes like paleolithic tools, and more.

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The rapidly evolving escape room industry is adopting practices from engineering, theater, and film—and coming up with some of its own.

Imagine being locked in a roomful of strangers, where the only exit has been hidden by a raving mad scientist who’s muttering half-incomprehensible clues under his breath. It sounds like the start of a horror movie—but for customers in hundreds of “escape rooms” around the country, it’s just another fun night out.

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Are your emails out of control? We can help.

Have you ever found yourself overwhelmed by the amount of emails that are currently in your inbox? We can help. Find out the best way to attack an out-of-control inbox. There can be a method to the madness, from knowing which emails to respond to first to the best way to approach email when you’re out of the office for a period of time. Watch this video, then tell us how you manage your inbox at #WorkSmart.

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At this year’s Thanksgiving Day parade, the NYPD is protecting tourists in visible—and invisible—ways.

In the wake of the Paris attacks, expect extra security at this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. There will be more uniformed cops than usual, who are more likely to keep their eyes on the crowds than to joke with them. And then there are all the things that attendees probably won’t see: The snipers, the radiation detectors, the helicopters equipped with sensors, and the monitoring centers keeping tabs on the parade on CCTV.

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Faceshift’s software enhances Apple’s existing portfolio of facial recognition and augmented reality technology.

Apple just made an unexpected purchase: The tech giant has acquired Faceshift, the startup responsible for the motion capture technology used to make characters in the new Star Wars movie look more realistic, TechCrunch reports. Apple has not disclosed how much it spent on the Zurich-based company, but TechCrunch reports that “several Faceshift employees are now working for Apple now out of Europe.”

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It’s almost Thanksgiving, so get stuffed!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and while it may be a holiday rooted in colonialism, conquest, and racist exploitation, that describes literally everything else about America too. Thanksgiving is also a holiday where the only point is to eat a big meal and be with people you love, or, failing that, your family. There’s no religious component, no endless rituals to observe, you just get together and eat until you feel sick. And in my opinion, that’s a hard holiday to dislike.

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As part of its quest to sell advertisers on retail data, Google has some information that can make shoppers’ lives easier.

Google is trying something new this Black Friday to ease the headache of shopping for both consumers and retailers.

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