A very devoted and well-researched blog about mechanical pencils (!), Dave’s Mechanical Pencils, brought our attention to this unusual and beautiful example from ca. 1945. Called “The Social Slencil”, the pencil has a flat design (only 2mm thick) to sit in a pocket. It was manufactured by The Slencil Company of Orange, Mass, U.S.A, who […]
David Rees’ How to Sharpen Pencils: A Practical & Theoretical Treatise on the Artisanal Craft of Pencil Sharpening for Writers, Artists, Contractors, Flange Turners, Anglesmiths, & Civil Servants is a 144-page essay on, erm, sharpening pencils. Or at least that’s what its ostensible content is about. We came across this book via Boing Boing and […]
Lethal: A pencil sharpener A teenage girl’s dreams were almost dashed last week when an over-cautious cashier refused to sell her a Glee stationery set because the pencil sharpener included was deemed too “dangerous”. Emily Davies, 14, tried to buy the set at a 99p Store in Boscombe, Bournemouth, but was refused on the grounds […]
As part of a campaign to promote their new InkJoy pen, Paper Mate® is encouraging office workers to expose pen thieves through its Facebook page. According to research commissioned by Paper Mate, 70 percent of American office workers report that their pen has gone missing from their office. And almost all of the 1,000 respondents […]
If, in your office, it’s got to the stage where the only thing that will put a smile on your face is the sight of a colleague wincing in pain as they pull out a drawing pin from their arm, then look no further than Instructables’ Office Weapons. Here you’ll find a slew of dangerous […]
A museum of failed and stupid inventions has opened to popular acclaim and won a £400,000 government grant. The Museum of Nonsense in Herrnbaumgarten, Austria – dreamt up by Fritz Gall, himself a failed inventor – will move to a larger home later this year so it can cope with the thousands of monthly visitors. […]
On 10 November, thousands of students from over 30 public universities congregated in Bogota and other cities to protest against an education reform bill which, it is feared, will partially privatise higher education in Colombia. More than half a million students have been on strike for a month. President Juan Manuel Santos has offered to […]
Just as a bed of nails can support the weight of a person without piercing that person’s skin (because the weight is distributed across many nails), so this Pencil Bench by Boex can be sat on without fear of snapping the individual elements. Apparently “stemming from a single conversation to see if we could incorporate […]
Designer Ariane Prin’s project, “From Here to Here”, is about localised design, creating “useful products specific to a site from the waste generated there.” Using waste from various departments of the Royal College of Art – sawdust from the wood workshop, clay from the ceramics department, etc. – Prin creates a pencil factory that will […]
About a year ago we told you about Smencils®, 100% recycled scented pencils from the USA yet to find a UK retailer. We are now happy to tell you that Smencils are now available in the UK from educational toy manufacturer, Learning Resources®. Nothing evokes memories like smell and if Marcel Proust had tried to […]
How to plan the office Christmas party Whether you count down the days, or desperately scrabble around for an excuse not to go, the office Christmas party is an event on almost every company’s calendar. So, how do you plan a party that everyone will enjoy? It’s a tricky balance to get Bob from Accounts […]
Top tips to improve your time management skills Despite what people say, time is not a commodity. It cannot be traded, expanded or reduced. It is fixed. Our perception of time, however, is another concept. How often do you think at 4pm “Where has the day gone?” and go into panic mode to try to […]
Planning in business is essential Everything from the monthly sales drive to a new product launch or project needs planning. It promotes joined-up thinking and good decision-making throughout the whole organisation. “A goal without a plan is just a wish”, observed the famous writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery, summing up a key business principle. Each business […]
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