... this blogger gave to thee...
... two tricks and treats...
....a tale of lovely lore.Every December for the past couple of years, YouTube recommends a video to me, and the great and terrible thing about YouTube and it's algorithm, is as soon as you click on that video, they continue to recommend similar content to you, whether you want them too or not.
The video that the platform recommended to me around this time of year, was for a glitter bomb... and you know how I feel about glitter...
... so of course I clicked on it. This is when I was introduced to Mark Rober, a mechanical engineer who previously worked for NASA, spending seven of his nine years there working on the Mars Curiosity Rover, before creating his own company, Digital Dudz. Rober's online brand sold Halloween costumes specialising in clothing and masks that secretly integrated your mobile phone or tablet, and played animated elements through an accompanying app creating an interactive costume.
This is where Rober's YouTube life started, his first video was showcasing his Halloween costume for the year and prototyping his app intergrated product which would become his future business venture. The company would be sold two years later to Morphsuits, a UK based costumer allowing him to start working for Apple as a product designer and engineer, helping to develop VR (Virtual Reality) equipment and a self driving car. However, as of 2019 he has become a fulltime YouTuber.
But where does the glitter come in?
Well, for the past four years, after having a parcel stolen from his front porch, and the police having no interest in doing anything about the theft, Rober decided to take matters into his own hands and get a little revenge on parcel thieves, Kevin McAllister style.
Designed to be stolen, the packages boasts four cameras to film the theft, GPS to track them, sirens, police chatter, audio and flashing lights to put the fear of God into them and, as the pièce de résistance adding canisters of the worlds worst smelling fart spray and the hefty quantity of the finest biodegradable glitter that could be found to make their day a little more festive...
Now on it's fourth generation, the glitter bomb is a wonderfully over-engineered piece of karmic justice inspired by Robers childhood idol in the movie Home Alone (1990). Macaulay Culkin even featuring in 2019's video for the second incarnation where Rober had him testing out different concoctions of the noxious fart spray. It's said you should never meet your idols, ideally you definitely shouldn't try gassing them to death either.
In the end the bombs are pranks with a serious message, and potential to actually lead to legal retribution. Not only has Rober hinted that he'll be working with the police in some capacity next year, but his glitter bomb has already lead to an arrest as teamed up with fellow YouTubers Jim Browning and Pierogi from Scammer Payback, as well as state and federal authorities, to help catch a phone scammer who attempted to rob two woman of their life savings.
It's terrifying how easy it is for people to be scammed, whether it's property stolen from your doorstep or being tricked into giving up money over the phone or email, and since the onset of the pandemic, it's on the rise. It's a story you hear a lot, and while Rober's glitter bomb isn't a solution, it's at least highlighting a problem and making it really hard for those who think stealing is acceptable to ever get all the glitter out of their carpet.
But scammers aren't the only ones in this creators sights, there's also his local gang of squirrels...
... yeah not even the squirrels are safe when Rober's around, but it's all done in good humour.
And that's what I like about these two projects, there's some serious undertones, I mean bird seed stealing squirrels are obviously a scourge on society. However, even with that Rober uses design, engineering and humour to raise awareness of issues, to encourage creativity and creative thinking in others through a fun manner and show that thinking outside of the box and doing something stupid can be incredibly benefitable to your design process.
That and there's glitter, and proof that squirrels are scarily intelligent if you put food at the end of an obstacle course.
Though that doesn't surprise me, I once watched a red squirrel abseil out of a tree, weighing down a branch until it could drop elegantly onto the bonnet of the car beside me and then scurry away. It was quite clearly rehearsing for some sort of heist in its future.
Merry Christmas! Part three coming soon to a post near you...
Link || Ex-Nasa Engineer's DIY Mission Impossible-Style Obstacle Course [...] by Neha Mistry via Yanko Design
Link || Mark Rober is Back with an Upgraded Version of his Infamous Glitter Bomb Project by Arduino "having11" Guy via Hackster.io
Link || How Fraudsters Exploited Our Fears During the 'Scamdemic' by David Robson via BBC Future
Link || Criminals Exploit Covid-19 Pandemic with Rise in Scams Targeting Victims Online via UK Finance
Listening: River - James Taylor
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