And what did you do with the paper towels?

If you've been to the library lately, or to the Blue Marlin or the Koger Center, you've seen our wacky new hand dryers in the restroom.  (They're probably elsewhere, too, but I've only spotted them in the wild in those habitats.)  They're Dyson Airblades, and when we first got them half of us had no idea we were supposed to stick their hands in them. 

Personally, I thought they looked a little bit like hand guillotines.  I was wary, I admit.  (I may have once or twice in the elevator called it the "De-Handerator".)  The name is... not the best for something you're supposed to stick a body part in, you know?  Maybe "Aircuddle" would have been a better idea. 

Well, there's an article in this month's Dwell about the development of the Airblade, and I have to admit it's very interesting.  The people at Dyson pretty much had this air knife technology and were trying to think of something to use it on.  They were failing until somebody realized it could take the water off your hands solely by the force of the air - it doesn't need heat, and it's pretty energy efficient. 

I've got to admit, the Aircuddles get a lot more water off your hands than the traditional "press button, receive bacon" hand dryers.  (You know, the little diagram that shows you how to use it?  Look at it next time and tell me it doesn't look like the machine is promising you a handful of bacon.  It's disappointing when all you get is warm air, and then you still have to dry your hands on your pants.)  It also makes your skin ripple around so you can pretend that your hands are skydiving.

By the way, the Airblade's website proudly announces "The only hand dryer that literally scrapes water from your hands!"  Somebody should really sit down and have a talk with the Dyson people about the subtleties of tone.

The rest of the article has a lot of fascinating information about the prototyping process and how a company makes a million dollar prototype into an affordable product for manufacture.  It's very cool, and there are robot hands.

Dwell is a neat little magazine.  It's half overly serious design mag, half interesting "ideas for living".  There's a hilarious website, unhappyhipsters.com, that uses captions to make fun of the photography of Dwell and its ilk - there are always a bunch of grumpy, lonely looking people in scary concrete houses.  Even the dogs look like they're trapped in loveless relationships. 

However, there are always a few interesting Dwell articles - besides the Airblade one, this issue addresses the (possibly literally) sticky problem of where to put your laptop in the kitchen when you're using it for recipes, which is something I find myself doing all the time.  So Dwell has a little something for everyone (especially if you like to make fun of mopey urbanites who don't have real bookshelves.)  The really amusing thing - the furnishings Dwell's trying to sell you for your overly clean concrete and bamboo house almost never have prices listed.  If you have to ask, you know you don't need to know.

Today is a two for one deal here at the library - you can come take a look at Dwell AND you can dry your hands in an Airblade!  I can think of several places in town where you can pick up a Dwell, and several with Airblades, but for both?  You know where to find us.