Mondays might not be your favorite day of the week, but the good news is that we’re all in this together ladies and gentlemen. As purveyors of prime Grade A web content, the SolidSmack crew has done some of the heavy-lifting to make sure you get your Mondays started on the right track. Welcome to The Monday List. Each Monday, we’ll link you up with some of the most insightful, informative, and socially-relevant stories to keep tabbed, bookmarked, reading listed, pocketed, or what have you. Be sure to check in each Monday morning for a new crop of freshly sprouted words curated straight from the source of your favorite homegrown…

Don your favorite bathrobe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this week’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader. The Weekend Reader features a handful of the most interesting articles featured on the ‘Smack over the past week ranging from tips and tricks to inspirational designs, processes, and more. So lay back, relax and take a load off while reading the top ten stories on SolidSmack this past week. Oh and uh…don’t forget to shed some much-needed sunlight on your face, too. The 2 Go Backpack Lets You Prototype with the Ultimaker 2 3D Printer Wherever You Want “Already considered one of the most reliable and user-friendly consumer desktop 3D printers, the Ultimaker…

With the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio getting underway this weekend, Nike is (unsurprisingly) gearing up for another Olympic year to show off their latest sport-related innovations. While previous years have seen everything from the introduction of new materials to new colorways designed to pop off your TV screen, this year is a little different. Working in partnership with Zeiss to design the best shades for competitive runners, the designers developed and manufactured a new one-piece shield lens and frame design from a custom mold that fused the lens and frame components into a single part. This mold was refined using ultra-precise machinery with diamond-polishing technology to polish the complex…

Looks like someone went down to the Hammock store on Hammock Street, over in the Hammock district with this one. The ultimate dream when you were a kid was having your own treehouse, right? Some were lucky enough to have that pad in the treetops. For others, it turned into waiting and a 30-year mortgage. But you’re an adult now; it’s not too late to make the dream a reality. Tentsile is a company that specializes in tents made for trees. Think of it as a hammock and a tent combined. These tents are made to be suspended above ground ensuring your temporary shelter isn’t affected by wet, rocky, or…

Sitting betwixt the legs of the elderberry roots, its eyes peered out. Not one, or two, or three, but eight at least, moving separately, then together, watching. Low to the ground, it moved, feelers out, stuffing mushrooms and cantaloupes into its pouches, preparing a spice to make from these links. Su Jian – Mesmerizing environments with detail that, at times, seems to be held together with little more than a single brush stroke. Formentera – Aerial photography of Formentera Island by Dimitar Karanikolov. Be sure to watch the lighthouse video at the end. Decoys – Photos of decoys the Japanese used in WWII to fool the US Allied forces. Some…

When it comes to teaching kids the basics of hardware development, few companies have mastered speaking to young inventors on their level as well as LittleBits. Founded by engineer and interactive artist Ayah Bdeir, it would make perfect sense that, being a female and one-time young inventor herself, Bdeir knows exactly what kids want to create with the electronic building block kits: boobytraps for keeping those pesky parents and brothers out of their room. From the motion-activated “Domain Defender” to the “Burglar Buzzer” alarm, the new Rule Your Room Kit from LittleBits just might be the best modern tool for empowering young inventors to easily “create” the world around them…