Believe it or not, there’s only one more full week of January left in 2008.  So here are four items from the Internet that caught my eye this week.

• You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice
  The Internet has done nothing but grow and grow and grow some more ever since it was established in 1993 or so, so it’s hardly surprising that it isn’t terribly difficult to find examples of designs being blatantly ripped off online.  This blog keeps track of online examples as well as examples of t-shirts, products and other items that have been more-or-less copied.  The takeaway here is simple–let good design inspire you, not do the work for you.
• Do-it-yourself design critique stickers
  The O’Reilly MAKE: blog recently published a sheet of do-it-yourself design “critique” stickers that eagle-eyed designers can print, cut out and slap on defective designs.  It’s not exactly the kindest thing out there, no, but sometimes design is truly bad and needs to be identified as such–and I don’t think readers of this blog are going to disagree with me!
• I am not a paper cup
  I really like it when designers of objects don’t just take cues from everyday items when they create new merchandise–it can be a lot of fun when you see a totally mundane-looking object that is somehow transformed into something new and novel.  This is one such item–a very standard paper coffee cup with lid turned into a reusable porcelain coffee carrier with a rubbery silicone lid.  Brilliant, if you ask me.
• Communication, shock value and the grotesque
  Well-known television chef Jamie Oliver recently released a program on the UK’s Channel 4 entitled “Eat to Save Your Life.”  In the show, he observes the autopsy of a 25-stone (that’s 350 pounds) man who “literally ate himself to death”–though I’m not quite sure what that means; I presume he died of congestive heart failure or something similar.  Jamie urges viewers “not to turn away because the fascinating insight into what our diets are doing to our insides could inspire you to change your eating habits in a positive way.”  I wonder, though, if the grotesque really can have such positive effects, or if it tends to repulse more viewers than it might inspire.