There's nothing quite as comfy to plunk down on as a soft cushion. Unfortunately they get dirty, they absorb spills like a sponge, and they get misshapen in no time. But is there a better alternative than hideous wicker? Yep, the layers of thin bamboo veneer that make up Min Chen's Hangzhou stool. More » 
    
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The folks over at Teehan+Lax have just released a new tool (you’ll need Google Chrome and a pretty kickin’ internet connection) that lets you scrape public data from Google Street View to create sweeping hyperlapse videos. What’s a hyperlapse? Via Teehan+Lax:
Hyper-lapse photography—a technique combining time-lapse and sweeping camera movements typically focused on a point-of-interest—has been a growing trend on video sites. It’s not hard to find stunning examples on Vimeo. Creating them requires precision and many hours stitching together photos taken from carefully mapped locations. We aimed at making the process simpler by using Google Street View as an aid, but quickly discovered that it could be used as the source material. It worked so well, we decided to design a very usable UI around our engine and release Google Street View Hyperlapse.
The team turned their new UI over to one of their motion designers, Jonas, who made the stunning clip above. Incredible. Some other great examples of art made with Google Street View: Address is Approximate and this clip from Giacomo Miceli. (via it’s nice that)
What is a bitcoin? Like exactly? It's digital currency and it's been around for a while now so what's all the fuss these days? It's because more and more places are accepting bitcoins as real currency. If you're still a little bit confused on where bitcoins come from (or how you can just invent digital currency), watch the video explainer above by Duncan Elms. Get to mining. [Duncan Elms via Digg] More » 
Regardless of whether you're a sommelier-hopeful or just a dedicated lush, you're going to need a wine rack to match your distinct, personal tastes and—er, volume. This is exactly what makes the completely customizable and optionally mountable Nucleus wine rack from Thijs Goossink so fantastic. More » 
They say if you build a better mouse trap the world will beat a path to your door. And the same will probably hold true for the first coffee shop to adopt this clever spoon-securing NOTA coffee mug designed by Lee Hae Seung Scott. More » 
It can get lonely in the Vatican: with a population of just over 800, sometimes it's inevitable that nobody will want to hang out with you. Which might explain this list, which details the porn that's been downloaded in the Vatican recently. More » 
Date nights can become prohibitively expensive once you require a babysitter, but starting a parenting co-op can eliminate the cost and even introduce you to some new friends. More » 
ElleryIf / when I do this to you, please forgive me; and I'll gladly do the same for you.
Everyone knows at least one person that takes forever to get to the point. If you find yourself on a phone call that's taking forever, or a text message session of twenty questions, Lifehack.org suggests telling your conversation partner that your phone is dying to skip to the good stuff. More » 
The Texas A&M Student Senate last night voted 35-28 in favor of a measure allowing students to opt out of funding the campus GLBT Resource Center if they have religious objections, the Dallas Voice reports:
Less than 24 hours before the vote, the name of the bill was changed from the “GLBT Funding Opt Out Bill” to the “The Religious Funding Exemption Bill,” and specific references to the GLBT Resource Center were removed. However, opponents of the bill who packed a Student Senate meeting before the vote Wednesday said the name change did not alter the bill’s discriminatory, anti-gay intent.
With the crowd spilling into the hallways, an overflow viewing room was set up, and the Senate meeting had to be stopped several times so administrators could clear fire exits, according to a report in The Eagle of Bryan-College Station. Emotions ran high, with senators cursing and the woman assigned to tally their votes bursting into tears.
KBTX reports on the contentious meeting and has a long piece on the history of the bill:
According to a university spokesman, the GLBT Resource Center receives about $100,000 a year in funding provided by student fees, averaging out to a contribution of around $2 per student.
GLBT Aggies President Kimberly Villa says the center provides a "safe space" for those students who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered, and that a vote in any way to strategically divert funding would hurt a population which has experienced a history of discrimination on the Texas A&M Campus. The center provides reference materials, counseling support, and programming concerning GLBT health and awareness issues.
The "Religious Funding Exemption Bill" was originally written by a student who felt morally and religiously opposed to paying fees that go towards the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Resource Center on campus.
A&M Student Body President John Claybrook (who took the inset photo that was published by kbtx) has the option to veto the measure but has not said if he will.
(image kbtx)
UPDATE: Zack Ford at Think Progress makes note of this even more heinous development:
Though it’s unclear this student-led attack on LGBT Aggies is enforceable, the state legislature is considering a broader change that very well could. Texas Rep. Bill Zedler (R) has filed an amendment to the state’s appropriations bill to cut funding for public universities that have “Gender and Sexuality Centers and Related Student Centers.” The amendment offensively claims that the centers promote behaviors that have a high risk for disease:
An institution of higher education may not use money appropriated to the institution under this Act, or any property or facility of the institution funded by appropriations under this Act, to support, promote, or encourage any behavior that would lead to high risk behavior for AIDS, HIV, Hepatitis B, or any sexually transmitted disease.
I suspect that the video game industry's obsession with DARKER, MORE "MATURE" STORY might have influenced the way I look at stuff like this gritty re-imagining of Calvin and Hobbes by GrittyReboots.
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And Ms. Pac-Man was actually just a reskinning of Crazy Otto [1]. So that means the classic female gaming role models are one female, a.k.a. Samus Aran, and a transexual.
I’ll be honest, I’m pretty hard-pressed to think of a female protagonist from the pre-Nintendo arcade era and even on the NES they were far and few between. Athena, maybe? But that NES port wasn’t the best. Any assists on this discussion would be appreciated.
source: Chuck & Beans
The pattern in the wooden basin of this sink prototype is no abstract design. It's a 3D model of the streets of central London. More » 
The most recent in a series of short documentaries by filmmaker Dustin Cohen, The Shoemaker is a film about Frank Catalfumo: a 91-year-old shoemaker and repairer who's lived in Brooklyn his entire life. More » 
While doctors have experimented with 3D-printed prosthetics in the past, none has been quite as prominent or incredibly detailed as Eric Moger's newest addition: a prosthetic, 3D-printed face. More » 
An expensive, ornate vase can be as much of a centerpiece as the flowers that are in it. These floating vases designed by the Japanese group oodesign take things in the opposite direction by making them look like water ripples. More » 
How you dress has a big impact on how people view you, and how you view yourself. According to 99U, it's not about dressing one specific way though, it's about considering your audience and using that to your advantage. More » 
While Bill Gates was offering a small fortune for a condom that "feels good," the bro-y entrepreneurs at J & D's were busy creating a condom that tastes like bacon. What's more, the condoms feature something called "baconlube." If you have any concerns about the quality of these condoms or questions about what exactly "baconlube" is, here you go: More » 
Kinetic sculptor Bob Potts creates beautiful kinetic sculptures that mimic the motions of flight and the oars of boats. Despite their intricacy the pieces are surprisingly minimal, Potts seems to use only the essential components needed to convey each motion without much ornamentation or flourish. There is very little information online about the artist, however blogger Daniel Busby managed to get a brief interview with the 70-year-old artist last year. If you liked this, also check the work of Dukno Yoon . (via devid sketchbook)
Russian paper artist Yulia Brodskaya (previously) just finished her latest artwork, an intricate portrait of an older woman smoking a pipe using a colorfully explosive palette of quilled paper. Brodskaya lives and works in the UK where she illustrates with paper for dozens of the world’s largest brands and publications. See much more here.
Connecticut-based artist Amy Eisenfeld Genser (previously) recently completed a new series of coral reefs that she painstakingly recreates using rolled bits of paper and acrylic paint. Ahead of her upcoming exhibition at the Architectural Digest Home Show, Genser sat down with All Things Paper for a brief interview. An excerpt on her process:
These days I usually work with Thai Unryu [mulberry paper], but I have hundreds of papers in my studio from all around the world. I treat the paper almost as a pigment, layering colors one on top of the other to create different colors. My pieces are about a foot wide. Then I roll one layer on top of the other in all different thicknesses. I seal the roll with acid-free, archival glue stick, and then cut the long piece into sections with scissors or pruning shears. I have pruning shears of all different sizes to accommodate different widths.
See and learn more over on All Things Paper.
The Design Museum of London has just announced the contenders for its sixth annual Designs of the Year. And their shortlist for architecture showcases 17 structures that transcend buildings to become works of art. More » 
Ellery8 feet ~~ 1.4 × length of the DNA strands of the human genome (~~ 1.8 m )...
...cool
If you've ever found yourself reading a science article and had no idea what the heck a measurement means than you know it takes away from your understanding of an article. Write Ben Young Landis suggests one way to deal with this is to use Wolfram Alpha to convert that measurement into something you can understand. More » 
The humble thermostat isn't the hottest gadget category, but the Nest thermostat has the right combination of attractive interface and smartphone integration to actually be lust-worthy. Instead of pokey up and down buttons, the Nest shows you the current temperature on an aluminum dial and glows either blue or red if it's currently heating or cooling your home. After a week of manually setting the temperature, the Nest learns your schedule and starts to control your home temperature on its own. Plus, you can control it from your computer or smartphone. More » 
Meetings can be a colossal waste of time, but in some rare cases they're actually necessary to get something done. The key is to make sure that before you schedule or propose a meeting that you're doing it for the right reasons. More » 
