Happy 4th of July ~ here's a peek into my day off enjoying the fireworks in Laguna Beach ~ (guitar lovers must take a peek at the door handles picture!)

Picked up this Electrohome Circa 711 "Saturn" record player from Prototype in Austin. Works!

Help Firefox reach 1 million downloads in a single day! (I think their servers are already overloaded this morning)

Photographer Sam Taylor-Wood shot famous movie actors with heart-felt sobs for her "Crying Men" collection.

Life Fitness challenged designer to come up with an urban fitness machine... and gprero design won the competition by having it disappear into an Ottoman-Bench concept dubbed the "Otto-Bench"

My homage to Helvetica.
Happy Birthday Helvetica! Sorry if I'm a bit late!

the ultimate magic trick - making furniture disappear into the balcony - aka just really cool space saving design by Sandy Lam from Vancouver.

Amazing trippy illustrations.

Panda nerds can be stylish. Small pic doesn't reveal the full furry goodness offered by Nike as part of their Tokyo Dunk series.

Some awesome renders mixed with some top notch photography.

Over at Unbeige they are speculating that sunglasses dipped in viscous liquids are a hot new trend in the making... what's next?

Takashi Sugimoto, leading designer for Super Potato in Japan, has two contemporary tearooms on exhibition at the Toto Ma Gallery in Nogizaka, Tokyo. The first is composed of steel and the second out of water!

Herman Miller's new Airia desk and media cabinet were made by Kaiju Studios that did the I/O Desk Organizer we loved so much... they were practically designed for each other!

As the ICFF/NY Design Week madness dies down ~ here's the sunset out of the bathroom window

Advertising 2.0: eBay puts its ad space up for auction. Sellers can bid and advertise products on TV.

Return to Waster! Make louder statement when you return the junk mail!

Amazing collection of USA political election logos 2008-1960

Amazingly ornate, 1890s lady's bike from Tiffany and Co. The fixed gear masterpiece is estimated to sell for between $50,000 - 70,000 at an upcoming auction.

Mixko expands their line of Bone China rings ~ from an updated skull and barbie/ken inspired heads to 1D multi faceted diamond rings... check out the new collection!

The Gift Cycle is a cross country cycling project that carries works of art as gifts from local artists of one town to local artists of the next town along the route---a 3,000 mile journey uniting 12 plus communities.

Schmidt Hammer Lassen recently won the competition to design a hotel and conference center in Lund, Sweden. The building will be located at the city's highest point. This gives me a huge grin.

The creative Frenzy of Arne Quinze

Izona by Fisher & Paykel - Beautiful CookSurface! - When not in use, the burners sit virtually flush with the sheer ceramic surface, giving you large and easy-to-clean work surface

Changethethought's online portfolio features some great vivid blasts of color, like the one pictured.

TIME interview with the boys behind "You Suck At Photoshop" - which had a great 10 episode run that taught us all a lot, and got us through the writers strike... also check out the spin off series about Sw4shbuckl3r...

Anyone else tired of the whole green-global warming movement? Two young creatives from London made this fake Anti-Green campaign for Hummer.

Loyal Loot's "Hung Table" has a crocheted surface that "takes away the need for vessels to hold possessions".

Kanye West's bar ends on his custom Brooklyn Machine Works track bike read: "George Bush doesn't care about track people," a reference to his on air moment post-Katrina.

A Bathing Ape from Japan now got together with Rimowa, known for their metal luggage and they added a subtle camouflage pattern to it! Really nice!

miShare is a smart little handheld gadget for connecting iPods and sharing files.

The latest from Joris Laarman - WirePod for Artecnica - matching his classic radiatior, here's a flexible multi-point electrical "power pod"

Series of limited 'Cassette Badge' set that even comes in a cassette box! Made by EffektiveDesign.

No more green and new cups for S*Bux...my chai still tastes good. :)

Frances Whitehead and James Elniski's house in Chicago was built using a number of green technologies.

Keyport ~ i got hands on with one finally, and here are some closeups to answer those questions about HOW they get those keys on there... and how easily you can swap them! The dovetailing is quite nice...

Gray's Anatomy turns 150 years old - and is still one of the top anatomical references today! [for more images of vintage copies, see http://www.braceface.com/medical/ ]

The story of Chinese diver Hu Jia - Adidas' "In 2008 Impossible Is Nothing" ad for the Beijing Olympics. Created by 180/TBWA, Psyop, and Stink. The mix of live footage and "pencil" animation is amazing!

Robots made from range a of industrial tributaries: aerospace surplus suppliers, automotive salvage yards, long-haul microwave equipment recyclers, vintage hand-tool swap-meet winnings.

Wooster Collective's latest masthead makes great use of the Mac OS X Dock!

The Swing Lamp by BCXSY.

Evil Mad Scientist business card is a working custom printed black circuit board!

Offices for a nature oriented company, witha great landscape work for integration with the surroundings, located in Mexico. By CC Arquitectos.

Phil Cuttance's Trophy Hangers are adorably twisted. Read the nice little story of how he teamed up with Charles & Marie who manufactured the line (hippos, giraffes, and moose!)

Nokia's morphable, meltable, shape-shifting nanotech display. Concept.

Modern Editions, cool new website with modern fine art photography available for purchase.

Mmmmm Burlwood Chocolate Vault ~ 7 drawers of chocolate complete with temperature and humidity gauges