Matthew Blesso, turned his Lower Manhattan penthouse over to two Yale professors, the architect Joel Sanders and the landscape architect Diana Balmori. And wow...

the nytimes slideshow of the new california academy of sciences.

"Blow The City" is collecting balloons all over the world that are designed by artists. On one night in the end of February, the orgasnizers are going to blow them all up and hang them in different locations around Ghent in Belgium.

this would be so useful here in the land in which people rent parking spaces for the price of apartments. but these also tend to be the sorts of places where windows still operate with ropes and pulleys...

flickrblockers help you say no to online photos. a rip off of stupidiotic's black bars (see post 623), but still amusing.

a couple of badass penguins goin' to town. its the first of december kids, happy holiday madness.

omg, its (w)rappingpaper. get it? oh man, straight outta compton or rappers delight? awesome.

Slapping life sized decals over the door on the way out of men's bathrooms, JWT Toronto is drawing attention to hands and germs and things that spread.

art - which came first the chicken or the egg?

Phillip Johnson's utterly transparent intimacy, the Glass House in New Canaan, CT.

Robert Faludi, Kate Hartman, Kati London and Rebecca Bray of NYU's ITP program have created 'Botanicalls' to let thirsty plants communicate their needs to humans - by placing phone calls to their owners.

not usually a fan of the new scientist, but this ridable robot was kinda sweet.

Eric W. Sanderson's Mannahatta Project, an exhaustive study and recreation of the Manhattan ecosystem circa 1609 (the year of Henry Hudson's arrival in Mannahatta), as an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York.

coudal's swapmeat is worth checking out. you can trade stuff for stuff, not quite bartering, not quite trade, swapping really is the right word. get your stuff in before the end of the month.

another incredible sketch artist, this angeleno's site caught my eye.

another fantastic graphic from today's NYT feature on animal armaments.

In the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, a hippie boardinghouse once run by an elderly lesbian minister is now a family home remade with a warmed-up modernism and the restrained inflections of Norwegian design.

Alexandre Farto (aka Vhils) was just featured on wooster collective. i really love his work...it's got so much depth to it...gorgeous street art.

these dutch tubs are cute, fun and resemble giant milk coffee bowls. and they totally remind me of disneyland.

these pushpins are amazing! probably too lightweight for my wiring jobs, but still way better than most cable clips.

i know antoine et manuel have been posted before (elephant), but i love this metro map so much i though it was worth posting again.

Pedipaws is just one of the dog grooming gizmos featured in this nytimes slideshow.

i can't get enough of ben lawson's fish illustrations!

Jon Burgerman's On The Wall is a show of improvised wall drawings that bleed beyond the hung frames. From 5th May until 16th June (not open Sundays). Spuistraat 250, Amsterdam, Concrete Image Store.

Luceplan, a Milanese lighting company founded in 1978 by the architects Riccardo Sarfatti, Sandra Severi and Paolo Rizzatto, opened its first store in New York yesterday.

this one's on behalf of my mom. this neat little gizmo "unzips" your corn for you. forget those husking woes. =)

HOWIES is like oregon: wholesome, honest and down to earth...except its a bit too clean for me. but i do get pissed with consumerism and love this wallpaper, their library and their ideas.

argggg, my caption didn't win the caption contest! but this one was too cute not to post.

the mah jongg menorah makes me smile. =)

great article in ping mag on bike couriers and their influence on urban subcultures.

and on the bag theme...

the zoological society of london has set up EDGE pages for amphibians. that is evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered.

kinda like the cheekyboutique from last week, but more craftsy. make your own trophy animal heads without having to kill anything. =)

i cant pretend to be old enough to remember telegraphs, but this adorable stationary set makes me nostalgic anyway.

just a sample from the orange lola shop.

On Sept. 17 the Steven Kasher Gallery in Chelsea will open its first exhibition of National Geographic pictures — 150 vintage prints from a dozen photographers.

ornithology and art from the new york times. excerpts from "Birds: The Art of Ornithology" by Johnathan Elphick and "Egg and Nest" by Rosamond Purcell, Linnea S. Hall and René Corado

this could be really old, but nevertheless, im loving this shelf.

I loved Barbar as a kid and was pleased to hear about"Drawing Babar: Early Drafts and Watercolors," a new exhibit at the Morgan Library and Museum through Jan. 4, 2009.

not normally a big designsponge fan, but this sad little vampire is really cute.

this image was too striking not to post. an article on the "battlefield" of group shows in chelsea.

Village Underground provides affordable studio space for young artists in Shoreditch, London. Part of their space includes recycled subway cars. Stunning!

a pretty wood plinth clock to remind you all to change your clocks and watches.

banksy's "the village petstore" in a nytimes slideshow.

havent been to kansas city in a while. steven holl architects have recently unveiled the nelson-atkins museum of art. very impressive. via designboom.

Design Within Reach, the furniture retailer, is collaborating with Airstream to develop a trailer for the mobile young modernist -'rock climbers, surfers, dot-com guys'.