Mark Luthringer's Ridgemont Typologies captures the slight variations and sweeping similarities of our product-ridden world. We truly are overwhelmed by superficially different options.

as you all know we recently celebrated herge's birthday. so a post about tintin's creator was in order. check out this designbooms coverage of georges remi at pompidou centre.

KNOW HOPE is an artists from Tel-Aviv who creates handmade drawings out of paper and then lites them up with candles.

its a cardboard box, or a cute table. amazing! and far more creative than my usual filing boxe side tables. =P

Now that succulent pork is back in fashion, the Mangalitsa — saved from near extinction on a farm here at the edge of Hungary’s bleak and barren Great Plain — are making a comeback.

Boxed Water is Better for the Earth.

incredible footage from last night's nature's great events of a humpback whale feeding on baitballs.

for my fellow nerds.

la mosca (previously featured as #14064) do some gorgeous infographics . their recent feature on designboom brought them back to mind and they merit another mention!

as you know i am slightly obsessed with cuffs. this Slitz design from Pia Walln combines sterling silver with comfy wool!

a vespa for the kids? one of the times' best picks this week. a battery operated mini-vespa. for the stylish youngsters on your list.

nothing says 'tis the season like katamari. check out the new line of shirts from way of the rodent.

The 30-40cm-long (12-16in) eel catfish fish is able to propel itself out of the water and bend its head downwards to capture insects in its jaws.

hehe, you guys know the toast obsession, check out minale maeda's table manners. =)

i love the nytimes tmagazines. their design spring 09 issue looks like the best one yet.

'the small knocking down the big wood' by qui zhijie, 2009. part of chinese pavilion: 'what is to come (jian wei zhi zhu)' at venice art biennale 09.

skurniture. skate decks as furniture...and done right. =)

le corbusier at the barbican.

stephen reed's soft spot table is simple yet sophisticated. looks comfy too.

now you can pimp your baby's crib. get some remote-controlled rocking action and a good night's sleep. awesome.

love this messenger bag on the SQUID BLOG. yes, you read that right. its awesome, better than dodos.

Roxy Paine's Maelstrom is a gleaming arboreal spawl at the Cantor Roof Garden on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

the times has a gorgeous multimedia up on milan's international furniture fair. check it out, i promise it's pretty.

I spotted one of Luke Jerram's 30 pianos, but was too shy to play. Pianos occur across London as part of an interactive art project to challenge people to come out of their urban insularity and also to provide some summertime music.

soo kwon's plus minus stackable white goods are cute. not only do they stack, they let you choose whether you're going for a plus or minus portion.

its like an igloo, doghouse, and dog run all in one...the perfect way to keep your chicks and bunnies happy and safe!

when i first saw this roadie crate, i was thinking, wheelie speakers, but its actually a cube chair! and a pretty comfy looking one too. from heinz julien.

Man survives 10 weeks in Outback on frogs and leeches. "The next thing [I remember] was waking up, face down, in a hole... What woke me was that there were four dingoes scratching the rocks to try to get at me."

Rob Holman, an oceanographer at Oregon State University has a rather impressive collection of sand. This NYtimes feature captures the diversity, grain by grain.

not hardcore as some of the tapes we've seen, but this swallow tape is really cute! as is much of sewell's stuff.

sweet Stash decks to be released at 'rust in piece'

this is a couple months old, but im not sure how much attention it got.

so what if they're a "christian rock band"? the fold is still fun. check out title track and new city.

"War Horse" is a London production of impressive puppetry using 'horses' made of cane. The play is adapted by Nick Stafford from a novel by Michael Morpurgo and at the New London Theatre.

Messages in cookies made by Wonton Food in Queens, have spread across the country, some diners have registered their reactions online...they won't always brighten your day.

Taschen has opened its own store in SoHo, featuring favorite Taschen titles, including 'The Big Book of Breasts' and the 'Cabinet of Natural Curiosities.'

this image made me so proud of america. the article is about how messed up and wrong it all is, which is true. but professionalism in children beats the amateurism in this country.

Always a sucker for nice stationery, I love this article on custom stationery from the NYTimes.

"Pretty Things to Offset Your Ugly" who couldn't use a little something extra to proclaim their designer sensibilities? i've thrown together a thisnext list of some of our favorite jewelry pieces this season.

Mattias Adolfsson is a new hero of mine. not only can he sktech gorgeously, his sketches are also delightfully playful. the layout of his sketchbooks is prety sweet too.

Coolhunter found this little gem in Jingumae in Tokyo. the little live in studio, salon is gorgeous!

pretty new calendar from good on paper design.

a bit of a dual post. i love metrofarm's clean, simple style and they're also responsible for berlin's koi klub!

Sam Bompas, left, and Harry Parr, two young products of Eton and University College, London, have quickly become England's leading jelly artists, or as they call themselves, jelly mongers.

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.