Recycled Coffee Stirrer Chandelier

Created from hundreds of recycled plastic coffee stirrers collected in cafes by the resourceful Studio Veríssimo, this eye-catching, sparkly chandelier is almost as mesmerizing as crystal - despite its being made from cafe waste. The name of the chandelier is ‘Spoon’, although these things dont really resemble spoons to me. I dunno. This is living testament to my theorem that one man’s trash is another man’s Chandelier.

Viktor & Rolf: Just Say No

Yves Saint Laurent: LOVE

On the 40th anniversary of his brands inception, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is putting on a retrospective of the works by Yves Saint Laurent. Among the things on display include early sketches and drawings of his dabbling in menswear, and a plethora of his extensive collective of womenswear not to mention photos of the man himself. This show will head to San Francisco's de Young Museum later this year.The Montreal Museum of Fine Art s will be hosting this exhibit now through September 28th. MMFA

Japanese Highway Interchanges

Photos by Jeff Oyhama, interesting to say the least.
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Marital Rating Scale, circa 1939

The most interesting thing about this scale is that it's real. A doctor really constructed this marital scale in order to let husbands know if their wife is "failing" in her duties or not. Someone with an M.D. needs to update this thing STAT.

Husband rate your Wives

Lucy and Bart.

Lucy and Bart

Watch your calories.

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Amy Walker has 24 different accents.

This is must see mind-boggling status

CITIZEN: Citizen

CITIZEN: Citizen has a collection of objects which challenge conventional notions of beauty and design. The collection is carefully selected from "leading members of the art and design worlds." Im loving that crude oil in the perfume tester tube. Everything here is pretty amazing. Check out the whole collection here.

Light Cavern

In January 2002, NASA reported that, "a dull star in an obscure constellation suddenly became 600,000 (yes 600,000) times more luminous than our Sun." This "mysterious star" produced, in the process, a "light echo" that "uncovered remarkable new features" in that star's astral architecture. "These details promise to provide astronomers with a CAT-scan-like probe of the three-dimensional structure of shells of dust surrounding an aging star."
In the above sequence of images, then, you are looking at "continuously changing cross-sections of the dust envelope" – a visual effect compared by NASA to "a spelunker taking a flash picture of the walls of an undiscovered cavern," the "cavern" in question is an exploding sphere of light. This is one of the most amazing things i've ever seen.
Imagine if the most beautiful thing in the universe only exists for a billionth of a second.
Imagine if no one sees it.

Insight via NASA
Thanks to BLDblog for the info

SWAT anti-terrorism is the new Black.

Profile on SWAT teams around the globe. An American law enforcement innovation, popularized on television and movies, spreads around the world, inspiring elaborate training and high level competitions. View

Bark Espionage.

This is the Tree Listening Installation. It is a small electronic listening device built for eavesdropping on the inner acoustics of trees. How does it work? Glad you asked, the device is placed on the trunk of a given tree and then connected to as many as ten sets of headphones which hang down from the tree's canopy. Botany becomes your iPod.
"This allows the public to listen 'live' to the sound of water being pulled up from the roots to the leaves through the xylem tube," Alex Metcalf, the device creator, writes.
As he explained in an interview with the Guardian last week: "The technology for this is usually invasive. You bore into the tree and take away a section, then seal in a listening device. The thing about my device is that you don't have to cause any damage, and you can listen to any tree, anywhere, any time – plus you can do it long term. Cutting a hole in a tree means you are wounding and infecting it, which will affect the recording." I've never heard the sound of the inner acoustics of a tree, nor have I heard the sound of water being pulled up from the leaves through a tree's xylem tube.. but it sounds incredibly relaxing.

Last of a Dying Breed

Today, LACMA opens a retrospective of photographs by iconic photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia. The show includes samples from different collections of his work over the years. included is an exhibit called "Thousand", which (appropriately) consists of 1,000 polaroids taken over the past 20 years. more info via Lacma

Albam Footwear

Albam is a clothing/footwear company out of the United Kingdom that focuses on everyday wear with a classic look. The clothing and shoes are made in the UK in order to ensure quality and keep the process sweatshop free. Im really into these shoes. Black hand sewn deer skin hightop deck shoes? Sign me up. These are crazy. Check em out. Albam

Agent Provocateur MINI Clubman

Lingerie company Agent Provocateur has teamed up with MINI and colllaborated on custom made MINI Clubman. The whole car reflects Agent Provocateurs racy image all the way down to the lengerie paint job. This thing is off the hook, view more photos via Autoblog

Benjamin Verdonck's Giant Nest in Rotterdam.

Yes it is and no you can't.

Before, and after Death.

Before and After Death: A stunning series of portraits of people — shortly before and just after they die — is touring Europe now, and tackling one of the biggest remaining taboos in Western societies. Photos by Walter Schels, text by Beate Lakotta. More Info and pictures here.

The Extinction Timeline

The Extinction Timeline from 1950 to around 2050.
Readable view here

Perspective by Pharrell and Domeau & Pérès

Pharrell Williams has teamed up with furniture designer Domeau & Pérès to create this chair called Perspective. According to Pharrell who designed the chair, Perspective represents "the love between a woman and a man", "I had often wondered what it's like to truly be in love, not lust for once.. So I decided not to ask what it was like in someone else's shoes or what it was like to sit in their seat.. I decided to sketch out my own experiment; the perspective chair."

Perspective will come in several colors with only four chairs per color being sold. If you want to check out the chair in person, you will find it showcased at the Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris, France from October 21st 2008 until January 10th 2009.

I'm not an artist - The Musical

A mini musical written and directed by Soon in Tokyo® for Elisava (a
design school from Barcelona). This two minutes music video is part of a
campaign that questions the idea of the designer as an artist, describing
the designer as a professional worker by means of an ironically "artistic"
piece. Heavy shit

RAF by Raf SImmons: Bleach Effect

RAF by Raf Simons just released this duo of Bleach Effect Hi Tops. This is a a new play on the run of the mill Chuck Taylor inspired sneaker. These are available in 2 distinguishing colorways with opposite colorways. Im into these. Available at select RAF retailers for $350 big ones.

The Cult(s)

Time has a photoessay on the worlds most infamous cults and their respective leaders. This is a must see. Some cults I haven't heard of previously. To say these guys are fucking insane would be stating the obvious so just check it out here.

l'hélicoptère par hermès

the french fashion company hermès recently teamed up with eurocopter, the world's third largest aerospace group to create l'helicoptre par hermès, a luxury helicopter based the eurocopter EC 135 . the new helicopter was first unveiled at the national business aviation association's 2007 conference in atlanta, after years in the making and months of intense preparation.

W)taps for Vans Syndicate

Previous on this site we previous the Rudeez from the w)taps collection with Vans, here is the complete collection set to be released in the fall. W)taps d has created three distinct styles each reflective of various cultures and time periods. The Rudeez were inspired by vintage dress shoes, the Greaserz looks at 70s blue collar culture and the Bash is inspired by hip-hop culture as well as Spike Lee movies. For releases, it will begin in June with the Bash and end in August with the Rudeez

Luxury Tax

Seen on the sidewalk of a low income neighborhood which was being torn down to create luxurious single family homes in Chicago, IL. Great means of political commentary eh?
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Fragment Design, Sichuan Panda Court Tradition For Victims of China Earthquake

In response to the disastrous 7.9 earthquake in Sichuan , Fragment design have created a special edition Nike Court Tradition inspired by the Sichuan Panda available too be made available to auction in aid and support the families affected by this tragedy. This is definately a good cause and a nice looking shoe. More info on the release and the deisng itself can be seen via Hiroshi Fujiwara.

Nas - "Be a N****r too"

Nas is taking a politically incorrect, unsubtle approach with the first single off his new self-titled yet to be released album. The song is called “Be a N—-r Too” and it will accompanied by a "mini-movie-like" video which will directed by Rik Cordero. Look for this to be released sometime next month.
Nas Independence Day

Where on (Google) Earth is Waldo?

...So you actually gotta look for Waldo. This girl is a genius. I didn't know Waldo was a gay dude, interesting. (no homo). Thanks to Wooster Collective.
More here.

Swiss Peace Knife.

Above is the Swiss Army Knife inspired Swiss Army Peace Knife. It includes a band-aid dispenser, pill box, disinfectant spray and even a whistle. It's just a concept, for now, hopefully it sees release. The Wars Over! Fuck the Army! Not really, but yeah really. From designers Qian Jiang, Yiying Wu and Carolina Flores.

The day there was no news.

Watch and read.

The End is Near..

These are images from Chile's Chaitean Volcano which began erupting for the first time in about 9.000 years about a two weeks ago. In these photos, Airborne electricity has grabbed hold of a volcanic plume. Pretty breath-taking. Photos by Carlos Gutierrez for UPI.

Paper Machines of Death

PoslerFerguson is set to present Paper Wars, an exhibition of the Death Machines series of paper reproductions of classic weapons systems at Portobello Road's Craze Gallery. The exhibition features a series of one-off pieces by an international selection of artists and designers. Using PostlerFerguson's paper AK-47 kit as a starting point, each participant has recorded a personal reaction to the tension between the AK-47's blend of seductive aesthetics, robust design and murky morality. Participants include Ben Wilson, El Ultimo Grito, Oscar and Ewan, Pixelgarten, Hiroko Shiratori, Paul Wysocan, Inkie, BASE23/DC|DE and more.


Also featured is a new addition to the Death Machines series, the Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun. First produced by the Swiss company Oerlikon Contraves in 1914, it was either sold to or stolen by all sides during WWI and WWII and continues to be used today.

Paper Wars will be up at the Craze Gallery from 15-21 May, open from noon until 8pm daily. Craze Gallery is located at 253 Portobello Road. Info via Slamxhype