Wednesday, February 29, 2012

24-hour cupcake-dispensing ATM




Sprinkles in Beverly Hills:
This automatic cupcake machine dispenses freshly baked cupcakes, cupcake mixes, apparel and even cupcakes for Fido! In the heart of Beverly Hills nestled between Sprinkles Cupcakes and the brand new Sprinkles Ice Cream, 24 Hour Sprinkles will be continuously restocked day and night with a variety of freshly baked cupcake flavors.

Paranorman character design



Mitch (voiced by Casey Affleck) from Laika's Paranorman.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

"The alternative to the European Syndrome"

OB:
The alternative to the European Syndrome is to say that your life can have transcendent meaning if it is spent doing important things – raising a family, supporting yourself, being a good friend and good neighbor, learning what you can do well and then doing it as well as you possibly can. Providing the best framework for doing those things is what the American project is all about.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Playing Metroid with a homemade arm cannon





Samus's arm cannon made by a Reddit user.

"This is the cereal box that saved Airbnb"

Fast Company:
But design has proved crucial in helping Airbnb prevail. Walk into Airbnb’s Potrero Hill headquarters and you’ll see an enlarged, waist-high cereal box adorned with a cartoonish picture of President Obama. This is the cereal box that saved Airbnb. Back in the summer of 2008, the startup was barely pulling in a couple hundred dollars a week. With $20,000 in credit-card debt and no angels (as in angel investors) in sight, Chesky and Gebbia came up with a Hail Mary idea to put the "breakfast" in what they were then calling AirBed and Breakfast. They created two Airbnb-branded cereals, Obama O’s and Cap’n McCain’s, to sell online during the height of election fever. Airbnb found a small manufacturer in Berkeley who agreed to fabricate 1,000 cartons in exchange for a cut of the royalties. The team bought generic Cheerios and Chex, transplanted the cereal into their own boxes, and hot-glued the tops.

Somehow the plan worked. The boxes, which cost $40 a pop, received national coverage from CNN and Good Morning America; Katy Perry even auctioned off an autographed box to her fans. The promotion netted Airbnb $30,000, enough to keep the company afloat until Paul Graham and Y Combinator decided to invest.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Death Star basketballs and other rejected Star Wars merchandise



Death Star basketball, inflatable throne, and a few dozen other rejected Star Wars merchandise ideas.

The Nike+ Fuelband creature

Dance against Leia in Jabba's palace in Star Wars Kinect





Dance for Jabba's amusement in Star Wars Kinect, which you can preorder for $50 at Amazon.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

"Taste The Linsanity" ice cream flavor

Deadspin on the new Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavor:
Available only at their Harvard Square location, Ben & Jerry's is selling a limited edition "Taste The Linsanity" flavor, which includes delicious little crumbles of fortune cookie. This, despite the Asian American Journalists Association's clear warning that there's no "compelling reason to draw a connection between Lin and fortune cookies, takeout boxes or similar imagery."

Also, "Taste The Lin-Sanity" features lychee, which is a fruit native to Southeast Asia, which is not the part of Asia that Jeremy Lin comes from. (The part of Asia that Jeremy Lin comes from is Northern California.)
Update: They've removed the fortune cookie bits.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Hidden house






Disguised entrance to a secret office and home in London.

IPad case by Doktor A.



Doktor A turned his Rupture design into iPad and laptop cases.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

You Shall Not Pass stamp for teachers




You Shall Not Pass stamp for teachers/reviewers on sale starting March 1 at Etsy.

Chuck Taylor Gorillaz Collection




Wednesday, February 22, 2012

New red panda cub video



New red panda cub video courtesy of the Perth zoo.

Jerry Seinfeld was on Benson

Link.

A look at the wild parrot population boom in Los Angeles

"Some experts say the parrots are descendants of the pet bird trade and population boom of the 1970s"

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Motorhead boxed set





Motorhead Complete Early Years Box Set listed for $650 at Amazon. Lemmy says you shouldn't buy it.

Drudge

"Bug Agentes Biologicos 'perfected a way to spray its wasps onto soy fields, just as pesticides are spread via airplane' to kill parasites"

Bug Agentes Biologicos.

Plush Tobias Funke



Plush Tobias Funke from arrested Development by Miss Coffee for the upcoming comedy-themed show at Gallery 1988. She has plush on sale here.

The Secret World of Arrietty in Lego



Lego tribute to the The Secret World of Arrietty by Iain Heath.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Friday, February 17, 2012

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

"Architect who designed and built home charged in firefighter death"

LAT:
They said the attic was equipped with plastic pipes for fire sprinklers. The fire melted the pipes, flooding the attic and filling the insulation with water. The weight of the insulation appears to have caused a large section of the ceiling to collapse

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

"Chess Coach to Leave Texas Tech With Her Team’s Best in Tow"

NYT:
Imagine if a university without a basketball program recruited Mike Krzyzewski, the legendary coach at Duke University, and not only managed to hire him but also persuaded most of his team to switch with him. In essence, that is what Webster University in St. Louis has done by hiring Susan Polgar, the head of the Texas Tech chess program.

Ms. Polgar, a grandmaster and a former women’s world champion, was hired by Texas Tech University in 2007 to create an elite chess program. The university even named the program after her, calling it the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence, or Spice.

Comin' at Ya! movie poster



By Jay Shaw going on sale Wednesday at Mondo.

Monday, February 13, 2012