Men from Francisco de Orellana’s expedition building a small brigantine, the “San Pedro”, to be used for searching for food.

The white oak keel is steam bent onto the mold.

The perfect gift for out of town children.

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A thought on reducing waste for tofu packaging from Japan.

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This simple, single line features a lamp, work table, hanger, bookshelf, wine rack, CD rack and a TV unit.

Utilitarian design by Aykut Erol.

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The history of origata, the art of carefully folding gifts in decorative paper, will take you to Japan, 1336. Originally developed to wrap decorative fans or kelp in handmade paper, correctly folded origata can tell you about the relationship between the sender and receiver or the event the gift forecasts.

The Origata Design Institute honors the legacy of origata by resurrecting and reinventing traditional folding techniques.

The silver tongue of Sir David Attenborogh, naturalist and broadcaster, has laid narration over many a cool project. But, I will never forget seeing the PBS Nova special on bowerbirds, “Flying Cassanovas” because the plain, brown males of Papua New Guinea and Austraila engage in a seriously compelling mating ritual.

First, they build their nests or “bowers” elaborate twig huts on the ground, supported by a center beam. Next, they fly around and search for brightly colored or unusual objects and lay elaborate carpets in their bower doorway to attract mates.

Mushrooms, orange peels, blossoms, decorative glass from cemeteries and little girls’ hair ties were just some of the objects the males chose to adorn their bowers. Objects moved by researchers are quickly replaced by the male birds who refine the composition over and over in hopes of attracting a mate.

I didn’t realize how exceptional the footage in the documentary was until I started searching the internet for photo examples. These photos here do not compare to the bower arrangements filmed for the PBS piece, so I really recommend finding it.

At the time, the idea of birds who create aesthetic arrangements really blew my mind. I thought that the “arts” were human talents that separated us from other species?!

First Mr. Ed, now this.

I have never liked refrigerators. Refrigeration, yes. People talk about stainless steel as a solution to the hulking obtrusiveness of the modern American refrigerator like they talk about high definition as some sort of salve for the ubiquitousness of the television in the home.

These stacked mini-fridges offer a tasteful, concise solution.

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wheatpaste via Urban Prankster

How can anyone deny the branding coup that is Kool-Aid? It began with engaging packaging and stormed through the imaginations of children everywhere with ways to pimp the old lemonade stand, Marvel comics and atari games — both of which you could acquire with devout attention to Kool-Aid rebates.

With the ever popular animated pitcher crashing around, Kool-Aid has managed to become at once a timeless representation of youthful summer fun, mindless devotion and the mind exploding LSD-25.

Vintage Kool-Aid jam via Old Man Musings

Inside Beijing’s 2008 Olympic swimming complex.

Appropriately, some of the building’s most innovative features are its systems for handling water. Unlike most swimming pools, which send filter backwash water to the municipal wastewater systems, the Water Cube collects such gray water for treatment and returns it to the pool. The system substitutes rainwater collected from the roof for the small amount of gray water lost in the treatment process. The strategy lessens the burden of the building on Beijing’s wastewater infrastructure and makes it less dependent on the city’s already constrained fresh-water supply. “The idea was to make it as self-sufficient as possible,” says Carfrae.

Read more about this fascinating building’s passive heat systems, bubble physics and rad ventilation systems.

Clean, useful design for table tennis enthusiasts by Johan Liden