This Christmas tree in London is made out of recycled bicycle wheels, donated by a non-profit that ships bike parts to Africa to help with health care transportation in rural… Read the rest of the article: Christmas tree made out of bicycle parts

A desperate Boston mom called 911 late Saturday night because she couldn't get her 14-year old son to stop playing video games. A police spokesman said the call "was a… Read the rest of the article: Mom calls 911 over son's video game habit

A villager in Yunnan, China was sentenced to 12 years in jail and fined $70k for killing and eating what may have been the last wild Indochinese tiger in China.… Read the rest of the article: Man jailed for eating near-extinct tiger in China

[via Kotoripiyopiyo (Japanese) via TokyoMango]

Cardboard Brian* and I met at a ski shop in Colorado. He was hanging out by the front door, smiling indiscriminately at passersby. I instantly fell for his charming, goofy,… Read the rest of the article: My weekend with a cardboard version of my boyfriend

Laughing Squid has a fun, voyeuristic video of someone stealing a Christmas wreath from a home in San Francisco's fancy Pacific Heights neighborhood. It's about 2AM, and the woman walks… Read the rest of the article: Video: woman caught stealing a wreath

Want to make a special edible Care Bears lunch for your kid (or yourself)? This is just one of many fun cartoon-themed bento box recipes in a new book by… Read the rest of the article: Care Bears made of rice, carrots, and hot dogs

This giant artificial Christmas tree can be found on Nanjing Road in Shanghai. It's made out of 1,000 empty full(?) Heineken bottles. [via Inhabitat]

Here's a neat kitchen gadget — a toaster that "prints out" toast. It allows you to feed multiple slices at once from the feeder at top, and spits out finished… Read the rest of the article: Toaster looks and acts like a printer

A psychology professor at Bennington College thinks terms like "nerd" and "geek" are damaging, like racial epithets, and need to be banned. Ironically, Dr. David Anderegg is also the author… Read the rest of the article: Psych professor wants to ban "nerd" and "geek"

A few years ago, I went on a trip to northern India to see the Dalai Lama. I traveled with a lawyer, a politician, a publicist, and a translator. One… Read the rest of the article: Advisor: Was it cruel to let poor kids in India play with my iPod?

A team of Chinese architects just unveiled an art installation in Shenzhen that consists of two giant monster footprints in the middle of a public park. They're made of pink… Read the rest of the article: Giant pink monster footprints in Shenzhen

This little girl can type 119 wpm. It's not just a skill, it's a hobby. She started playing on the computer at age 4 and spends her weekends typing. Her… Read the rest of the article: Little girl can type 119wpm

A team of nanobiology students from the University of Osaka made this beautiful fluorescent image of Mario using genetically engineered bacteria. It's one among a whole series of cool microbial… Read the rest of the article: Mario made with genetically engineered bacteria

Looking at a slice of the watermelon daikon, you'd almost think it should taste like a real juicy watermelon. Of course, it doesn't — it tastes like an ordinary radish,… Read the rest of the article: Taste Test: Watermelon daikon

I'm sitting in the lobby of the Little Nell with Auden Schendler. This is a fancy pants, 92-room spa and resort in Aspen that routinely hosts world leaders and celebrities… Read the rest of the article: What a luxury ski resort is doing to solve climate change

I liked it, but I wouldn't buy it. Product Page

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing this year, designer Martin Mostböck made this area rug inspired by the moon's surface. Artist's web site [via Dezeen]

Gizmodo has a great gallery of photos from a design book series published by Phaidon called Pioneers, Mass Production, and New Technologies. It's a three-volume set showcasing 333 of the… Read the rest of the article: Phaidon books celebrate a century of product design

This short BBC video explains how Ukichiro Nakaya, a mid-20th century scientist in Hokkaido, Japan, created the first artificial snowflake in his lab. It was 1933, and he did it… Read the rest of the article: How a Japanese scientist made the first artificial snowflake