I don't normally believe in throwing around superlatives, but this suspended black steel fireplace designed by French company Focus just won the award for World's Most Beautiful Object at the… Read the rest of the article: Fireplace named world's most beautiful object

WebUrbanist has a fun roundup of chairs and sofas that you probably don't want to sit on. Among them, a cactus couch (it's not real, but still painful to imagine),… Read the rest of the article: Photos of uncomfortable chairs

Woman endures orgasm nightmare

The environmental committee of the city of Taichung, Taiwan is trying something different to clean up its streets — it's offering $3 in shopping vouchers per kilogram of dog poop… Read the rest of the article: Taiwan city launches new cash-for-poop initiative

Taste Test: red kuri squash

Henry Farrell sez: The US Department of State wants hackers to help build civil society in the Middle East and Africa. They're offering up to $2.5 million in grants for… Read the rest of the article: State Dept offers $2.5 million for hackers to wire the Mid-East and Africa

I love this creative colorful table and chair set by Kamiya Design. When all its pieces are laid out side by side, it literally spells out "Table." Deconstructed, the a,… Read the rest of the article: Table and chair set spells out TABLE

Designer Harry Allen made this LED light by 3D-printing the shape of a firefly caught in his backyard. Previously, Allen made a piggy bank cast out of a real dead… Read the rest of the article: Firefly carcass LED light

This mini-dress sold on Etsy looks just like a pair of 3D glasses. The seller marked it as a Halloween item, but I think it's actually kind of cute for… Read the rest of the article: Dress looks like a pair of 3D glasses

Designer Stefan Ulrich has come up with what could be an early prototype of a real body pillow girlfriend. He calls it Funktionide, an "emotional robot" that changes form depending… Read the rest of the article: Funktionide hints at the future of body pillows

Lost-and-found wedding ring

At Amsterdam's Platform21 design museum last month, kooky Japanese product designers Yuri Suzuki and Masa Kimura — both former assistants at the wonderful art collective Maywa Denki — showed a… Read the rest of the article: Artsy Rube Goldberg machine makes eggs, toast, coffee

Remember the screen printing system from the Boing Boing Video episode Mark and I shot at Maker Faire, the Yudu? Well, I wanted to make t-shirts for my personal blog,… Read the rest of the article: An illustrated guide to making t-shirts with the Yudu machine

My segment on Sparky — a robot made by San Francisco artist Marque Cornblatt using a Mac Mini, Skype, and a hodge podge of gadget parts — aired this weekend… Read the rest of the article: Sparky the Robot visits a museum, on PRI's Studio360

This morning in San Francisco, I covered the Apple announcement for Boing Boing Gadgets. The highlights: Steve Jobs made a surprise comeback, iTunes got a makeover, the iPhone has a… Read the rest of the article: The return of Steve Jobs, and new iPod news on BBG

Lots of fun stuff today over at Boing Boing Gadgets. For example: * A burrito app for the iPhone; * Beautiful pizza cutters; * Glasses that let graffiti writers tag… Read the rest of the article: Today at Boing Boing Gadgets

Today at Boing Boing Gadgets, you can read about… * A steel key ring screwdriver set; * The GoPro Hero helmet cam; * A man who faked a webcam suicide;… Read the rest of the article: Today at Boing Boing Gadgets

Today at Boing Boing Gadgets… * Watch a cute French TV commercial that turns a Mac into a spaceship; * SOS signs from Internet addiction camps in China; * More… Read the rest of the article: Today at Boing Boing Gadgets

Strange Maps has this lovely antique map of London circa 1675, created by an adventurous man named John Ogilby: The life of John Ogilby (1600-1676) can be qualified without exaggeration… Read the rest of the article: UK road map circa 1675

In what appears to be a beauty pageant held at a prison in Russia, scores of women gather around a makeshift runway in the courtyard as their fellow inmates strut… Read the rest of the article: Pics from a beauty pageant in a Russian women's prison