Here's a fun gadget that I totally don't need: a USB typewriter that will turn an iPad into a fake piece of paper. From Wired's Gadget Lab: It holds an… Read the rest of the article: Turn your iPad into a typewriter

Dutch artist Wieki Somers makes 3D printed sculptures of animals paired with common household appliances out of human ashes. Artist page via Designboom

My dear friend Jenny, an ER nurse, is in Haiti right now doing triage work. She just sent out this email update from the ground that describes what the medical… Read the rest of the article: Report from an ER nurse in Haiti

According to data from the US Census Bureau, San Francisco has more people with bachelors' or graduate degrees per square mile than any other city. Link [via @waterslicer]

In light of all the drama over President Obama's lack of emotion, Nicholas Kristof is proposing that we find a king and queen for America. Our king and queen could… Read the rest of the article: NYTimes' Kristof: let's anoint a king and queen for America

Some of the most creative student projects in Japan are presented at bunkasai, the annual school festivals. One presented recently was this stop-motion video of Super Mario made out of… Read the rest of the article: Stop-motion Super Mario made out of sticky notes

My mother always sends me this funny quarterly household gadget shopping catalog for a Japanese company called Nissen. The fall 2010 edition has this odd half-page section on low-impact dieting… Read the rest of the article: Four bright pink Japanese dieting contraptions

An inter-faith organization just released a list of the top 100 women-friendly mosques in England. The criteria included things like separate prayer room, daycare services, women in decision-making positions, and… Read the rest of the article: List of women-friendly mosques in England

From the designer's web site: In Carte Blanche, masses of blank rolodex cards are composed into precarious structures that are reminiscent of cliff dwellings. In our digital age, rolodex cards… Read the rest of the article: Sculptures made out of Rolodex cards

Doug McCune has created a series of topographical maps showing crime centers in San Francisco using government data from 2009.

A new study by the San Francisco-based National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study research team has found that children of lesbians do much better overall on academic and social tests than… Read the rest of the article: Children of lesbians do better in school

DivineCaroline.com has a list of 50 weird US laws, including the following: Alabama: It's illegal to wear a fake mustache that causes laughter in church. Alaska: Whispering in someone's ear… Read the rest of the article: List of weird US laws

There was a time in my life when I used to buy cases of bottled water to keep in my kitchen pantry to carry around throughout the day. When I… Read the rest of the article: Bottled and Sold, a book about the bottled water industry

Pink Tentacle points us to the beautiful surrealist paintings of Tetsuya Ishida, a Japanese artist who actually died in a train accident several years ago at the young age of… Read the rest of the article: Tetsuya Ishida's sad man-machine hybrid self-portraits

If you're into origami and/or the alphabet, you'll love this template that shows you how to fold 3D letters of the alphabet out of paper. It appears to be part… Read the rest of the article: Origami alphabet

Joi Ito turned me onto this provocative TV commercial for online lingerie shop Liaison Dangereuse.

If you're in Washington DC on June 19, don't miss TedxOilSpill — an event dedicated to the gulf oil spill.

I don't know if this is a real product, but using your crawling baby as a floor mop is an interesting idea.

Mother Jones has a gallery of venereal disease propaganda posters from World War 2, when STDs were rampant but awareness was not. The enemy in your pants [Mother Jones]

A new study has found that women spend four times longer to get ready for work on Mondays than on Fridays. On average, women spend 76 minutes getting ready on… Read the rest of the article: Study finds women try to look better on Mondays