Anyways, both redesigns are a bit bland, but really it’s the writing and usability that ultimately matter and that change is for the best.

The US mint has been tinkering with the design and previously had four other designs in 2009 (none of which I’ve seen for realsies), but in the end they decided to go with the design that resembles play money the most.

Let us now give the US mint a hearty thanks for nothing and commence with debating whether or not the penny is even necessary anymore.

It’s not an official set by Lego, but how awesome is this Star Wars: A New Hope chess set? If I could collect anything, it would probably be chess sets and this one is pretty nifty work.  [via]

All of the planets in our solar system are represented in these wonderful posters by Ross Berens.  Yes, we’ll forgive him for including Pluto, which isn’t technically a planet anymore. From what I can gather, Berens, is a Grand Rapids, MI student.  Regardless, these posters would look ill in anybody’s room.

Speaking of Pluto, is anyone else fascinating that the planet is rapidly changing color?  The gorgeous solar system inforgraphic prints are available for sale here. [via]

Finally confirming what everybody’s believed since 1993 or so, MTV has dropped the “music television” from its newly redesigned logo.  This is the first logo makeover for the Viacom company since it’s inception roughly 30 years ago.  It’s a minor change, but a fairly telling one, nonetheless.

According to a press release: “The logo is part of MTV’s re-invention to connect with today’s millennial generation and bring them in as part of the channel.”  Okay, whatever.  I guess this means it is official that the channel will no longer play music videos, but just keep offering a healthy dose of “Jersey Shore.”

Fast forward about two minutes into this video to fully understand just how complicated the car you drive truly is.  Fascinating.  [via]

From the Press Release:

STAR WARS AT-AT (Approximate Retail Value: $99.99; Ages: 5 & up; Available: August 1, 2010) In space, size does matter, and Hasbro certainly kept that in mind when creating its all-new, highly detailed STAR WARS AT-AT. The AT-AT (All Terrain Armored Transport) played a significant role in the Empire’s military assault in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, and it will play an equally important role in every fan’s toy collection this year! Measuring more than 24 inches tall, nearly 28 inches long, and 12 inches wide, this colossal vehicle holds up to 20 STAR WARS figures – 6 of which can fit in its head alone! – and includes so many play and electronic features true to its on-screen counterpart that it’s hard to believe! From the zip-line in its body and articulated legs for superb poseability, to its LED lights and authentic movie sounds and phrases, this is the must-have addition for STAR WARS fans of all ages. Includes a 3 ¾ inch AT-AT driver action figure and a pop-out speeder bike.

I don’t collect toys, but damn I wish I had a five-year-old son as an excuse to buy this.  Not sure why Hasbro doesn’t do this for more Star Wars vehicles, like the X-Wing or Tie-Fighter.  Between this, and the newly redesigned Millennium Falcon, Hasbro is bringing it. [via]

Other than that, yeah, this redesign is a long time coming and much appreciated.  I’m a bit shocked it took this long, seeing as nobody enjoyed trying to open the packet first and then squeezing out the ketchup second.

The Gear Ring by Kinekt Design features 6 micro-precision gears that turn when the outer layer is spun.  As clearly seen in the video above. The ring is made of matte stainless steel and available right now for $165.

I wish it weren’t so bulky because this really would make for a playful wedding ring.  Not that I’m a gearhead of anything, I just like the idea of having a ring that looks like something Spacely Sprockets created.  [via]

Granted, he didn’t design this himself, but jesus, Tim Burton has one fine website to play around in. You basically move the little guy around a Burton-esque 3D world with the directional arrows.

“While many of us recycle (Yay! Go us!), more than a billion bottles still end up in California landfills every year. That represents both a problem and an opportunity for artist and eco-activist Leslie Tiano and businessman Steve Cherry who teamed up to create BottleHood. They “rescue” beer, wine and liquor bottles from local restaurants, then wash, cut, grind, and polish them into tumblers, juice glasses, vases, and candle holders.”

There is nothing I don’t love about this concept, execution or the beers they’ve chosen to give a second life to.

Available from the Neatorama Shop for $8-15 a tumbler.  [via]

Interesting. “Some awesome video artists have been using kinetic typography—which simply means moving text—to re-create these and other classic sci-fi, fantasy and horror movie moments in a way that has to be seen to be believed,” claims Sci-fi Wire.

They have 21 examples for your viewing pleasure.  The best part about all of these recreations, is these classic movies are so embedded into our brain, we don’t even need to see the movie scene, we can read the text and imagine the action unfolding in our brains.

The Back to the Future scene was created by spikeyizzy.  Seriously, go take 20-minutes and watch them all.

The only thing that would make this sweet, sweet Pac-Man shelf worth buying would either be the ghost wall lamps or if you could create something on your wall so it looks like Pac-Man is going to town on some dots.  Actually, if I had this shelf, I would probably paint the wall to resemble the game screen maze.

Pac-Man bookcase by Italian designer Mirko Ginepro isn’t really available for purchase, but you could e-mail the designer to place an order. And keep your geeky fingers crossed.  [via]

How badly do I want this?  How badly do I wish I wasn’t late for just about everything?  [via]

“JACKET+BOOKMARK” by Igor Udushlivy. Bookmarks that act as extensions of the book cover image. Simple, beautiful, and useful.  Every book should be like this.  [via]

This looks like something out of a James Bond movie, right around the time that Roger Moore was donning the famed tuxedo: “What’s not to love about a 95-room hotel with a giant, 400 foot built-in ski slope – especially if it’s powered bywind and sun? This is one resort that definitely redefines on-slope accommodations. Designed by the always imaginative Michael Jantzen, this eco-hotel offers a new way to experience the frosty luxuries of Aspen with all of our favorite green features.”

Speaking of the Beatles, check out Charting the Beatles, an infographic project from designer Michael Deal; Deal invites anyone to participate by contributing their own infographics to a flickr set.  It’s neat to see things like their recording schedule, song keys, song writing, self-referentialness among other aspects of the band in graphical charts. [via]

From weathersealed: “To create the chart, Velo gently scraped Wikipedia’s list of Crayola colors, corrected a few hues, and added the standard 16-count School Crayon box available in 1935. Except for the dayglow-ski-jacket-inspired burst of neon magentas at the end of the ’80s, the official color set has remained remarkably faithful to its roots! Ever industrious, Velo also calculated the average growth rate: 2.56% annually.  For maximum understandability, he reformulated it as “Crayola’s Law,” which states: the number of colors doubles every 28-years!”  [via]

For on this day, a day like so many others, Douglas Hines, bestowed upon the world its greatest gift since God high-fived his only begotten son following his cruxifiction. 

Hines, is, of course, the inventor of the WORLD’S FIRST SEX ROBOT, which comes with five different personalities and “impressive, flesh-like, synthetic skin.”

“Sex only goes so far — then you want to be able to talk to the person,” Hines said in an interview with the AP. 

An engineer, Hines said he was inspired to create the robot after a friend died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. That got him thinking about preserving his friend’s personality, to give his children a chance to interact with him as they’re growing up. Looking around for commercial applications for artificial personalities, he initially thought he might create a home health care aide for the elderly.

“But there was tremendous regulatory and bureaucratic paperwork to get through. We were stuck,” Hines said. “So I looked at other markets.”

Of course, that’s also how the Cylons were invented, so it’s debatable whether this news is good or bad.  Either way, sex robots ya’ll!

Despite having severe reservations over the technology’s practicality and necessity, it’s somewhat exciting to see an American car company push the envelope of our autombile expectations.  Something tells me this wouldn’t be happening if the industry hadn’t finally bottomed out a year ago.

Office spaces are, by their very nature, endlessly fascinating.  The work environment says as much about the company as the product they offer the world.  “Facebook’s new 150,000-square-foot office at Palo Alto, California, USA. Designed by Studio o+a, the design firm consulted employees to find out their expectations about the work environment and they designed the space for each department with a different twist.” [via]

Figures this is something that was developed by MIT.  Regardless, I do think cities would be more enjoyable without automobiles in them.  [via]

I’ve never been a fan of the book mark (it seems to me to be about as uncouth as an umbrella), but I have an irrational fear and distaste for triangularly creasing the corner of a book to mark my place.  It’s a necessary evil, sure, but creasing that corner leaves me feeling as if I just stabbed a person with a dull butter knife.

There aren’t many other options, however, The Book Hook shown above is the perfect solution for someone as needlessly complicated as myself.  Look at that beautiful triangle that holds your place in the story.  It’s as if the bookmark’s superego burst out of a block of wood.  Not too shabby for $40.  [via]

Seems this weekend, all anybody wanted to talk about was Google’s new phone, “Nexus One.” Details abound, but all anyone really knows about the phone is that the hardware is made by HTC, the software will be Google’s own Android 2.1 OS and that it will be sold online.  The assumption could be made that because Google is selling this directly, the phones will be unlocked and have the ability to run on any carrier.  No price point has been revealed, so we don’t know if Google is going to hugely subsidize these puppies or not, but if they do I wouldn’t be surprised if it sells like mad. [via]

Stupid name aside (the Crunchpad was renamed the JooJoo , presumably when TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington was dumped from the project), I’ve been curious enough about (what used to be) TechCrunch’s web-tablet to keep a distant eye on it.  It’s gone through quite a few developments and looks fairly snazzy thanks to FusionGarage. 

The JooJoo seems good, from our time with it, but it really needs to be taken home and thoroughly tested with different webapps, watching a lot of HD video and streaming music. At the very least, we’ll see how much of that 5-hour battery life stands up to constant use. You can pre-order it yourself this Friday, but, since there’s some legal troubles on the horizon, you probably want to wait until the whole thing clears up first before putting any money down.

 On the surface, the JooJoo seems like a decent techtoy, but when you realize it’s a computer that can only surf the web, you’ve got to ask yourself, what’s the point?  Especially when you consider Apple is entering the same market with what will probably be an over-sized iPhone very soon, these guys are going to need some magic of their own to make this successful. 

Where would you use this?  While channel surfing? The good intentions are there, but that’s about it.

“TeuxDeux is a simple, designy, browser-based to-do app and the first collaboration between studio-mates swissmiss and Fictive Kin.  The idea was to build a bare-bones, but visually compelling and highly usable to-do app based on Tina’s personal ideal work-flow.” 

I’ve yet to be let down by Swiss Miss, regarding her impeccable design taste.  Seems like something I’ll be, at the very least, trying out.  I’ve never gotten into Google Tasks, for one reason or another.

It’s laughable.  Seriously.  If AOL paid money for the company rebranding on the eve of their split-off from Time Warner, well, they got jobbed.  Big time! Wolff Olins, a global brand and innovation consultancy, worked on this new look and logo which seeks to replace the older, more iconic AOL branding.

The thing is over the past few years, AOL has really become a web-content leader with sites like Engadget, Joystick and Cinematical.  Why they didn’t take advantage of that, branding themselves for example as the CNN for the digital age or some such thing is beyond me.

The Dieline examines 50 such bottles that would get my business whether or not the product is any good.  Despite the overabundance of Absolut Vodka bottles, it’s nice to see three Portland spirits make the list. 

That both 12 Bridges Gin and Lovejoy Vodka (both are crafted by Integrity Spirits, whose Trillium Absinthe also made the list but I haven’t partaken yet) are excellent tasting spirits in their own right is an added bonus.

If you’re wondering that’s the Hawthorne Bridge on the bottle.

You can download the free virtual appliance of Chrome OS here. The tarball is containing vmdk and vmx files, so you’ll need a free VMware Player or VirtualBox in order to run this appliance. 

Not sure if this is on the up and up but Google did hold a press conference today with details of their much bally-whooed OS and it sounds impressive. 

It won’t be officially launched until first or second quarter 2010 and it really will be a browser-based interface.

Excess and Lamborghini go hand and hand.  Though I still prefer the classic and sophisticated lines of the Ferrari, the other Italian automaker still creates an intimidating beast of a car.  There is something primal about a Lamborghini — it is a swirling mess of super-ego and id raging on two axels. 

The V-12 supercar looks like an attack vehicle from the future. ”The 6.5 liter, 12-cylinder mill puts out 662 horsepower. The car does 0 to 62 mph in 3.4 seconds. It tops out at 205 mph,” according to Wired Magazine.  “But the most important number is 20. As in that’s precisely how many Lamborghini will build.”   

Which means you probably have to know a few people and have $1.6 million dollars to shell out for it.

The design of this coffee table to mimic the wooden sleds of yore is nice, but it’s the details of the ice blue rug, with two deep grooves cut out to mimic the compressed snow from the sleds that makes this worth having.  It’s possible to move the sled back and forth from one side of the rug to the other.  A nice feature if you move your coffee table around often like I do.  [via]

All I want to do is to slide down into one of these tubs with the hot water running.  Everything a bathtub should be. The company also makes washbasins and oval-shaped soaking tubs, even though Unique Wood Designs began in 1979 as a boating company. [via]

All other dresses can go home. You have lost the competition. Would I start rocking dresses if I owned this garment?  Yes, yes I think I would.  [via]

“Notice how all the elements in the interior create the overall feeling of out-of-space:. The bathtub resembles an oval spaceship connected to the ground by futuristic elements and is also enriched by modern faucets. The light spot on the ceiling emits a blue, out-of-this-world light that is directed to the tub just like  in the UFO movies. Same goes for the washbasin, which has a unique shape, fitting perfectly in this thematic Sci-Fi scenario.”

Yup, it looks more like a science lab than a bathroom, but that’s what I’m drawn to.  I suppose if I had the money, I’d want something a bit more serene, but this is pretty cool nonetheless.

Mr. and Mrs. Eaves here I come.

Mars missions from 1960 to present by Bryan Christie Design for IEEE Spectrum’s special report “Why Mars? Why Now?” You can check out a larger version at the IEEE site.  Totally worth it.

[via]

“The Vancouver Olympics made a smart choice in deciding to use precious metals from old electronics. By salvaging medal materials from old products, the Olympic committee is saving perfectly good gold, silver, and bronze from ending up in landfills,” writes Ariel Schwartz. “ Because it makes no sense to mine for new gold when a single junked PC has more of the stuff in it than 17 tons of ore. And if the medals are promoted well, they could bring awareness to the cause of recycled scrap. With the entire world watching what happens at the Olympic games, there is no better venue to promote such an important–and easy-to-implement–solution to electronics recycling.” 

Word.  It makes for a good story, except that, according to the Ottawa Citizen, less than 1% of the metal used to make the medals came from recycled materials.