Well looks like the adidas x Star Wars Collection cat is finally out of the bag. With a whole heap of shoes dropping in the intergalactic color ways, we are pegging the Darth Vader ZX8000 as the crowd favorite but would love to be proven wrong so why don’t you do just that.

via KicksOnFire.com.

Designer Chow Hon Lam continues to produce seven new pieces every week for his ‘Flying Mouse 365’ project, the premise of which is to make one new graphic design ever day for the span of one year. The illustrations will then be printed over t-shirts and will be sold on Hon Lam’s web site. All the images use varying colors and characters, and are all dripping with irony, putting a light-hearted comedic twist to it all.

via Format Magazine Urban Art Fashion.

Upon first glance, MAD Architects’ latest project for Chongqing, China looks like an impossibility.  The project, entitled Urban Forest, features a stacked set of floors that cantilever drastically from their central support.  The floors are designed to bring more nature and open space into a densely compacted urban area.

via ArchDaily.

On the edge of a Precambrian granite island, this 2000 SF cottage is nestled into the rock and against a line of trees, taking full advantage of the site’s natural beauty and its protection from the often extreme weather.

In form and material the cottage is determined by its landscape of water, rock and sky. Its graphic lines contrast and highlight those of the wind-shaped trees and the washed granite; the massing of the cottage mimics that of the rock formations in which it sits.

via SHIFT Cottage by Superkül Inc | Architect » CONTEMPORIST.

If you’re facing frigid temperatures right now, chances are you won't be seeing many bugs in need of a quick SWAT! But after seeing this delete key swatter, we’ve never needed a fly swatter more than we do right now.

via Apartment Therapy Unplggd.

fail

I love this ethos…

I’ve failed more times than I can remember. I’ve tried starting up several businesses, tried patenting inventions, tried starting up online communities, tried building several websites, tried to win contests… and failed almost every single time. But I never chalked any of them up as failures in my head, because I learned so much in the process each time.

And therein lies the best career advice I could possibly dispense: just DO things. Chase after the things that interest you and make you happy. Stop acting like you have a set path, because you don’t. No one does. You shouldn’t be trying to check off the boxes of life; they aren’t real and they were created by other people, not you.

via Lifehacker.

The building project began as a transformation of an existing shophouse into a showroom and office for lighting products. Converting this building type to provide new retail functions was a significant challenge that required extensive modifications to the interior planning.

The resulting approach was to insert new spaces that could connect all the existing floors to provide a continuous circulation and movement. These new elements use steel as their primary structure and were designed to be supported and cantilevered from existing concrete structures, thereby creating a new space that combined old and new elements of the renovated shophouse interior.

via ArchDaily.

The most telling incident was only revealed 20 years later. In the above photo, the man with the camera around his neck standing behind the boy was the current Russian Prime Minister (and former president) Vladimir Putin. He was pretending to be a tourist on his capacity as a KGB agent. On that day, on the Red Square, Gorbachev introduced Reagan to various tourists, who asked the American president pointed questions about subjects such as human rights in the United States.

The photographer of this picture, Pete Souza, turned to the Secret Service and commented, “I can’t believe these tourists in the Soviet Union are asking these pointed questions.” The agent replied, “Oh, these are all KGB families.”

via When Putin met Reagan

Touchtable is a PMP that is interactive and intuitive. It features a large controller wheel that surrounds the screen and performs just like a turntable. It’s even sensitive to touch and pressure and when you use it in combo with the surrounding function buttons, it facilitates absolute user control over a track, through precise position, timing and pitch manipulation.

via Yanko Design

I tried this out last week and was hugely impressed, it simply allows you direct access to the whole of the BBC iPlayer experience directly from your remote.

This week it gets even better, the installer now supports Windows 7 x64 media center (the icon previously didn’t appear in the extras library) and support for live streaming and radio services have been added.

This simply is a must have application if you use media center.

Download directly from the new Google Code page, you can find support at this forum, plus you may need to download the Windows Media Security Component Upgrade (using internet explorer browser).

Loving those offices, I wish my work place had such a smart view of the quality of the surroundings and the effect on the way people work…

The modern office needs to be a place for communication, exchange of ideas and teamwork. A place for netting. But at the same time it is important for individuals to be able to fulfill their legitimate needs to withdraw and do concentrated work.

via The Efficient Office: In the Office: Vitra.com.

Japanese interior design company Wonderwall have completed a chocolatier’s shop in Harajuku, Japan, where chocolate seems to drip from the walls and ceiling.

via Dezeen