We’re surrounded by strangers. Millions and millions of people you see every day that are just like fish. They’re just extras in the movie starring you and you’re an extra in the movie starring them. It’s just peculiar.

— Tom Waits

For those of us who got stuck playing electric guitar.

A stop motion animation made with Post-it notes by SCAD student Bang-yao Liu.

Robust roundup of Google Wave, a new platform merging e-mail, IM, and a host of other features.

This is getting a lot of press recently, but it is pretty astounding… I really think this is just scratching the surface of what’s possible with translating large sets of data into human-friendly functionality.

J.J. Abrams’ talk at TED … “mystery is the catalyst for imagination”.

Short film by Neill Blomkamp, soon to be expanded to feature length film called District 9.

Redesigns of all the Wu Tang album covers in the spirit of Blue Note.

The filmmakers also, for some inexplicable reason, feel the need to abuse green-screen projection for way too many of the driving scenes. I watched Fozzie Bear drive a real live car down a real live road 30 years ago in “The Muppet Movie.” Is there a particular reason that Hugh Jackman is denied the privileges afforded a Muppet?

— Alexandra DuPont’s review of Wolverine

It turns out that the baby brain actually contains more brain cells, or neurons, than the adult brain: The instant we open our eyes, our neurons start the “pruning process,” which involves the elimination of seemingly unnecessary neural connections…

while the pruning process makes the brain more efficient, it can also narrow our thoughts and make learning more difficult, as we become less able to adjust to new circumstances and absorb new ideas.

— From Inside the Baby Mind, a look at how babies’ brains develop.

Part of a wonderful collection of great examples of infographics.

Instant Phillip Glass machine. Try it out… so much fun.

Wow. Stunningly accurate. I would add Radiohead and cupcakes.

Lots of masterful photo retouching and disturbing imagery in this portfolio.

Vintage Dharma Initiative ads on Flickr. Check out whole set.

The cover of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World.

This story is amazing and heartwarming.

How to design like an architect… complete with advice from Kevin Bacon’s dad.

Khoi Vinh details Tropicana’s announcement they will abandon their extensive rebranding efforts after only a month.

If the vehicle is parked and you are outside of the car with the windows down, they can be rolled up by holding down the lock button on the remote.

— One of the features listed for the Bentley Continental in the Valet’s Guide to Driving Exotic Cars. It seems this feature could easily be implemented on all levels of cars, not just ones in the $150K+ range. Yet my (much more modest) car has a practically unexplainable “panic alarm” feature on the keys.

To what extent is good user-centered design only for the elite to enjoy?