While the standard flavors of salty, sweet, sour, and bitter are obvious to us and easy to experience, the fifth flavor— umami—is ineffable. It’s the salience of parmesan cheese, anchovies, dried tomatoes, fish sauce, and dashi. Though it can be oversaturated and overused, umami is an essential taste modifier that makes the sum of its parts stronger when it’s properly used.

Animation plays a role similar to umami to elevate good design to a more satisfying experience.

Norway’s new money, designed by Snøhetta, is beautifully abstract and inspired by the sea.

“Where sea meets air or land, interesting things happen,” says Martin Gran, a partner in Snøhetta’s Oslo office who worked on the design, called “The Beauty of Boundaries.” These horizons served as the inspiration for the pixilated pattern that will appear on Norwegian banknotes starting in 2017 (though the exact design may change slightly as the process moves forward).

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New computer kit, @TeamKano, uses @Raspberry_Pi to let kids & adults build their own PCs.

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