A Field Guide To Facial Hair In The Tech Workplace

American illustrator Kelsey Dake—who has drawn for publications like The New York Times, GQ and Businessweek—has created a funny, tongue-in-cheek “field guide to facial topiary in the tech workplace”.



Published in Wired magazine to accompany the article “Beards of Silicon Valley”, the piece depicts the facial hair style of 20 personalities that are commonly found in a tech office.



From social media coordinator and software developer to graphic designer—including an “evil graphic designer”—and even the pizza delivery guy, this seems to be a pretty comprehensive guide on techies and their facial hair of choice.



If you work in the tech world, can you spot your facial hair style in this unscientific but very amusing chart?





Click on image for enlarged version



[via Kelsey Dake]

US Postal Service Unveils ‘Emancipation Proclamation’ Stamp

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation—that was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on 1 January 1863—the US Postal Service has released a limited edition commemorative stamp.



Designed by art director Antonio Alcalá and designer Gail Anderson, the stamp features the phrase “Henceforward Shall Be Free”—which was taken from the Emancipation Proclamation.



The stamp was given a ‘Civil War era’ look and is also available as a collectible letterpress poster.



The stamp and poster are currently available for sale, and they can be purchased here.











[via US Postal Service]

Site Offers Solutions To First World Problems

Australian aerospace engineer Stuart Kearney and application architect Eric Stern—with their tongue in their cheeks—have created a website that offers its visitors solutions to first-world problems.



From having “too social” social-networking sites to not wanting to call a cab because “yellow clashes with your shoes”, FirstWorldProblems.biz has got you covered.



The site features a drop-down menu of problems—when users select one, they’d be directed to a startup’s site, app or product page that, in a way, solve your first-world woes.









[via Solve your first-world problem]

Foldable Chair That Stimulates Children’s Creativity

A Japanese kindergarten has commissioned Tokyo-based design firm h220430 to create chairs for its students.



The firm’s director Satoshi Itaska came up with a chair called ‘The Owl’ that was designed to help stimulate children’s creativity.



“It was very interesting to see the kids who participated in the research building the chairs by trial and error,” shares Itaska.



Before the chair is folded, toddlers will notice its shape which resembled an owl with spread out wings, hence the given name of the chair.



The Owl is made of ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA)—a soft and flexible polymer that behaves like foam-rubber, allowing easy manipulation.



The Owl Chair is still in development and will be ready for purchase in spring.























[via h220430]

Elements Of The Periodic Table As Comic Book-Inspired Characters

Tokyo-based Japanese artist Bunpei Yorifuji has produced a children’s book—'Wonderful Life with the Elements'—in which he re-imagined the elements of the periodic table as comic book-inspired characters with their own distinct style and personality.



Adding a big dose of whimsy and fun to the dry, scientific subjects, the artist based his cute illustrations of the various elements on their “respective chemical properties, era of discovery and natural states”.



Giving “cool cookie” Helium an afro, and Carbon a bushy long beard, the elements ceased to be boring particles and are transformed into amusing “people” that children would be interested to know more about.



The book also comes with a large-format poster of the periodic table, where the symbol representing each element is replaced by a corresponding illustrated character—you can purchase it here.























[via Brainpickings]

Is Apple Testing The iPhone 6?

In a report by Matt Brian from The Next Web, it was revealed that Apple is already testing the iPhone 6 and its next operating system, the iOS 7.



According to Brian, he reported, “One developer showed us that Apple has been testing hardware relating to a new ‘iPhone6,1’ identifier, powered by a device running iOS 7, which is expected to be released by Apple in the middle part of this year.”



The current iPhone 5 is marked on the developer logs as ‘iPhone 5,1’ and ‘iPhone 5,2’ and he has reason to believe that Apple is testing the new hardware.



“Although OS and device data can be faked, the unique IP footprint leading back to Apple’s Cupertino campus leads us to believe this is not one those attempts,” Brian wrote.



“No specifics on hardware or software features are shared in developer logs, but sources have indicated that Apple began working on the new version of iOS 7 towards the end of 2012 and is soon to finalize the features that will be included in its first public release.”



If Apple is truly testing the new iPhone 6, we wonder if it will look something like this.



[via The Next Web]

LEGO Unveils Official ‘Back To The Future’ Set

[Click here to view the video in this article]







Toy maker LEGO has officially announced that it would be producing an official Back to the Future set.



The set was originally designed by Masashi Togami of Team BTTF on site LEGO CUUSOO—who will be donating his 1% royalty, from the set, to the Michael J Fox foundation for Parkinson’s Research.



Details are yet to be finalized, but the Back to the Future is expected to be released in the latter half of 2013, and will include the DeLorean, Marty and Doc.

























[via LEGO CUUSOO]