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Love tales of big, bad wolves and witches brewing up a pot of evil deep in a primeval forest?

Then you’ll love Forms in Nature, the unusual lighting piece by Hilden & Diaz that only tells the whole story when the lights are on.

Interestingly, the roots are those elements of the forest that are the most visible. Thereby the sculpture is not only mirrored, but also turned upside down in Hilden & Diaz’ artwork. [...] The shadows engulfs the room and transforms the walls into unruly shadows of branches, bushes and gnarled trees. Mirrorings are thrown out upon the walls and ceilings and provide weak Rorschach-like hints of faces, life and flow of consciousness. Dimming the lights transforms the installation and one senses a weak fire burning deep in the center of the forest.

The design is only a concept at this point, but that doesn’t mean your Pinterest-lovin’ self doesn’t now have a new summer DIY project.

Full story at Colossal.

Haunting design.

More fun Gatsby things here and more literature here.

Guess this grain silo in Brisbane just wanted to live to brew another day…

The implosion of this structure didn’t quite go as planned as the fifty-year-old structure once used to store grain for a brewery was left at a precarious angle when the explosives didn’t finish the job.

Don’t worry, though; the video still has an explosive ending.

Enjoy your morning catharsis!

Full story at BBC @ YouTube via NPR.

Things that go boom.

You’ve invested blood, sweat and tears into starting your company with dreams of being bought out by a bigger fish, but in the immortal words of Kenny Rogers, “You’ve got to know when to hold’em, know when to fold’em, know when to walk away and know when to run,” and that’s exactly where many an inexperienced entrepreneur misses the boat.

If you’re in the market to sell, take a look at the advice offered by seven experienced entrepreneurs gathered by ReadWrite’s Scott Gerber and go forward with eyes wide open.

1. Prepare documents and records

…Proper acquisition preparation can help. All your accounting records should be in order, prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Your corporate governance, legal records, HR and employee documentation should also be in order and easily shareable. - David Ehrenberg, Early Growth Financial Services

2. Avoid a funding gap

Often, venture capitalists don’t get involved with a startup until a larger amount of capital is needed, and this can create a funding gap.

The best piece of advice for founders preparing for an acquisition is to get ready for change. What used to be yours isn’t anymore, and you need to deal with these changes in order to make the acquisition successful. - Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

Full story at ReadWrite.

Advice for entrepreneurs.

Photo credit: Fotolia

On second thought, it might be more accurate to say the only guinea pig designer with a name of any kind.

Part of starting a successful business is finding the right niche and outfitting it with the right idea, and heaven knows, the fashion of the small and furry has been buried by an avalanche of cat and dog costumes, but those small, nervous creatures perpetually taking a backseat to bunnies now has a line to call its own thanks to Tokyo-based designer Maki Yamada.

The funny thing is that guinea pigs aren’t even particularly popular in Japan.

As she told the Daily Beast:

“The population density is really high, so you can’t really have big cages [in your small apartment],” Yamada said, attesting that hamsters are more of a small-rodent norm. But in Japan—a country whose commercial market revolves around kawaii(the cultural moniker for “cute”)—the pet clothing market is already incredibly saturated. It’s why Yamada has no plans to expand her label to accommodate guinea pigs’ popular counterpart—bunny rabbits. “There are already lots of people doing clothes for rabbits, I want to try for more minor pets like prairie dogs,” she said of her next moves.

So watch out, Kansas; she’s coming for you.

Full story at The Daily Beast. Designs available at Guinea Pig Fashion.

It’s like Rodeo for rodents.

Never want the adventure of Game of Thrones to end?

Tap that inner child and take your favorite characters anywhere thanks to the fine folks at Funko POP who are selling each of these 3.75″ figures for a mere $9.99 (on sale!).

Fake blood not included and clothes not removable. Just use your imagination.

Full story at Amazon via Geeks are Sexy.

Must see TV.

Prime time crime shows got you hankering for a career in criminal justice?

The good news is that a number of jobs in the field are seeing above average growth, and this infographic from OnlineDegrees can point you in the right direction…not that you weren’t already going there.

Via OnlineDegrees.

Like infographics? So do we.

Clinical trials of a new vaccine for Lyme disease reveal strong immune response in 300 individuals with little adverse reaction.

“We hope that a larger-scale, Phase 3 trial will demonstrate not only a strong immune response but true efficacy in a large population that illustrates protection against Lyme disease,” says vaccine researcher Benjamin Luft of Stony Brook University.

Full story at Futurity.

More research news from top universities.

Photo credit: Jerry Kirkhart/Flickr

Using a set of linked partial differential equations, James A Sethian, professor of mathematics at University of California, Berkeley and his colleagues explain what happens as foamy bubbles form and then disappear.

The problem with describing foams mathematically has been that the evolution of a bubble cluster a few inches across depends on what’s happening in the extremely thin walls of each bubble, which are thinner than a human hair.

Based on a new mathematical description of foam evolution, the researchers show the various physical and chemical processes involved: liquid drains from the bubbles’ thin walls until they rupture, after which the remaining bubbles rearrange, often destabilizing other bubbles, which subsequently pop.

Full story and video at Futurity.

More research news from top universities.

Photo credit: Thales/Flickr

Neuroscientists have captured hard evidence that people detect and process grammatical errors with no awareness of doing so.

Participants in the study—native-English speaking people, ages 18-30—had their brain activity recorded using electroencephalography, from which researchers focused on a signal known as the event-related potential (ERP). This noninvasive technique allows for the capture of changes in brain electrical activity during an event. In this case, events were short sentences presented visually one word at a time.

“Even when you don’t pick up on a syntactic error your brain is still picking up on it,” Laura Batterink of the University of Oregon, says. “There is a brain mechanism recognizing it and reacting to it, processing it unconsciously so you understand it properly.”

Full story at Futurity.

More research news from top universities.

Photo credit: delta_avi_delta/Flickr

The collapse of home prices and the stock market has taken an immense toll on the assets of the middle class, hitting minorities and young adults especially hard, a new study suggests.

“Most telling is that the wealth of the average person by 2010 was at its lowest level since 1969,” says Edward Wolff, professor of economics at New York University.

The middle class benefited from very rapid asset appreciation during the 2001‐2007 period (6 percent per year). But the steep drop in asset prices during the recession, particularly housing, hit the middle class harder than more affluent Americans.

Full story at Futurity.

More research news from top universities.

Photo credit: woodleywonderworks/Flickr

Hate spending money on unhealthy snacks on the go when you have a refrigerator full of healthy goodness at home?

Don’t settle for second-best and put that DIY urge to good use with this completely unfashionable but supremely practical Ziploc jacket spotted by Tumblr blogger Jaya.

Perfect if you work in an office where lunches mysteriously disappear and no one is listening to your complaints or reading your dire warning notes.

Full story at the wax Liam of tumblr via Neatorama.

Where food and fashion collide.

Seem like every time you get used to the new features on Facebook, it all changes?

Well, you’re not alone in your frustration, and comedy group Extremely Decent decided to see what it would be like if all those updates were there to surprise you the next time you walked in your front door.

Full story at YouTube via Laughing Squid.

Facebook funnies.

“If you had your own pirate ship fort, multi-story slide, climbing wall or indoor skate park, would you ever want to leave your house? Some homeowners have turned their residences into private playgrounds and theme parks, incorporating fun elements to liven up home life for kids and adults alike.”

This house has a rainbow spiral staircase and a trap door to a slide!

Full article on WebUrbanist

More on design.

The thirteen PowerPoint slides that helped Buffer raise $500,000 in three months

See the slides here.

And it got me as an advisor though I don’t remember if the founders pitched me with PowerPoint. I think they just described the business to me.