Peter Bil'ak's editorial on the latest issue of Work That Works.

The egalitarian origins of the office cubicle (The Action Office) highlight how design intention can sometimes fail to meet market necessity.

That’s how much the Royal Mail spent on four billion red rubber bands over a 5 year period. They’re all beige now though which isn’t nearly as fun.

While not an active theft, the taxi driver in this story from filmmaker Casey Neistat could have effectively stolen equipment worth more than $13,000. Watch, read and as Casey puts it, have your faith in humanity restored.

A nice post from Google Ventures' MG Siegler on how successful big products start humble before they get big. The absence of cruft and bloat and over complication.

Singer at the top of her CRAFT (see - this *is* craft-related) makes Gary Lightbody's mum cry by singing a song with an Irish accent. Funny.

Gets a bit tl;dr but I believe the gist is that marmosets often have their twins' genetic babies - man, genetics is MAD!

Ravelry’s a great resource, knitters (it hit 4 million users last year) and we get grumpy when you diss us - London 2012 would’ve been SO good if only the knitters of Ravelry hadn’t boycotted Team USA.

The psychology of clickbait.

In 2007, with the help of a live your dream sponsorship and Australia Geographic Magazine, this guy built an under water habitat out of old steel and lived at the bottom of a lake for two weeks!

A nice long read about Atari's would-be Game Boy killer.

Complete with bananas and power-ups.

So much data visualisation - and so many animals!!

Not a direct link to the paper by Dr. Mina Cikara but a shorter article about it and how (paraphrasing and over simplifying a bit) the basal ganglia reward process is to blame for schadenfreude.

Bless our tiny little existence.

This play currently showing at The Duke of York's Theatre is a bit mad but definitely worth a visit. A crime drama, set in 2050, exploring virtual gaming in the future.

Ballerina turned biologist Kristin Laidre gives her all to study the elusive, deep-diving, ice-loving whale known as the “unicorn of the sea”.

Using a rubber band for a hands free mobile phone.

Technical debt in banking: "The banks would like to move to new systems but it would be like trying to change the engines on an aeroplane while it is in flight."

Adding fuel to the fire of the Weekly WA Recycling Debate (catchy).

A German office worker sent a Bartleby-esque retirement email saying "Since 1998, I was present but not really there."

I’m somewhere between incredulous that this is a ‘thing', and impressed that 'months were spent hammering out details with Mr Bowie’s representatives’. Someone’s written a paper “Space Copyright Law: the new dimension” for gawd’s sake!

“Mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down...provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so."

It's no Dazed & Confused.

The real Scrooge was Mrs Cratchit's mother.

Even ex-Tetris-players with amnesia see blocks turning as they drift off to sleep. Via Gray.

Synesthesia is an almost unimaginable neurological phenomenon for those that don’t suffer from it. Fun test: Discover friends that have it mildly by asking what colour your name is. Bet you find more than you’d think.

I'd been wondering for a while how mixed recycling was separated.

And how can they "fail better"?

An old but delicious slice of schadenfreude.

M.G. Siegler on the historically awful piece of design that is the TV remote. Scroll down for the wonderful ‘Grandma hack’, an even better version of which appeared first in Designing Interactions (2006) by the late great Bill Moggridge.

Cheating the system: from chess to pub quizzes, how technology has made breaking the rules easier than ever

An interesting and fairly new term being championed by ex-ustwo™ Global Design Director Joseph Macleod. All these products and services we design and set up: What happens when they finish? Or when we finish with them? Designing experiences for endings. A lovely idea I think (and reminiscent of Nat Hunter's 2012 Metaphwoar! talk).

A simple guide to debugging with a rubber duck.

This seems like dumb stuff, but it’s well worth re-iterating; if you spend long hours at a computer, make sure you’re not ruining your everything!

Amazing biochemistry - definitely...

Bonus link.

Jo Farrell published this project last year, produced over the course of 9 years, photographing 50 elder women across China.

So how did a company selling rubber tires become the world’s authority on restaurants?

A man’s quest to reinvigorate the coastline’s sea life.

Must read more Elmore Leonard!!! (#10's a really good 'un)

'Americans have hardly kicked their addictions to salt, sugar or fat, but the experience of the big food companies shows they are trying.'

"Modern cities are hives and tangles and piles."

Japanese researchers have bred a substantial population of marmosets to study cognition and cognitive brain disorders such as schizophrenia and depression.

Inside the machine of the man who recently sold the most expensive photograph ever.

Finally found back in 2009.

News to me, anyway.

There's an FAQ if you've more questions.

Design Sponge pays tribute to iconic eraser.

Following on from my link last week, here's a pair of dazzle shoes. I don't they there were very successful Ronaldo didn't win the Ballon d'Or in the year after they were released.

One of the 4 programs of the Gates Foundation is to improve the health and lives of people in developing countries.

Because you're riding with Eddy Merckx.

As if nuclear weapons weren't scarily powerful enough already, these super fast photos add an extra spooky and ominous edge.

Recipients of the Freedom Pass catch every bus in London.

The Handmaid's Tale explores the different types of personal freedom

"Look down at British roads and pavements and there's often a slew of squiggles, dots and arrows, painted in a plethora of hues. But what do they actually mean?”

A look a the debate between philosophers and scientists.

I'd never really asked myself where it came from.

Creator the Logo language and author of “Mindstorms: Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas”. This guy’s rap sheet is as impressive as it is playful.

Over a month and a half Pixar story artist Emma Coats tweeted out a series of lessons she learned about how to create appealing stories:

Stories from The Onion as interpreted by Facebook

"What makes an icon a valuable addition to the interface, rather than a mere decorative element?" UI designer Alla Kholmatova has some nice thoughts on the matter, including the refresh symbol.

He's dressed as a seat!

A great behind the scenes from It's Nice That, showing the work behind a truly beautiful illustration of evolution. 'Evolution' being the longest running and most successful sequel franchise of all time, with the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a close second.

The Kardashev scale is a method of measuring a civilisation's level of technological advancement, based on the amount of energy a civilisation is able to use.

Catch an exclusive bus to a job where you can level the playing field of information

I love this website!

Quite a lot it turns out.

A Guardian journalist spoke to some kids in Kent every year from year 6 through till their GCSEs.

English, you suck.

Weekends are holidays, right?

Hopefully the sense of loss over your favourite emoji will pale now you’ve got yourself a whole magazine.

“The self-filibuster represented a landmark in the Senate’s long history of procedural absurdity…”

The selfie stick is an old-fashioned solution for modern photography.

Albert Camus' letter to his former school teacher after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.