The United States spends more on medical care per person than any country, yet life expectancy is shorter than in most other developed nations and many developing ones (above).

Robert Henke, aka Monolake shares his custom Max for Live devices.

How to dispose of old electronics in a responsible way.

Top 7 Best Green iPhone Apps.

Ira Glass on Storytelling (YouTube): part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.

Design and Meaning: an interview with Nathan Shedroff.

Self-Destructing Bacteria Could Be the Key to Better Biofuels.

Incredible ‘Garbage City’ Rises Outside of Cairo.

How to protect your ideas in the digital age: Don’t. Build a reputation as someone who creates great ideas, sometimes on demand. Or as someone who can manipulate or build on your ideas better than a copycat can.

The practice of hanging out is consistently demonized by educationally-minded folks as a waste of time. Yet, it is in that space where youth learn to navigate social situations, make sense of impression management, and develop the social skills necessary to be productive adults.

Decorate your creative suite with hand-made pillows featuring some familiar design app icons (above).

Peruse pics from the First 100 Days in the Official White House Flickr Photostream.

25 years of logos from Duffy & Partners, one of our favorite agencies.

Rickshaw Bagworks’ Large Zero Messenger is cut and sewn from only four rectangles of fabric for zero manufacturing material waste.

Song of the Vine, an illustrated history of wine.

Skip Hulu Commercials with this nifty Greasemonkey script.

Five Ways To Market Yourself During A Recession.

jQuery Style is a resource for all things jQuery.

The history and cover art of science fiction published by Penguin Books from 1935 to 1977.

DIY camera kit (above) for the crafty geek in all of us.

Herman Miller Replaces the Sample Catalogue With a Smart Web Site; someday we’ll be able to afford such brilliance.

He Charted the Moon Before Galileo, But You’ve Probably Never Heard of Him.

Jenny Holzer’s Protect Protect Show.

The Unreleased Recordings by Hank Williams.

Wrong Tomorrow is a database of provable predictions.

Novation announces SL Mk II; sweetness.

Fantastic design work followed by fantastic increases in newspaper circulation, by Polish newspaper designer Jacek Utko. His advice: “Give power to designers.” Right on!

Get Satisfaction as a Protection Racket.

A 10-month investigation by a team of researchers at the University of Toronto uncovered a broad Chinese espionage scheme that reached into foreign embassies, news services and even the office of the Dalai Lama.

The Top 5 Greenest Laptops.