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You're always hearing about off-season, post-peak times to save money on purchases and food, but it always arrives too late. We've compiled a timeline and lots of best-time-to-buy suggestions into one post to help you plan a more frugal 2010.

There’s a bit of news coverage right now about the cold weather that’s hitting certain parts of the world, but don’t jump into the idea that we’ve entered global cooling. Take a look at the rest of the world and a little historical perspective, as well as the reason why some of us are getting this cold weather in the first place.

Globalization and the rise of China owe much to undersea fiber optics and computers capable of managing complex supply chains.

The most exciting part of this phenomenon is that it is just starting. Broadband is beginning to become pervasive in the developed world. Moore's Law will keep crushing the price of computation, communication, transmission and storage. And cheap sensors are about to be thrown on to everything. If it seemed like this already changed much of the world as we know it, get ready for what is coming.

Privacy: By 2020, you will have to go to a museum to understand what it meant. Privacy eroded, due to cameras everywhere and increasing sophistication of data analysis. Most people, considering themselves good at heart, traded it away for the sake of better search results.

One of the wonders of the Internet is that it can bring the world to you instead of you needing to find the time and money to explore the traditional way. Explore cities, famous landmarks and buildings, museums, college campuses, and even outer space. You can learn how things are made, explore the human body or that of a life-sized whale, and visit ball parks and theme parks. 100 Incredible And Educational Virtual Tours.

When it comes to party appetizers, pigs in a blanket are yesterday's news. If you really want to wow your guests, we have two words for you: bacon cups

Cool 3D gif  via

Pass the shovel  via

Embarrassing bees  via

The good people at Flowing Data uncovered this old graphic which they dubbed the "Engineer's Guide to Drinks." The name's fitting: unless you're an engineer these diagrams will probably leave you more frustrated than inebriated.

Murrine glass is an art form using glass that is formed by layering colors and stretching the hot glass into a cane. Then the cane is cut into cross sections, exposing the colors and patterns inside. Robert Wiener is revolutionizing Murrine glass art. Using a spectrum of layered glass and a artistic mind, he creates some of the most innovative and inspirational pieces. Link

Sea level rise creates new business opportunity and “green jobs” that we’ll see more of, borne from the effects of climate change, as sea levels rise. The first floating island has just been commissioned this week by the sinking island nation of the Maldives, from Dutch Docklands, whose past work includes part of  the artificial islands comprising The World off the coast of Dubai.

Selecting a color has not always been something that was a few clicks away. Color used to be collected from pigments of the earth and then died into fabric. You had to collect the berries to make the purple-ish/reds or dirt to get a brown. Color, binds the creative realm together be it graphic design, photography, interior design, textile design, transportation design etc. Of course you can take pictures in black & white or make a logo black with greys but the colors are where we can experience emotion and that emotion ties us to the image, art, design or product. The colors bring the brand, the curtains, the rug, the subject, the foreground or the background to life. Do you just start picking colors and hope for the best or is there more science at work? In order to make your color picking easier there are several different color relationships that will help you along the way.