"Betjeman & Barton takes pride in their rich history and tradition.

Underpants Candy – $4.95

Boxers or briefs? Tell the world you love your tighty whities with the Underpants candy from the NeatoShop. This fun candy is shaped like a comfy pair of underwear. Don’t worry they are Tutti frutti flavored. Yum!

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more hilarious Mints & Candies!

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Talk about urban beautification! Japanese manhole covers aren’t just for covering holes in the ground, they’re colorful and artistic and often embody elements of Japanese culture.

Booooooom! has a rather impressive collection of Japanese manhole covers for you to peruse at the link below.

Seeing how nice they all look makes me want to grab some paint and beautify my city, too bad the local law enforcement won’t appreciate my artistic efforts!

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Classic Nintendo characters, from NES games like Metroid, The Legend Of Zelda and MegaMan, explore their Japanese roots in this series of illustrations by Jed Henry.

Capturing the action of old school gaming with the style of traditional Japanese woodblock prints, these beautiful full color illustrations show us what Samus, Link and MegaMan would look like in an alternate Feudal Japan themed universe.

Link  –via Comics Alliance

Packaging and branding for Zodiac - Polish assorted tea.

With just a push, Irene Kiss’s clever crocheted fish toy turns into a sushi roll. Best of all, there’s no cooking required. You can find larger images at the link.

Link and Crochet Pattern -via Craft

Now that is a pooch that understands how dangerous high stress levels can be. Seriously, I only wish I could fall asleep so easily, but I guess that talent is for the dogs…or at least these 13 adorable sleeping dogs.

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"A new take-home range for frozen yogurt brand yoomoo has launched in partnership with R&R Ice Cream, with packaging designed by leading London brand design agency Bulletproof.

Crazy Cat Lady Candy – $4.45

Do you have a friend who is one step away from being a crazy cat lady? Encourage her to embrace the insanity with the Crazy Cat Lady Candy from the NeatoShop. This deliciously funny Tutti-frutti flavored candy is shaped like cats.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more hilarious Mints & Candies!

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The Red Cross published recruitment and fund raising posters in various countries during World War I, and many of them are works of art! The poster shown here was designed by Harrison Fisher in 1918. See a collection of the best at Oddee. Link

A photo blog collection of all the best bookshelf photos from around the world for people who *heart* bookshelves.

Some amazing pics in here.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Line of bbq and chill sauces designed and illustrated by Steve Simpson.

With Lovecraftian tactics having recently ported from iOS to PC, it’d be great to see more games following the same path. There are plenty of interesting developments in the touchy world of portable gamesquares and one of the most interesting is Waking Mars, an exploration game in which the puzzles are based around manipulating and understanding the interactions between alien flora and fauna. It’s quite a special treat and developers Tiger Style, also responsible for the exquisite Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, have announced today that they “are taking early steps to bring it [Waking Mars] to PC/Mac/Linux later this year”. Splendid news.

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"For the Middagsfrid food packaging series we asked illustrator Peter Herrman to sit down with the client and listen to all that they had to say about their history and future, their ambitions, their products and their production.

Mitt Romney has said, in effect, "I'm rich and I don't apologize for it." Nobody wants you to, Mitt. What some of us want -- those who aren't blinded by a lot of bullshit persiflage thrown up to mask the idea that rich folks want to keep their damn money -- is for you to acknowledge that you couldn't have made it in America without America. That you were fortunate enough to be born in a country where upward mobility is possible (a subject upon which Barack Obama can speak with the authority of experience), but where the channels making such upward mobility possible are being increasingly clogged. That it's not fair to ask the middle class to assume a disproportionate amount of the tax burden. Not fair? It's un-fucking-American is what it is. I don't want you to apologize for being rich; I want you to acknowledge that in America, we all should have to pay our fair share. That our civics classes never taught us that being American means that -- sorry, kiddies-you're on your own. That those who have received much must be obligated to pay -- not to give, not to "cut a check and shut up," in Governor Christie's words, but to pay -- in the same proportion. That's called stepping up and not whining about it. That's called patriotism, a word the Tea Partiers love to throw around as long as it doesn't cost their beloved rich folks any money.

Check out this pixel art collection of various cameras throughout history and see how many you can spot. The series extends from disposables and DSLRs to point-and-shoots and Polaroids, many of which have such iconic design that they remain instantly recognizable even in pseudo-16-bit form. Antonio Vicentini created the animation based on Bill Brown's artwork, available under a Creative Commons license.

Continue reading…

[Photographs: Leela Punyaratabandhu]

People don't usually refer to these scented, flower-shaped treats as "shortbread cookies" in Thailand. What I mean is that if you visit Bangkok and go around asking people to direct you to a place where they sell "Thai shortbread cookies," you'll most likely get a bunch of knitted brows, tilted heads, rapid blinks, and complete silence.

However, ask for Khanom Kleeb Lamduan (official Romanization: Khanom Klip Lamduan) and mental light bulbs turn on instantly. If there's any problem, it would be that they don't know which snack shop to send you to for the best. There are just so many of them all over the city.

Shortbread cookies? Yes. You may not agree, but I do believe that stripped of its external appearance, scent, and all the cultural connotations attached to it, that's essentially what Kleeb Lamduan is. They're not different at all from what's generally regarded as shortbread cookies in the West: tender-crumbed, sandy, melt-in-your-mouth cookies. They're even made in a similar manner.

The recipes for these cookies vary (ditto with recipes for shortbread cookies), but not by much, and they are all very simple. The recipe I use is one of the simplest ones I've seen and also one of the easiest to remember: two parts flour, one part powdered sugar, a bit of salt, and just enough oil or, as was done in my household when growing up, rendered leaf lard to get the dough to come together.

I've been using this same recipe since I was a kid learning how to bake. It has never failed me. The only tweak I've made over the years is to switch from all-purpose flour to cake flour as I've found that even though all-purpose flour works just fine, flour with lower protein content seems to work better in creating the desired texture.

Now let's address the shape issue. And, yes, it is more important than it seems. Why? You see, and I have no clue who invented these cookies and what went through the inventor's mind, the cookies are traditionally fashioned after a fragrant flower, lamduan (Melodorum fruticosum Lour.), which is native to Southeast Asia.

Hence the name. To shape these cookies any other way and call them by the same name will create the kind of disconnect that will make the Thai people grab their temples in confusion.

This means that even though nobody can, or should, force you to shape the dough in tiny flower-shaped cookies—which takes so much time and dexterity—you may want to consider doing it anyway. Fine. I'll beg. Please do it.

For one thing, without this unique appearance, these cookies are completely indistinguishable from any old shortbread cookies. Also, shaped this way, the cookies have more surface area than if they were to be shaped into coins like typical sablé cookies. The semi-crisp edges of the petals, and I hope I'm not imagining this, make the cookies more tactilely pleasant.

The only remaining issue to address is the scent. Traditionally, Kleeb Lamduan cookies are perfumed with Tian Op, Thai scented candle. So these cookies end up smelling pretty much the same regardless of what shop you buy them from. Now that I think about it, I have never come across any Kleeb Lamduans that don't carry the scent of Thai dessert candle (they would have stood out like a sore thumb in my memory).

Tian Op can be found at some very well-stocked Asian grocery stores, but you'll probably have better luck finding them online. They're not expensive, can be reused several times, and last a long time. They're also fun to use. Plus, they make it possible for you to say outrageous things, like, "Oh, I'm not doing anything - just sitting around smoking cookies. You?"

About the author: Leela is the author of the Thai food blog SheSimmers.com. You can follow her at @shesimmers

Despite having a body like a small bear and a face similar to a cat, the secretive Bearcat is actually a member of the civet family, more closely related to Mongooses and Meerkats (and true civets of course). These baby Bearcats, also known as Binturongs, were born at the Wildlife Reserves Singapore's Night Safari on January 26.

Found primarily in the rainforest treetops of South and Southeast Asia, Bearcats have a mixed diet of fruits, leaves, birds, fish and eggs. Extremely rare among carnivores, this speices has a fully prehensile tail. The meaning of their other name, Binturong, is unknown as the native language it was derived from is now extinct.

Photo credits: Wildlife Reserves Singapore

Design Happy has created a new range of popcorn packaging for the innovative new start-up snack company, We Love Popcorn.

The brand is called Flint and Tinder ... it's Rugged yet Refined men's underwear made in America.

Are you looking for a wallet that is simple in design yet speaks to your love of New York City and coffee? You need the Lucky Beggar Wallet from the NeatoShop. This great coin purse is made of soft faux leather and is shaped like a charming crushed to-go coffee cup. It is the perfect bag for storing your emergency latte money.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more deliciously funny Wallets, Purses & Coin Bags.

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Matthew Inman at The oatmeal has published his “State of the Web” post for spring 2012. He addresses G+, Instagram, Yahoo, Valve, and other web subjects in the news, in his own particular way. Some text is NSFW. Link -via Laughing Squid

Previously: The State of the Web Summer 2011

Jim C. Hines, who earlier threw his back out posing like women on book covers, has recovered enough to try it again, this time posing like men on book covers. His aim was to determine whether men’s poses objectify them the same way women’s poses do. The answer: yes and no. Among the list of conclusions,

5. Male poses do not generally require a visit to the chiropractor afterward.

Both experiments are a hoot! Link -via Metafilter