Rachel Helps

Aces dominate our mental images of playing cards.

While playing cards sybolize games of chance, it turns out our preferences for said cards are anything but chance. New research shows we definitely have biases when it comes to remembering and choosing cards: Simply asked to name a card, there was a strong bias for choosing the Ace of Spades, follow

Swings and seesaws make for interactive urban art.

video Sometimes I wish we had more playgrounds for adults besides ski slopes and bike trails. In Minneapolis, Keetra Dean Dixon created a corridor of swings for their arts festival, usable by adults and big kids. Another big-person friendly play structure is a lighted seesaw with programmable resist

Virtual Legos and Lego real estate available via Build

Video Google is doing so many projects that it’s hard to keep track of them all. One you might not have seen is called Build, a place to build with legos on plots of land that are correlated with Google Map plots. You can see your neighbors but unlike Farmville there’s no waiting to tear everything

Learn to pack via interactive website.

Video There’s a proper way to pack to ensure that the weight of your shoes is distributed evenly and that fold creases don’t show up as huge wrinkles. Since few of us have a valet to pack for us anymore, Louis Vuitton has supplied an interactive site called The Art of Packing to teach us. It include

Real-life disasters inspire Zombie RPG Dead State.

The Dead State Kickstarter has received its funding, and Doublebear founder Brian Mitsoda reflects on his inspiration in surviving a hurricane in Miami: In 1992, Miami was hit by a category 5 hurricane that leveled the entire city. It changed the landscape, such that you couldn’t really use landmark