Look around you, specifically at the objects that are surrounding you right now.  How would you describe the products you use for your everyday life?  Unobtrusive?  Innovative?  Honest?  These are the kind of questions that make up the legendary industrial designer Deitar Rams' 10 Guiding Principles of Good Design. ...

Sick of waiting for Mad Men to return? Look no further than The Hour, a slick new British drama premiering on BBC America August 17. Set in mid-1950's London, The Hour follows the creation of a new British current affairs television program. Dominic West — known for his role as Jimmy McNalty on The Wire — stars as lead anchor Hector Madden. ...

You know you've made it when your face is on a postage stamp.  Twelve giants of industrial design have just been given that honor with a new set of stamps released by the United States Postal Service last week. But instead of their profiles gracing the corner of your next electric bill, their enduring work is spotlighted.

Pandora dominates the field of music streaming, with its playlists generated by algorithm. (Founder Tim Westergren explained the process to Kurt Andersen last summer.) But a worthy opponent is emerging: Turntable.fm. Instead of sophisticated algorithms, Turntable.fm has you and your fellow listeners do the work of playlisting for each other. In the first month, the site claims 140,000 users, suggesting that the programmers might be missing something.

Christian fundamentalist Harold Camping believes the apocalypse will come on Saturday (not in 2012 as the Mayans predicted), and is doing his best to make sure you're prepared.   The hip music magazine L.A. Record is also getting its readers ready by asking them to contribute original songs to their "Judgment Day Mixtape" — a collection of tunes that should be the perfect soundtrack to the rapture.

What songs would you put on an apocalypse-themed mixtape?