Author: Michele Debczak

Cooking may be an art form, but baking is an exact science. Add too much or too little of an ingredient and your cookies could come out looking like pancakes, or something that’s inedible. If you’ve been leveling off measuring spoons with an index finger, a product (spotted by Core77) is here to make life in the kitchen a lot easier.

With a quick pinch, Dreamfarm‘s Levoons produce precise measurements. The unique design includes a metal handle that, when squeezed, scrapes off any excess dry ingredient like flour or baking powder that is sitting above the rim of the spoon.

For $14.95, Levoons come in fanned sets of four spoons and can be purchased in a variety of bright colors. Now, you can get to work on baking the perfect chocolate chip cookie as soon as possible.

[h/t Core77]

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With its oak tables, lofty ceilings, and sprawling walls of books, the Rose Main Reading Room at the New York Public Library is a reader’s paradise. After a two-year renovation, Curbed NY reports, the library is preparing the historic space for its grand reopening on October 5.

The room has been closed to the public since one of its plaster rosettes broke from the ceiling in 2014. After seeing that the rosette would need to be replaced, the library decided to take the opportunity to revamp the entire area. Professionals from Tishman Construction, EverGreene Architectural Arts, and WJE Architects & Engineers were commissioned to modernize the space.

Visitors will need to look up to notice the biggest improvements: Each chandelier has been cleaned and their old light bulbs removed in favor of LEDs. All 900 rosettes adorning the 52-foot-tall ceiling have been reinforced, and after concluding that the mural had “sustained irreparable damage,” it’s been replaced with a replica from EverGreene. The below photo provides a glimpse of the new look.

PHOTOS: After two-year renovation, NYPL’s historic Rose Main Reading Room will reopen https://t.co/SSadXfYydF pic.twitter.com/BLCKBl1GJH

— Archinect (@archinect) September 13, 2016

The Rose Room has welcomed generations of bookworms since the opening of the library’s General Research Division in 1911. For bibliophiles looking to see the space’s 21st century makeover in person, the New York Public Library will be offering daily tours from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. following the October 5 reopening.

[h/t Curbed NY]

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Some yoga studios burn incense or play ambient music to help their participants reach a peaceful state of mind. One yoga class in the Pacific Northwest is doing things a little differently: Sessions include live goats roaming around the premises, The Oregonian reports.

Goat Yoga is held on No Regrets Farm owned by Lainey Morse in Albany, Oregon. The idea originated when yoga instructor Heather Ballenger Davis approached Morse about teaching a class on her property. The farm’s six goats crashed the event, and from that point on, Goat Yoga was a smash success.

Hosting a yoga class with goats in attendance does present some challenges (the goats have been known to get comfortable on the yoga mats), but the therapeutic presence of the animals seems to outweigh any inconveniences. People travel from all over the country just to downward dog alongside Morse’s goats. According to Travel + Leisure, Goat Yoga has become so popular that class slots are booked solid until spring of next year. If you’re not picky about which four-legged friends you do your sun salutations next to, yoga classes with cats and dogs are also options in different parts of the country.

[h/t The Oregonian]

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The Hearst Mansion in Beverly Hills, California boasts two pools, a lighted tennis court, and a memorable appearance in one of the greatest films ever made. As The Wall Street Journal reports, the home, which has been used as the location for scenes in The Godfather (1972), is up for sale with a listing price of $195 million.

The 5-acre property is most recognizable from Francis Ford Coppola’s iconic flick as the home where Jack Woltz awakens to find the head of his prize thoroughbred in bed with him. The Hearst Mansion is also featured in the 1992 drama The Bodyguard.

Named for former owner and publishing heavyweight William Randolph Hearst, the estate was later owned by actress Marion Davies and visited by Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy during their honeymoon.

Forty years ago, the mansion was purchased for $2 million by its current owner, attorney and real estate investor Leonard Ross. He last listed the property for $165 million in 2007. This time around the price has been raised by 18 percent, and he’s enlisted agent Mauricio Umansky of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills fame to sell it. A 4-acre subsection of the property that includes the mansion is also being sold for $175 million.

The six structures located on the Hearst estate feature 28 bedrooms and 38 bathrooms. Twenty-thousand square feet were added to the property during renovations in the 1990s. Bulletproof windows were also added, a feature that may be of some interest to future owners with enemies in the mob.

The former Hearst Mansion is for sale at $195 million https://t.co/TG5T2umDH6 pic.twitter.com/Ps8g95HI6z

— Forbes Investing (@ForbesInvestor) September 11, 2016

[h/t The Wall Street Journal]

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Owning a pet octopus requires a lot of upkeep. Even if you have the resources to care for one, carrying it around on your back like an eight-armed Yoda isn’t recommended. For cephalopod enthusiasts looking for an alternative, artist Olga Kotova has crafted an octopus-inspired backpack from felted wool.

The bag—covered by Laughing Squid—is large enough to transport large books and notebooks. The cargo compartment is located in the head of the octopus (who is affectionately named George). Tentacles reach around the shoulders to act as straps, with the extra arms left to dangle down the wearer’s back.

Marine life-inspired book bags aren’t Kotova’s only specialty. She also sells whimsical dolls and colorful felt blankets on her Etsy page.

[h/t Laughing Squid]

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The iPhone 7 was unveiled this week to a mixed reception. If you’re one of the Apple customers who isn’t thrilled about spending $159 on easy-to-lose AirPods, a new change to the AppleCare+ warranty plan may soften the blow. As CNN Money reports, the price of fixing a cracked phone screen has been lowered to $29.

AppleCare+ members previously had to shell out $99 to repair their shattered screens. Along with waterproofing the iPhone 7, making phone screen repair less expensive fits in with Apple’s new effort to market their products as better investments.

The new price only applies to customers with an AppleCare+ warranty, which costs $99 for iPhone 6, 6 Plus, and iPhone SE owners, and $129 for the 6S, 6S Plus, 7, and 7 Plus. The deal covers two repairs from accidental damage plus a service fee. Once those have been used up, additional repair costs jump back up to $99.

If you’re someone who breaks his or her screen without fail within a few months of getting a new phone, the membership may be well worth the investment. Without it, a new screen will set you back $149. For anyone already under warranty who has been putting off paying for the fix, the new policy is now officially in effect.

[h/t CNN Money]

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The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. is home to a 19th century hang glider, the world’s first military airplane, and, as of June 28, the original Starship Enterprise. In case the museum hadn’t already made their excitement surrounding Star Trek’s 50th birthday this year apparent, they recently contracted linguist and language-creator Marc Okrand to record audio tours for them in Klingon, io9 reports.

Okrand knows Klingon better than anyone else on Earth. He first became involved in the Star Trek franchise in 1982 when he was asked to dub the Vulcan dialogue in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. That led to him developing a complex Klingon language for the series and films, and eventually authoring The Klingon Dictionary.

Audio clips from the tour are now available to listen to on the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum website or through the museum’s GO FLIGHT app. For a look at Okrand’s recording process, you can watch the video below.

[h/t io9]

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Aspiring fashion designers have plenty of options to choose from when pursuing higher education—unless they dream of designing sneakers. Basketball shoes have grown into a major sector of the fashion industry; in 2014, Nike’s line of Jordan sneakers alone garnered $2.6 billion in U.S. sales. But for young shoe designers looking to get their foot in the door, it can be hard to know where to start. D’Wayne Edwards set out to change that when he opened the Pensole Footwear Design Academy in 2010.

As Fast Company reports, the school is the first design academy focused around sneakers. Edwards, who’s created shoes for brands like Sketchers and Nike, launched the institution after struggling to find designers to hire straight out of college. He saw a lack of opportunities for young people to make the transition from their formal education to a career in shoe design, so he founded a school that puts footwear front-and-center.

The Portland, Oregon-based academy aims to fit a full semester’s worth of content into classes that span three to four weeks. Days average 14 straight hours, a choice Edwards consciously made to model the classroom experience after life in the design industry. Skills like prototyping and consumer research are taught by real sneaker professionals who come from companies like Nike and Adidas. Tuition and housing is fully covered by the brands sponsoring the program: All students have to do is be one of the 18 selected out of the 850-odd candidates who apply for each class.

This year, that applicant number reached 1400 for one special program. As part of a project called “Fueling the Future of Footwear,” Edwards led a team of students to create designs for a new Asics sneaker. After drafting up 40 different ideas, a winning design was selected to be made into a real-life product that will appear on the shelves in select Foot Locker stores beginning on September 17.

“The beauty of the process is that it’s never going to be perfect,” Edwards says of the project in a video from Footlocker. “For [students] to understand that becomes the actual design challenge: How can you achieve perfection within an imperfect system?”

[h/t Fast Company]

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If you’ve ever wondered how long it takes a 10-ton ice cube to melt down to a tepid puddle, a Seattle installation will soon reveal the answer. As City Lab reports, ICE CUBE will be appearing in Occidental Square today, Friday, September 9.

The public art piece is the work of Olson Kundig, an architecture firm based in the city. Their latest project is meant to evoke the stages of the natural water cycle, slowly melting and evaporating as time progresses.

The massive ice block is being installed just in time for the Seattle Design Festival, which runs from September 10 to 23. The designers write on Instagram, “Over the course of the festival the ice will shift from opaque to translucent, offering a cool respite to visitors and scattering ambient sunlight and colors throughout Occidental Park.”

There’s a chance the exhibit, or part of it anyway, will remain in the square even after the festival has ended. Seven hours is barely enough time to melt a 300-pound ice chunk in triple-digit heat. The Seattle ice cube weighs around 66 times that and will benefit from much milder temperatures.

[h/t City Lab]

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Spider silk is remarkable: The material boasts some of the highest tensile strength found in nature. It’s also capable of transmitting vibrations like the strings of a guitar. According to new research, spiders have adapted to tune these strings like tiny, eight-legged musicians, Gizmodo reports.

The study, recently published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, examined the webs of the garden cross spider (Araneus diadematus) to see what makes them such great natural instruments. Certain frequencies can tell a spider a lot: They might signal prey, potential mates, or structural issues with the web.

Measurements of web vibrations taken with lasers revealed that web tension, silk stiffness, and the shape and structure of the web all impact its data transmitting capacities. The research also showed that spiders can alter each of these qualities. When a spider modifies the threads of its webs, tweaking things like tension and stiffness, it’s doing more than building a sound trap. It’s tuning the web to transmit frequencies it recognizes.

The researchers suggest that a spider’s dragline silk—the silk used to weave the spokes and outer rim of a web—may have evolved so spiders can adjust it for this reason.

“Spiders, unlike most other animals are able to shape their immediate environment through making their own materials for integration into highly adapted structures,” the study authors write. “Spider behaviour and silk properties are variable but tunable, perhaps allowing spiders to shape their extended phenotype for multifunctional outcomes.”

A spider’s ability to spin finely tuned webs makes up for an area where it’s sorely lacking. Despite sporting eight eyes, spiders have awful vision. Tuning and plucking their webs allows them to detect prey they might not have been able to spot otherwise.

[h/t Gizmodo]

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