PomPon / CROP

PomPon / CROP

Italian design studio CROP have created the PomPon chair.

Description from the designers:

It is a large armchair-pouf, produced entirely by hand stitching and twisting strips of wool fabric, linen and cotton. The creation was inspired by the technique of wool pompoms, proposed here in a oversized version. An alternative seating, light though slightly large, to be located in any atmosphere and strictly covered in natural yarns. In this case the wool is obtained from the recyclage of 2700m of selvages, waste material from the textile production. The seating consists of two elements: a doughnut and a pompom, which can be used together or separately, depending on the different usage, assembled by simple insertion

— via CONTEMPORIST

Neo-Nazi’s 10-year-old son charged with his murder

A 10-year-old boy charged with murdering his father at their home in California was being exposed to his father’s extreme neo-Nazi ideology of racism and violence at the time he allegedly turned a gun against him.

Evidence is mounting that Jeff Hall, 32, a white supremacist who led the National Socialist Movement in the south-west of the US, was involving his son in neo-Nazi activities before his death on 1 May.

A possible link between the group’s violent messages and the shooting – an act exceptionally rare for a child as young as 10 – could be an important factor in the boy’s trial — via redwolf.newsvine.com

American mink safe haven project under way

The largest ever initiative to remove breeding American mink from the north of Scotland is under way.

The Scottish Mink Initiative aims to create a 20,000 sq km safe haven for native wildlife in rural Tayside, Aberdeenshire, Moray, the Cairngorms and the Highlands.

The £920,000 project is being undertaken by a range of conservation and other organisations — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Google Tasks API

Just when you thought that Google Tasks was abandoned, Google releases an API for Google Tasks. The Google Tasks API provides developers with a powerful set of API endpoints for searching, reading, and updating Google Tasks content and metadata. Developers will be able to create applications for mobile devices, software that integrates Google Tasks with Outlook and other apps using an official API and a proper authentication mechanism — via Google Operating System

Revised Net censorship bill requires search engines to block sites

Surprise! After months in the oven, the soon-to-be-released new version of a major US Internet censorship bill didn’t shrink in scope — it got much broader. Under the new proposal, search engines, Internet providers, credit card companies, and ad networks would all have cut off access to foreign rogue sites — and such court orders would not be limited to the government. Private rightsholders could go to court and target foreign domains, too.

As for sites which simply change their domain name slightly after being targeted, the new bill will let the government and private parties bring quick action against each new variation.

Get ready for the PROTECT IP Act — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Deaf Men Stabbed Over Sign Language

Two deaf men were stabbed in a Hallandale Beach bar Saturday night when another patron mistook their sign language for gang signs.

31-year-old Alfred Stewart, who is deaf and mute, and three others including a bouncer are recovering in hospital from non-fatal wounds suffered at the Ocean’s Eleven Sports Lounge and Grill on Federal Highway, where Stewart and his friends were celebrating a birthday.

Police say Barbara Lee became angry when she thought Stewart’s party, all of whom are deaf, were throwing gang signs at her — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Church expanding coffee network

Australian coffee mega-franchise Gloria Jeans, a company chaired by the millionaire elder of a popular corporate Christian church in the country, Nabi Saleh, has eyes on Vilnius, searching for prospective franchisees to open stores and begin servicing Lithuanian customers. Representatives for Gloria Jeans were in Vilnius for the Brand 4 Baltic conference at the end of April, which brought together a selection of foreign companies looking to the future to invest in the Baltic region — via redwolf.newsvine.com

When a pet’s love is all you have left

More and more, people who until only recently had somewhere to live are out on the streets of Portland with their pets, said Amy Sacks, who runs the Pixie Project, a nonprofit pet store and shelter for animals.

She tracks down homeless people in alleys and under bridges and makes her pitch as to why they should make sure their pets get proper care — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Graphene-Powered Optical Networks Could Lead to Petabit and Exabit Transmission Speeds

New research published by the University of California, Berkeley, shows that graphene — an incredibly thin and flexible form of carbon — can be used to boost the transmission and switching speed of optical modulators, the building blocks of routers that form the backbone of the internet.

Scientists at UC Berkeley, led by professor Xiang Zhang, have found that one-atom-thick layers of graphene can switch light on and off incredibly quickly. With just the right amount of positive voltage, graphene turns opaque, stopping any light from passing through — and with a negative voltage, graphene can be turned transparent again. The team then successfully shrunk a graphene optical modulator down to 25 square microns in size — small enough to include in silicon circuitry — and modulated it at a speed of 1GHz. The researchers say that modulation speeds of up to 500GHz are theoretically possible, though — and for comparison, the modulators found in 40Gbit switches are measured in centimeters and operate at just 40GHz — via redwolf.newsvine.com