Originally built in 1901, every corner and piece of furniture in the house has had wood carvings, steel, iron finishing and brass decorations added to it, collected over the years or bought on eBay. Bruce and Melanie Rosenbaum, we salute you. [Steampunk Workshop via Boing Boing]

We always feature the most amazinglytastic and awesomerest architecture, packed with high-tech materials and impossible shapes. And yet, every time I come across something like the Universe house, I keep coming back to the same thought: The best architecture is the simplest one. No need for titanium plates, no need for complex computer-aided design—just good design integrated in the perfect natural spot. Add a hammock and an internet connection, and you'll be set, thank you very much.

Created by Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco and architect Tatiana Bilbao, Universe's design is based in the Jantar Mantar Astronomical Observatory, which was built in Jaipur, in 1724. Orozco—who visited the observatory in 1996—wanted a house that captured the concept of the Indian building. Bilbao's office drafted the detailed plans after his sketches, and a team built the house in the traditional way, which included the help of a donkey called Panchito, who ferried some of the materials and stones into this wild spot in the Sea of Cortez.

The house offers a 360-degree view, with no glass windows—just some wood planks in case a hurricane comes by—with a swimming pool in the middle replacing the observatory bowl from the Indian temple. A design change that I strongly agree with—and I would enjoy, Margarita in hand, if I were so lucky as to watch the sun set from there. One day. [Tatiana Bilbao and Interview with Gabriel Orozco via Archdaily]

Photo: © Iwan Baan

[Spore Doorbells via Apartment Therapy]

From inside to out, the Klein Bottle experimental house plays with the theme of a mathematical puzzle that manifests in an interesting hodgepodge of geometry. But cleverly hidden within these angles and crevices is a rain water collection system and solar paneling (because aliens hate to pollute).

So be honest, readers. Would you live in a house that looked like this? And if so, would you be willing to transplant it into any normal housing development? Or would you need to be part of some off the grid martian colony? [dornob via io9]

The BlackBerry, to me, is a utilitarian too. It's not easy to send e-mails on that thing [the BlackBerry Storm]. It is not a good touch screen, and it's not like the iPhone, where there are so many other great features to it.

Those are the words of Rodell Mollineau, communications staff director for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who also adds the tale of a senior adviser to Reid who changed his iPhone for a BlackBerry Storm:

Three days later. I literally walk in and he's cursing with four-letter words, and he was slamming it down, saying, ‘I can't get e-mail to work all right.' It just is not for people here who mainly use their BlackBerrys for that.

Things are so bad that the House administrative office is setting up a workshop on the Storm. Which brings up the question: Why in hell did they ditch their old phones to get a fancy piece of crap that has been smacked by reviews everywhere?

Yes. Be fearful. These are the guys who have our future in their hands. [Politico]

Made by French company Colonne, the 6' lamp uses two RGB drivers and 14 LEDs to power the three-color LED lighting system. And much like TVs, this lamp can reproduce the entire color spectrum by adjusting the levels of these three colors.

You can fixate on a single color, run through a preselected loop of 7 colors, or create your own pallate to look at. And using the remote, you can select what mode or color you want to view. But such convenience comes at a cost: a $2300 cost. [RGB Lamp via Nerd Approved]

So the Chief Administrative Office is doing a trial run to decide whether or not it's worth setting up the necessary infrastructure, which wouldn't be cheap or easy, since right now everything runs on incompatible BlackBerry Enterprise Servers. If a House member opts for an iPhone, they would have to pay for it out of their Member’s Representational Allowance, though CAO would still have to handle and pay for everything on the admin side.

If accepted, iPhones would be offered to incoming House members in January (would it come pre-loaded with the Obama app for Dems??). It would be something of a symbolic blow to RIM—just a day after Steve Jobs gloated that Apple has beaten them—since this is the first chip at the BlackBerry's ubiquity on the Hill. In D.C., whether you're a Democrat or Republican, you're on a BlackBerry. For now, anyway. [The Hill via TUAW]

Okay, so the ball could be considered more a plaything, while the grass disks are perhaps more suited for piling up as ad-hoc lawn chairs. Although there's always the possibility of a game of giant grass Frisbee... How many sneezes and streaming eyes would that set off, I wonder? Those grass "bails" would easy to pick up and chuck onto the compost pile too.

Nice lateral thinking here, and for once it's a concept that I'd love a manufacturer to get to grips with for real. [Yanko design]