As a part of a larger dollar bill design competition, design firm Dowling Duncan has submitted a very thoughtful entry.

Why a vertical format?
When we researched how notes are used we realized people tend to handle and deal with money vertically rather than horizontally. You tend to hold a wallet or purse vertically when searching for notes. The majority of people hand over notes vertically when making purchases. All machines accept notes vertically. Therefore a vertical note makes more sense.

Why different colors?
It’s one of the strongest ways graphically to distinguish one note from another.

Predictably, some people are already objecting to the use of Helvetica in these designs.

[via Kottke]

I can never get enough of these Taiwanese news animations.

[via BI]

Well this is interesting. Starting today you can make phone calls from Gmail. Through the rest of the year calls to anywhere in the US and Canada are free and they have “low rates” for calls to other countries.

[via TechCrunch]

If I had an iPhone downloading The Big Picture app would be the first thing I’d do today. But alas, I do not. So hurry it up Verizon.

[via Cameron Moll]

A bike lane in Portland, Oregon suddenly has symbols from Super Mario Kart painted on it. Notice how every biker in the video rides around the banana peel.

[via @wired]

I have no doubt that this is the greatest sleeping bag that ever has or will be made.

[via clusterflock]

Any fan of rap music knows how prevalent geographic references are in lyrics. Now, there’s a map for that.

[via Kottke]

These are just a couple of the nuggets that can be found in the full image. There you can find plenty of reasons to skip over all of the fast food restaurants the next time you’re looking for a quick bite.

[via @shin27]

I’m not sure it makes the movie any easier to comprehend, but this infographic by Rick Slusher does a great job of visualizing the film.