As we informed you in June, today is the last day to enter this year’s Cut&Paste Digital Design Tournament. Submit your application now to gain entrance to one of Cut&Paste’s 11 regional tournaments and the chance to be crowned baddest motherf*cker on the planet…er, best designer. Here’s last year’s winner. Think you can do better?

What happens when you let artists organize? If Wooloo — an artist-run organization based in Berlin and devoted to creating opportunities for emerging artists — is any kid of precedent, you get a lot of the best kind of wackiness.

Wooloo has done lots of insanely great work, but the project that has us really interested is called, wouldn’t you know it?, Avant-Garde Dating. For this project, Wooloo is looking for artist-applicants among its online membership (which is free) to apply for a “partner.” The applicant has to “explain how this new relationship will explore the conventions of monogamous love, challenge the idea of artistic collaboration and/or explore one of the other numerous stereotypes of human pairing.” All applicants will receive a match, but only three couples will be flown to Berlin to be “exhibited.” Seriously. If chosen, Wooloo is going to put you and your avant-garde significant other in an exhibition space, have you live together for four days, and see what happens (with everyone else watching as well). Never mind that there’s an episode of the Twilight Zone something like this, what’s great is that the project takes the artistic spirit to places it doesn’t normally go. Not only will the individuals in the exhibition become objectified, so will their “relationship,” an arrangement that calls into question all sorts of assumptions we have about the human mating ritual. Wooloo is accepting applications until July 20, so get those word processors going!

Die Electric, an online exhibit of energy-saving products for your home by “freelance electrical engineer” and inventor Scot Amron is notable for three reasons: its mind, its heart, and its eyes are in all the right places.

Like most other people in their right mind, I believe that the climate is changing and that mankind is largely responsible. At the same time, like many other people I wasn’t aware of just how drastic the problem was, and I didn’t know what I could do about it (beyond complaining) until I saw An Inconvenient Truth. Yeah, I went there. Whatever we may think about Al Gore (or Melissa Etheridge), that movie got a lot of people off of their asses. After seeing the movie, I went to its website and read the list of ways that I could cut my personal energy consumption. I was amazed to find that even when an appliance is turned off, it might still be drawing electricity if you leave it plugged in. According to Mr. Gore & Co., leaving things plugged in when they are off accounts for “5 percent of total domestic energy consumption.” Yikes. But after you’ve unplugged your appliances, what are you supposed to put in the unsightly empty socket?

Die Electric presents an attractive and symbolically-rich alternative to little black parallel lines. Each Die Electric product is made of a non-conducting material, and some find clever, environmentally responsible uses for more traditional products. Die Electric stops up potential energy “leaks,” and tells electricity, We don’t like you being wasted all the time, buddy. Check out the product displays and buying information at the Die Electric website. Stick it to your energy company.

Like every other non-owner of an iPhone, I am beyond sick of hearing about how beautiful this piece of economically elitist technology is, but even so I couldn't resist sharing this gorgeous hand made Italian leather iPhone case by Orbino called the Strada. The palladium clip can be removed and is spring loaded so you can email or change songs or just fiddle with your phone so people notice it and see how cool you are without removing it from your belt; it can also be used to make a stand on your desk if you want to watch a movie. The leather, which comes in calfskin, soft napa, and exotic skins, is stitched so it fits perfectly around the phone and unbuttons on the bottom for easy dock access. It comes in a variety of natural colors but if you don't find one you like, you can have it custom colored, along with being monogrammed. Nauseating, or disgustingly good-looking? The answer will probably fall depending on which side of the fence you’re camped out on.

Back in May, Heather told us about Unthirsty, a boozy site that uses Google Maps to help locate the happiest happy hours in your neighborhood based on a number of important criteria like drink specials, patio and wifi availability. This search function is now located on the homepage as part of the redesign for their recently launched Level 2. The biggest and awesomest change though, is the ability to create a user account so that you can add in your regular watering holes, favorite and edit existing listings, and receive notifications when new bars are posted in your area — you can even upload pictures now. While theoretically, the purpose is to show other users what your local haunt looks like, I have a feeling it will look more like a visual journey from tipsy to drunk to oh my god I feel like I'm going to pass out but I'll just go home and upload embarrassing photos of my friends right after I drunk text my ex/booty-call/ex-who’s-now-a-booty-call-shitfaced. Thus far, I haven't been able to find any photos on the site so check it out and prove me right or conversely, so bottoms up and prove me wrong.

Despite some of Taiwan’s other pitfalls as a noisy, humid and sometimes overbearing metropolis, they seem to have one thing down — hotels. On my last trip out to Taipei I spent a few nights at Les Suites Taipei and it turned out to be one of the best-valued luxury boutiques I’d ever stayed in. This trip rather than stay in what I know, I figured I’d try something different, this time it was the newly-opened Tango Hotel in the busy commercial area of Zhong Xiaio road. Point blank: This place rocks. The room is huge (42 square meters) with an incredibly comfortable king sized bed and goose down bedding. In addition to the usual amenities, each room has a 42″Pioneer Plasma and a 5 speaker surround sound system, a sunken jacuzzi tub (with another flat screen) and a glass panel that separates the bathroom from the bedroom. The whole room was tricked out with a remote control; to say that Asians love their electronics would be a gross understatement. What’s really remarkable though is the price, which falls between $120 and $200 per night per room depending on size. I can’t seem to get in anywhere in NYC decent for even three times that. If you find yourself in Taipei, check The Tango Hotel out, it’s well worth experiencing.

I’m having a hard time separating my feelings about the upcoming Nike vintage running shoes themselves from the marketing campaign that surrounds them. For starters, it seems risky to go on record criticizing the fine men and women at the Swoosh given their stellar track record. The interwebs seem to have responded positively to the new campaign, so I feel obligated to expound a bit on my reaction aside from just offering a cliched meh. Making matters worse for potential critics of the new line, Nike brought in Junya Watanabe, one of the hottest designers among snearkerphiles. The results… well, the results are what you might expect — new sneakers that look like old running shoes. Or, more accurately, running shoes you would never actually wear running. Now, don’t get me wrong — I’m not some crazy half-wit that expects people to only wear sneakers while playing tennis nor am I stumping for a return of the blucher (although I hear it’s a good shoe for yachting). So, what are we left with…? We have a tongue-in-cheek marketing campaign cleverly designed around late-70s era fashion and fitness, headlined by Nike’s website promoting (and selling, starting on July 21) the new line of shoes. The site mixes parody with back story via a fictional issue of “Oregon Runner” magazine, and includes a number of ridiculous articles on this new fad called “jogging” (or is it “yogging”? it might be a soft “j”). I can’t help but feel like it’s all a bit forced. Are feathered mullets funny? I guess. Do they want to make me buy shoes, most of which look pretty ugly to me? Not really. Check it out for yourselves; I would be interested to hear what people think about both the shoes and the campaign.