Futurist Thomas Frey: People are seriously worried. I’ve been in a number of conversations recently where people are very worried about our coming era of automation where fewer and fewer jobs will be left for people to do.
Wingman takes toilet seat design to the next level
Other seats don’t compete with the Wingman when you have any type of physical mobility issue.
Wingman is a state of the art toilet seat design that provides the broadest range of palming and grip surfaces. Designed as a companion aid in the most personal and private spaces, Wingman provides support to individuals who prefer to assist themselves to the best of their ability.
Wingman mounts as a common lavatory seat and performs as well or better for those preferring to use it in a conventional manner. However, for those who seek improved comfort and control Wingman offers intelligently place palming and grip surfaces supporting the user’s preferred methods of transferring to and from the seat.
The Wingman is one of the featured exhibitors at the DaVinci Inventor Showcase, which takes place on Oct 13, 2012 at the Denver Merchandise Mart.
Wingman inventor and designer Stephen Cowen recently took time to talk to us about defining his market, creating a revolutionary product design and 3D printer prototype design creation …
5 steps for entrepreneurs to overcome fear in business
Many do not have the entrepreneurial mindset when we start a business.
Most people are born with entrepreneurial traits when they start their business. Those traits are acquired along the way. The biggest hurdle to overcome in your business usually is fear. Despite wanted to succeed in life this fear holds us back to do what we want to do. Here are five steps to overcome fear in business.
Meteorite fragments help explain why living things only use molecules with specific orientations
This is an artist’s concept of excess left-hand aspartic acid created in asteroids and delivered to Earth via meteorite impacts. The line at the bottom is a chromatogram showing that left-hand aspartic acid (tall peak in the center, with diagram of left-hand aspartic acid molecule on top) was four times more abundant in the meteorite sample than right-hand aspartic acid (smaller peak to the left, with right-handed aspartic acid molecule on top).
Researchers analyzing meteorite fragments that fell on a frozen lake in Canada have developed an explanation for the origin of life’s handedness — why living things only use molecules with specific orientations. The work also gave the strongest evidence to date that liquid water inside an asteroid leads to a strong preference of left-handed over right-handed forms of some common protein amino acids in meteorites. The result makes the search for extraterrestrial life more challenging…
Are we addicted to our gadgets?
“The lure of constant stimulation — the pervasive demand of pings, rings and updates — is creating a profound physical craving.”
The New York Times has come out with another story about technology addiction. The Times‘ Matt Richtel talked with a some people in Silicon Valley who think we need to step away from our devices. The basic argument is this:
Continue reading… “Are we addicted to our gadgets?”
HOOK-SHOT transforms a mini-liquor bottle into a party ornament
Party decorations that fuel the party.
HOOK-SHOT is a product that transforms a mini-liquor bottle into a party ornament. While displaying the mini bottles as an ornament at parties and events, the bottle can easily be removed from the red cap and consumed as a shot or added to a cocktail mix.
It is ideal for; Special Events, Office Parties, Christmas Parties or Birthdays, just to name a few possibilities. In addition there are thousands of individuals around the world who collect mini-liquor bottles and this product provides a simple and effective way for them to bring their bottles off the shelf and into the party or holiday event. (If you are interested just do a You Tube search for “Mini-Liquor Bottle Collectors” )
While we are providing what we refer to as “coils” in the packages, purchasers will be able to be creative and add an endless variety of other trinkets and adornments over the hook to create their own unique ornaments. Our coils will initially be available in red, gold and silver, and in both a square and spiral pattern.
The HOOK-SHOT is one of the featured exhibitors at the DaVinci Inventor Showcase, which takes place on Oct 13, 2012 at the Denver Merchandise Mart.
Inventor Don Brinkmann recently took time to talk to us about naming a unique invention, protecting his vision and selling a million widgets…
Continue reading… “HOOK-SHOT transforms a mini-liquor bottle into a party ornament”
Craig Venter: A 21st century perspective on life
Craig Venter
Craig Venter: I was asked earlier whether the goal is to dissect what Schrödinger had spoken and written, or to present the new summary, and I always like to be forward-looking, so I won’t give you a history lesson except for very briefly. I will present our findings on first on reading the genetic code, and then learning to synthesize and write the genetic code, and as many of you know, we synthesized an entire genome, booted it up to create an entirely new synthetic cell where every protein in the cell was based on the synthetic DNA code.
Continue reading… “Craig Venter: A 21st century perspective on life”
GiraDora – a foot-powered washing machine that will change millions of lives
GiraDora – a foot-powered washing machine.
Two design students named Alex Cabunoc and Ji A You traveled from their homes in Los Angeles to Cerro Verde, a 30,000 person slum outside of Lima about a year ago. As students in the celebrated Design Matters program at Art Center College of Design, which focuses on social innovation, they had come to Cerro Verde as part of a special studio called Safe Agua Peru. Their goal? Develop a commercial product that alleviates issues related to water poverty, targeted at people who earn between $4 and $10 a day. (Video)
Continue reading… “GiraDora – a foot-powered washing machine that will change millions of lives”
Grope and Pillage TSA infographic
Here’s a frightening yet informative graphic by Tony Shin, et al. of Criminal Justice Degree about Transportation Security Administration excesses and oversights. (The full infographic can be viewed after the jump.)
The TSA has been around for the last decade and I’ve never read a positive news article about them. It isn’t that I’m avoiding these articles, its that there just aren’t any. Try it yourself: go to Google News and search for TSA. Some of the most recent articles are titled ‘TSA body scanners’ apparent flaw’ and ‘TSA pats down toddler in wheelchair’. Just a few weeks ago the new full body scanners were proved to be practically useless. This isn’t the first time the TSA has missed the boat either…
Continue reading… “Grope and Pillage TSA infographic”
The dark side of open data
Tom Slee published “Seeing Like a Geek” a few days ago. It is a thoughtful article on the dark side of open data. He starts with the story of a Dalit community in India, whose land was transferred to a group of higher cast Mudaliars through bureaucratic manipulation under the guise of standardizing and digitizing property records. While this sounds like a good idea, it gave a wealthier, more powerful group a chance to erase older, traditional records that hadn’t been properly codified. One effect of passing laws requiring standardized, digital data is to marginalize all data that can’t be standardized or digitized, and to marginalize the people who don’t control the process of standardization.
Continue reading… “The dark side of open data”
83% of ecommerce in India is from online travel sales
Online buyers in India will spend nearly five times more on travel than on retail purchases in 2012.
India’s ecommerce is rising quickly as consumers turn to the web for products and services, but more than 80% of the country’s online sales come from travel purchases. Online buyers in India spend nearly five times more on leisure and unmanaged business travel than they spend on retail purchases.
Continue reading… “83% of ecommerce in India is from online travel sales”
List of things replaced by smartphones
The more we replace with our phones, the fewer consumer electronics we have to keep updated, and the less cluttered our lives can become.
We can easily get caught up in what’s new in smartphones, from novel applications of near field communication to their potential as detectors of environmental pollutants. But it’s also useful to occasionally look back on what they’ve granted us already. A recent survey in the UK found 4 in 10 smartphone users said their phone was “more important for accessing the Internet than any other device.”
Continue reading… “List of things replaced by smartphones”
