A clever new hearing aid concept.
Sounds Good is a hearing aid that looks like cool high-tech earrings! The hearing aid amplifies sound for the wearer, and tiny “decorative” screens give feedback on the incoming sound. The speaker can see by the color and wave amplitude whether they are speaking too loudly, too softly, or too quickly.
Continue reading… “Sounds Good – clever new hearing aid concept”
Online pinboard Pinterest is all the rage these days, and as Etsy is showing today with its latest product announcement, e-commerce sites are starting to realize the power of pinning. The e-commerce marketplace is making it easier for Pinterest users to pin and organize Etsy items, via a new Pin It button on Etsy listing pages, alongside the Tweet and Like buttons.
Etsy says that its members are big fans of Pinterest (and so is Etsy), so the integration makes sense. Etsy is also using Pinterest’s price display feature. So when you pin listings with the Pin It button, the required pin description field is prefilled with the item title and price. Users can also add a note about why they like the item, which will be added to their Pinterest posting…
Continue reading… “Etsy makes it easy for users to post items to Pinterest with new ‘Pin It’ button”
Recycling can lids can turn into a heated situation.
It takes two hours on a sunny day, but this solar heater built by engineering students at Humboldt State University in California works. It’s made from waste materials, specifically can lids. These are held together by vines from Himalaya blackberry plants, which are an invasive species in their area…
Continue reading… “Solar heater made from can lids will boil a jar of water”
Walmart is going green?
So Walmart has launched a green blog, The Green Room, “that we hope to develop into a vibrant conversation about helping people live better around the globe.” So says Andrea Thomas, who leads sustainability at Walmart.
Right now there are just a few questions to start the conversation. What do you think are the biggest challenges in sustainability? What do you wish we, as a company, could do to address an environmental or social issue? How could we help you reach your own sustainability goals?
Continue reading… “Walmart wants to start a conversation on sustainability with its new Green Blog”
This one is pretty neat: biologists at UC San Diego created a living “neon signs” made from glowing bacteria that fluoresce in unison…
Continue reading… “Biopixels: Living “Neon Signs” made from bacteria”
Will LED ceilings improve our office moods?
We know that nature makes us nicer, but can we bring nature inside virtually and still keep the positive effects? researchers from the Stuttgart-based Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO want to find out with an interesting concept for making an office ceiling look like the sky, complete with rolling clouds.
The ceiling, which extends the entire length and width of the room, simulates lighting conditions similar to what you’d experience sitting out on a lawn somewhere, with slight variations as clouds pass over. The goal is to make you feel like you kind of are sitting out on a lawn somewhere…
Continue reading… “Office ceilings mimic lighting of cloudy days with new LED design”
A hybrid black tip shark containing both common and Australian black tip DNA
Scientists said on Tuesday that they had discovered the world’s first hybrid sharks in Australian waters, a potential sign the predators were adapting to cope with climate change.
The mating of the local Australian black-tip shark with its global counterpart, the common black-tip, was an unprecedented discovery with implications for the entire shark world, said lead researcher Jess Morgan…
Continue reading… “World’s first hybrid shark found off Australia”
Stonehenge may not have been the centre of Neolithic culture after all.
A 5000-year-old temple in Orkney could be more important than Stonehenge, according to archaeologists.
The site, known as the Ness of Brodgar, was investigated by BBC2 documentary A History of Ancient Britain, with presenter Neil Oliver describing it as ‘the discovery of a lifetime’.
So far the remains of 14 Stone Age buildings have been excavated, but thermal geophysics technology has revealed that there are 100 altogether, forming a kind of temple precinct…
Continue reading… “Stone Age temple found in Orkney is 800 years older than Stonehenge”
An easy way to figure out how to shoot photos better.
This is a really great portrait photography trick that requires no special equipment: use a black marble to see how the light hits on the eyes of the person you want to photograph…
Continue reading… “How to find the perfect portrait lighting using a marble”
No drilling here for now.
Ecuador had agreed last year to accept money in exchange for not drilling foroil in Yasuní National Park, an area of the Amazon rainforest that last year set a record for the most mammal, bird, amphibian and plant species in the world.
But a fundraiser was held last night that collected the $116 million necessary to temporarily halt exploitation of the area for oil…
Continue reading… “Crowdfunding temporarily halts oil extraction in Ecuador”
Money doesn’t grow on trees, but that doesn’t stop a group of renegade agriculturists from turning public trees into a provider for bountiful harvest by grafting fruit-bearing branches.
Meet the Guerilla Grafters…
Continue reading… “Guerrilla Grafters: Turning public trees into fruit-bearing trees”
Who is and is not the best one to head up the fundraising?
Company founders are the quintessential cheerleaders, promoting their vision and company every chance they get. But that doesn’t mean that they are necessarily the best at two core functions: selling and fundraising (and many are bad at both but excel at other functions, like technology).
While generating revenue and raising capital require a lot of the same traits, in my experience those who are good at one tend to be poor at the other…
Continue reading… “Why salespeople make bad fundraisers”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.