99dresses wants to give women an infinite closet

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Solve your wardrobe problem.

The model for how women purchase clothing is essentially broken. Because it is an ever-changing status symbol and subject to trends, fashion is not exactly like any other goods.

For example, with furniture you buy a new couch or a bed and then you have one, you don’t need another one or a different one two weeks later. Not so with dresses or shoes. In fact if many women, myself included, had their way, we’d never wear the same thing twice.

But spending $$$ on something you’ll only wear once isn’t really economically feasible, for even the 1%ers among us…

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Scientist seeks deposits for elephant sperm bank

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Small deposit. Big return.

Elephants in captivity are becoming too inbred, so a German researcher has amassed a sperm bank of wild elephant semen for zoos to draw on. There’s just one small problem – sperm is not a commodity bull elephants give up lightly. Zoos across the world are facing a growing crisis – the dwindling gene pool of their elephants. In fact, one rather drained male called Jackson has sired many of the captive calves born in the United States in the last ten years. That’s why, every couple of years, Thomas Hildebrandt of Berlin’s Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) takes to the South African skies in a helicopter over the savannah, searching for bulls. Once a potentially fertile specimen has been identified, the helicopter swoops down and Hildebrandt fires a narcotic dart to stun the animal.

There then follows a simple five-minute procedure, known as electro-ejaculation…

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Narrow the Gapp challenges app developers to narrow the pay gap

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Unequal pay isn’t just unfair, it’s illegal.

After President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act nearly 50 years ago, on average women are still paid less than their male counterparts for doing comparable jobs in the U.S. — that’s called the pay gap. It means that each time the average woman starts a new job, she’s likely to start from a lower base salary than her male counterparts.

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Bicycle buses let Dutch kids pedal together to school

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A little more in back!

It’s been said that the most important lessons in life are not learned in the classroom, and perhaps in no place is that more true than in the Netherlands where the act of heading to school is itself so enriching. In an age of rising gas prices and skyrocketing cases of childhood obesity, Dutch educators have devised a wonderfully positive way to get kids to and from school — by letting them pedal there themselves on a brand new fleet of bicycle buses…

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Amphibious house floats above floods

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Baca Architects ‘amphibious’ home

An “amphibious” home has been granted full planning permission and is set to be built on the banks of the River Thames in Buckinghamshire. The residential home designed by Baca Architects is an architectural feat that overcomes the threat of flooding by becoming a “free-floating pontoon” during a flood situation. “In an extreme flood, a 1 in 100 year event, the house can rise over 2.5 meters [8.2 feet],” Richard Coutts, director of Baca Architects. (Pics)

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Thomas Edison’s job interview questions

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Thomas Edison on his 77th birthday in his laboratory.

When Thomas Edison hired new employees, he presented them with a 150-question quiz, containing different questions depending on the position. But often, the questions had nothing to do with the job; Edison just wanted to know how educated the applicant was. And sometimes there were other reasons behind the interrogation…

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Floating washing machine uses dry ice to clean clothes in minutes

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Even the most efficient washing machines on the market use a lot of energy and water, especially if warm or hot water is involved. But this revolutionary concept from designer Elie Ahovi could change all that. The Orbit ditches the soap and water for the cleaning power of dry ice. It’s also silent and only takes a few minutes per load to boot…

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Dismantling of our Power Industry Infrastructure

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Photo of me demonstrating an unuual thermoelectric generator
with NY Times Correspondent Matthew Wald

Futurist Thomas Frey: On Wednesday I was invited to speak on a panel at the 2012 National Electricity Forum, an event sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, in Washington DC.

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Discover the Hidden Patterns of Tomorrow with Futurist Thomas Frey
Unlock Your Potential, Ignite Your Success.

By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.

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