GE reveals vision of what our homes will be like in 2025

GE rolls out their vision of the future.  Sometimes we often wind up with a bunch of design concepts that have zero chance of making it to market because those design concepts are  usually designed for “the home of 2050” or some other far-off date that nobody’s really thinking about yet. With GE’s “Home 2025” design concepts, they have made it their goal to stay within the realm of possibility. (Photos and video)

 

 

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Nest reinvents the smoke detector

Nest

The smoke detector screams, people panic, arms and hands flail and someone with a towel furiously fans away smoke in the kitchen. Then you need a chair to reach the ceiling to hold down that impossibly tiny red button, which never seems to silence the wailing device. So you rip out the batteries–and maybe don’t put them back for days or weeks. (Video)

 

 

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DeepFlight Super Falcon flying submarine

DeepFlight Super Falcon

The DeepFlight Super Falcon (DFSF) is a sleek vehicle that flies, but it’s not flying in the air, it’s flying through the water. It is shaped like a stout fighter jet with two stubby 8.8-feet wide “wings” at each side, with a super slim chassis and domed semicircle waterproof windows. The 20.11 feet DFSF soars through water instead of simply sinking like traditional submarines. (Video)

 

 

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Toyota’s i-Road EV concept enters production

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1vUNd9hBDM[/youtube]

At the Geneva Auto Show earlier this year, Toyota showed up with a three-wheeled escape pod of an electric vehicle called the i-Road. At the time Toyota declared the diminutive vehicle production-ready.  Not many “production-ready” concept cars ever actually see the light of day, but as it turns out, in the case of the i-Road Toyota has already begun producing the slick little vehicles. (Photos)

 

 

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Google files patent for gesture-controlled car

Google wants you to gesture when you drive.

Google wants to take advantage of our ability to make gestures. Google will be able to read and decipher any number of gesture commands by mounting a camera in your car’s ceiling and a laser in your dashboard. Swiping downward near your window will roll it down for you, while pointing to the radio will pump up the music.

 

 

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Relationship between hours worked and productivity: Chart

Some research shows that higher pay does not, on net, lead workers to do more.

The English philosopher, Bertrand Russell, was not a fan of work. In his 1932 essay, “In Praise of Idleness”, he reckoned that if society were better managed the average person would only need to work four hours a day. Such a small working day would “entitle a man to the necessities and elementary comforts of life.” The rest of the day could be devoted to the pursuit of science, painting and writing.

 

 

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Internet freedom on the decline globally

The annual Freedom on the Net report from Freedom House is out, and like in most such reports, the actual rankings are largely unsurprising. Iceland, the frozen whistleblower nirvana, ranked first, and second was Estonia, the tiny Baltic country that gave us Skype. China, Cuba, and Iran came in last, obviously.

 

 

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