Tree Bench
Aandeboom, the Dutch team that brought us the clever P-Tree urinal, designed this clever pop-up Tree Bench. This quirky design takes the traditional park bench to another level by supporting it with a set of industrial straps, allowing it to hover over the ground while providing space for plants and grass to thrive beneath it. (Pics)
Continue reading… “Tree Bench – portable bench turns any tree into a shady seat”
Google has love down to a science.
Google often returns results beyond simple web pages. The popular search engine can translate different languages, convert between different measurement systems and more. And thanks to its ability to parse complex equations, Google can explain one of the most mysterious forces of all: Love.
Continue reading… “Google reveals Valentine’s Day love equation”
Shortage of lifesaving drugs.
There is such short supply of a crucial medicine to treat childhood leukemia that hospitals across the country may exhaust their stores within the next two weeks, leaving hundreds and perhaps thousands of children at risk of dying from a largely curable disease, federal officials and cancer doctors say.
Continue reading… “Lifesaving drug supplies used to treat children could run out in two weeks”
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.
Continue reading… “Dismantling of our Power Industry Infrastructure”
Skin cancer drug reverses Alzheimer’s in mice, is there hope for humans?
A laboratory study indicates that a drug commonly used to fight skin cancer could start to reverse Alzheimer’s disease in a matter of hours. Researchers have described the discovery as an “unprecedented finding” that holds out “the potential promise of a therapy for Alzheimer’s”.
Rapunzel number
The “Rapunzel Number” may have helped British scientists to crack a problem that has perplexed humanity since Leonardo da Vinci pondered it 500 years ago.
Continue reading… “Rapunzel number helps scientists devise ‘Ponytail Shape Equation’”
A prediction of the future supercontinent, Amasia.
The Earth has been covered by supercontinents, giant combinations of continents, many times in its past, and it will be again one day in the distant future. The next predicted supercontinent, dubbed Amasia, may form when the Americas and Asia both drift northward to merge, closing off the Arctic Ocean, researchers suggest. (video)
Continue reading… “Amasia – the next supercontinent”
Everybody lies — even doctors.
Eleven percent of doctors say that they have told a patient or a child’s guardian something that was not true in the past year, and about 20 percent say they have not fully disclosed a mistake to a patient because they were afraid of being sued, according to a new study.
Continue reading… “Telling white lies common practice among doctors: study”
Depreciation of all smartphones is not equal. iPhones can be sold for 53% of their original price 18 months after purchase, while Androids can only be sold for 42% and BlackBerries for 41% on average according to a study by Y Combinator second-hand price guide startup Priceonomics.
Continue reading… “iPhone resale value 63%, Android 46% after one year: study”
Vitruvian Man
At the dawn of the Roman imperial age, the first century B.C., the architect and thinker Vitruvius proposed that the human body could fit inside a circle, symbolic of the divine, and a square, associated with the earthly and secular — an idea that later became known as the theory of the microcosm, and came to power European religious, scientific, and artistic ideologies for centuries.
Continue reading… “How Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man came to be”
Currently cable companies must deliver broadcast channels in a way that enables tuners to display those channels without any extra hardware.
Cable companies are suffering from flat and declining cable TV subscription numbers. So now cable companies are lobbying the FCC to force every cable subscriber to rent cable boxes or cable cards even if they don’t want or need them now.
Continue reading… “Cable companies lobby FCC to increase your bill and limit competition”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwFnnQ8pfy4[/youtube]
Canadian inventor Rejean Neron’s Safety Sphere concept has to be the most, well, all-encompassing airbag for motorcyclists. Described as an “inflatable crash garment for non-enclosed vehicle riders”, Safety Sphere isn’t so much built into the rider’s suit as it is the rider’s suit. In the event of an accident, the intended results are nothing if not dramatic, as the CG video promo ably illustrates. (Pics)
Continue reading… “Safety Sphere – inflatable crash suit for motorcyclists”