Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Entertainment, Great New Product, Latest News

Sculpt 123D iPad app makes sculpting cool again

I can’t decide whether or not Michelangelo would roll over in his grave or jump for joy if he saw this app. Then again, Michelangelo would probably faint from seeing a light bulb, so who knows how he’d react to tablet applications. In any case, the Sculpt 123D iPad app from Autodesk looks like a really cool way get your hands dirty with an art form that the majority of us have no experience with: sculpting.

You start with a basic shape, like a car or a person, and then get to use different tools to “sculpt” that shape into what you’d like it to be. The app also has stamps that you can adjust and add to sculptures…

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Current Events, Globalism, government, Historical Perspectives, Latest News

China launches its first ever aircraft carrier

There’s no denying that China is a growing super power. It dominates manufacturing after drawing western countries with cheap labor prices and readily available materials, until recently it had a stranglehold on supplies of rare earth minerals, and while Western markets are struggling with debt it has enough money to invest heavily in businesses around the world.

The latest step forward for the country is the launching of a 300-meter-long, 60,000 ton aircraft carrier…

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Analysis, Big Problems, Science & Technology News

Five ways technology is getting worse

smartphone-computer-keyboard

Our technological world has plenty of pitfalls.

If you feel like you’re scrambling to keep up with technology, you’ve got plenty of company as technology has been moving forward in leaps and bounds. There’s not a gadget on the market that doesn’t aim to make our lives easier, but now we’re tangled up in a strange new world. It’s a complex web of tweets and roaming charges in which we we hunt for open power outlets with the urgency of our ancestors foraging for their next meal.

 

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Birth, Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News

Blood test can determine fetal sex at seven weeks

pregnant-woman

The test analyzes fetal DNA found in the mother’s blood and can establish sex weeks earlier than other options.

A baby’s sex can be determined as early as seven weeks into pregnancy by a simple blood test.  The test is highly accurate if used correctly, a finding that experts say is likely to lead to more widespread use by parents concerned about gender-linked diseases, those who are merely curious and people considering the more ethically controversial step of selecting the sex of their children.

 

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Big Problems, Economy, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Growing number of Americans struggle to keep their cars on the road

mechanic

“Many Americans rely on their cars for their livelihood, and losing access to them could be financially devastating.”

Margaret McCormick’s 2001 Toyota Celica has been sitting in the parking lot of her condo complex for the past four months.  She can’t afford to fix the flat tire and broken transmission.

 

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Analysis, Business, Economy, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Cable TV losing record number of subscribers

watching tv

Eight of the nine largest subscription-TV providers in the U.S. lost 195,700 subscribers in the April-to-June quarter.

Americans spend a lot of free time in front of the TV set and that is where the weak economy is hitting them.  Record numbers of people are canceling their cable and satellite TV subscriptions, according to an analysis by the Associated Press of the companies’ quarterly earnings reports.

 

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Breakthrough Thinking, Ecological Products, Green Friendly, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend

$2 erasable e-paper aims to replace paper

i2r_paper-580x195

e-Paper goes a long ways at replacing current paper sheets.

The paperless office is a myth. We all still need to print stuff out occasionally, but a new form of e-paper may go a long way towards replacing the paper sheets we put in our printers and use once before recycling.

The new flexible e-paper is called i2R e-Paper and can be printed on using a thermal printer. It can also be wiped in the same way, or just by supplying electricity to the sheet. That reuse could save on a lot of paper, especially as one sheet is good for 260 re-prints and they only cost $2 each at A4 size…

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Crazy Photos, Entertainment, Great New Product, Latest News, New Viewpoints, Twitter

You can finally share photos natively using Twitter

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Is sharing caring?

Wow. Five years after it launched, Twitter has finally added native photo-sharing to its service. Starting now, all Twitter.com users have a camera icon that lets you add a photo to your tweet.

Images that are 3MB or less in size can be uploaded and embedded into a tweet…

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Analysis, Big Problems, Economy, Latest Trend

U.S. economic uncertainty is the new normal

economic uncertainty

Many Americans are focused on bargains and careful to spend money only when they need.

Financial fears of most Americans seem to be adding to the nation’s economic woes.  The recession. The financial crisis. The housing crisis. The persistently high unemployment rate. And now, the debt debacle.  No wonder American’s feel uncertain about the U.S. economy.

 

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Crazy Stuff

Guests stay in converted drain pipes at the Dasparkhotel

drainpipes 1

Dasparkhotel

The Dasparkhotel (The Park Hotel) is a concept hotel by Andreas Strauss in which guests stay in converted drain pipe sections that are placed in a city park. There are currently two hotels, one near Essen, Germany, and another in Ottensheim, Austria. Dasparkhotel accepts online reservations from May to October and is sliding scale.

 

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