Watch this incredible documentary about the unexplained phenomenon and mystery of cold, the creation of thermometers, ice farming, artificial ice, the creation of the AC, finding absolute zero, and many other fascinating facts about everything cold. It’s amazing to hear how inventions are started! I can’t imagine living without cold anymore..did you know cold was considered evil before.
Watch it all on Nova’s website, or on the many(12) YouTube videos after the jump.
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Col-Pop: The Future of Fast-Food Technology from Adam Kuban on Vimeo.
I’m not a fast food fanatic, but the Col-Pop is one damn great idea. It’s a soda cup with a bowl lid to keep your soda and nuggets in one convenient design. You still have to use your other hand to grab the nuggets, but maybe a tilt into the mouth works. It’s “convenience design” at it’s best 😉
Watch the Video here.
Reminds me a bit of the neat Wine Tapa Plates.
via gizmodo (source SeriousEats)
Wowzers… awesome!
“It started with San Francisco, Hong Kong, then Melbourne and other cities, and now, beginning in July, all plastic shopping bags in the entire country of China will no longer be free. As part of China’s attempts to reduce their extreme pollution problem, the policy will call for a small charge for plastic bags in China that must be shown clearly in all supermarket receipts.
Furthermore, ultra-thin plastic bags are now banned from being produced at all. As part of this effort, the government is encouraging the use of reusable bags and cloth sacks, and increasing efforts to recycle all plastic bags still in use.”
Via Inhabitat (Source IHT)
Australia does the same via Treehugger.
I’ve have a few reusable bags, but always forget to bring them to the store. Until it’s law, I’m going to forget, and besides, I use my paper bags as trash cans which has been handy.
FYI: statically and visually according to Chris Jordan, we use “60,000 plastic bags every 5 seconds in the USA alone!” (1.14 million brown paper supermarket bags are used in the USA every hour.)
I guess it’s time to go pick up one of those cool reusable bags:
– Porter Grocery Tote (paper like plastic bag)
– Muji portable Bag, (I can’t find online, but it’s in the nyc soho store)
– Flip and Tumble (A bag that turns into a puck)
– AMT Shopper Bag (Louis Vuitton like print bags)
update: I was just at Wholefoods and they said they were starting to ban usage of plastic bags this week/month! Ah, heres an article.
Quote: “Pablo Picasso: Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up“.
Makes me think about creativity as well..so, stay young, take risks and chances, be curious…and of course watch the “must watch” lecture by Sir Ken Robinson on creativity!
– Neat: Engagement Ring.
– Funny: Gizmodo Pranks CES, funny and mean.
– Woa: A monstrous wooden mechanical creation.
– Space: Shigeru Bans very cool Shutter house project.
– Cool: Shadow Blocks.
– Weird: Tree that bears 11 fruits.
– Inspiring: The 61 yr old farmer that won the worlds toughest race!
– Video: Hilarious, Plunger Dart throwing.
– Video: Very cool spinning egg+cut trick!
A ceramic radiator cup… keeping your hands cool, and your drink hot! I want!
Or you can always go for the Bodum double walled glasses which work just as good but are pretty fragile.
Stephen Reed webpage
Buy(pre-order) Charles&Marie
Have you ever wondered what $315 billion dollars looks like? If so, check out this link visualizing $1 stacks in comparison to a person and car!
This comparison reminds me of Chris Jordan’s photography on consumerism comparing our horrifying means of waste in smaller numbers we can understand…amazing work. It disturbs me that we consume “60,000 paper bags used every 5 seconds”, “2 million plastics bottles consumed every 5 minutes”, or “130,000 aluminum cans used every 30 seconds.” Also reminds me of the recent news about the dude that saved his trash for 1 year!(video)
The visual guide might be a bit deceiving though when compared to the famous $207 million drug bust some time ago. Either way, I’ll imagine being Scrooge McDuck in DuckTales swimming through it all!
315$ billion visual dollars via necromanc
Chris Jordan on Consumerism (pbs video)(poptech recap)
207$ million cash drug bust
Pictures after jump
Being a bit bummed I couldn’t make it over to this years wonderful EG conference gathering (the Entertainment Gathering) which started last night, I’m glad to see that their (matt) live blogging it. It’s very textual and less visual but hey, it gives the scoop on the awesome line up of speakers and hopefully they’ll release some kind of video archive if they jump on the bandwagon of conferences alike. I think Matt’s going to add pictures and videos since he’s live blogging like a mad man with spell checks then fixing it all up in the later hours enhancing his posts with images etc.
If your at EG, send me some updates, otherwise, I’ll be reading up on the live blog and searching for any incredible stories for the next 2 nights!
Tis the season to be buying and buying and buying for family and friends surrounding us all. Over time we consume hundreds if not thousands of gifts we cherish, use, and dispose of eventually. Over this same time our obsession with consuming becomes apparent and finding something special is hard to come by if not tiring.
Have you ever wondered if your gift ever got used? These are natural questions; “Did I give something useful, did they watch those DVD’s, did they eat those cookies, did they wear that sweater, did they use that tool set, is my gift buried in their closet or hidden in their garage somewhere?
I’ll admit I have several gifts buried in no mans land, so to level up a gift to be consumed, buy a gift “to give!†A gift to make change, to give hope, create jobs, save lives, to change behavior, and a story to follow.
“In the next few weeks, we’ll all be spending $100 BILLION on gifts. Unfortunately, some of that money will be wasted on things like unwanted fruit cakes and slippers. . .
Now, there’s an exciting alternative! Please check out our new look.
At ChangingThePresent.org you can give donation gifts, which help make the world a better place. It’s amazing what your gifts can accomplish: preserve an acre of the wilderness; fund an hour of life-saving cancer research; or even provide a child with her first book, so she can learn how to read.
With over 1,000 gifts, from $2 to $5,000, from hundreds of leading nonprofits, it’s easy to find an inspiring gift for everyone on your list. You can even send a personalized greeting card, with a picture and description of your gift, right from the site.
Just imagine the impact we can make together as this new kind of giving catches on! Please help by sharing this email with your friends.â€
Scroll through their list of wonderful gifts ideas here.(thanks Robert)
Thought of the week: If pennies did not exist, would we be more productive hence actually save more money?
– On/Off coffee Mug– color changing Mug from off to On.
– Procrastination Flowchat
– Behind the Scenes: A look into tricks and tips of the industry
– ElfYourSelf: The classic ElfYourSelf web card I sent out to friends last year!
– The naked teddy bear suit.
– Severn Suzuki giving an incredible speech on the environment at age 12 in 1992!
– 10 most expensive cities to live in. Tokyo drops out of top 10!
What an exhausting fun filled thanksgiving week/end! I was out in the Vegas area with family and friends pounding out hours of non-stop eating, mahjong, wii-ing, casino visits, shows, shopping, and many goofy hours with my many cousins in arcades (punch the duck game above) and everything else. Good times!
I’ve only returned to find out that a parking ticket I appealed 3 months ago got declined for no reason. I had pictures etc supporting the wrongful ticket, yet they will only let me dispute it in court, meaning take a day off from work, or pay the crummy $50. I really don’t understand why they don’t fix their system. Sure this system makes people pay more tickets, but when a wrongful ticket is given, the only choice is to pay rather than take a day off.
Design Note: Making money can be a sign of a great business, but sneaky tricks will lower the brand trust and the longevity in a business. Users come first in my world… always! Don’t you love those brands that just fix things without asking questions, then hate the ones that do ask!
Now for the links:
– Pancaking a truck video!
– Amazon.com launches “kindle”, their e-book/ink reader.
– Cool Torn graffiti work by Alexandre Farto
– Creative IKEA ads… I wonder if these layouts would be good?
– Swims: Rubber slip-on booties for your nice shoes.
– Popcorn Fork!
– Cool origami folds using bills!
– What hundreds of thin paint layers look like stacked!
– An Interview with Jim Gromen on the rebirth of MadBalls!
– Another Eco Friendly Powerstrip!
– Google Android (G-phone) emerges!
