July, 2010

If you are one of those au natural ladies who wakes up looking fresh and glowing and never has to apply more than a swipe of lip balm then, first of all, I hate you and secondly you probably have no use for this product.  For the rest of the women out there, here is a handy little product for helping you look your best.  The Garment Saver is a clever idea to keep those lipstick smudges and foundation stains off of your clothes

You know that what leads to getting a receipt (the purchase) can be bad for your health.  Spending money these days can certainly lead to ulcers.  But now studies have found that receipts are even worse for your health!

You seem to feel it instinctively when you and another person are on the 'same wavelength,' and equally so when the two of you are on completely different wavelengths.  Now, with new advances in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), scientists at Princeton University have tested some of the theories that others have suggested for just what happens in the brain when people are on the same wavelength.

For the last few years, the Electrolux Design Lab has called for student design submissions that prepare for the 'space age.'  This isn't the outer space age, it's the interior space age, ones that millions of people are predicted to inhabit by the year 2050. 

A sniffing device developed by Israeli researchers is probably the best invention to restore motor and communication functions that severely disabled persons ever thought would come about.

Studies conducted by University of Arizona (UA) suggest that it doesn't matter how many 'friends' you have on Facebook or Twitter... If you are lonely, they aren't going to make you feel less so.

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) committed $122 million to a team of university scientists to mount the daunting task of creating fuel directly from the sun.  Skip the plants and forget about solar panels; the DOE is talking about developing an artificial photosynthesis, one that can create gasoline directly out of sunlight.

Hospitals break up pills for patients and put them in applesauce.  Patients always taste the pills.  But the Pill Grinder just might work.  A powder can be absorbed much better by a hot cocoa, a side of mashed potatoes, ice cream...  Oh, I could name more treats, but it would just make both of us really hungry.

Michelangelo was a religious man, but he was also a scientist.  He must have been very conflicted about painting a brain and brainstem in God's head and neck, especially in the Sistine Chapel.  After all, he was commissioned by the Church, which did not take too kindly to literal images on its murals.

When it comes to lighting with LEDs, Le Deun Luminaires is a pro, having perfected the technology, and created low energy lighting designs with exquisite ambiance for 13 years.  The French company has created large hoop lamps in sizes and conformations that can be used decoratively and functionally anywhere in your home... but I'd still like to use just one to train my agility dog.

Italy – the land of Pasta, Pizza, hot Roman nights and now cool, self-roamin’ semi-autonomous vehicles on their way to China.

... Detailed and cleanly drawn, the Craftsquatch icon pillow shells are made of soft fleece and the pillow stuffing is polyester making the pillows cuddly - squishable, but resilient enough to bounce back into shape.  Craftsquatch work is clean and sharp; the icons really stand out - so, in addition to being cushy, the social media and icon pillows are visually very striking.

Mimicking natural processes to create artificial awesomeness, researchers at the University of Pittsburghhave designed medical “microcapsules” that can not only communicate, but move as a group.

A quartet of sparkling young minds form a design consultancy called The Way We See The World. Their designs are so thoughtful, so fresh and alive, you feel like you could pick them off your screen and put them to use immediately.  And this is especially true for Jelloware, the edible, eco-ble (Okay, I made that word up.) drinking glass.

A far cry from the cookie-cutter suburban home is Brazilian designer Felipe Campolina’s Ecobitat, a modular green miracle that builds up rather than tearing down.

Nick Lewis says that his new Adjustable Eco Hanger will save 6.5 million tons of carbon each year, the equivalent of removing 1.5 million cars from the road.  He figures this based on the 40 billion hangers a year that are used globally, many of which are discarded, especially by retailers.

Researchers at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have, for the first time, scientifically measured the spread of emotions on the same scale that measures disease transmission.  Not only have they been successful at evaluating the spread of long term emotional states, but they actually quantify the spread of contentment versus the spread of discontentment.

Welcome to Cornell University, where a whole a lab of researchers are busily smashing objects together in order to create a computer model that can accurately create virtual noise.

If you were imagining what the Pope was doing on June 5, 2010, he might have passed by, or seen from one of his many Vatican windows, the world's first hotel made entirely of garbage - 12 tons of it, picked up from European beaches in just a few days.  It was the Save The Beach Hotel designed by German artist HA Schult and it was built to emphasize World Environment Day.

Canadians. Is there anything they can't do? This week, the results of a study conducted at the University of Toronto were released - and it means big business for the tiny world of nanoparticles. Using molecular structures as guildines, the reseachers were able to predict the composition of nanopatricle structures. 

How many industrial designers have a world-wide fan club when they are design school Freshmen?  Andrew Kim has had one ever since he took on Coca-Cola in his Eco Coke Bottle design, the square-carton, green answer to the Coke bottle and can.  Now, Kim is taking on the Google in his design and packaging of Google Vitamin and his simple concept for the Google Vitamin website.

A dog in a BP gas and convenience station in Florida is greeting customers at the drive-up window.  She's wearing her uniform, a BP golf-style t-shirt, and even sports a name card --- looks like 'Cindy.' Cindy is a great idea to attract business, and she appears to be enjoying her role.

The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) had its annual Fancy Food Show in New York City late last month and, low and behold, it awarded 33 Gold sofi^tm Awards to new specialty foods, beverages, and food lines. Foodies, get your Christmas gift lists out.

If you want to watch your bird go immediately bananas for a toy, you've got to get him a Bird Kabob... but what I am really saying is you need to put this item in your bird budget, because he'll want a steady diet of these messy shredders made from the yucca tree.

Sugar is the last 'food group' I want to give up, believe me.  But it seems that no matter what health problem is being investigated lately, they find sugar as a major contributor.  Not surprisingly, this time it's hypertension. Hypertension has a blue ribbon in heart disease, stroke, aneurism, diabetes, and other life threatening diseases and events.

Tim Vinke, a Dutch interior architect, has just the idea for the space-impaired or nomad entrepreneur.  His Kruikantoor mobile office is the perfect answer to a home office or an office on the go.