Monthly Archives: March 2012

1:1 cost comparison of a tablet and textbook for elementary school children

  From a report by the FCC that included the technology companies and textbook publishers. More details at AllThingsD

An elephant plays with a touchscreen – he swipes, draws, strums, and takes a photo – pretty incredible!

Peter the elephant plays with a Samsung Galaxy Note. This is all real, no film trickery, post-production or hidden cuts — he’s just a very clever elephant. Check out the unedited footage clips if you don’t believe it: Playing piano (unedited) Playing drums (unedited)   Thx to Pancho Eliott

The new $180 million game – Play Pictionary with your friends, called Draw Something

The game is super fun and addictive. The first time I opened the iPhone app I played for an hour and a half. I drew all sorts of ridiculous things with my finger, which made them horribly bad, but also over-the-top funny. The game has become so popular in the last 6 weeks that Zynga …

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“Jiro Dreams of Sushi” – Documentary on greatest Sushi Chef in the world

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is the story of 85 year-old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the world’s greatest sushi chef. He is the proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a 10-seat, sushi-only restaurant inauspiciously located in a Tokyo subway station. Despite its humble appearances, it is the first restaurant of its kind to be awarded …

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Are you ready to rent out your car? – ‘Personal Car Sharing’ brings in $2-300/month

Have you ever thought about renting out your car, like an automobile version of Airbnb? The trend is catching on as “personal car sharing” comes to Los Angeles in March 2012. It already exists in Boston and San Francisco as a distinct service compared to Zipcar, which rents out cars owned by Zipcar-itself. RelayRides, based …

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Why do people make choices against their best interests

“Freakonomics” was the book that made the public believe the dismal science has something interesting to say about how people act in the real world. But “Nudge” was the one that got policy wonks excited. The book, first published in 2008, is about the potential for behavioural economics to improve the effectiveness of government. Behavioural …

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Attack of the mosquito robots – nano insects!

I found these beautiful (and scary) pictures of mosquito robots in Google+ on Rod Borghese’s page. I’m positive the bottom three are concept designs made in photoshop, but that first one looks awfully real…