Have you used Fab yet? – The design site has 7 million customers and is booming

If you can, imagine the intersection of Ikea and Etsy. Industrial home manufacturing meets quirky internet designers. That is Fab.com. From the CEO: There are now nearly 10,000 products on Fab every single day. (Btw. Ikea boasts having 9500 products on their website.)  We’re building the world’s greatest design store.   And it seems to be …

The facts about global warming, they tell their own story

Sometimes it helps to have the facts. They present their own story and make it easier for you to understand the problem. Here are two sets of facts from the EPA’s 2012 Inventory on United States Greenhouse Gas Emissions. The first shows emissions by source: Energy – 87% Agriculture – 6.3% Industrial Process – 4.4% …

The photography of Aaron Goulding – peering inside the waves

If you want to peek inside the barrel or get up-close-and-personal with marine life, then you will love Aaron Goulding’s work. He loves grabbing those inside-the-tube shots and quiet ocean moments. But everyone wants a self-portrait of themselves catching a wave and in the barrel. Enjoy a few of his photos and visit his company JAG Media …

Federal government approves first wave powered project off Oregon coast

The wave park will include 10 buoys stringed together and linked to the coast through an underwater power cable. It is the result of six years of far-sighted research and development, and $10 million of funding. From One World One Ocean: Last month, the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the country’s first commercial wave …

The first of its kind – open robot building system

  A great idea from a teacher, two engineers, and a robotics specialist. Developed to use in the classroom but developing a following outside of it. The Multiplo robotics system. It’s easy to assemble, difficult to break and simple to customize: The concept is that you get a box that has a kit inside. We took …

Are you happy this month? – Consumer sentiment rises to 2008 level

Maybe it was all those vacations people took? From the Wall Street Journal: U.S. consumers in early September felt better about the economy as their expectations brightened, according to data released Friday. The Thomson-Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index rose to 79.2 early this month from the 74.3 final reading for August.   Of course, …

Fall is coming

I can feel it coming like the light rain before the storm. The temperature is dropping and the kids are back in school. Tourist season is over, no more vacations, and everyone is back at home focused on work. That is until Saturday and Sunday when the raging obsession that is football begins. These are …

How advertisers convinced Americans they smelled bad

It was an enterprising schoolgirl and a traveling bible salesman in 1919. They couldn’t get ladies to use antiperspirants until they made them feel bad. The strategy was to encourage them to be insecure, from Smithsonian Magazine: Perspiration as a social faux pas that nobody would directly tell you was responsible for your unpopularity, but which they …

The world’s most intense natural color – Pollia Condensata

Pollia condensata produces its blue color at the nanoscale level and is more intense than anything ever studied. From the Smithsonian Magazine: When they examined P. condensata on a cellular level, they realized that the fruit produces its characteristic color through structural coloration, a radically different phenomenon that is well-documented in the animal kingdom but virtually unknown in plants. …

Take the Downton Abbey personality quiz! – Season 3 returns January, 2013

  That’s right, our favorite British costume drama, Downton Abbey, returns on January 6, 2013, to PBS’ Masterpiece Theater. And because that is far too many months to wait, we have some Downton treats: Take the personality quiz – Are you imperious and aristocratic? Or industrious and hardworking? The Real Life History of Downton Abbey …