Logitech creates a keyboard you can spill coffee on

A true innovation. Everything should be made waterproof.

The New Logitech Washable Keyboard K310

Today, we’re excited to announce the Logitech Washable Keyboard K310 – the keyboard that loves a wash. From a light dusting to a rinse in the kitchen sink, this keyboard is easy to clean and easy to dry.

We’ve all experienced that moment of distraction, followed by panic, resulting from a cup of coffee or soda, or anything else, spilling all over our keyboard. That’s life. Spills, messes and mishaps will happen, but that’s okay because this keyboard can handle whatever life throws at it. That’s why we call it life proof.

 

The only question I have is can I bring it in the pool!

A Pinterest account to protect the ocean – One World One Ocean

These photos come from One World One Ocean, started by “a family who has been making IMAX Theatre films for 35 years in far-off places like the top of Mt. Everest, the ice caves of Greenland, the Nile river, and the deep-ocean reefs of the South Pacific.”

Their goal is to inspire people about the ocean so they can protect it. These photos, from their Pinterest account, inspired me:

Sources:

 

 

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Kara Swisher turns the Yahoo! drama into a soap opera – and it’s too much fun!

Boy, have I got a soap opera for you. It’s a saga of tech nerdery and an old-school company trying to reinvent itself.

The story starts with Kara Swisher, of All Things D, who has gone gaga over the hiring of Marissa Mayer as Yahoo’s CEO. In the 37 days since the announcement (July 16, 2012) she has personally written 32 articles.

Each one with a title full of pizzazz and humorous photos (of mostly cats). The content is all serious and interesting to read as Marissa seems to be hitting all the right notes. But, the way Kara is playing it out is just too much fun.

Take a look at the titles below and you will see what I mean:

 

This Week in MarissYa: iPhones for All, Flickr Love and Management Musical Chairs

With Nearly 10 Percent Drop in Week After Alibaba Cash Switch, Yahoo Shareholders in “Marissery”

 

Mine! Mine! All Mine! Yahoo Says It Might Just Keep Those Alibaba Billions, Rather Than Giving the $ Back to Shareholders.

Mayer Will Extend Free Food to NYC Too, While “What Is Yahoo?” Question Is Hereby Banish’d

 

Here’s the Do-Not-Forward Mayer Memo Bidding Goodbye to Ross “The Hair” Levinsohn From Yahoo (His Farewell and SEC Docs, Too)

In Week Two, Marissa Mayer Googifies Yahoo: Free Food! Friday Afternoon All-Hands! New Work Spaces! Fab Swag!

 

“Yes, Keep Moving”: Marissa Mayer’s First Memo to Yahoos (Natch!)

 

How about a few hash tags for the drama:

#MarissYa – #Marissery – #Mine!Mine!Mine! – #freefood – #yahooglers – #RossTheHairLevinson – #googifies -#natch!

 

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Surf band: The Red Fox Tails

The Red Fox Tails: Surf Soul Jazz

 

From the band’s website:

Combining elements of Jazz, Surf, Rock and Roll, Latin and Second Line rhythms, The Red Fox Tails have come up with a sound they might call “Surf Jazz”…shaped by world music flavors such as, Peruvian Chicha, 60′s/70′s Ethiopian pop music, as well as early New Orleans Funk and R&B with a heaping dose of Jim Jarmusch/David Lynch-like motion picture music.

The Red Fox Tails: Felipe Benavides’ savory guitar tones, Jay Reilly’s angular thumping acoustic bass, and drummer Ron Bocian’s rhythmic dexterity.

 

They have two albums out,  Drop In (2011) and Aloha (2012).

 

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How the hell did I end up here?

Today, I’ve been thinking about my career as a blogger, asking the question, “how the hell did I end up here?”

I never liked writing essays, stories, or pretty much anything on paper. My grades in English from high school through college were mediocre. Everything changed when I wrote that first blog.

You see I’m a talker, always have been since about age 5. I have this vivid memory of stuttering and being unable to speak my mind. Then my Dad was driving me somewhere, we passed the Delta Center (old name of the Salt Lake City Jazz NBA stadium), and my mind clicked. I was able to say whatever I wanted and instantly started gabbing.

I didn’t stop gabbing, and annoying everyone around me, until I found blogging. It was my perfect place to say whatever I wanted. I loved it.

Coincidentally, I don’t feel the need to talk anymore. It’s all left on the blog and my mind, and relationships, are free to be…well, normal.

At work, things progressed pretty smoothly. I was able to convince my bosses to let me start blogging. It was all about the mission and how to improve our work. They liked it, the community liked it, and I was on my way. The reputation I had built up carried me into my next few jobs where part of why they hired me was the blogging.

Then, finally, it was my job. I was hired to be a corporate blogger. It was a great gig and I was able to do what I loved and get paid for it. The next step occurred to me sometime during that job. Instead of blogging for somebody else, why not do it for myself?

A few months later, on July 1, 2011, I took the plunge. Full-time writing for my own site and my own business, and most especially with my own content.

Of course, this changed everything. I went from corporate sponsorship to advertising based. I had to learn how to write for the public at-large, instead of for a specific group of business people. The transition hasn’t been hard, but I can’t say I’ve found my groove. The main issue is determining how to stand out amongst the millions of websites out there.

Which is where I sit today, trying to find my voice and working on building some momentum for this blog. It feels weird to look-back on my progression like this. There is no way I would have imagined it ending up this way. I mean my job at the time I started blogging was a technical trainer for web 2.0. That’s a pretty solid 90-degree career turn.

I guess that means I don’t know how I got here. It just kinda happened. I’ve been following my obsession with blogging for seven years and have yet to stop. I wonder where it will take me next…

 

***

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Creativity: giant colored pencil art installation, that “both awes and threatens”

JeannieJeannie:

The Echigo-Tsumari Art Field is a fantastic and wonderfully impractical art space in Japan, where artists from around the world have scattered large-scale installations across 160 kilometers of land.

In the midst of this art field is this set of giant colored pencils from Cameroon-born artist Pascale Marthine Tayou, titled “Reverse City:” enormous colored pencils hewn from trees dangle 2 meters above the ground, pointing down at the visitors below.

 

 

More about this installation:

On each pencil is written the name of one of the countries of the world. The giant pencils are variously colored; some are short, some are tall…Suspended upside-down, the points of this colorful city are aimed at human visitors who, looking up at it, feel both awed and threatened.

 

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NFL moves toward slimmer players, former players explore healthy eating

There is a new trend in the NFL, slimming down those plump players. After years of super-sizing lineman with each team stocking a dozen 300 pound players, speed and agility is starting to get wins.

The stars in the NFL last year were at much healthier weights in the mid-200 pound range. Players with a height of 6 feet go from weighing 340 to 270 pounds, and some new draftees are even making a difference at 220 or 230 pounds.

Trevor Pryce, who played in the NFL for 14 years and was one of those 300 pounders, discusses this in the N.Y. Times. He recognizes the change as turning players into specialists, asked to perform specific roles for only a few plays:

Those 260-pound run-stoppers were suddenly asked to learn how to line up with their hand on the ground and rush the quarterback, and linebackers became 225-pound hybrids who could run with wide receivers, blitz when asked and make the occasional tackle on a running play.

 

Not really on-topic for this blog but I felt like it was good news. Maybe the slimming down of the NFL to healthier weights could inspire a trend among the rest of us.

Here is another article from Grantland, where many of those players share their tips and experience trying to lose weight:

The common threads between the players who successfully shed weight are motivation, momentum, and reachable goals that are determined by rigid rules. Damien Woody’s faith is now in what he calls his “hand rule.” If a meal portion does not fit in his palm, it does not go in his mouth.

In the morning, he eats proteins and carbohydrates for the energy to sustain him through two daily workouts. As the day wears on, he eats more proteins than carbohydrates. Water is his beverage of choice.

 

#200PoundsIsBig

#SlimFL

#HealthyNFL

#NFLDiet

 

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West Coast Great White Sharks are endangered – population around 340

A group of environmentalists have petitioned the federal government to put West Coast Great White Sharks as an endangered species. From an L.A. Times article:

The northeastern Pacific Ocean population of great whites is genetically distinct and in danger of extinction, according to the petition. Researchers have estimated that there are about 340 individuals in the group that are mature or nearly so.

“There could be fewer than 100 breeding females left,” said Geoff Shester, the California program director of Oceana, an international group focused on protecting the world’s oceans.

 

Wow, just a few hundred of these guys out there. Even though the ocean is a huge place, that small number would probably still inspire enormous fear in people, despite the extreme rarity of shark attacks.

 

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American wind power reaches 50-gigawatt milestone

From the AWEA press release:

The 50 gigawatts (GW) online today means that U.S. wind turbines now power the equivalent of nearly 13 million American homes, or as many as in Nevada, Colorado, Wisconsin, Virginia, Alabama, and Connecticut combined. In addition, 50 gigawatts (GW) of wind power capacity:

  • Represents the generating power of 44 coal-fired power plants, or 11 nuclear power plants.
  • Avoids emitting as much carbon dioxide as taking 14 million cars off the road.
  • Conserves 30 billion gallons of water a year compared to thermal electric generation, since wind energy uses virtually no water.

 

To put this into perspective, it is estimated that the United States used 3.9 million gigawatts in 2011.

Now back to the good news, projects recently connected to the grid:

  • Pattern Energy’s Spring Valley wind farm, 30 miles east of Ely, Nevada (151.8 megawatts, or MW)
  • Enel Green Power North America’s Rocky Ridge wind farm in Oklahoma (148.8 MW)
  • enXco’s Pacific Wind project in Kern County, California (140 MW)
  • Utah Associated Municipal Power’s Horse Butte project in Idaho (57.6 MW)
  • First Wind’s Kaheawa Wind II wind farm in Hawaii (21 MW)
50,000 megawatts = 50 gigawatts

 

It took us a long time to hit 10 MW in 2006, then much less to hit 25 MW in 2008, and now, in 2012, we are at 50 MW. The ramp-up continues all over the country as 39 states now have wind power feeding their grids. There is even good news on the “Made in USA” front with 60% of the sourcing coming from home, compared to 25% in 2005.

 

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Apple stores saw 300 million visits last year, there are 311 million in the United States

From Jim Dalrymple of The Loop:

According to Apple, the company has seen almost 300 million worldwide visitors so far in its fiscal 2012…To give you some type of comparison, by July 2011, the population of the United States was estimated to be 311 million people.

There is also an interesting data point from Apple’s retail Genius Bar. According to the company, 50,000 people get serviced at a Genius Bar around the world, every single day.

 

That’s no joke. Stand outside an Apple store for a few minutes and you will see hordes of people, of all ages and types, looking for help.

It’s actually quite impressive that they haven’t had any major problems with customer service.

 

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