I spent most of last week on the road; which I love, because different cities and traveling means seeing and experiencing different things.
Check out this link to Fadow (a mashup of FAST and DOWNLOAD), whose Moviecle machine I saw in Logan airport's new A Terminal. From what I understand, you link up to their site through the airport's wireless connection, and browse an extensive library of media (movies, TV shows, music, books, etc.). Once you've selected something and purchased it, you head over to their machine (pic above) and download it directly to a USB drive.
Though i didn't get a chance to try it out, it sounds way more tuned into the fast-paced life of today's traveler than waiting an hour or more to download something from iTunes.
Have you ever been in the midst of an argument with your significant other, and wished you had an on-call arbitrator to provide a ruling? Or some kind of unbiased jury that you could tap for an opinion of who is right and who is wrong?
If you have, then add SideTaker to your browser's favorites.
Here's how it works: A man or woman logs in to the crowdsourcing site, and airs their grievances anonymously. An email is then sent to their significant other, prompting them to respond and share their side of the story. Once both sides have been heard, all the details go public, and others weigh in with advice and opinions and vote on who they side with. Users can browse arguments by topic, tags, most popular, most viewed, most commented on, and sexual orientation.
There is currently a debate raging over whether or not one man's refusal to flush the toilet can be justified as well-intended frugality. Whether or not his defense of "if it's yellow, let it mellow" will hold up in the court of public opinion is yet to be seen...
Interesting "sharing" concept coming out of New York called FLEXPETZ. As far as I can tell, it's the Zipcar business model, just swaps DOGS for CARS. And LOJACK for GPS COLLARS.
Seems like a good solution for people in the need of canine companionship, but who, for some reason, are unable to own. Just wish this did more to include animals from rescue leagues or shelters.
Though it's admittedly not "out to save the world," the research behind Project Splinter could be considered an important exercise in alternative materials.
Pictured above is the Splinter, the graduate project of a group North Carolina State students. It is a 2500-pound sports car, with a target horsepower of 600. Wood composites, or engineered wood, have been utilized everywhere possible in the car's design and construction, including chassis, body, and large percentages of the suspension components and wheels.
Please note: This car is flammable. Burn rubber at your own risk.
A lot of different elements go into defining the character of a beer; hops, yeast, malt and the fermentation process, to name a few. There are hundreds of variations and combinations of each. But a group of scientists and brewers from California have teamed up to brew one of those most interesting beers of our time. Their key ingredient? A strain of yeast that dates back to the Eocene Epoch, some 45 million years ago. They call their partnership Fossil Fuels Brewing.
They discovered a snapshot of biological life frozen into an over-sized bead of tropical tree sap in Central America. And from it, just like in Jurassic Park, they were able to extract the DNA of a modern-day entity's ancient ancestors. In this case, brewing yeast. The result? A smooth tasting beer that takes you back to a time marked by the emergence of Earth's first mammals.
"I’m sleeping in my business partner’s guesthouse right now. It’s the same way with the big rock ’n’ roll stars. You think it’s all glitz and glamour, but it’s a lot of time on the road, away from your family, sleeping in strange places. It’s fun for now, but it’s also a lot of work. But, nobody can say videogames are a waste of time anymore. I’m living proof of that."
~JOHNATHAN WENDEL, A.K.A. “FATAL1TY,” The top professional videogame player in the West and the first to be considered full-time Source: Video-gaming Strives for Respect. Is It a Sport? Definitely worth a read.
If you're making a list of the most innovative minds in music, regardless of your musical taste, the five gentlemen that comprise England's Radiohead need to be on it. The quintet from Oxfordshire, led by visionary front man Thom Yorke, has been pushing the boundaries of popular music with pioneering sounds & experimentation for almost 20 years.
They fragmented the traditional rock sound-scape in 1997, splicing guitar and keyboard riffs with ambient tones and samples on the critically acclaimed OK Computer. Their follow-up album 4 years later, Kid A, used wailing synthesizers and antique instruments to weld a paranormal bridge between rock and electronic music. Their latest effort, the independently funded and releasedIn Rainbows, is, by their own standards, another fantastically distinct album.
But the story on In Rainbows continues to be how Radiohead is using the album to challenge the norms of music industry. The band shunned the courtship of several major labels who wanted to handle the album; instead releasing it on their own as a digital download, and allowing fans to pay whatever they wanted for the album. One dollar. 100 dollars. Nothing. It was up to them. Whatever they felt was fair. Why? Indicative as to how he sees the industry in the midst of dramatic changes, Yorke told TIME magazine:
"I like the people at our record company, but the time is at hand when you have to ask why anyone needs one. And, yes, it probably would give us some perverse pleasure to say "F___ you" to this decaying business model."
In addition to being the first album ever digitally offered up for free, the "firsts" for In Rainbows continue: the first video from the album was recently released. Composed for the song House of Cards, the band used a new kind of laser technology developed at UCLA to capture the physical likenesses of Yorke and his physical surroundings in a 3-D format. The catch? No cameras or lights were used. That's right...leave it to Radiohead, a video shot without cameras.
(A short, "Making Of" video is posted above, the actual video is below)
A new gym in Portland, Oregon, called The Green Microgym, has figured out how to harness the energy it's members expend while working out.
The "human-powered" gym, which opened last week, is stocked with stationary bicycles designed to connect to wind-generator motors. As gym patrons pedal, batteries supplying power to televisions and stereos are simultaneously charged.
The gym, which also relies heavily on solar power, is currently working on ways of capturing excess energy from it's elliptical machines, and hopes to generate 40 percent of their own energy needs.
Welcome to the first installment of Innovationland's Green Friday. While sustainability and the people who make it happen are always on our radar screen, we'll try especially hard on Friday's to feature some inspirational and innovative "green" ideas.
"The first rule of sustainability is to align with natural forces, or at least not try to defy them." ~ Paul Hawken
Next time you find yourself looking for a place to stay in Stockholm, try the Jumbo Hostel, a new hotel being constructed inside the frame of an old Boeing 747.
Once finished, the hotel will have 85 bedrooms (with shared bathrooms), each with a flat-panel TV and wireless internet access. If you've ever wanted to stand on the wing of a plane, or just like to take your coffee outside, you're in luck; the left wing of the aircraft has been outfitted with a walkway to serve as a communal veranda for guests. The Honeymoon suite, a luxury unit on the upper deck complete with original aircraft fittings, preserves the look and feel of the aircrafts transcontinental heyday. And if you need to catch a flight in the morning, there is no need for a taxi -- the Jumbo Hostel is a 10-minute walk from Arlanda's main terminal.
