These ads captures why kids love LEGO through simple visuals and no words. Perfect.

MIT researchers are developing a microchip that could help blind people regain partial eyesight. Though it won’t completely restore normal vision, it will enable a blind person to recognize faces and navigate a room without assistance. The chip, which is encased in titanium to prevent water damage, will be implanted onto a patient’s eyeball. The [...]

It took Kutiman just two months to finish ThruYOU, the project that would make him both a musical pioneer and an Internet celebrity. Kutiman — a.k.a. Ophir Kutiel, an Israeli musician — took footage posted on YouTube by amateur musicians and mixed it together (drums, piano, synth, theremin, vocals, whatever he could find) into video [...]

A single use toilet for slums in the developing world where there are no permanent toilets .

Developed by Swedish architect Anders Wilhelmson who told the New York Times “Not only is it sanitary, they can reuse this to grow crops.” Once used, the bag can be knotted and buried, and a layer of urea [...]

from the New York Times 9th annual year in ideas

Copenhagen has begun to create a system of as many as 15 extra-wide, segregated bike routes connecting the suburbs to the center of the city. The Bicycle Office of Copenhagen’s design calls for service stations (with air pumps and tools for simple repairs) and plans to [...]

from New York Times mags 9th annual year in ideas called “it happens when nobody is watching” and placed in a bus shelter in Berlin, was a one-time installation sponsored by Amnesty International. When a person in the shelter was looking at the poster, he saw, along with the words, a photograph of an amiable [...]

This weekend saw the release of the latest film in the Lady Dior series starring the French Oscar winning actress, Marion Cotillard, and her Dior handbag.  The latest film is directed by David Lynch and has a distinctly Twin Peaks feel to it. The previous film directed by Jonas Akerlund has the gorgeous Ms Cotillard [...]

When you’re done with this cardboard box you can tear it up and plant it.

Seeds embedded in the recycled card will grow up to 100 trees. See more here.

from the New York Times 9th annual year in ideas

For dairy farmers, whether to name their cows may seem like a matter of taste. But it might not be. It could be a business decision. A study of several hundred British dairies published in the journal Anthrozoös in March compared responses to a survey about [...]

A young designer has invented a revolutionary folding bicycle that will stop thieves in their tracks.

Kevin Scott, 21, designed the space-age bike that wraps around a lamp post so it can be locked-up safely – without the need for a lock or chain. The De Montfort University graduate used a ratchet [...]

Punk band Anti-Flag and useless.org released a limited edition tee shirt for Earth Day. The shirts are unwanted shirts that were gathering dust in Anti-Flag’s warehouse, that have now been repurposed with a new message. All proceeds fund a water and sanitation project in Sierra Leone.
See more details here.

I liked this blog post from entrepreneur Chris Dixon and decided to reproduce it in its entirety. Thanks Chris.
Developing new startup ideas
March 14th, 2010 | careers, product design, startups
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// ]]>If you want to start a company and are working on new ideas, here’s how I’ve always done it and how I [...]

Fro the New York Times magazine 9th annual year in ideas.

Nature may well be the art of God, but that isn’t keeping mere mortals from trying their hand at it. This year, a group of British engineers recommended building a forest of artificial carbon-filtering “trees” across the United Kingdom to combat climate change; and a [...]

This ad for free WiFi in McDonald’s gets the idea across through a simple visual that sells the brand.

IDEO’s Tim Brown at a recent TED talk. Interviews with Tim appear in Business Playground, the book.

When announcing an effort to launch Googly TV head of engineering, Vic Gundotra, was making an obvious reference to Apple when he said at the press conference: “If you believe that the only way to get a good smartphone is to bet on one man, one device, one carrier, and one choice, that is [...]

From the New York Times 9th annual year in ideas

April, the world was introduced to Ruppy, the first known fluorescent dog. In natural light, Ruppy seems to be an almost-normal beagle — though his paws look as if he has stepped in pink ink. Under ultraviolet light, the effect is quite evident: he emits an [...]

Since time immemorial — or at least since Pong — one barrier that has stood between gamers and total Tron-like immersion in their video games has been the controller: the joystick, trackball, mouse, light gun or whatever. This year Microsoft demonstrated a technology, code-named Project Natal, that enables players to control games using only body [...]

A nice metaphor involving mice on wheels

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A couple of years ago, Seth Frader-Thompson was driving a Prius. Priuses have little screens on the dashboard that tell you what gas mileage you’re getting, in real time, as you drive. It crossed Frader-Thompson’s mind that houses should have something similar. So he built the EnergyHub Dashboard, a little device, with a screen, that [...]

You can now download a free chapter from our book The Business Playground: Where Creativity and Commerce Collide.

With the flick of a switch, Philips Electronics may have just dramatically lowered America’s electric bill. In September the Dutch electronics giant became the first to enter the U.S. Department of Energy’s L Prize competition, which seeks an LED alternative to the common 60-watt bulb. Sixty-watt lights account for 50% of the domestic incandescent market; [...]

Plenty of people’s Twitter feeds appear to be connected directly to their egos, but one scientist’s is actually wired to his brain. In April, University of Wisconsin doctoral student Adam Wilson — working with adviser Justin Williams, above — tweeted 23 characters just by thinking. He focused his attention on one flashing letter after another [...]

Looks like a regular business card but when you break of ac couple of pieces it becomes a USB flash drive.

Job seeker Ramiro Pareja Veredas, a telecommunications engineer from Spain, created this PCB business card to set himself apart from other job seekers  and it houses his resume, cover letter, [...]

In honour of National Poetry Month the Books For Walls project has launched The Haiku Your Book Challenge. This is the haiku one of the contributors wrote to describe Punk Marketing: Get Off Your Ass and Join the Revolution, the book Mark Simmons co-authored in 2007 with Richard Laermer.
Revolutionize.
Thwart the competition, yo!
Bust the mold. Create.

Hunch is an interesting new business idea
It helps people make decisions by asking you 10 questions and using the collective knowledge of the community to give advice. this is how they describe it on the website…..
Look. Decision-making is difficult, and decisions have to be made constantly.
What should I be for Halloween? Do I need a [...]

It’s like getting your first Big Wheel all over again — and you don’t even have to pedal. An innovative bicycle-design concept derived from the old-fashioned penny-farthing, the YikeBike is a folding electric bicycle out of New Zealand. The rider sits on the seat, holds on at the sides and zooms around at a top [...]

We held a launch event at the head offices of Live Nation on Thursday night, featuring an interview with Live Nation, Mike Rapino, a Q&A session with co-authors Dave and Mark and a great improvised musical performance by Mr. Stewart and violinist Anne-Marie Calhoun.

The LA Times was there to cover the event and this is [...]

Director Michel Gondry always has wonderful ideas for his films. This is mesmerizing.

A beautifully designed car by Norman E. Timbs. according to Supercars.net mechanical engineer Timbs created this dramatic streamliner in the 1940s which in many ways was the ultimate American hot rod. He designed and fabricated much of the project himself which included a custom aluminum body and steel chassis.  At first the [...]

Or is the other way around. Fuse Project out of San Francisco developed this revolutionary  solution to reduce use of packaging materials.

This an online video for driving direction device Tom Tom’s new selection of voices, including the Dark Lord himself.