New Florence. New Renaissance.

Green Tires

Yokohama, a Japanese tiremaker, is promoting a tire made with oil from orange peel, a waste product from the production of orange juice. The company says its tires are among the greenest produced, with 80% of their ingredients derived from sources other than petroleum. They are only slightly more expensive than normal tires, costing about $20 extra for a set of four. Yokohama is aiming its tires at hybrid cars and efficient city cars like the Mini Cooper.

The Economist

Techno-free Thanksgiving

Some great suggestions in this post to try and go back to basics this Turkey Day

• Play some board games and picnic games
• Make a poster to give to a local military family
• Get ready for Christmas with simple glass decorations
• On techno-free Thanksgiving, write a note to thank someone. Hey, the day is meant to say thanks

Of course their definition of “techno-free day” means no use of television, DVDs, computers, video games, cell phones and music/video players.

No football? No Macy’s Day Parade? No reruns of John Candy in Planes, Trains and Automobiles? No Skype or mobile calls to friends?

Oh, go ahead and cheat some. Along with some seconds. That’s what the day is for.

Have a great one, all!

Picture Credit

Creative Barcodes

From Japan. Courtesy of Sandy Kelmsley.

Aerial Photographer, Robert Cameron

So I am walking around downtown San Francisco and notice at the Metreon an exhibition of the aerial photographer Robert Cameron.

As I am admiring the art, I see a sign saying he died last week at age 98.

Quite a man - he made 15 of the "Above" series coffee table book series.

Popular Science 2009 Best of What’s New

 Popular Science lists its top innovations in the following categories

• Auto Tech
• Aviation & Space
• Computing
• Engineering
• Gadgets
• Green Tech
• Health
• Home Entertainment
• Home Tech
• Recreation
• Security

The top rank goes to a 3M stethoscope . It transmits heart sounds to a doctor’s PC by Bluetooth, and Cardioscan renders a near real-time graphical representation of the sounds onscreen. The software then analyzes the sound waves and highlights minute abnormalities that signal harmful murmurs. The doctor can play the sound back at half speed to diagnose a problem more confidently, save the file to the patient’s chart, and e-mail it all to a cardiologist to confirm the diagnosis. Early tests of the system suggest that it could eliminate more than eight million unnecessary echocardiograms and cardiologist visits a year, saving some $9.4 billion and, even better, catch more of the dangerous murmurs.

The first hybrid car - 1901

Jackie Bassett (see her guest column on the Deal Architect blog) told me about a book she just co-authored. It is a treasure trove of  lithographs - discarded by the US Patent Office then rescued from destruction by her and Randy Rabin.

Wright Bros., Heddy Lamar, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, W.H. Carrier and 100's of others….what a gallery of innovators!

Order it here

An app so you’ll never forget

 “A language-learning application that's already big in Japan is coming to the U.S. in the form of a new iPhone app. Smart.fm, based in Tokyo, says that the adaptive-learning algorithms behind its software can help users memorize all kinds of information.

..(its) algorithms determine how often to present a piece of information to the user and in what context. For example, a completely new word and its translation are shown frequently, and a user is asked relatively easy questions about them, designed to jog the memory. But once the user has demonstrated the ability to recall that word and its meaning, this information will appear less often.”

MIT Technology Review

Droid vs. iPhone: A 10-round bout

Consumer Reports awards five rounds to the iPhone 3G S for touch screen, searches, choice of apps, camera and auto navigation, three to the Droid ( interface, keyboard and phone network), two rounds a tossup(display and speed)

“The bottom line? Neither phone scored a knockout, but the Droid may indeed be the most promising contender yet to Apple’s smart phone.”

Ink-saving font

 
"Now there's another option, one that combats excessive ink consumption at the font level: Ecofont, a free typeface that promises to reduce ink use by up to 20 percent.

Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems, Ecofont looks a lot like regular old Arial, but with one key difference: holes. Each letter has lots of little holes punched out of it, meaning it requires less ink to print.“

Washington Post

Pet-care technologies

$ 45 billion in pet-car a year leads to better lives for pets and some zany products as Fast Company lists

• PAW SpotLight GPS Pet Locator
• Vet-Stem therapy
• Palladia anticancer medication
• Wisdom Panel MX DNA test
• HomeoPet anti-anxiety potions
• Purina One Vibrant Maturity 7+ Senior Formula
• Dog Gone Smart's odor-repelling bed
• DogTread treadmill
• Pet Airways
• Pet Teek Pet Carrier
• Doggie Doo Drain
• EzyDog Backpack
• Portage Float Coat for helping pet swim