Monthly Archives: October 2009

Gadget Fever

I was going to make a series of posts related to the cool designs I found on Yanko, but decided to just lump a bunch together in one post and post others as they interest me.

Starting off, the SoundBulb, a wireless speaker in a light bulb.

Next, the E-Note, basically a digital Post-it you can reuse.

Now here’s something I could really use. That, or less soda, probably the latter. Either way, it is a device that decontaminates soda cans.

Something we all could use, meat freshness labels that change color as the meat stays longer in the package.

For the ultimate traveller, a “third eye” that gives you everything you need to know about what you are looking at in the viewer.

And, the possible future of air travel: a huge airship-looking thing made to carry up to 1,500 passengers.

Ocean Rescue by Seol-Hee Sohn, Seung-Hyun Yoon & Cheol-Yeon Cho » Yanko Design

So, I’ve been on a few cruise ships and have had that moment at sea where I wondered what the hell would happen if the damn thing sprung a leak. Sure, they show you where your escape ship is and all – and yes, I was only in the Caribbean – but that somehow didn’t seem to be enough for me.

That’s why I really, really like this water distilling buoy thingy. If they had these on the ships I have been on, I’d probably had kept one in my cabin or attached to me at all times.

Op-Ed Columnist – Safety Nets for the Rich – NYTimes.com

We cannot continue transferring the nation’s wealth to those at the apex of the economic pyramid — which is what we have been doing for the past three decades or so — while hoping that someday, maybe, the benefits of that transfer will trickle down in the form of steady employment and improved living standards for the many millions of families struggling to make it from day to day.

That money is never going to trickle down. It’s a fairy tale. We’re crazy to continue believing it.

In short, Bob Herbert notes that we really, really, really need to stop bailing out rich people. They never learn, they never share, and they can never – ever – have enough money.