Added 23 July, 2013
Technology giant NEC is marketing a new face identification application to businesses worldwide. According to the company, the software is "ideally suited to hospitality environments or businesses where there is a need to identify the presence of important visitors, whether expected or unannounced." In this application, the software monitors data...
Added 22 July, 2013
Buycott is a new phone app that helps you align your everyday spending with your principles. When you are at the store, scan a product with the Buycott app and it will look up the product, determine what brand it belongs to, figure out what company owns that brand, and who owns that company. In short, A buycott is the opposite of a boycott,...
Added 19 July, 2013
The trends of crowdfunding and innovation prizes merged with a quixotic Kickstarter-funded project that has has won the Sikorsky Prize, one of the most elusive goals in aviation, by keeping a human powered helicopter aloft for more than a minute. The rules of the American Helicopter Society Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Challenge,...
Added 13 July, 2013
"Love without materialism is just a pile of sand." That is a quote from China's current top film, Tiny Times, a film that set a new opening day record in China and just crossed the $50 million box office threshold. A sequel will be released this December and two more films are planned in the series. What's startling is that the line about...
Added 11 July, 2013
To many people, it just doesn't make sense: Why tip a waiter in a restaurant when you don't tip most other service providers? I mean, they are just doing their jobs! Many of New York's best-known restaurateurs agree and there is a trend afoot to ban tips in their restaurants. It starts with the city's best-known restaurateur, Danny Meyer who, in...
Added 9 July, 2013
In much of Africa many people's access to the internet is limited to using internet cafes where computers are available by the hour. But keeping an internet cafe running in a place where electricity is expensive and power outages are common has proved to be a big challenge. But if these cybercafés used tablets instead of desktops, it may be...
Added 8 July, 2013
Called 2Seas, the UAV is designed to fly lengthy surveillance missions for coastguards in the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. It is a direct descendant of the catapult-launched, 1.5-metre-wingspan, electric-powered SULSA (Southampton University Laser Sintered Aircraft) – the world's first all-3D-printed drone, built at the University of...
Added 8 July, 2013
While most college freshmen are busy buying books and stationery, a growing number of Chinese teens are opting for plastic surgery to get ahead when the new semester starts. Following the end of college entrance exams on June 8th, plastic surgeons reported a staggering rise in the number of youngsters going under the knife, Wuhan based Changjiang...
Added 5 July, 2013
Luxury car owners around the globe are embracing the growing velvet fad, splashing out thousands to cover their bespoke vehicles in the extravagant woven fabric. From this pimped out Ferrari spotted in upmarket Knightsbridge to the fluffy Porsche seen in west London, the flashy supercars appear to attract the public’s attention everywhere they go...
Added 1 July, 2013
By carefully planting different colored rice plants, Japanese farmers have created a series of rice paddy art
called "tanbo." No dyes are used to create the different colors and hues, rather farmers use various rice strains in their tanbo canvases. Often, hundreds of villagers work together to plant the rice by hand and create these massive works...