The Age of (Un)natural Inventions

Ho, luckily I'm not there yet. So, still exciting. Referring to the 'supposebly' Douglas Adams' three human reactions to new technologies (image below, got it from a tweet, here).

In the spirit of the post, here's my selection of the best inventions I recall from only the last 5 years.
Have you seen:

1. The awesome self-inflatible biking helmet, Hovding? A collection of links, info, here.
2. An all-year-round beer/drinks cooler, that also looks cool. Oh, it doesn't need any electricity, once installed. See link here.
3. A keyring that calls out for your keys, Chipolo (Slovenia) crowdfunded here.
4. A toy that talks and teaches your kid, and responds to him or her, Ubooly, here.
5. Copenhagen wheel - attachable wheel that powers up while you cycle, and helps you (up hill) faster, here. And same same but different (yet, Slovenian) version, FlyKly here.
6. Because I've tried it and it works (to reasonable physical limits of bending), Sugru with magnets!
7. Solar powered flash light: BoGo light: Buy one, Give one, a nice concept* with a useful product.
   (*Can't find it, but the idea of a pink flashlight in Africa (so that men wouldn't steal it from women) is touched upon here.)
8. One laptop (that can be winded-up) per child [empower the world's poorest children through education], here OLPC project, here: XO laptop (and tablet?). TED talk here.
9.  ? (tell me of more you know of)

 

So, I'm glad to be looking at another 7 years or so of wonder and amazement in tech world. (Though I'll strive for like, 77 years, just to be on the safe side of Wonder.)

Invisible bike helmet in a scarf

Bike helmets discourage cycling. Do they make you safer or unsafer? See extensive blog post with links, written by Howie Chong, below (4).

How about an invisible biking helmet? Or one that you can wear as a scarf, a neckie?
Enter Hövding from Sweden.

(1): Hövding: cycling helmet in a scarf | Hunter Skipworth, 14 Oct 2013
The latest innovation in bike gear? A nifty collar that inflates to become an airbag at the first sign of trauma. And you're safe from helmet hair, too.

(2): video: Invisible Bike Helmet Saves Your Hair and Your Life: link (yT).

(3): NY Times: Who needs a cycling helmet, when you’ve got an airbag? | Murad Ahmed Technology Reporter, November 13 2013. Link here.

And how to drive in tricky situations? See (5), Cycling Savvy.

"Bike helmets discourage cycling. An Australian study on mandatory helmet laws concluded that laws that required cyclists to wear head protection actually decreased the number of cyclists on the road. The implication of this study? The fewer cyclists on the road, the less likely drivers will be accustomed to sharing road space with cyclists, ultimately increasing the hazards faced by cyclists and further dissuading people from hopping on their bikes." (From: (4))

(4): "Children and toddlers on foot are far more likely to receive traumatic brain injuries than cyclists, yet parents who place protective headwear on their walking toddlers are openly ridiculed."
:: link here.

(4.2): Got it (4) via Florian Friedrich, on FB.

(5): Cool animations and explanations. Could work well for kids, learning to share the road. Here.

(6): The startup company, Hövding: http://www.hovding.com/

Got the image from: here.

It's possible. Eyesight vs Mindsight.

This is an excerpt from a Story of two men, looking for a job. Here, told by Les Brown, who's made some really nice speeches (and quite some of them are available on youtube).

What was the difference between the two men? Eyesight and mindsight.

Eyesight is judging on what you see. Judging according to appearances.
But mind-sight is how you interpret what you see.
One guy said: it's not possible, it's over, I'm finished. I can't do it, I can't make it. He surrendered. I've faced rejection again and again, I'm not going anymore. There are no jobs out there.
But this other guy.. He felt that inspite of the NOs and rejection, in spite of how bad the economy is, in spite of what the newspapers are saying,
that it's possible.
That SOMEbody, SOMEWHERE will give me a job. He just kept going, thinking it was possible.
And guess what, ladies and gentleman, that's what we have to do with our dreams.

From: Les Brown's speech: It's possible.


Another really nice story is a parabole of the WORLD's opinion about whether or not it is possible to run one mile under 4 minutes. I blogged it here.

Also, you can check this out:
'Mindsight is the difference between saying “I am sad” and “I feel sad.” Similar as those two statements may seem, they are profoundly different. ...' From a page of Dan Siegel.

Are you a Lucy, a GYPSY or something else?

A curious page attracted my attention today: link here.

 

Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy

Say hi to Lucy.

 

Lucy is part of Generation Y, the generation born between the late 1970s and the mid 1990s. She's also part of a yuppie culture that makes up a large portion of Gen Y. 

 

Only issue is this one thing:

Lucy's kind of unhappy.

To get to the bottom of why, we need to define what makes someone happy or unhappy in the first place. It comes down to a simple formula:

Happiness= Reality - Expectations

 It's pretty straightforward—when the reality of someone's life is better than they had expected, they're happy. When reality turns out to be worse than the expectations, they're unhappy.

To provide some context, let's start by bringing Lucy's parents into the discussion: /.../

 

Read more, here.

 

So that's why Lucy is unhappy, or at the least, feeling a bit frustrated and inadequate.  In fact, she's probably started off her career perfectly well, but to her, it feels very disappointing.


Here's my advice for Lucy:

1) Stay wildly ambitious.  The current world is bubbling with opportunity for an ambitious person to find flowery, fulfilling success.  The specific direction may be unclear, but it'll work itself out—just dive in somewhere.

2) Stop thinking that you're special.  The fact is, right now, you're not special.  You're another completely inexperienced young person who doesn't have all that much to offer yet.  You can become special by working really hard for a long time. 

3) Ignore everyone else. Other people's grass seeming greener is no new concept, but in today's image crafting world, other people's grass looks like a glorious meadow. The truth is that everyone else is just as indecisive, self-doubting, and frustrated as you are, and if you just do your thing, you'll never have any reason to envy others.

Read the whole thing with nice unicorn graphs and flowers and siht, here.

--- UPDATE:
Here's another, rather more succint graphic to point out the matter (though from a different angle): http://maxcdn.zenpencils.com/comics/2012-11-13-chrisg.jpg
(See pic on the right. > Bigger version on the link above.)