SensoryMetrics

Paul Stamets has a wonderful talk on mushrooms and how they can save the planet.  After watching this clip, you’ll be thinking about mushrooms in a whole new way.  Mycelium fungus could quite possibly be the planet’s natural network.  Did you know that the largest organism on the planet is 2200 acres in size and 2000 years old?  Mushrooms can clean polluted soil, kill insects without chemical pesticides, kill flu viruses and even transform the planet’s ecosystems.

Just add water for your own mushroom power!

Popularity: 28%

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Environment, Innovation mushroom-matrix, save-the-planet

Avenging Narwhals!
I can just see Paul McCartney and Brigette Bardeaux picketing the drive-thru lane now!

via Blame It On The Voices

Popularity: 27%

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Long Tail avenging-narwhals, happy-meal-toys

Predictable. Right on cue. Once the euphoria of a world-wide phenom begins to settle – out come the niche players.

Scheduled for release in mid-September, Guitar-Praise is a GH clone featuring Christian rock. Weazer and Aerosmith are replaced with Seventh Day Slumber and Whitecross.

Opportunities for more long tail “heroes” are plentiful. Watch out for “Sitar Hero” as depicted here…

Popularity: 29%

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Branding, Business, Long Tail, User Experience guitar-hero, guitar-praise, sitar-hero

This ad has appeared in many US newspapers, and today occupied a full page in my local Ottawa Citizen. It’s about a “miracle heater” – hand crafted by “soft-spoken Amish craftsmen”.

Alas, the Amish have a productivity problem and only a limited number of miracle heaters are available. To give Canadians a fair chance of getting one, the distributor divided the country into 2 zones: the cold zone and the arctic zone. Oddly, Quebec is now an arctic province (perhaps due to its frosty separatist leanings?) Included in the new arctic club is PEI and Newfoundland.

The map is actually pretty funny.

What’s not funny is the rest of this very misleading ad: the Amish don’t build electric heaters. The heater is 1500 watts and produces the same amount of heat (5,119 BTUs) as a any electric heater of the same size (costing about $25.) This beast goes for $250 plus shipping.

This bogus picture of a bunch of Amish workers assembling these in a barn deserves a spot on Photoshop Disasters!

Yahoo answer uncovers the truth behind these fake Amish heaters.

Shame on the Citizen for accepting such an ad. This is a FAIL.

Popularity: 39%

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Business, Media, Pirates, User Experience Amish, Amish-Electric-heaters, Heat-Surge, Map-of-canada, Ottawa-Citizen

Interesting new products are often created by combining existing technology in a way that provides unique value. The oft-cited example is mixing peanut butter and chocolate – giving you Reeses. In my world, I combined the softkey interface of a bank machine with a telephone to create the Vista 350.

There are times when the combination technique produces little value. For example, talking elevators are annoying. The George Foreman gas BBQ with built in iPod dock is useless.

In the bar world, folks in Belgium are all abuzz over the new combo drink, Dirty Hoe. It features half a pint of Hoegaarden (the world’s wretchedest beer) and a half of Guinness (the world’s un-wretchedest beer.)

What a waste of a perfectly innocent stout!

Popularity: 30%

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Innovation, Pirates, User Experience Guinness, hoegaarden, Vista350

Popularity: 26%

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Pirates spam-bam

We’ll just let this one speak for itself…

(I know – some people won’t get it…) LOL

At least this one has NOTHING to do with Vista – although the vista does look nice…

Heading to the marina… on your mangled bike…

Ok?
Cancel?

via Bits & Pieces

Popularity: 26%

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Environment, Usability, User Experience warning-dialogs

The first lawn mower was invented by British inventor Edwin Beard Budding in 1827. This paved the way for the invention of suburbs.

There hasn’t been much evolution in mower technology since then… gas engines… rechargeable batteries… robotic self propulsion… minor things.

With the Muwi, designer Yuli Sung introduces an interesting concept – this robotic drum rolls around your lawn cutting grass and collecting clippings. Then it compacts and presses the grass into balls, and plops them out.

The balls can then be used for juggling, which replaces the exercise you missed while the Muwi cut your lawn.

What are you gonna do with your grass balls???

Popularity: 28%

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Gadgets, Innovation, Usability, User Experience lawn-mowers, muwi, yuli-sung

Every year bloggers get together to write posts about an important global issue. Last year – the environment. This year, poverty. As always – SensoryMetrics is in. Blog Action Day. It’s becoming more relevant.

Looking in my own backyard – in fact my mailbox comes evidence of abuse. An ad. An ad probably everyone has seen. “get great stuff for only $1. No Credit Check”.

Wow – a computer. A big screen TV. A leather sofa. Can I afford it?

The ad I got today features an Acer laptop – decent machine (1.5 years ago!)- for $32 a week. The fine print states that the contract is for 156 weeks. The laptop will cost $4,992 with this financing option. Buy it outright for $1800… in 2007…

These types of credit companies really take advantage of the poor! Get a sofa… a dining room set… bedroom set…

Because you have no money, we’ll charge you twice the amount other people pay. Sure.. it’s the risk… but it’s robbing the vulnerable!

Popularity: 32%

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Bones, Business, Environment, Events blog-action-day

OK – I’m not used to sites greeting me by “Mitch, ooh la la!” Nor am I into shopping for purses and shoes that are SO me! I was intrigued by the buzz about Rue-La-La though.

The site is exclusive – you have to be invited. Once you’re in, you are presented with “time-bomb” boutiques – storefronts that sell brand name expensive stuff for a few days only.

The concept is strangely addictive – despite the fact I have NO desire for a FENDI handbag!

This is like a web-based COSCO for Rodeo Drive!

Since, I’m already in, let me know what you want!!

Popularity: 26%

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Branding, Business, User Experience fendi, rue-la-la