Monthly Archives: November 2013

Home Roaster

bonaverde-coffee-grinder

There are currently 17 steps and six months between your fresh cup of coffee and the farmer that grew it. The farmer also sees very little profit from that cup, as most of the retail value goes to third party sources. However, Bonaverde wants to change all that with one machine: the worlds first Roast-Grind-Brew Coffee Machine.

7991c3e9fcd0d7acd584b20b9eba97c3_large

The concept is simple: buy green, dried coffee beans direct from the farmer, then roast and brew them yourself. You literally cannot have a fresher cup of coffee than one where the beans were roasted in a small batch seconds before they were ground and percolated. The machine costs $300, which is a hefty price to pay, but for coffee connoisseurs everywhere, this is a percolator that is not to be missed.

The Kickstarter campaign for this machine is well over the target funds, so it’s only a matter of time before this goes into production.

What Sparks Our Fire: Coffee literally sparks our fire every morning. As well, the creative solution to cutting out the middleman in a billion-dollar coffee industry and bringing that money directly to the farmers is very commendable.

Would you become a “coffee changer” and purchase this all-in-one machine?

The Power in the Atmosphere

Researchers at the Pratt School of Engineering have developed a device that can convert microwave signals into electricity. The device can be tuned to harvest energy from multiple sources such as Wi-Fi routers, cell towers, all the way to satellites passing overhead. An explanation of the process states that “A maximum of 36.8% of the incident power from a 900 MHz signal is experimentally rectified by an array of metamaterial unit cells.” Basically, an impressive amount of energy can be pulled from the air to create a charge comparable to that of a solar panel, without relying on sunny days.

original-1

The implications of this technology are incredible, from cell phones that charge themselves to satellites powering remote weather sensors. All this requires a slimming-down of the process, but the simple fact that power can now be pulled from this air is staggering.

What Sparks Our Fire: Free energy and non-invasive technology will make cell phone charging much easier.

Do you think this is a technology will speed our independence from fossil fuels?

So, There’s a Cannon on the Space Station

original

Attached to Kibo, the Japanese module on the ISS, is a projectile launcher. The designers, Darth Vader and Captain Kirk, believe that this will be the first step of Japan’s unquestioned domination of space.

Okay, that’s not what it is. I’m trying to be funny and digressing. I’ll shut up now. original-1

What the JEM Small Satellite Orbital Deployer actually does is launch satellites from space. The Japanese space agency states “it is a mechanism for deploying small satellites designed in accordance with CubeSat design specification (10cm×10cm×10cm) that transfers the satellites from the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo’s airlock to space environment and releases them on orbit.” Basically, it’s a cube launcher.

original

So far, the Japanese have launched three satellites, and we haven’t yet seen the applications of the technology yet, but it’s an interesting concept.

What Sparks Our Fire: STAR WARS.

What do you think are the applications of nano-satellites?

(Lack of) Scars

Your phone heals its own damage. Scratches, bending, all do not affect the functionality of the phone. In moments, it reverts to its previous, shiny, unbent, pristine condition. And we DON’T KNOW HOW.

Well, LG knows. But they’re keeping it pretty close to the chest.

The LG G Flex smartphone is touted as self healing, repairing mild to moderate scratches in minutes. The phone has a horizontal concave curved display, which when flattened, returns to its original curve without any visible affect to the functionality of the phone itself.

This is an amazing iteration of new smartphone tech, and may just be a saving grace for the low-tier LG smartphone reputation. The manufacturer has been lagging behind Samsung and Apple for several years now, and might just be able to gain momentum with this new offering. The G Flex is not released yet, but should be ready by 2014.

What Sparks Our Fire: Finally, smartphones are departing from the boring black rectangles that we’ve been seeing for the past few years.

Would this be a phone you’d be interested in?

Just Watch This Video

Every now and then, we come across things on the Internet that leave us speechless. We’re looking for new things on YouTube, we come across a Jason Mraz live in Korea video which leads us to…

In just four and a half minutes, 17 year old Sungha Jung turns hard rock classic “Sweet Child o’ Mine” into a beautiful, melodic, acoustic guitar journey. The technique he uses, known as fingerstyle, is notoriously difficult and takes years to master. Sungha Jung is nothing short of a prodigy who, along with his prodigious technical ability, also has an incredible artistic sense, keeping the overall structure of the song while adding his own artistic spin to the creation, achieving an almost perfect balance between Guns n’ Roses and his own musical voice.

What Sparks Our Fire: In a world of overproduced pop songs, there are still virtuosos who can inspire us.

Do you find yourself inspired by extraordinary people like Sungha Jung?