Ideas Inspire Innovation

An article in the March issue of Forbes detailed how a Reno man makes a living by basically playing the saranwrap game you played on your college buddies but on a much larger scale.  On a hunt to find a way to protect his boat from the elements, Michael Enos, couldn't find what he wanted so he ordered some plastic and some heat guns and figured it out by himself in just three days. Nearly fifteen years later, he sold off his rent-a-potty business that supplied the Burning Man festival and moved on to co-found FastWrap -- a shrink-wrapping business that advertises "weatherization through innovation" From wrapping boats to patio furniture to casinos, and providing shelter in disasters to shelter from sun damage, the shrink wrapping business has been around much longer than 2007.  Fast Wrap's competitor, Global Wrap, has been around since 1981 and the ideas was said to have been first developed by the Swedes in the 1960s.  Is it coincidence the competitors started in

Okay so I had heard all about biodiesel and using corn as an energy source, and seriously how many of our food products have corn syrup or other corn products in them?  Corn nearly makes our world go round. But here's a new one for you...  Samsung recently came out with the Reclaim phone which is made of 40% corn-derived bio-plastic.  cnet gave it 3.5 stars out of 5 and I think cnet is fairly reliable. The links I looked at show the phone costs about $50 with a 2 year contract with Sprint.  They also have it in a fitting green color.  I'm a fan of blue though so I'm showing the blue version below, since even the blue version is "green."  More on the phone here: http://www.switched.com/2009/08/06/samsungs-eco-friendly-reclaim-phone-is-made-of-corn/ http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phones/samsung-reclaim-sph-m560/4505-6454_7-33743841.html http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/ariel-schwartz/sustainability/sprints-biodegredable-phone-really-green

This past week in Arizona we've seen multitudes of rainbows due to extraordinary amounts of rain. We've achieved 7 months of typical rainfall in the past several weeks and the rainbows have been incredible -- full rainbows across the sky, double rainbows on top of double rainbows, rainbows eight colors deep.  I swear the next rainbow I see will rain casino tokens down from the sky.  Anyway, all the excitement over rainbows reminded me of my favorite inspiring TV show from my youth, The Reading Rainbow.  I wanted to learn more about how the show started and the people behind the show so I conducted some in-depth ten-minute google research.  My web sources indicate new episodes stopped production in 2006 and PBS finally cancelled airing of the show in August of 2009. So instead of a inspirational moment we will eulogize the show. The Reading Rainbow's mission was to bring the love of learning to kids, ages 4-8, making the bridge from paperback books to "fat" boo

No one can convice me that this man, Perry Edinger, is not inspirational.  An article ran in The Arizona Republic seven months ago but I still remember it like it was yesterday.  I'm sure Perry, the man in question, remembers much more.   The article brings us the story of the Badwater Ultramarathon, which is known globally as "the world's toughest foot race."  The event showcases 90 of the world's toughest athletes—runners, triathletes, adventure racers, and mountaineers as they travel, ON FOOT, 135 miles non-stop from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney, CA in temperatures up to 130 degrees. If you don't know, Mt Whitney is the tallest mountain in the continental USA.  Just climbing that in one day is a feat in itself.  To run or walk your way from Death Valley to Mt Whitney is seriously something close to the story of Atlas carrying Earth on his shoulders. The 90 people who master this race, do so with a dignity and perseverance very rarely ever seen in publi

Fuel Your Creativity published some photos of modern bicycles that have really stuck with me over the past few weeks.  One commenter criticized the bikes because they would not work in a realistic world.  The site's editor responded with "These are concepts that are in-line with concept cars. Rarely does something like this get produced in its entirety but, they are made to push the industry of new technology and new ideas. Much like cars, only parts will be produced, like the handle bars or something of the sort. Bikes that are on the market are very streamlined and lightweight because of additions to the industry like carbon fiber and titanium. So, bikes looking like this may not be far off. Race bikes that are used in the Tour De France and other competitions are not comfortable for short or long distances but, are built for speed." I think he's exactly right.  The strange and unique may not be realistic for the mass market right now but they certainly do caus