Good Thinking

With baristas able to draw masterpieces in a macchiato, the days when going out for a coffee meant a cup of something scorched in an urn seem long gone. Unfortunately, if your tastes run more toward brewed coffee rather than a double decaf or skinny latte, you’re still likely to be pointed to a vacuum-flask at the end of the counter. Alpha Dominche’s Steampunk Coffee and Tea Brewer aims to redress the balance of power by asking the espresso machine to make room for a computerized coffee maker that gives baristas the power to replicate a wide variety of brewing methods.  Read More

For people without internet access, telephone-based services can still be an invaluable tool for things like finding jobs. Unfortunately, many poor and illiterate citizens of Pakistan simply don’t know how to use such services. In an effort to introduce them to the concepts involved, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Pakistan's Lahore University have launched a “silly phone game” known as Polly.  Read More

While the term "electrifying" can sometimes be used to describe breathtaking performance in sports, it's not often you'll find it used for marathon runners. Yet, that's precisely the word I'd use to describe this year's Paris Marathon, which took place on Sunday April 7. You see, as the feet of almost 40,000 runners hit a 25-meter (82-foot) installation of special tiles at the beginning of the 26-mile (42-km) course, kinetic energy was harvested and turned into usable electricity.  Read More

The London Design Museum has announced that the redesigned UK government website GOV.UK has won the Design of the Year Award 2013. The site was chosen as the overall winner of the annual awards from the seven category winners that were announced last week. The new UK government website has been rationalized from a number of websites into a one-stop shop with a new typeface and a refined, highly accessible user experience.  Read More

Massachusetts company Visible Good has developed a new emergency shelter design that could prove useful during a humanitarian crisis. Dubbed “Rapid Deployment Module” (RDM), the shelter is portable, reusable, and can be assembled in around 25 minutes by just two people, no tools required.  Read More

Beer koozies (aka coasties, coldy-holdys, stubby holders and a multitude of other names) are a summer staple for keeping cans of drink colder, longer. Not satisfied with the cooling capabilities of these foam cylinders, Curt Peters created the Chill Puck, a small hockey puck-shaped disc that fits on the underside of a can.  Read More

It’s that time of year again when university students need to start thinking about finalizing the designs of their world-changing concepts so they’re ready for submission to the annual James Dyson Award.  Read More

Fighting for human rights is a noble undertaking, but it’s also extremely dangerous in places where that fight isn't about simply arguing over abstractions. Aware of the very real possibility of campaigners being beaten, kidnapped or murdered, Civil Rights Defenders in Stockholm has launched the Natalia Project. Named after Natalia Estemirova, a human rights activist who was abducted and murdered in Chechnya in 2009, it’s based on an electronic bracelet that sends a pre-programmed text alarm if activated or forcibly removed.  Read More

Some drivers still refuse to wear seatbelts on the grounds that they "can get stuck in the car if it becomes submerged in water or catches on fire." For those people, there's now a new product called the GDC Hook Knife – it's designed to sit on a keychain, and can be used to remove a seatbelt in seconds.  Read More