Category Archives: Amazing Things

Sometimes the Internet coughs up something special, exciting, incredible and amazing. This is where we share amazing things.

Teenager invents super-cheap solar panel using human hair that could change the world.

Written by sarah. Posted on April 19, 2010. Filed under Amazing Things. Tagged , , , . No comments.

Milan Karki, and 18 year old from a  village in rural Nepal, believes he’s found a solution for the developing world’s energy needs.  Milan has invented a solar panel that uses human hair as a conductor.  The human hair replaces the silicone used in most solar panels.  Silicone is expensive, and if these human hair solar panels were mass produced, they could be sold for a quarter of the price of a traditional solar panel.

Human hair works as a conductor because it contains melanin, which give hair it’s pigment, but is also light sensitive, which makes it one of the factors in the conversion of energy.

Hair replaces silicon in these solar panels

These solar panels, can bring electricity to rural places that are not wired for electricity.  They are also very easy and inexpensive to maintain.  The solar panel can charge a mobile phone, or a battery pack that would provide light for the evening.

MeBot: Meet your future workplace robot assistant

Written by sarah. Posted on March 24, 2010. Filed under Amazing Things, Other Stuff. Tagged , , , , . No comments.

Sigurdur Orn's MeBot

Who wouldn’t love to have a likeness of yourself to take care of boring business while you sit in your pjs and eat poptarts? The technology is out there. Telepresence robots are on the rise, and may be taking over the work world. Okay, that may be exaggerating, but it’s still a cool concept.

MIT student Sigurdur Orn has unleashed an interesting little bot called the Mebot, that features expressive gesture abilities which Orn is calling “socially embodied communication.”

The robot was debuted at the Human-Robot Interaction Conference in Oskaka, Japan. It has a little screen that sits on a moving neck. This screen displays the user’s face. The robot also has two moving arms as well. To top it off, the robot also has a wheeled base, which allows it to move about. Although this little thing looks like some sort of strange alien bug person, these moving parts help to convey user expressions to the other party.

Maybe these avatars are the future of business, but for now, your best bet for success is still face to face contact (for those of you who didn’t learn this lesson from Up in the Air).

Amazing: Empower People to Create – Bamboo Bike Studio

Written by michael. Posted on March 19, 2010. Filed under Amazing Things, Startup Scene. Tagged , , , . No comments.

Teaching people to make bamboo bicycles is awesome.

Amazing people doing amazing things — it’s inspirational, it’s motivating, it’s, well…amazing. Good things happen when you can identify a problem to fix, be it simple, technical, or social.

At Intern Inc., we’re hoping to help bridge the gap between employers and students entering the job market in a difficult time with the power of social networking. It’s exciting to meet new people and share our story. The Denver and Boulder areas have a great startup buzz and nous. But there’s always an extra element of excitement when a startup has an inherently altruistic mission.

Enter the Bamboo Bike Studio.

The problem: How do you help people get around in a sustainable, low-impact way?

The answer: Teach people how to make their own bicycles out of bamboo.

Some folks visit the Brooklyn bike studio to build their own new bike. But the real appeal is where “self-propulsion and sustainable entrepreneurship go hand in hand.” Supporting bamboo bike factories in Africa and South America, the three 20-somethings behind Bamboo Bike Studio are creating a positive solution to an everyday problem while simultaneously putting the power of creation back into people’s hands.

Justin Aguinaldo, Marty Odlin and Sean Murray represent a form of exciting and admirable social entrepreneurship.

And we think it’s an amazing thing.

Amazing: TOMS Shoes — One for One.

Written by michael. Posted on March 18, 2010. Filed under Amazing Things. Tagged , , , , , . No comments.

Blake Mycoskie on a shoe drop.

Inspiration can strike at any time. For Blake Mycoskie — third place finisher on the second season of the Amazing Race — inspiration struck while vacationing in Argentina. Inspired by the local alpargata or espadrilles style of canvas shoe traditionally worn by farmers, Mycoskie went on to found TOMS Shoes to provide shoes for impoverished children.

The premise? One pair of shoes donated for every pair purchased. One for one.

The shoes are great — comfortable, breathable, light and stylish; I own three pairs. The concept is equally fantastic. For $44, you get a pair of shoes and the piece of mind that your purchase is also funding a pair of shoes for an impoverished child.

TOMS continues to expand and update not only their shoes and styles, but their reach and scope of the shoe drops.

And we think they’re doing amazing things.