A book a day with Blinkist

Always wanted to educate yourself more but lack the time to sit and read the relevant books all day long? You can now install Blinkist in the Appstore.

Named one of Europe’s Hottest Start-Ups in 2016 by Wired, Blinkist provides you the key insights of 2,000+ nonfiction bestsellers.

 
These books are available via the app into powerful 15-minute reads or audios. The press has been impressed by this new app and Forbes says:

"Blinkist offers a terrific service – great ideas distilled down to their very essence. For those of us who are deeply curious about new ideas on success, happiness, innovation, progress and more, it’s a great start." 

Boost your effectiveness and timemanagement in self-education.
Over 2 million users have allready installed this app to increase their knowledge and gain new perspectives.

You can use Blinkist to:

• Discover new perspectives on the world with bestsellers on science, economics, history & culture
• Explore personal development with the most impactful self-improvement titles
• Sharpen professional skills with the best business books in your own niche.
• Stay on top of the latest ideas and trending matters in various professional fields

The Blinkist app also enables you to switch between audio and text and you can read and listen offline.

Furthermore you can:

• Create your own unique personalized audio playlists to customize your learning experience
• Listen to audio versions to make a daily habit of learning
• With the Autoplay option learn hands-free, on the way, while working out or doing groceries and/or household chores.

The app offers personalized reading recommendations and suggest titles based on your interests and trading history and has a format based on brain-based learning and neuroscientific research.

It is possible to sign up for a free trial period. Content is tailored to your interests and you can start learning right away. After your trial expires, you can choose a membership that suits you. The premium version offers features like the possibility 'send-to-Kindle' and the ability to sync your highlights with Evernote.

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And what if you are still not ready to upgrade after the trial period? Then you can still read one pre-selected book-in-blinks every day, forever!

No salt please: Carbon Nano Tubes waterpurification

Together with Northeastern University researchers Lawrence Livermore scientists, have discovered and developed a new solution for future water scarcity caused by the ever increasing demands for fresh water by the growing global population.

They are called Carbon Nano Tubes or CNT for short. CTN are hollow structures made of carbon atoms in a unique arrangement with pores that can exclude salt from seawater.

Excisting water purification technologies can greatly enhance from the development of membranes with specialized pores which try to copy Nature's own extremely efficient and water selective biological proteins.

"We found that carbon nanotubes with diameters smaller than a nanometer bear a key structural feature that enables enhanced transport. The narrow hydrophobic channel forces water to translocate in a single-file arrangement, a phenomenon similar to that found in the most efficient biological water transporters," said Ramya Tunuguntla, co-author of a manuscript covering this topic in depth.

The big breakthrough achieved by the team was to use smaller-diameter nanotubes than they did before and this delivered the desired results.

"These studies revealed the details of the water transport mechanism and showed that rational manipulation of these parameters can enhance pore efficiency," said Meni Wanunu, a physics professor at Northeastern University and co-author on the study.

"Carbon nanotubes are a unique platform for studying molecular transport and nanofluidics," said Alex Noy, LLNL principal investigator on the Carbon Nano Tubes project and a senior author on the paper.

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The nanotubes are more than 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. Their inner surface being super smooth is what makes for their exceptionally high water permeability, while the miniscule pore size blocks larger salt ions.

The manuscript referred to in this article appears in the Aug. 24 edition of Science.

Star in a jar: sonoluminessence

Great short video on this super phenomenon.

Sunshine in your pocket meet the Window Socket

Up untill now there have been plenty solutions that act as a solar battery backup, but there have been none as a direct plug-in.

Up untill now..  because times are changing and here it is:

How it works?

This useful design by Kyuho Song & Boa Oh is called the Window Socket and is very simple to use: attach the plug to any window you like and the plug in does its job on its own.

Lifehack Finders Nice to Know: Easy to take with you and easy to use. This is a very handy must have item for backpackers and frequent  travellers.

Building better with Bokah Blocks!

At Kickstarter we immediately fell in love with the Bokah Blocks; a gender neutral all natural material toy which is best described as a sophisticated mix of blocks, lego, duplo, and meccano. 

Away with the tv, videogames, mobile phone, laptop, tablet and other high tech devices for a while... 

The blocks of Bokah comes in two variations: the Bokah and the Bendy which acts much like a joint giving more flexibilty in rigid buildingprojects because it can stretch, pull, bend and twist.. 

Watch your kids creativity and curiousity unfold in amazement with this really extraordinary and revolutionary toy that can truly enhance and propell the dynamics of the good old fashion hands on childsplay of building and creating your own unique objects with blocks..

                     Stretch, pull, bend and twist

The explorer set

Lifehack Finders Nice to Know: We absolutely love and support this original and innovative concept! This is especially a very good toy (and learning tool) for young kids between the ages of 5 and 10 but don't be surprised to find yourself engaged in playing along with them for hours! 

Proudly presenting.. handmade lamps

                                     

                                      

 

    

  

 

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Like us and see more: Handmade Lamps

Eco-Postcard, flowers inside a card

Looking for a original way to surprise someone you love? Not sure about sending a card or flowers to that special person? This idea is a perfect solution and it is called Eco-Postcard.

It is a beautiful 100% recycable card that comes with flower seeds within. It only takes some drops of water every day and as the plant starts to grow it can be taken out of the card without it or the card being damaged.

                     

The plant can then be transferred into another pot or vase. The card can be 100% personalized and customized making this a very special, thoughtful and personal way of communicating your feelings for someone while at the same time expressing your respect for life and nature. Sending someone your warm greetings or best wishes in this way makes it a unforgettable experience for the receiver of your Eco-Postcard.

This great innovative idea and green invention is of ABC Gadgets, Bologna, Italy, indeed a truly inspirational and naturally beautiful gift or gesture.

Lifehack Finders Nice to Know: There are different seasonal themes for cards like Valentine's day, Mothers day, Christmas cards and even Wedding invitations and congratulations.

Fine durable design, and solar power combined in new solar roof tiles by Tesla and SolarCity

An updated version of the energy-storing Powerwall is combined with camouflaged roof tiles, the Solar Roof and Powerwall 2 were shown during a Tesla event at Universal Studios in LA.

Made from glass and available in four styles, the panels are bringing ecological technology and modern design together because the cells are camouflaged by a coloured film.

The product named Powerwall 2, has twice as much energy and twice as much power as the first version and can provide enough energy to power a four-bedroom house for an entire day. In combination with the Solar Roof, it supplies 100% renewable energy for the home.

"It's never going to wear out, it's made of quartz, it has a quasi-infinite lifetime," Tesla founder Elon Musk said. To demonstrate this specific and interesting quality of the product, it was dropped on the floor before an audience during the presentation.

"We need to make solar panels as appealing as electric cars have become," said Musk. "The goal is to have solar roofs that look better than a normal roof."

Musk set the SolarCity and Tesla merge as an significant step in the development of an integrated solar panel and battery product based on the Powerwall.

Lifehackfinders Nice to Know:
The presentation took place at Universal Studios on the set of the popular tv series Desperate Housewifes which ended in 2012.
A series of the houses of the fictional Wisteria Lane were stripped of their old roofing materials after which they were replaced with one of four visiually similar styles.

Bendables screens and foldable devices

Samsung is very busy developing and launching two new smartphone models with bendable screens, including a version that can be fold in half.

These devices will be using organic light-emitting diodes and could be introduced this year. The second Samsung model will have a 5-inch screen when used as a handset, that unfurls into a display that’s as large as 8 inches, like a tablet.

 “Their biggest obstacle was related to making transparent plastics and making them durable, which seems resolved by now.” says an IBK Securities Co. analyst from Seoul.

Codenamed “Project Valley,” it is rumoured that Samsung could start an official productlaunch very soon now.

Samsung will not market the new bendable-screen models under the Galaxy S name, according to a confidential source.

While previously released videoclips featuring the foldable concept phones have been around, Samsung has yet not made such a device commercially.

Lifehackers Nice To Know:
The OLED technology based displays are thinner with brighter colors and are less draining on the battery than those in most current phones.