The Espresso: Edition 102
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Wednesday July 13 2011

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Letter From the Editor - Edition 102

Talent Needs Opportunity

Whilst working out at the gym on the weekend I happened to engage in a conversation with a personal trainer who was watching the TV screen showing MTV. Wes Carr was on the screen and the personal trainer made the comment that this guy had come through Australian Idol. He said 'its a great show at giving kids a start ........ talent just needs opportunity doesn't it!'. Indeed a lot of these reality shows do highlight the amazing talent that exists around the place and gives individuals an opportunity to shine. I wonder how many creative ideas stay in people minds and never see the light of day. How much talent are we missing out on?  Don't let your talent remain undiscovered. Speak up, get your ideas heard, take every opportunity that presents itself and if you don't get an opportunity...make one. It is through those opportunities that people will discover your talent!

Health

A Good Night's Sleep

A good night's sleep is critical for good health. Resting your body and rejuvenating your spirit are also absolutely vital for firing your imagination and your creativity. The Somnus Sleep Shirt is a brand new innovation helping you gain an insight into your sleeping patterns. It is said that "If you can measure it, then you can fix it" and this seemingly comfy shirt helps with monitoring and measuring how well you are sleeping. The form fitting Somnus Sleep Shirt  is embedded with two sensors that keep track of your breathing during the night. The unit comes with a small device which is plugged in to your shirt and when you wake up you simply plug it into a base station uploading all the information. The resulting analytics give you feedback on how you have slept and suggestions on how you may get a better nights sleep. 

Investment

"What's the Word on the Tweet?"

The Espresso loves finding service industries that take on innovation and this certainly is an interesting one. Derwent Capital Markets are launching a hedge fund that uses Twitter to monitor the mood of the market in order to give recommendations. Here's how it works. Paul Hawtin the founder and fund manager has developed an algorithm that can report to their hedge fund the mood of the market based on the conversations taking place on Twitter. For example recently the overall mood of the Twittersphere showed high levels of anxiety, and they believe this anxiety translated to a fall in the Dow Jones Index. We are fascinated to know how this works and perhaps more importantly, whether it does indeed work. Common sense would say that tapping into social media can certainly give an indication as to the mood on the street. Translating that into an algorithm to make 'punts' on investments is bold, innovative and we are intrigued. There have been many books written about this type of conversation including the wisdom of crowds. This is taking the wisdom of crowds and putting it into the Twittersphere. 

Travel

Hitching a Ride

No doubt Espresso readers have heard of various ride sharing concepts using cars. We recently came across one called Social Flights which is ride sharing based on aeroplanes. The deal is you go onto the Social Flights website and log the trip you would like to make. That post is then shared amongst the network and other people wanting to share the same trip can log their name next to yours. When enough people want to fly, Social Flights organises an aeroplane and off you go. It means that a small group of people can travel via a small private jet, whilst still sharing the costs. Social Flights has proven in the US that this is actually more cost effective than flying on a commercial flight and they believe that this is a particularly great idea for people interested in sports, travelling to concerts, weekends away or even business flights if you have enough flexibility. Since launching in Feburary they put together twelve flights and it's obviously going to only grow if the flexibile price model and sociability factors work for everyone. 

Environment

Up We Grow

There's no doubt with the rising cost of real estate we are being forced to downsize in many aspects of our world. One area to suffer is quite often the backyard and hence our capacity to grow a garden. With that in mind WhirliGro has targeted those people with limited growing space with a spiral shaped tube that elevates food crops up off the ground enabiling greater production using less space. Its said that WhirliGro is perfect for fast growing leaf crops in that you can grow up to 30 plants in a small area measuring just 1x1 metre. The plants grow through holes in a twisted plastic tubing reducing also the need for you to have to weed on a regular basis and because the plants are off the ground pests become less of a problem. We love this idea and hope to see it in Australia soon. 

Technology

Fast Drive

We have spoken previously about the principle that "elephants dance with elephants". By partnering with another brand you can either elevate yourself in the mind of the customer, or conversely you can hinder yourself through a less fortunate association. Recently we talked about Calloway Golf Clubs teaming up with Lamborghini. Well now Porsche Design have partnered with Lacie Partners to create an official line of USB 3.0 Hard Drive's. Supposedly they take the clean and minimal Porsche look and turn it into a hard drive. We are guessing that they will be coming with the Porsche type price tag...and we are not seeing it.
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The Espresso is a weekly free newspaper designed specifically for those who want to look at things differently.

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Gary scours the world to find interesting tips, tools and news to give you a new or different perspective on the world around you.