Need a back massager that doubles as a wine fridge? Look elsewhere, because Sharper Image is closing half of its stores “as soon as possible” and declaring bankruptcy.
The Washington Post featured a delightfully snarky article reflecting on the steady collapse of everyone’s favorite browse-but-don’t-buy shop:
“What are we losing? A world of luminescent safety leashes, hideaway gyms, telescoping ladders — an entire chain dedicated to the idea of streamlining your life by .002 percent. The Sharper Image is a place that sells a lighted nose-hair trimmer, which is to say it targets men who already own a regular nose hair trimmer in the hopes they’ll think it’s worth $40 to get a better look up their nostrils.”
I own a single Sharper Image product. Predictably, it’s a beard trimmer. I have no idea why I purchased it at Sharper Image versus…well…any other store at the mall. But I digress. The fact is, many trips into Sharper Image stores resulted in one (~$30) purchase. Apparently, I’m a typical customer.
Continue reading ‘RIP Sharper Image’
Sunday, at least in my part of the country, was a gloomy day of bitter cold, rain, and gray skies. As a result, I stayed indoors and read a fair share of blogs. Here are a few gems I uncovered:
- The Japanese space agency, in partnership with Mitsubishi, launched a ridiculously cool satellite. This is an amazing step forward in terms of connectivity, and I’m excited to see how this seemingly cheap (given the scale?) project pans out:
“[The satelite] will bring high-speed internet access to Japan and neighboring countries. The $342 million project [...] is expected to culminate in a terrestrially accessible internet connection reaching speeds of 1.2Gbps, dwarfing current [DSL] connections that typically allow data transfer to occur at [or] below 8 Mbps.”
- In about three months, domestic airlines will use 100% electronic tickets. That doesn’t mean a complete end to paper during the course of your travels, but it does complete the seemingly obvious transition to computer-based records in place of paper tickets. Oh, by the way: it will save the airlines over $3 billion a year.
- A Spanish firm will soon begin construction on the largest solar power plant in the world near Phoenix, Arizona. Initial estimates price the power (enough to serve 70,000 homes) at 20 cents per kWh, or twice the price of coal-fired plants. But, as the article points out, that cost disadvantage could disappear if the US moved toward a cap-and-trade or carbon tax system.
- Recent major events in my life (ahem#getting engaged#ahem), made me think about this piece dissecting colleges and universities’ outdated means of connecting with young alumni for contributions:
[Alumni magazines are increasingly irrelevant to recent grads]. “Why wait four months for ‘class notes’ when you could simply check Facebook to see what a friend is up to?” Further, while many colleges have online giving programs, many also still communicate with alumni as if writing a check is the normal way to give. “It likely shocks most development officers as to the percentage of young alumni who don’t write checks, or own stamps.”
- I watched an embarrassing number of episodes of Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel today. They ran an all day marathon, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. You see, I used to look down my nose at Dirty Jobs as sort of a one-trick-pony: “I get it…he gets dirty doing disgusting things.” But the combination of host Mike Rowe’s quick wit and this Fast Company profile describing his motivations for the show and evolving view of work turned me into a fan. The profile is a great read.
That should get your week started. Hope it’s a good one.
Since I’ve already gushed with geeky joy over gadget blogs, I feel safe bringing this (extremely useful) gizmo to your attention:
The Eco-eye is a straightforward concept: a real time accounting of energy use in your home and the corresponding carbon emission. It also displays the cost of your energy use on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis.
Little tools like this encourage a healthy level of guilt in our consumption of energy–inspiring us though our competitive nature to turn off the lights when we leave the room and unplug “vampire appliances” that draw energy when idle. Something like this exists in most hybrid cars: a green “ECO” lights up on the dash when the car reaches peak efficiency, and a real-time display shows the driver what mileage he or she is achieving over the course of a trip. While it’s sort of silly, these types of incentives work. Sure, we’re saving money by identifying wasteful drains on our home energy or maximizing gas mileage…but it’s also uniquely satisfying to feel like you’re driving as efficiently as possible or powering your home in a sensible way.
So, in the “Things You Might Not Know About Taylor” category, I’d like to discuss my casual obsession (do those exist?) with gadget blogs. Some people really like diving into the Soduku puzzle in their morning paper, zoning out in front of the Today Show with a bowl of cereal, or flying around their apartment in a flurry of chaotic activity trying to simultaneously shave, shower, dress, and make coffee…all in order to make it out the door 5 minutes late. I used to be the chaotic “mornings are hell” type, but since transitioning to the “real” world I’ve settled into a morning routine that generally includes equal parts NPR, not shaving (the joys of facial hair), and…you guessed it…gadget blog browsing.
Before I go on, I should clarify: I don’t own a lot of gadgets. Of the thousands (and I do mean thousands, but we’ll get to that in a minute) of nerdy, unnecessary, hillarious, and sometimes positively sweet shiny gizmos I view in my morning haze, there aren’t many I could afford or would want to buy. But that’s not even the point. Gadgets represent, in the best and worst ways, the cutting edge of change: little geeky harbingers of what we never thought we would need…but actually might be handy. They appeal to the inner techno-geek inside all of us (everybody has one of those right? no? oh…) that, let’s face it, thinks for just a moment that even the most wildly impractical items would REVOLUTIONIZE our work productivity, household, or even social interactions.
Continue reading ‘An Ode To Gadget Blogs’
