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When I was very small my mother used to make hard boiled eggs for me at breakfast time.  I don’t remember liking them very much, until I discovered salt.

Now Ben Harris, a student at Brunel University, has advanced egg science quite a bit further.  Harris’s rather good idea: apply some heat sensitive ink on the shell of an egg to let you know how cooked it is.  Will egg timers die out?  For more, see http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2292596_1,00.html

Of course, once you’ve applied such technology to eggs, why stop there?  Bacon, watch out …

I have seen some amazing presentations and heard some great conversations by scientists and inventors and entrepreneurs lately. I highly recommend taking a look at:

Hans Rosling’s presentation on how the world is changing. If there is simply one thing you must see, that will give you hope for humanity and a greater understanding of the world, it is Hans Rosling’s talk. It’s about how the countries of the world have changed over the last 40 years,and it’s super rich data presented in an amazing visual style: (http://tedblog.typepad.com/tedblog/2006/06/hans_rosling_on.html)

James Dyson’s presentation on his personal history of invention. (http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/362/)

Tina Seelig’s presentation of 10 things she wish she knew when she was 20. (click on Seelig’s video at http://etl.stanford.edu/archive/)

Fabrice Grinda’s discussion of his entrepreneurial career. (http://www.venturevoice.com/2005/12/vv_show_21_fabrice_grinda_of_z.html)

Also, be sure to check out other presentations from the organizations that put up such interesting speeches:

TED (http://www.ted.com/)

MIT World (http://mitworld.mit.edu/)

Stanford’s ETL program (http://etl.stanford.edu/archive/)

Venture Voice (http://www.venturevoice.com/)

Truly inspiring stuff!

I’m a big believer in letting others use what I don’t use, whether it’s clothes, books, or electronics. Someone went through the trouble of creating what I’m not using, and it seems wasteful to just let it linger nearby. Some items are worth selling on eBay or Amazon or elsewhere, others can be given to friends, and some items are more suitably donated. I recently found a site which lets you donate computers to someone less fortunate: http://www.bridgethedigitaldivide.com/donate_individual.htm