Taking an unbelievably low 24th place on TIME magazine's Best Inventions of 2008, Bionic Contacts have totally blown me away.


 
Created by Univ. of Washington's Babak Parviz, these contact lenses are designed to project a visual display into the wearer's field of vision. Other applications include night vision, augmented/virtual reality, and high power zoom. Powered by a tiny solar cell (also in your eye), and fed via radio frequency, the possibilities for this technology are endless, and quite scary. What's next? Video capture (see eyeborg)? X-Ray vision? Bring it on Mr. Parviz, and try to price these sweet babies under $100, would you please?

{image via Univ of WA}

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Rice Chex are now Gluten Free!
Why is this Terifik? Reinventing a staple like Rice Chex without rebranding it makes for a huge gesture on the part of General Mills.

For years, I've been unable to buy these tasty morsels of main-stream goodness due to a household barley allergy. "Why barley?" I'd say to myself, as I passed them by to pick up the much more expensive gluten-free alternative.

Thanks General Mills; and extra props for going all the way and not pulling a "New Coke" on us.

More info at Chex.com, along with some helpful gluten-free Chex recipes.

Available ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE for about $3.00

Lighting a tree to celebrate the holiday season can prove to be more environmentally unfriendly than cutting one down in the first place. In our home, we do what we can to minimize our holiday carbon footprint. We decorate the existing houseplants, and last year, we decked our halls with Philips LED White Dome Lights.

Simply put, these lights shine with excellence. Not your parent's 1-inch incandescents, these puppies both outlast and outperform them. With a 25,000 hour average bulb life, and sipping a mere 4.8 watts to power 60 bulbs, Philips claims they can save as much as 88% of the energy used by a common strand. Cool to the touch, we're confident they won't harm (or burn down) our tree. And my personal favorite attribute: the color temperature of the LED bulbs has an icy blue coldness that lends a pleasant wintery feeling to our sun-filled home.

The holidays are a time to gather with loved ones to celebrate and feel good. This year you can feel a bit better about your decorations using LED based strand lights from Philips.

Pick up a set from Target for around $10.