Get Smarter
Consider yourself fortunate if you’ve never experienced a situation like this: Something comes up in conversation at a social gathering—a reference to a political issue or a historical event or an artist’s work—and you think, "I should know about that, but I don’t." So instead of contributing an insightful comment that keeps the conversation flowing, you respond with a nod and maybe an "Uh huh" or a "Hmm," which prompts the speaker to look over your shoulder, desperately seeking someone else to speak with, someone who looks more interesting.
iMinds, a company that was founded last year in Sydney, Australia, doesn’t promise that it will make you the life of the cocktail party. But it claims it can help fill your knowledge gaps with its MindTracks, a collection of eight-minute-long audio recordings that cover subjects ranging from politics to business to religion to science to pop culture.
The company plans to make several hundred different MindTracks by the end of this year. They come in a digital format that can be downloaded and listened to on a computer, a smart phone, an iPod, or any MP3 player.
Natural Man
If a tree falls in David Stine’s forest, chances are he’ll transform it into a piece of furniture, one that bears all of the markings that the tree has acquired over the decades, including knots and even insect holes. The imperfections, Stine has said, serve as a reminder that his furniture—tables, benches, bed headboards—comes from nature.
More specifically, Stine, who is 38 and founded David Stine Woodworking in 1995, while he was a law student, sources the wood for his furniture from his family’s 400-acre farm in Illinois. He culls the forest, removing trees that have died or fallen or been otherwise damaged by wind. Using a pickup that’s powered by a mixture of diesel and vegetable oil biodiesel, he drives the tree trunks to his shop and studio in nearby Dow, Ill., where he cuts the wood, dries it, and then usually only minimally alters it while making it into furniture. Because Stine leaves the wood in such a natural state, no two pieces of his furniture are the same.
Light Metal
The aluminum bodies of Jim Normandy’s guitars are intended to do more than just look cool. According to Normandy, who initially moonlighted as a guitar maker while working as a bank executive earlier this decade, the aluminum allows notes to ring longer and clearer.
Normandy, who is 45, made his first aluminum guitar for himself, in the 1990s, when he was in a punk band and couldn’t afford the bass guitar he wanted. Intent on playing an instrument that looked unique, he made his guitar’s body out of aluminum. In the process, he discovered the metal’s musical benefits. Normandy went into guitar making full time and established Normandy Guitars in 2007, in Salem, Ore., after cutbacks at HSBC cost him his job as a regional vice president for the bank.
Normandy now offers six-string electric guitars and bass guitars with archtop or V-shaped bodies—all made of aluminum and attached to a maple neck. The guitars are available in nine different colors and three different finishes and cost from $2,000 to $3,000.
