Food, recession and savings: the future of food is freeze dried

Tamara Huffman is a Virginia Mom who devotes half of her laundry room to storing freeze-dried food. She says whatever she can stock away at today’s prices will help her save money when tomorrow’s prices go up. Plus, she says she gets peace of mind knowing she can keep feeding her family, even if her husband loses his job sometime between now and the year 2036. Until recently, experts say the only reason people stockpiled food was to survive a major disaster. Now, most people are stockpiling to survive rising food costs.

North Americans are saving an average of three times more than they were before the recession: Food manufacturers are reporting a jump in sales for boxed cheese powder, canned ham, frozen meats, and freeze-dried fruits and vegetables. This winter, Costco stores offered a one-year supply of dehydrated and freeze-dried food that sold out almost instantly!

Even as the economy improves, families are unlikely to shake the savings habits they adopted during the recession. That’s why coupon-clipping will stay hot, and why people will keep switching from name brand to generic products to save money.

Full text on John Tesh's website: http://tesh.com/ittrium/visit/A1x97x1y1xa5x1x76y1x242bx1x9by1x2430x1y5x1fd8ax5x1

Thoughful

Guys would be able to find the perfect gift and offer it on time, without their wives having to make 1,000 allusions so that they finally get it????

Happy Valentine's Day!

http://www.techmissus.com/2011/02/01/lapplication-thoughtful-veut-permettre-aux-hommes-doffrir-le-cadeau-approprie-pour-la-fete-de-saint-valentin/#

adiVerse Virtual Footwear Wall

Adidas Virtual Footwear Wall

Adidas and Intel collaborated to develop 3-D screens in points of sale, and show up to 8,000 shoes in the same store, with 3-D visual, technical description and marketing communication available to the customer.

First store to open: in the UK in 2012!

http://www.fastcompany.com/1715933/intel-adidas-virtual-footwear-wall

Marketing or Creativity???

Just as Lady Gaga has been Polaroid's Creative Director, Will-i-am from the Black Eyed Peas is now Director of creative innovation for Intel, regarding new technologies, music and "compute continuum".

Let's see what journalists think about it:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/26/intel-hires-will-i-am-as-director-of-creative-innovation-whol/

http://www.techmissus.com/2011/01/26/intel-embauche-le-chanteur-will-i-am-des-black-eyed-peas-en-tant-que-director-of-creative-innovation/

Outox : La boisson qui diminue les effets de l’alcool ?

Lancée aujourd’hui, la nouvelle boisson Outox est destinée en premier lieu à diminuer les effets de l’alcool sur l’organisme et en second lieu (et surtout !) à créer la polémique.
En effet, un buzz sulfureux précède l’arrivée sur le marché français de cette canette prétendument « anti-alcool ».
Lors de la présentation du produit, votre aimable serviteur a eu l’ « honneur » de le goûter.
Le verdict est sans appel : ce n’est pas bon. Bien trop sucrée, Outox a le goût d’un energy drink hyper fruité. Pourtant, ses composants sont tous d’origine naturelle.

Ensuite, son argument marketing est peu recevable : certes, il est possible que sa composition, un mélange de fructose et d’acide ascorbique, atténue les effets de l’alcool, mais est-ce vraiment ce que l’on demande lorsque l’on lève le coude ?
Ceux qui sont derrière ce lancement tentent de calmer la controverse en clamant leur investissement dans la lutte contre l’alcoolisme et dans la nécessité d’avoir une consommation responsable d’alcool.

USA : la tendance des Food Trucks

Tendance lourde depuis quelques mois au pays de l’Oncle Sam : le retour des food trucks, ces camions itinérants qui se déplacent d’un point à un autre pour proposer des spécialités.
Entre le Go Burger à New York, le Green Truck à Venice ou le Flyong Pig truck à Los Angeles, les grandes villes américaines voient leurs rues envahies par ces “trucks” qui ressuscitent nos antiques camions à glaces.
En France, on connaissait déjà les camions à pizzas que l’on croise parfois au détour d’une rue ou d’un marché. Aux USA’s, le concept se décline à toutes les sauces, de l’hamburger à la nourriture bio. Les restaurateurs misent sur l’originalité de la carte et/ou de la décoration de leur camion. Par exemple, le Baby’s Badass Burgers à Los Angeles a opté pour un décor sexy en diable (un camion rose avec des dessins de pin up) et des titres de plats évocateurs : le Cougar, le Hot chic… De quoi attiser attirer la curiosité des passants !
De plus, le concept de ces camions s’est mis à l’heure du web 2.0 : pour trouver l’emplacement du Go Burger par exemple, les clients-internautes peuvent consulter son Twitter. Ce principe a été repris par l’un de nos compatriotes, Ludovic Lefebvre, qui propose son propre camion dédié à la gastronomie française : Ludo’s bite ! Le site de micro-blogging a assuré son succès puisque les réservations se sont remplies aussitôt après l’annonce de l’ouverture de son camion.

HR innovation from Banque Laurentienne

New offices of La Banque Laurentienne just opened in Berri-UQAM metro station.
But they do not provide any banking services in this office: they interview and hire people!

Climate Change Chocolate

Chocolate bars. They're supposed to taste good, but can they also be good? We think so!

Our Climate Change Chocolate bar is meant to educate while tasting great. It comes in a wrapper with 15 tips for lightening your environmental impact. These helpful hints teach you how to save energy by making small changes to your daily habits. And of course, thanks to Bloomsberry & Co., you can be sure the finest chocolate is attached to these green lifestyle lessons.

Climate Change Chocolate comes with a verified TerraPass offset of 133 pounds of carbon dioxide reductions, the average American’s daily carbon impact. We hope this small offset will be the first taste of a lower-carbon lifestyle for Whole Foods shoppers who decide to take responsibility for their climate change impact.

In addition, the carbon emissions associated with the production and distribution of the chocolate bar has been balanced out.

http://www.terrapass.com/lp/index.chocolate.html

Introducing Transcend, Recon Instruments' collaboration with Colorado’s Zeal Optics. Transcend is the world's first GPS-enabled goggles with a head-mounted display system.

Minimum interaction is required during use, sleek graphics and smart optics are completely unobtrusive for front and peripheral vision making it the ultimate solution for use in fast-paced environments.

Transcend provides real-time feedback including speed, latitude/longitude, altitude, vertical distance travelled, total distance travelled, chrono/stopwatch mode, a run-counter, temperature and time. It is also the only pair of goggles in the world that boasts GPS capabilities, USB charging and data transfer, and free post-processing software all with a user-friendly, addictive interface.

Just like the dashboard of a sports car or the instruments of a fighter jet, Transcend's display provides performance-enhancing data, but only when you choose to view it. Safe, smart, fun...all wrapped up in the hottest goggle frame of 2010/11.

http://www.reconinstruments.com/