Author Archives: Debra Atlas

Full Name: Debra Atlas Website:
Info: Debra Atlas is a freelance environmental writer and eco-enthusiast based in Northern California, and is the Red Ferret’s Ecological Editor. Debra looks for the upside of eco-change - what’s positive, making a difference. She hunts down those interesting things cooked up by creative minds, especially if they’re strange and eccentric.
nice idea... December 28, 2012 posted by Debra Atlas

Northmate’s Green lets pets eat slower

Many pet owners worry about their dogs gobbling down their food. In larger dogs, this can lead to bloat, an often fatal condition.Green by Northmate helps dogs eat slower while giving them some challenging fun too. Green’s 43 “blades”, designed to simulate grass tufts, are safe plastic that challenge dogs to get a proper grip on their food, providing entertainment as well as promoting slower, healthier eating. Designed for dogs of all sizes and breeds, this fun “food dish” is…

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Northmate’s Green lets pets eat slower
hmm..interesting December 28, 2012 posted by Debra Atlas

The Flatmate desk is a fit-anywhere necessity

With the growing emphasis on smaller and more energy efficient living, a standard desk just won’t do. The Flatmate, the sleek, slim workstation designed by Michael Hilgers and produced by Müller Möbelwerkstätten, offers plenty of storage and work space while taking up minimal space. Able to be fixed to an adjoining wall via a V-strip and two screws when closed, the Flatmate measures just 27 x 44 x 4 inches (71 x 114 x 12 cm) and is perhaps the…

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The Flatmate desk is a fit-anywhere necessity
Awesome December 14, 2012 posted by Debra Atlas

The Escape Belt means easy underwater release

The idea of being unable to release your seatbelt in car that’s landed in the water is all too real. In that kind of emergency, when fear and panic so quickly set in, the Escape Belt is a super-useful device to have. Developed by the Dutch company Fijen TMLS, this life-saving device attaches to a car’s existing seat belt buckle (the part with the button, that the belt’s tongue plugs into) and incorporates a small salt pill. When water rushes…

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The Escape Belt means easy underwater release
Gadgets December 14, 2012 posted by Debra Atlas

Boomz – the small speaker with loud performance

It’s the holiday season and looking for that special gift for audio lovers just got easier. Boomz Audio has come out with small, candy-colored speakers that can to connect to any smartphone, laptop or tablet for great easy listening without earphones. They’re small but deliver great sound. They’re portable, durable, rechargable and take up so little space, they’ll fit almost anywhere. And this handy speaker even functions as an all-in-one portable MP3 player. Just add a micro SD card (not…

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Boomz – the small speaker with loud performance
nice idea... December 7, 2012 posted by Debra Atlas

Flexy CordT – a handy, slinky-type extension cord

Extension cords are necessities of life, particularly with all the electronic gadgets we keep acquiring. But cords notoriously unattractive and too often get underfoot. The Flexy CordT takes extension cords to a new dimension. This cool new extension cord is reminiscent of an ever-popular toy – the slinky. With its tangle-and kink-proof ability, the Flexy CordT operates on “memory”, always returning to its original retracted length. It comes in four different lengths: 4 inches (extends to 8 feet), 5 inches…

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Flexy CordT – a handy, slinky-type extension cord
hmm..interesting November 30, 2012 posted by Debra Atlas

Transforming house can adapt to changing seasons

With all the new architectural wonders springing from the drawing board to reality these days, is it so difficult to imagine a house that can transform itself to fit a variety of configurations? Seems that the D’Dynamic – a house that can fold itself into eight different configurations – could bring this idea to reality. This building’s distinctive design is based on the Haberdasher’s Puzzle, discovered by English mathematician Henry Dudeney, which allows an equilateral triangle that’s cut into four…

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Transforming house can adapt to changing seasons
Eco Friendly November 16, 2012 posted by Debra Atlas

Plastic waste transformed into floating islands to help restore African lake’s ecosystem

Even as more plastic waste accumulates in our oceans, creative minds are devising innovative ways to reuse post-consumer plastic to help our environment. Such is the case of the German REWE Group which plans to create plastic floating islands planted with papyrus, then use them to help rebuild the ecosystem of Africa’s Lake Naivasha. The papyrus restoration partnership between UK-owned tea producer and flower grower Finlays and Dr David Harper, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Leicester, is intended…

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Plastic waste transformed into floating islands to help restore African lake’s ecosystem
Gadgets November 9, 2012 posted by Debra Atlas

The Gadget Hound – a handy device that helps you find lost items

We’ve all done it – dropped or put things down only to realize later we don’t know where they are. Then the hunting begins! The Gadget Hound can definitely be a real timesaver. This nifty device can help locate missing keys, sunglasses, even cell phones. Just attach a small receiver (smaller than the size of a quarter) to the items you’re most likely to misplace. Then you can track it down with the transmitter. Each Gadget Hound includes four or…

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The Gadget Hound – a handy device that helps you find lost items
cool tech October 12, 2012 posted by Debra Atlas

A Macgyver robot could help save the day in future disasters

For those who may not remember, MacGyver was a popular TV show in the 1980’s. The lead character, handsomely played by Richard Dean Anderson, took mundane things like chewing gum and paper clips and solve complex problems and escape dangerous situations by turning them into useful, lifesaving tools. All this was ostensibly based on theoretical physics. Now the Navy is taking a page from that idea. It’s funding a group of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology to hopefully…

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A Macgyver robot could help save the day in future disasters
nice idea... October 5, 2012 posted by Debra Atlas

New spray bottle is child-resistant

Researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s The Research Institute, in partnership with Ohio State University, have created a prototype spray bottle for household cleaning products that they say is child-resistant. Its two-stage trigger mechanism will discourage young children from using these spray bottles, mainly because they lack the developed ability to use them in the sequential order necessary. Also, young children’s hand size and strength simply aren’t capable of activating this. The trigger mechanism will return to a locked state after…

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New spray bottle is child-resistant
hmm..interesting October 5, 2012 posted by Debra Atlas

Laundry Additive helps clothes remove pollution from the air

Hanging wash to dry is an ages old way to get that fresh clean scent in your clothes. But with air pollution increasing, it’s not always practical. But researchers from the University of Sheffield and the London College of Fashion have created a laundry additive called CatClo,” (short for Catalytic Clothing) that can help clothing remove nitrogen oxides (NOx) from the air. CatClo contains pollution-eating titanium dioxide nanoparticles that helps fight air pollution – just by wearing our regular clothes….

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Laundry Additive helps clothes remove pollution from the air
Fun & Games September 21, 2012 posted by Debra Atlas

The Popinator makes eating popcorn more fun

Popcorn lovers have always had one disadvantage. Whatever they’re doing – driving, playing video games or working – they always have to stop what they’re doing to dive for their favorite snack. The Popinator could be an elegant and fun solution. The Popinator is an automated popcorn-shooting device. Created by snack maker, Popcorn Indiana, it uses a binaural microphone system – which is similar to how we hear things – and when it “hears” the word “pop”, it launches a…

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The Popinator makes eating popcorn more fun
cool tech September 14, 2012 posted by Debra Atlas

New Smart Fabric could be the latest in burglar proofing

Yet another amazing breakthrough has been announced by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration in Berlin, Germany. Called Smart Fabric, it’s a simple-seeming sheet of fabric that incorporates silver-coated conductive threads webbed together that are connected to a microcontroller. When weakened or broken by an intruder, it acts as an anti-intruder alarm, identifying the exact location of the break-in. This remarkable fabric will be significantly cheaper than current burgler alarm systems and can be placed in a…

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New Smart Fabric could be the latest in burglar proofing
Awesome August 3, 2012 posted by Debra Atlas

Phoenix program would capture and repurpose “dead” satellites in space

The beautiful, marble-like photograph of Earth from space we’ve grown used to seeing isn’t really accurate. An estimated 300,000 plus pieces of metal debris orbit the earth, thousands of which are satellites that for various reasons no longer function. Now a U.S. Department of Defense program called Phoenix plans to capture some of these and repurpose them, to give them a chance at a second life. The process would require complicated choreography of software, engineering, and deft maneuvering of robotic…

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Phoenix program would capture and repurpose “dead” satellites in space