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We’re one step closer to Aunt Beru’s Star Wars-cool Kitchen

Screen Shot 2015-05-23 at 2.39.22 PMAunt Beru gets even less screen time than Uncle Owen in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, but all geeks remember her funky kitchen. Clean, space age appliances that made cool whirring noises and showed quite the contrast to the outside of their home that looked like some dusty ant hills in the desert. Their kitchen looked like IKEA and a geek had a baby.

A couple of Dutch designers, Nils Chudy and Jasmina Grase, are about to bring us a bit closer to that reality – albeit without the blue milk or subsequent destruction by Imperial troops. Chudy and Grase present us with a problem we didn’t realize we had, and give us a super cool solution we want – and we want it now! We are using too much time and energy heating up a kettle of water for our hot tea. These out of the box thinkers came up with a way to pull of induction even in your favorite ceramic or glass mug – by using a metal piston of sorts that does the work for you. Just heat the water you need, not a whole pot full. It’s quicker and doesn’t waste all the energy you could be expending lighting the streets of London. 🙂

This is apparently what happens when you boil an entire kettle of water instead of using Induction - like they do with the MIITO.

This is apparently what happens when you boil an entire kettle of water instead of using Induction – like they do in the MIITO.

Their Kickstarter project, the MIITO, still has a couple of weeks left until the campaign is over – so you can back them now or order later… but it’s clear that they have already exceeded their funding goal by over a quarter of a million dollars as of me typing this out. So far, backers have pledged $402,533 of their $167,383 goal. It has been my experience with Kickstarter that you want to back early – you get one of the first shipments after they’re made and you’re not waiting for them to fulfill other orders before they get to yours.

induction

Canva can make you look like a design rock star

Canva can make you a superstar!

Canva can make you a superstar!

I personally take pride in crafting my own logos and designs, but sometimes I need something quick and dirty for a project – maybe for a social media post on one of my gigs – that’s when I turn to Canva. In just literally a few seconds, I created the design below. Yes – it’s completely random – but it looks slick, sharp and just cool in a snap. I am not exaggerating. Literally seconds to create these designs. Many of the elements are completely free – but the also offer premium photos and illustrations at just $1 a pop to help make your design stand out… so if you need a graphic to stand out in your Twitter feed, your Facebook post, or something classy to add to an e-mail newsletter, Canva can make you look like rock star at no cost… and it can make you look like a superstar for just a buck. The site lets you export your work out as a high-res PDF or a JPG for free and it’s pretty intuitive to use. The site is super slick – behaves like software in that it’s fast – no delay while things load into the browser. Check it out.

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