What’s a Dog For?
In What’s a Dog For?, Homans explores the dog’s complex and prominent place in our world and how it came to be. Evolving from wild animals to working animals to nearly human members of our social fabric, dogs are now the subject of serious scientific studies concerning pet ownership, evolutionary theory, and even cognitive science.
From new insights into what makes dogs so appealing to humans to the health benefits associated with owning a dog, Homans investigates why the human-canine relationship has evolved so rapidly—how dogs moved into our families, our homes, and sometimes even our beds in the span of a generation, becoming a $53 billion industry in the United States in the process.
Source: Fancycrave.com
Philips Fidelio Wireless Speakers with AirPlay
Enjoy an immersive sound experience with the Philips Fidelio SoundRing AirPlay speaker. This speaker lets you wirelessly stream music from your iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, or your computer’s iTunes library, and uses SoundRing design for crystal-clear, detailed audio. The Fidelio SoundRing is 100% portable and will conveniently play and charge your device simultaneously.
It features an aux-in jack for easy hookup to virtually any electronic device. To expand your entertainment options, it works with the free Fidelio app for access to a range of music and other features. The speaker has a built-in lithium-ion battery so you can bring it with you or try out different locations in your home.
Source: Fancycrave.com
Black Playing Cards by Balance Wu Design
A brand new black on black deck of playing cards featuring futuristic version of the classic King, Queen, Jack and Joker. Based on a simple concept of pursuing coolness, this is a dark and stylish black on black colored deck of cards with original face card designs. It is sure to make your next poker night, pitch black.
Source: Fancycrave.com
How to Make a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
Crowdfunding is the wave of the future and if you’re reading this, chances are you’ve heard about it. Websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo provide a way for complete strangers to find and financially support entrepreneurs or startups in their quest for capital before they can produce their product. If you’re interested in launching your own crowd funding campaign and want to make it as successful as possible, here are a few tips that should help.
Keys to Success
Give Value – Because crowd funding is a business transaction and not a handout, it’s extremely important to give value with your campaign. If you view your campaign as a donation instead of a purchase you will fail. Give your backers something for their time and they will give you their money. This is not your opportunity to get more money than you deserve. Make it a fair transaction and you’ll be one step closer to success.
Backers – These are the people who’ve chosen you, chosen your product, and want you to succeed. Treat them well and keep them informed. Offer them incentives for backing you early. Limited edition items or product discounts (for ordering early) are good starts. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box. In fact, get creative and people will be drawn to you.
Goals – Without financial backing you won’t be able to produce your product or complete your project. Without goals you won’t receive financial backing. People don’t like to commit to things without definable goals. Setting good achievable goals is necessary but you also need to consider goals that motivate and drive. Being a little outside your comfort zone is probably a good thing.
Rewards – Offer your backers excellent rewards. Set tiers (low $, mid $$, and high $$$) that motivate people to give more than they would otherwise want to give. By creating a tiered system what you’re really telling backers is that they don’t want to be at the bottom. A combination of value, goals and rewards will help contributors select the higher tiers.
5 Principles of User Centric Approach to Website Design
Rather than the design of a website, it’s the users that determine your success. You obviously need to get the basics of web designing right, but what is of utmost importance is that you need to deliver a website that a user will like.
Doesn’t the client for whom you are designing enter the picture here? Of course the client, essentially the website owner, is important, but all website owners want their websites to be successful and this is only possible if the website meets the expectations of the user.
Give the users what they want; this thinking is sound enough, but in order to do that, you need to keep in mind certain user defined principles that will allow you to adopt a user centric approach towards designing your website.
Let’s take a look at them:
1. Design with Focus on Quality and Credibility
You, me, everybody loves using websites that have been designed professionally and which have high quality content that is relevant to the purpose of the website, is readable, is interesting and which enhances the credibility of the site.
Design always plays a supporting role to the content on the site. What is it that users are looking for on a website? It’s information, and not designs; if you offer that information to the users, they are going to be satisfied with the website. The design enters the picture to enhance the delivery of the message. It mustn’t act as a barrier to all the information on the page.
Five Programs to Follow and Unfollow on Twitter
It goes without saying that some Twitter accounts are just less than beneficial to follow. Yet, at the same time, there are some accounts that you just don’t want to miss out on. People are constantly tweeting inspirational and informational content that is bound to make your life better. So how do you find the balance?
Today we would like to provide you with a few tools to empower your Twitter experience. Listed below are sites that can not only help you figure out how to unfollow the right people, but sites that can help you follow the right ones.
ManageFlitter.com is a site that helps you manage your Twitter account. Unlike most unfollow sites that I find, this one allows for plenty of filters to help organize who you want to unfollow. They even have a “spam score” filter so you can seek out those you follow who have been reported as being possible spam. All too often I find sites that list the people who don’t follow back without any other reasoning as to why one should unfollow. This site does the extra work.
2) Who.Unfollowed.Me.
When you first sign up, this is a “lite” version of the full site. You can still benefit from this program because it does allow you to see who unfollowed you, as well as people you aren’t following back. Be sure to check back in on a regular basis as it does consistently update your Twitter account’s unfollow information.
Texture and Pattern Rich Illustrations by Alberto Cerriteño
Alberto Cerriteno is a Mexican illustrator & designer who lives in Seattle, Washington. His unique style was inspired by alternative cartoons, urban vinyl toys, and the pop surrealism movement. Throughout his work you’ll find delicate hints of traditional Mexican artistic influences mixed with rich textures and decorative patterns.His illustrations contrast strikingly with the blending of de-saturated colors and ink, sometimes featuring a vintage coffee finish.
Alberto’s illustrations have been recognized by progressive art institutions such as Juxtapoz, Create, Drawn!, The Little Chimp Society, Computer Arts, Communication Arts and many more. With more than ten years of experience as an Art Director, he is currently working as an independent artist always looking to collaborate with talented people and pursue creative ideas. He has also been invited to participate in collaborative art projects all around the world and diverse solo and groupal gallery shows.
Awe-Inspiring Oil Paintings by Adam Doyle
Adam S Doyle creates magical oil paintings. Throughout his work you can clearly see incomplete brushstrokes capitalizing to stand out of the crowd. I think this sort of style infuses his work with a sense of wonder. Adam is committed to narratives that explore themes of discovery, nuance, introspection, energy, mythology, and the realms in-between. His paintings have been exhibited in New York City, Los Angeles, and Europe. Doyle also does commercial work for books, magazines, and covers.
“Harnessing energy, raw and eloquent, I create images that invigorate our connection to our natural world, our humanity, and our shared story.” – Adam S. Doyle
Heart Stopping Photos of Daredevil Mustang Wanted
Mustang Wanted is a 26 year old daredevil athlete from Kiev, Ukraine. He climbs challenging building without safety support and risks his life for the images you’re about to see below. According to the Daily Mail, he used to work as a legal advisor, but is now pursuing a career as a professional stuntman. By reading some of his replies via Ask.fm, I strongly believe Mustang is wise gentleman and doesn’t follow the herd.
“Death is not the worst thing that can happen. Everyone dies — but not everyone lives the way they want.” – Mustang Wanted
I completely agree with this statement and fully encourage other to pursue their dreams. In the last few months, Mustang Wanted has amassed a huge following since he began posting photos of the stunts on his website and uploading thrilling videos to his Youtube page. We obviously don’t recommend anybody to try rooftopping/skywalking at home, with their friends, or on their own.
10 Best Photographs from the Sony World Photography Awards 2013
The following photographs are the official winners of the 2013 Sony World Photography Open Competition. The competition has ten categories: Panoramic, Arts and Culture, People, Low Light, Enhanced, Nature and Wildlife, Travel, Architecture, Split Second, and Smile. The winning images now compete for the Sony World Photography Awards Open Photographer of the Year title, which will be revealed at a gala ceremony on 25th April. This photographer will also receive $5,000. These beautiful images were selected from nearly 55,000 entries by amateur photographers across the globe.
Elmar Akhmetov, Kazakhstan, Winner
Krasimir Matarov, Bulgaria, Winner
Manny Fajutag, Philippines
