Ideas and Design on my radar right now. An eclectic bunch.
"Dr. Afsaneh Rabiei of Iran, awarded a CAREER award in 2003 by the National Science Foundation, is the inventor of a new tough metal foam material that will have a huge impact on life saving devices such as car bumpers. "inserting two pieces of her composite metal foam behind the bumper of a car traveling 28 mph, the impact would feel the same to passengers as impact traveling at only 5 mph"-LiveScience.com
Swedish designers Sofia Lagerkvist, Anna Lindgren and Charlotte von der Lancken make up "Front Design" on StylePark.com (and everywhere else!)
Capsters: Dutch designer Cindy Van Den Bremen invented an elastic flexible sports hijab that guards against harsh noises. The product, approved by an Imam and now with worldwide sales, addresses complex aesthetic, social, and religious issues where they intersect in the real world.
Yin Ziuzhen. Portable City: Melbourne, 2009 from her "Portable Cities" series on Space & Culture.org
Frog Design's blog posting on how James Cameron and Steve Jobs vision of the future might not be the best or most cutting edge citing articles by Annalee Newitz (below)
Dr. Annalee Newitz of Technosploitation and now of Gawker Media's io9.com. An academic-cum-journalist, she writes kick ass cultural criticism like "When Are White People Going to Stop Making Movies Like Avatar" quoted on the Frog Design blog entry cited above.
Frozen Lamp from Frozen series by Wieki Somers of Rotterdam.