Bunchland

New niche home design is flexible, intuitive and totally automatic

What do you look for in a solid family home? backyard? Good water pressure? A new generation of home builders are taking these necessities to the next level. Enter the smart home, where curtains are motorized, walls change colour on command and digital appliances let you know if the milk is low. Of course, you can control it all with your iPad.

A handful of niche developers in England are now offering these luxuries to a new era of families –  hi tech, cutting edge, design-forward families. Modern designed townhouses and full-sized houses are aimed at young couples, starting at £535 000 ($853, 400 CAN).

Sure, homes all over the world are already well-equipped with automated garage doors and timed coffee machines, but the smart home is essentially a robot — it can sense and process data and act accordingly. Designers are capitalizing on this new human-aware intelligence (or ambient intelligence or ambient computing) with the goal of making home life not only maximally comfortable and secure, but also environmentally sustainable.  Read more...

Here’s what you might have missed

Yesterday, we hosted a Social Media Week panel that was a bit of a continuation of last year’s Social Family discussion. Specifically, we were interested in talking about how within 12 short months, our families’ relationships with social media, especially on mobile platforms, has changed so drastically. We invited back our favourite parenting expert, Alyson Schafer and brought in innovative educator Royan Lee and a blogger from one of our favourite sites, GeekDad’s Brad Moon.

Here are some highlights, captured by our audience via Twitter:

@elanamatic: “Teaching kids about tech and social media is part of parenting today” @alysonschafer, which follows

@elanamatic “it’s important to create a safe environment for kids to share what is happening in their online life” @alysonschafer

 What if you’re not digitally savvy yourself? Alyson Schafer says tough! It’s just another thing we have to do with our kids now.  Read more...

What we’re reading on the blogs today — science edition!

Curious as to what sort of effect the constant texting and steady stream of facebook updates has on your kids’ brains? Miles O’Brien tells PBS that the tech-savvy millennials might have better brains than we do. Via BoingBoing

Want your kids to get a start on that brain-boosting technology? Check out this interactive Cookie Monster science lesson video. Cookie and his pal Emma prompt the viewer to choose an object and then come up with a hypothesis as to what the object will do in a tank in water. Who knew Cookie could say “hypothesis”? Via BoingBoing

Scientists in South America have uncovered a previously unknown ancestor to the T. rex and other ancient predators. Its name is Eodromaeus (pronounced eyo-DRO-may-us) and it was only four feet long. Lightweight and quick-moving, the name means “Dawn Runner.” Excellent news if you have any budding paleontologists in your brood. Via Huffington Post.  Read more...