About Ryan Deal

Ryan Deal

Ryan Deal is into vanilla soy chai, soft surfaces, useless facts, and solving problems. He'll freestyle battle rap anyone, and secretly and ashamedly can't get that damn Miley Cyrus song out of his head.

Ryan is a contributor for Mashable.com, TheNextWeb.com, TopCultured.com, and is a social marketing consultant for companies large and small.

He lives in Baltimore, MD and has only had his car broken into or stolen three times.

Ryan Deal's Post Reel

Design:

Floppy Disk Post-it Notes

Remember floppy disks? I do. I remember saving one text document on each one ’cause that’s all it would hold. Or, remember being in the middle of a game and having to take out your disk to load the next one in order to continue playing? No matter how inefficient they seem now, they defined an age, and now you can get them as floppy disk post-its so you never forget a thing again.

Oh, and as a bonus, they hold about the same amount of text as the original floppy disk did.

Food:

Munch Controller: The Easiest Diet on Earth

There are tons of diet plans out there, and while they share some principles, they all seem to be different. There’s the Adkins, the South Beach, and 101 other diets listed on the wikipedia diets page, heck, there’s even a diet for hackers. It all seems very confusing. But have no fear, there exists a product that can help you with one of the only unifying themes in dieting — portion control.

Design:

Creative Google Maps Manipulations by Christoph Niemann

Maps are boring but they get you places… most of the time. Well, that is until now. New York Times illustrator Christoph Niemann has created a series of Google Map Manipulations that are clever, unique, and darn creative. Here’s a bunch of our favorites which are also available as prints. Enjoy!

Gizmos:

Playable Atari Keychains for Gaming on the Go

Remember Atari? Of course you do… Legends never die, they just get smaller. At least that’s the philosophy behind the playable Atari keychains over at Firebox.com. The best part? All you’ve got to do is plug them into the television and you can play a number of preloaded games. Of course, the controllers are super small, so you’ll need hands like this guy to play it, but it’s still pretty fun.

Gizmos:

Refrigerator Magnets: There’s an App for That

There’s an iPhone app for pretty much everything these days, except in the physical world. That’s why Jailbreak Collective created an app that lets you hang a photo on your refrigerator or tack up your kid’s latest masterpiece. Ok, so maybe it’s not an app at all, but it looks like one. Here’s a set of iPhone app magnets from JC that look just like the real thing.

Design:

Puma Ditches Shoe Boxes in New Green Initiative

In an effort to reduce waste and cut down on pollution, Puma has done away with the traditional shoebox and will move to a new, eco-friendly version that isn’t even a box at all. Puma and industrial designer Yves Béhar, spent 21 months developing their new packaging solution due out in 2011.

Puma says the switch will allow then to be able to cut the amount of paper it uses by 65% annually in addition to the water, fuel and other resources it takes to produce their current packaging.
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Energy:

Europe’s Electricity to be 100% Renewable Energy by 2050

According to a recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, all of Europe’s electricity needs could be satisfied by renewable sources come mid-century. The plan, dubbed the SuperSmart Grid, would allow for power management independent of where the power is actually originating from.

Using the current grid, natural resources, and current established weather patterns, the plan would include the following with the goal of reducing carbon- based fuel reliance:
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Space:

Comet Gets Gobbled Up by the Sun

The NASA and ESA’s sun observatory, SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory), snapped a pic of a newly found comet moments before it is gobbled up by the sun. You can see the comet here is pretty bright, though it dims as it gets closer to the sun and eventually disappears into the fiery mass.

The comet, which appeared in photos on Friday, finally disappeared a day later. With close to 1,600 comets in our solar system, watching one get eaten by the sun is surely a sight to see. Here are some more photos captured by SOHO:

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