This tiny yo-yo like gadget generates electricity. You pull the cord repeatedly for a minute and build enough electricity to power up your ipod for hours (1 pull = 1 song)
It’s light, it’s cool, it’s ingenious, you save on electricity, save the environment… it’s win-win all the way. Believe it or not, it can power everything from rechargeable batteries to house lighting, cell phones to GPS, and even laptops.

I can’t wait to get my hands on it. But, here’s the kicker. Imagine sitting in a slum with no power, but a working laptop! Isn’t that tremendous? Potenco, the company that make’s this product has created an alliance with the “One Laptop Per Child project” that will provide laptops to children in developing countries. And each laptop will come with this yo-yo that will charge their computers to circumvent the need for electricity to use advanced technology.

A few days ago, the environmental organization I work at introduced me to the Juice Bag, a laptop bag that powers laptops on the move using solar energy. It’s incredible that we have advanced to a point where we can charge cell phones, gps units, or even laptops anywhere in the world.

Then I learnt about mini solar panels that can charge phones and radios using just a car charger adapter. They are being sold by Kibera slum dwellers. Kibera is the world’s largest slum located near Nairobi, where the average wage is about $1 a day. The solar panel is made with discarded industry material and takes only few minutes to put together and can sell for $5, which is an incredible income source for these dwellers. The panel itself looks unsophisticated, but the idea that something as primitive looking as that can serve as a charger of hi-tech devices should be incentive enough to buy.


Coming back to yo-yo’s, there’s another one that’s making listening to music a ton of fun. The ReGEN yo-yo has an in-built mp-3 player that can be charged for an hour with just 10 to 12 tosses. What more? When you are bored and have nothing to do with your hands, you can yo-yo while you listen to music and perfect your skill. Say goodbye to adapters and extra batteries. This one even comes with a wireless headset. Isn’t that a dream come true?

I’m not a yo-yoer, but for some reason, as is the case with million other things, I know a few things about the yo-yo. =) It may have to do with my dad living in Philippines for a bit (you’ll see why), or just the fact that I am by and large a collector of useless information. But, as luck would have it, my yo-yo knowledge has found a place in my blog today. =)

For a long time I thought yo-yos were invented in Phillipines (the dad-connection) in the early 1800s and indeed yo-yo is a Filipino word that means “to spin”. Wikipedia concurs with me. I also learnt that they were first manufactured in the United States in the State of Wisconsin during the Depression Era and therefore Wisconsin is dubbed the “Yo-yo capital of the world”. There's even a World Yo-yo Championship takes place in the United States in Florida!

Since last week, this knowledge on yo-yos increased owing to some of the emails I received in gmail about green yo-yo technology among other things. It turns out, gmail advertisements are not as unobtrusive as they say they are. They display “relevant” advertisements on the sidebar related to the text within the emails. So, I clicked on yoyoguy.com, a yoyo treasure trove that we never knew existed. And eventually wikipediaed yo-yo and googled yoyo history!

My dull work-day quickly transformed into a top-spinning adventurous. Apart from gathering trivia facts about yo-yo related world records and companies making yo-yo training videos, I found the ultimate yoyo website online belonging to the “Museum of Yo-yo” . I saw some fantastically designed yo-yos of the past, and learnt a great deal about the history. It turns out that while they originated in China, the first evidence of its existence was found in Greece way back in 400-500 BC. It’s all very fascinating information with paintings of royalty in different countries with yo-yos in them, to knowledge on the most suitable shapes for yo-yos, the artistic design qualities, yo-yo’s as a sport toy, the different materials used to make them etc.

More recently a man called Tom Kuhn is said to have revolutionized yo-yo technology and brought the gadget back to life. Almost all the innovations we see in yoyos today are supposed to have been inspired by his designs.

But, of all yo-yo related innovations, I find the new energy use that they are being put to, the most exciting.