TrendCentral: While they might resemble luxe golf carts, this dealership’s LSVs (low speed vehicles) offer Austin area residents a new alternative to gas-fueled travel. At 50 cents per charge (power for approximately 40 miles), with a one charge per day frequency, owners spend around $180 dollars/year to run their cars with a clean, renewable energy source. While this is clearly not an option for many, particularly those who spend hours a day in their cars driving over 35 mph (many LSVs can only be driven on roads with a 35MPH sign posted), it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

Enviro-friendly Autos [TrendCentral]

LATimes.com: Baker came up with the kiosk idea a couple of years ago. He had just kicked off a $3-million building drive, but noticed that few people seemed to keep cash in their wallet anymore for the collection bag.

So he began studying the electronic payment business. He designed his machine with the help of a computer programmer who attends Stevens Creek, and found ATM companies willing to assemble it for him. In early 2005, he introduced the first machine at his church.

Since then, kiosk giving has gradually gained acceptance among his upper-middle-class flock. The three kiosks are expected to take in between $200,000 and $240,000 this year — about 15% of the church's total donations.

"It's truly like an ATM for Jesus," Baker said.

This summer, Baker and his wife, Patty, began selling the devices to other churches through their for-profit company, SecureGive. They are its only employees, but a handful of contractors help them custom-tailor the machines for churches.

The kiosks can let donors identify their gift as a regular tithe or offering, or direct it to building or missionary funds. The machines send information about the donation to a central church computer system, which shoots the donors an e-mail confirmation.

The Bakers charge between $2,000 and $5,000 for the kiosks, which come in a variety of configurations. They also collect a monthly subscription fee of up to $49.95 for licensing and support. And a card-processing company gets 1.9% of each transaction; a small cut of that fee goes to SecureGive.

At Church, an 'ATM for Jesus' [LATimes.com]

New Business Ideas/Opportunities Featured In This Issue:

HEALTH & BEAUTY
Straight Up Hair Styling Machine
Beautiful Vending, a UK company, has released a hair straightener vending machine. Their site describes, “We all know how frustrating the British weather can be, the rain, wind and even the heat can cause perfectly styled hair to ‘frizz’ and ruin the best night or day out.”

CONSUMER GOODS
Laundry Packs
The new product offers Tide Liquid Detergent Travel Sink Packets in single-use "sink" packets, making laundering a few items by hand simple and convenient when traveling.

AGRICULTURAL & ENVIRONMENTAL
Organic Levi’s
For the first time since it started making trousers for cowboys more than 100 years ago, the famous clothing company is bringing out a pair of "sustainable" jeans to satisfy environmentalists.

RETAIL
Scant Branding
The smells, pumped into shops and the foyers of hotels, range from melon, which psychologists have found induces feelings of friendliness, to figs, said to be welcoming, and the invigorating whiff of lemons.

SPORTS & GAMES
Bossaball Phenomenon
Bossaball combines many sports – soccer, beach volleyball, capoeira, and gymnastics into one giant pitch that consists of trampolines and inflatable cushions. Bossaball has become somewhat of a "phenomenon" in Spain.

FASHION
Chemoluminescent Hair Gel
Voltage iGlow is a sulf illuminating hair gel. By mixing fluorophors with an appropriate catalyst a chemical reaction occurs that produces the byproduct of light.

ROBOTS
RoboMop
RoboMop is a battery powered 8.5 centimetre dusting machine, replete with electro static pad no less helping to keep the house free from dirt and dust.

EDUCATION
Green Info
Ideal Bite recognizes that people don't turn green overnight, they do it one shade at a time. Everyday information for being a more conscientious consumer resonates with people who don't have time, energy or money to do the research themselves.

ONLINE AND SOCIAL NETWORKS
Temp Social Networks
Islandoo: The concept behind this site is to find candidates for the UK reality TV show Shipwrecked (similar to Survivor). Users of this temporary site create a profile with photo and video and can then opt to become a fan of other users.

TECHNOLOGY
ATMs for Church
Baker began studying the electronic payment business and designed his machine and found ATM companies willing to assemble it for him, to be sold to churches.

View this issue of the CoolBusinessIdeas Newsletter by clicking here. Subscribe for free by clicking here.

Daily Mail: For the first time since it started making trousers for cowboys more than 100 years ago, the famous clothing company is bringing out a pair of "sustainable" jeans to satisfy environmentalists.

The cotton is organic, the button on the waistband is made of coconut shell, there are no metal rivets, the dye is from natural compounds include indigo and the label is from recycled cardboard.

As the factory is in Hungary, the cotton will come from Turkey, the nearest available source, and other materials will come from Europe too, to cut down on long distant transport and associated fuel costs.

Not that it will stop the trendy trousers from having a hefty price tag, at least to start off with. According to reports the first pairs in the US will sell for 250 dollars each, around £140 here.

New 'green' jeans to hit the shelves [Daily Mail]

Brand Noise: Cotton Buds Inc. has been granted an exclusive license from P&G to produce, market and distribute Tide Liquid Detergent Travel Sink Packets. The new product offers consumers their favorite laundry detergent in single-use "sink" packets, making laundering a few items by hand simple and convenient when traveling.

This is the latest in a growing number of external business agreements struck by Cincinnati-based P&G. The deals are designed to combine P&G's trademarks, technology and/or know-how with strong outside companies to drive innovation and deliver mutually positive business results.

P&G Invests in Portability [Brand Noise]

Times Online: The nostrils of consumers are to be assailed with a wave of artificial odours designed to lull them into parting with their money.

The smells, pumped into shops and the foyers of hotels, range from melon, which psychologists have found induces feelings of friendliness, to figs, said to be welcoming, and the invigorating whiff of lemons.

“Scent branding” is widespread in America and is now arriving in Britain.

Customers in Mothercare, the baby and toddlers’ shop, can smell its distinctive “soft” odour. The Sheraton chain, meanwhile, has begun to perfume the lobbies of all its British hotels with a chemical smelling like fresh fruit.

Crafty odours woo shoppers to spend more [Times Online]

Popgadget: Voltage iGlow is a sulf illuminating hair gel. By mixing fluorophors with an appropriate catalyst a chemical reaction occurs that produces the byproduct of light. No bulbs or batteries are necessary to create the glow, and the illumination shampoos right out. Essentially, wearing Voltage gel is the same as cracking open a raver glow stick and pouring the contents over your locks.

Directions are to open the container, add the powder (catalyst) to the gel (fluorophor suspension), run through hair, and dance! If you really want to maximize your potential glow for a short outing then heat up the gel with a hairdryer after application. The heat will make the gel burn much brighter, but it won't last nearly as long. A 2 oz tube is $11, and should be enough for a couple of people to use for highlights.

Voltage Chemoluminescent Hair Gel [Popgadget]

Trendhunter: Beautiful Vending, a UK company, has released a hair straightener vending machine. Their site describes, “We all know how frustrating the British weather can be, the rain, wind and even the heat can cause perfectly styled hair to ‘frizz’ and ruin the best night or day out. The saviour of bad hair days has arrived, the Straight Up machine is now available in clubs, bars and gyms, so for those occasions when sleek and sexy turns to shock and horror, we have the solution.”

Beauty Vending [Trendhunter]

Shiny Shiny: Housework: bane of everybody's lives. Fact. I mean, no one actually enjoys dusting and polishing do they? So this gadget is sure to bring much happiness: RoboMop is a battery powered 8.5 centimetre dusting machine, replete with electro static pad no less. It's a strange contraption that looks as if the design team were visited by alien spacecraft shortly before receiveing their brief, and were thus inspired to create what looks like a flying saucer crossed between a hovercraft: that cleans. Any hard surface, apparently. And with 98% accuracy too. And if you're not sold already?

Robomop: the budget robot [Shiny Shiny]

Iconoculture: DailyCandy with content that's totally green? That would be Ideal Bite, a daily publishing website with an eco-friendly hue that intends to be "a good source of advice for real people leading busy lives."

Like the Lazy Environmentalist radio show and other down-to-earth approaches, Ideal Bite recognizes that people don't turn green overnight, they do it one shade at a time.

Everyday information for being a more conscientious consumer resonates with people who don't have time, energy or money to do the research themselves.

Ideal Bite points your mouse to the latest green news and views [Iconoculture]

Josh Spear: We have to admit that our adolescent desire for the inflatable "Moon Walk" has never really left us. A friend of ours told us about a sport, Bossaball that seems to be embracing this desire for the birthday party apparatus of yesteryear and combining it with sports. Originating somewhere between the rock of Gibraltar and the Port of Antwerp, Bossaball combines many sports – soccer, beach volleyball, capoeira, and gymnastics into one giant pitch that consists of trampolines and inflatable cushions. Bossaball has become somewhat of a "phenomenon" in Spain with players using all parts of their bodies to pass the ball over a net volleyball style. Bossaball also embraces the crowd with the referees entertaining fans and bands playing live percussion combined with whistles and a DJ.

Bossaball [Josh Spear]

TrendCentral: From giants MySpace and Facebook to niche sites Sneakerplay and SportsMates, it seems almost every group has a place to connect online. Adding a new twist to the basic social networking platform are the following temporary sites, which utilize user profiles as a basis for stardom and give members the power to decide who they want to see on the big screen.

Islandoo: The concept behind this site is to find candidates for the UK reality TV show Shipwrecked (similar to Survivor). Users of this temporary site create a profile with photo and video and can then opt to become a fan of other users. The profiles that attract the most fans score an audition for the show. And it's generating serious buzz—just two weeks after its launch, the site garnered 800,000 daily page views.

Giving Power to the People [TrendCentral]

New Business Ideas/Opportunities Featured In This Issue:

CONSUMER GOODS
Nintendo Nth Degree Toys
Japanese collectible toys are generally cool to the Nth degree, especially in the latter category comes a brand new range of build-it-yourself mosaics from TomyTec, all of which depict classic Nintendo characters.

Happy Birthday Beans
How in the world are you supposed to get your message across? Well, we’re spilling the beans. The style-setting Japanese have done it again, creating the perfect vehicle for all your well wishes: the message bean.

FOOD AND BEVERAGE
Premium Water
Bling H2O has a limited edition bottle available in two sizes, that are frosted and have genuine Swarovski crystals that spell out the water’s name.

Drive Thru Coffee
No other substance screams WAKE UP as effortlessly as coffee. Australian company Muzz Buzz has capitalised on the realisation that people want their coffee to be quick, convenient and satisfying. At Muzz Buzz, all consumers need to do is drive thru.

GADGETS
Feet Heaters
At $350, these feet heaters don't exactly fit my budget, but if you come from a cold climate, you may just want to make them fit yours.

FASHION
Furoshiki Style
The "furoshiki shiki" (furoshiki style) is made out of one sheet of semi-transparent vinyl "film." This sheet is turned into a bag by folding it and making use of the adhesive qualities of the material.

SERVICES
Referral Economy
Zubka, which launched recently, is hoping to shake up the British and European recruiting markets by creating a platform for hirers to tap into the social networks of active referrers.

No Fear Flight
Place your bags in an overhead bin, fasten your seat belts and hand your kids over. Gulf Air’s Sky Nanny program is a complimentary service that gives parents and kids a more enjoyable in-flight experience.

MEDIA AND PUBLISHING
Your Own Radio Station
Radio invites listeners to create and host their own customized national radio show — uncensored and commercial-free. A different listener will take the reins every week.

ONLINE AND SOCIAL NETWORKS
Scrapblogging
Scrapblog is a Flash application that allows you to create digital scrapbooks. You can choose to make your scrapblog public or private, and share it via email and/or RSS feed.

Drivers’ Romance
Philips developed FlirtingInTraffic.com. The premise is simple. A user signs up and gets a sticker in the mail. The person puts the sticker on their car's bumper, and waits for the emails to roll in from interested potential dates encountered in traffic.

MARKETING
Lost and Found
The latest ad stunt for the movie “Du och Jag (you & I)” involved spreading wallets in the streets of Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmo which have fake ID’s for the movie’s star Niklas Anderssason.

TECHNOLOGY
Touchscreen Menu
Bytes, a new cafe with its high-tech ordering system helps save money on wait staff and menu printing, the touchscreens allow the restaurant to build a database of customer preferences, and to change items and prices on the fly.

View this issue of the CoolBusinessIdeas Newsletter by clicking here. Subscribe for free by clicking here.

Caffeine Marketing: A lost wallet is something you almost instantly pick up and examine if encountered on the street. You might pick it up because you’re a good Samaritan or you just want to see if there’s are cash in there for the taking.

The latest ad stunt for the movie “Du och Jag (you & I)” involved spreading wallets in the streets of Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmo which have fake ID’s for the movie’s star Niklas Anderssason. I have to say the idea is clever, defenitely unique, and a good way of trick-promotion someone without making them upset.

Lost Wallet Advertising [Caffeine Marketing]

Philadelphia Weekly Online: Philips switched from a 9-to-5 job to one as an independent consultant building intranet infrastructure for pharmaceutical companies. And one warm summer day in 2004 he pulled his Mercedes up to a light in the western suburbs and began chatting with a cute girl in a Jaguar next to him.

The light turned green. She drove away. He never saw her again.

It's the usual boy meets girl, boy likes girl, girl drives away and he never even gets her number story.

"It was a great little talk," Philips says. "And the light turned green, and I never saw her again. I didn't want to follow her and do any kind of stalker thing."

Instead of chalking up the experience to a missed opportunity and moving on, Philips decided to do something about it. He merged two of the biggest automotive fads of recent years: flirting (always a fan favorite) and those oval stickers from European license plates, adapted as U.S. tourist secret code: OBX (Outer Banks, N.C.), LBI (Long Beach Island), WW (yes, even Wildwood).

"It took me about a week to put the two together," he says. "I thought, 'What if I put a number on a sticker and put it on cars?'"

Philips bounced the idea off a few friends and a few strangers in bars. He says eight or nine out of 10 people gave him positive feedback on the idea. And after debt from a divorce forced him to file for bankruptcy last September, he figured there was no better time to launch his business.

He developed FlirtingInTraffic.com. The premise is simple. A user signs up and gets a sticker in the mail. The person puts the sticker on their car's bumper, and waits for the emails to roll in from interested potential dates encountered in traffic.

Collision Course... for Love [Philadelphia Weekly Online]

Gizmodo: Japanese collectible toys are generally cool to the Nth degree, especially when based on either whippy turds or video games. In the latter category comes a brand new range of build-it-yourself mosaics from TomyTec, all of which depict classic Nintendo characters.

The ¥483 (US$4) dot-s packages consist of 250 colored pegs, a perforated board to plug them into and a plastic base to make it all stand up. Each box is unmarked, so fevered collectors have no way of knowing which Mario, Zelda or Donkey Kong character they're going to spend the next three minutes slapping together.

Build Your Own Mario Shrine [Gizmodo]

Springwise: Zubka, which launched recently, is hoping to shake up the British and European recruiting markets by creating a platform for hirers to tap into the social networks of active referrers.

A referrer's reward depends on the starting salary of the person referred, but is normally between 6 and 8 per cent, according to Zubka. Successfully placing someone in a job with a basic salary of GBP 60,000 would therefore reap the referrer a tidy sum of around GBP 4,000. Joining Zubka is free for both referrers and hirers. Organisations with vacancies to fill can advertise jobs for referrers to browse through for as little as GBP 10 for a four week posting.

Recruiters are always looking for new channels that will help them find the right person for a job, so rewarding people for rooting through their valuable networks makes complete sense. More local versions to follow?

Tapping into the referral economy [Springwise]

GUSH: Bling H2O has a limited edition bottle available in two sizes, that are frosted and have genuine Swarovski crystals that spell out the water’s name. “Bling H2O is to bottled water what Rolls Royce is to automobiles; a premium product with premium packaging that merits a premium price. Bling is a stand-alone beverage as well as the perfect compliment to your favorite cocktail.” (Baller Status)It has been featured at the Grammy’s, VMA’s and BET Awards and has been sampled by Jamie Foxx, Paris Hilton (and Tinkerbell), Mariah Carey and Shaquille O’Neal, just to name a few. Prices range from $24.00 to $40.00, that’s right for a bottle of water.

Bling Bling Water [GUSH]

Shiny Shiny: God, if only I had seen this just a few short days ago, I wouldn't be sitting here now in a pair of great big furry boot slippers, in a desperate bit to stop my feet falling off with cold. Or maybe not, actually. At $350, these feet heaters don't exactly fit my budget, but if you come from a cold climate, you may just want to make them fit yours.

The feet heaters slip inside your boots and are connected to a battery pack which straps onto your boot. You, meanwhile, wear a remote control around your neck, which allows you to control just how hot it gets down there.

Cold Feet?Not Any More [Shiny Shiny]

Compact Impact: The "furoshiki shiki" (furoshiki style) is made out of one sheet of semi-transparent vinyl "film." This sheet is turned into a bag by folding it and making use of the adhesive qualities of the material. It is a practical material: easy to clean and when washed with soap the material regains its adhesive qualities.

The transparency of the material allows you to play with color combinations, resulting in different degrees of transparency. The bag can easily transform into its original sheet-shape changing its function. For instance, it can be used as a sheet to sit on (during hanabi/hanami), or its contents can be laid out on the sheet.

Furoshiki-shiki Wallet [Compact Impact]

Iconoculture: Place your bags in an overhead bin, fasten your seat belts and hand your kids over. Gulf Air’s Sky Nanny program is a complimentary service that gives parents and kids a more enjoyable in-flight experience.

Trained nannies help on the ground with boarding and seat assignment; in the air with babysitting, meal service, games, activities and landing procedures.

Every aspect of Sky Nanny promises parents and kids a comfortable, hassle-free experience. So all parents have to do is sit back, relax and enjoy the flight.

Giving coach passengers – tall or short – first-class service that meets needs for comfort, convenience and experience could potentially inspire a long-term customer loyalty program.

Sky Nannies ease parents' fear of flying [Iconoculture]

Springwise: No other substance screams WAKE UP as effortlessly as coffee. Australian company Muzz Buzz has capitalised on the realisation that people want their coffee to be quick, convenient and satisfying. At Muzz Buzz, all consumers need to do is drive thru. After all, in-transit consumption is designed with one purpose – saving time.

Craig Muzeroll, founder of Muzz Buzz, identified a gap in the Australian market and decided he wanted to give Australians a reason for getting out of bed in the morning. That reason became Muzz Buzz, a growing franchise drive-thru coffee chain which offers quality coffee at a reasonable price and convenient (high traffic flow) locations.

Premium coffee beans and unique Muzz Buzz flavours tempt consumers' tastebuds and since inception the Muzz Buzz menu has expanded to include convenient-to-eat-while-driving food. (Let’s just hope the government doesn’t ban drivers from eating and drinking while driving...)

Aussie Buzz-thru [Springwise]

TrendCentral: Commuters and road trippers already know that satellite radio makes gridlock more tolerable, and Sirius is still continuing to spread their innovation wings. Their latest development, D.I.Y. Radio invites listeners to create and host their own customized national radio show — uncensored and commercial-free. A different listener will take the reins every week. If you’re still bummed that the local radio station failed to play your request for the Top 5 at 9 back in 5th grade (not that we’re bitter or anything), this is way better.

D.I.Y Radio [TrendCentral]

Popgadget: Scrapblog is a Flash application that allows you to create digital scrapbooks. The intuitive drag and drop functionality allows you to add pictures, text, video and audio onto a background (which is also editable), and once it’s finished, you can print it, burn in onto a DVD, or export it as a photoset to Flickr.

You can choose to make your scrapblog public or private, and share it via email and/or RSS feed. You can also rate and post comments to other people’s scrapblogs and easily embed them onto your own blog. And last but not least, you can participate in the scrapblog competition and win a digital camera.

Not convinced yet? Just take a look at the scrapblog tour on the site.

Scrapblog [Popgadget]

DailyCandy: Greeting cards are so passé. E-cards? Totally tacky. Singing telegrams work only in the movies, and skywriting is bad for the environment. How in the world are you supposed to get your message across?

Well, we’re spilling the beans. The style-setting Japanese have done it again, creating the perfect vehicle for all your well wishes: the message bean.

Housed in an adorable aluminum can, each already planted bean is laser-printed with a message (Thank You, Love, Good Luck, or Happy Birthday) and a complementary image (the Japanese character for thanks, a heart, four-leaf clover, or music note). The recipient simply peels off the foil top, adds water to the soil, and voilà! A week later the bean sprouts and the message is revealed.

The Magical Fruit [DailyCandy]