That’s how Andrew Cote describes his obsession with beekeeping, a career that keeps him buzzing from the heights of Manhattan’s most famous rooftops to the far reaches of the African bush.

As a founder of the New York City Beekeepers Association, Cote helped legalize beekeeping in the city, working with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to develop a best-practices guide for tending hives in the five boroughs. The NYCBA’s mission is to promote safe and responsible beekeeping - an important task at a time when bees are disappearing from parts of the planet.

“Particularly in an urban environment,” he explains, “people need to be very, very good stewards of their bees. They need to tend to them well, inspect them regularly, make sure that they have room to grow and that they’re not going to swarm.”

Of course, when New York City bees do swarm, Cote is the NYPD’s go-to bee guy. This spring alone, he’s been called to wrangle swarms in Staten Island, Harlem, Queens and on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.

When he’s not rescuing rogue hives from traffic lights and lamp posts, Cote serves as an urban beekeeping consultant to hotels, restaurants, schools and community gardens throughout New York City. Just last month he installed six hives atop of the Waldorf-Astoria, the first phase in the hotel’s new chef’s garden, and two hives at the Bridge Café, a restaurant nestled in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge.

“Many, many business have approached me to put bees on their roofs,” he says. “But I only work with those whom I feel truly embrace the concept of wanting to be greener, wanting to help the environment. And bees seem to be a very good way to do that.”

But city bees aren’t just for trendy Manhattan hot spots. Cote also sells 3-pound packages to environmentally minded enthusiasts eager to start a hive of their own. That’s right – packages of bees, each containing some 20,000 sentient creatures trucked up from Georgia. Sold off the back of his truck in Manhattan’s Union Square, or from his front yard of what he calls Connecticut’s smallest farm, Cote estimates he’ll distribute some 8 million bees this year.

Between his private clients, his work with the NYCBA and extracting and selling honey from his own hives, Cote keeps busy from the first signs of spring until the last leaves have dropped in the fall.

Even in winter, when some might take a break, Cote continues to feed his obsession with Bees Without Borders, a charitable organization teaching beekeeping as a means to alleviate poverty in third-world countries. Traveling with his father, Norman Cote, Andrew and the Bees Without Borders team have hit some 25 countries to date, including their most recent trip to Kenya where they worked with the local Samburu tribe.

“I don’t want to jinx anything,” Cote says, “but you’re looking at a content man. I have my bees in the city. I have my bees in the country. I get to spend time with my family and it’s good. Life is good.”

By Noah Wilson-Rich, Ph.D., Special to CNN

To all of the readers who don’t think that honey bees are one of the most important concerns of our modern times, let me admit that I know where you’re coming from. I wasn’t the sort of kid who played in the dirt. I was terrified of insects (ew! bugs!), and never forgot my first run-in with a bee that stung me on my sacred pillow as a toddler. But if you eat food and if you enjoy flowers, then you need to pay attention to this.

Honey bees are of vital importance, and their declining populations are an incredibly critical issue. As pollinators, they are responsible for over 130 different fruit and vegetable crops that we eat. As an economic commodity, the cost of some of these crops has already increased because the numbers of honey bees has gone down. This basic supply and demand tilt has already impacted the over $15 billion dollar industry.
Historical context

Honey bees are dying. This is a global phenomenon and a worldwide problem affecting food availability. Like climate change, the decline of honey bees is not unprecedented. There were great die offs of honey bees reported as early as the year 950 A.D. in Ireland, called the “Great Mortality of Bees”. This repeated in Ireland is 992 and 1443. The great die-off crossed the pond in 1903 when 2,000 colonies died in Cache Valley, Utah. Three years later, 100% of hives died on the Isle of Wight, UK. And then, in 1996 and again in 2006, Pennsylvania beekeepers reported alarming numbers of honey bee die offs. These die-offs are continuing today, but under the auspice of a new name, Colony Collapse Disorder.

Researchers still don’t know why honey bees are disappearing. The strangest part of this story is the lack of dead bodies, vanishing into thin air. They’re simply gone. Some of the world’s best researchers, from the USDA to the European Union, are working diligently to solve this mystery. But as any stellar sleuth knows, a mystery is always harder to solve without a body.

What is killing honey bees?

I earned my Ph.D. in biology last year from Tufts University, with a focus on honey bee health. Whenever I give talks about my research and the ongoing crisis with honey bees, I like to open the floor up to hear new ideas from audience members. Responses tend to range from the less likely (cell phones and aliens) to the more likely (pesticides, diseases, and habitat loss).

The most recent onset of Colony Collapse Disorder was followed immediately by a thorough collection of scientific publications investigating the disease hypothesis. Potentially important findings focused on viral (Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus and an insect iridovirus) and fungal (Nosema) infections. The trouble was that some healthy hives were also infected.

The explanation for what is killing our honey bees is likely more complex. Researchers and beekeepers are now focusing our attention to pesticides, specifically those in a particular class called the neonicotinoids. Frustratingly, the long-term effects of pesticides can remain elusive for many years to come.

What can we do?

I began working with honey bees when I started graduate school in 2005. All it took for me to embrace dirt and insects was one inspiring teacher and mentor – Rebeca Rosengaus at Northeastern University. Dr. Rosengaus encouraged me to attend conferences to learn and to present my own research, and I share that same advice to you. Become a beekeeper or host a beehive. Sponsor honey bee research. Plant bee-friendly flowers. At a minimum, encourage yourself to recognize honey bees as so much more than icky bugs, but vitally important creatures who provide us with food and flowers. Value honey bees.

In an age of constant connectivity, social media and instant-access video, radio seems to literally be old news – a relic of past generations.

But the innovative, wildly popular WNYC-produced show Radiolab is looking like the exception.

"Being on the Internet has only increased our reach and the number of people who consume public radio," says Ira Glass, who hosts NPR's "This American Life," arguably the most popular radio show currently produced.

The Internet has transformed radio into live streams and podcasts. The inherent nature of radio has transitioned from ephemeral to enduring.

Think about it. A podcast by its very nature is permanent. It has an address – a url. It can be searched and, more importantly, downloaded. Listeners can 'own it,' play it repeatedly and share it with friends.

Traditionally radio has also been a social binder – families gathered around the radio to listen to the lastest news, fisted-clinched sports fans  listening with eager ear to last inning of the ballgame. But today its digitalization is making radio a more personal experience.

"When you're on a podcast you're deep into someone's ear canal. Maybe they're on the subway, maybe they're jogging, or maybe they're just sitting there," says Jad Abumrad, co-creator and host of Radiolab.

"Somehow you own them in a way you don't on the radio," says Jad Abumrad about how his work can engage his audience more deeply. "So subconsciously that gives us permission to do all kinds of things."

AUTEURIST RADIO

In this new world of radio, Abumrad has taken the liberty to turn radio on its head. What immediately sets Abumrad apart from other radio show hosts is that he approaches his job like a filmmaker.

"Radio had existed in a kind of bubble. It moved at a pace that was about 30 years behind the rest of the universe," say Abumrad. "I came into it as a guy who loves music, and who's a complete student of movies."

With his film-conscious approach to radio Abumrad spends an extraordinary amount of attention creating the substructure of his stories. He says it's the invisible elements a listener can't necessarily put their finger on or articulate but can certainly feel.

Abumrad calls his stories "a jewel that sits on a pillow.' The pillow is his meticulous the editing and pacing, the timely beats and rhythm in the words and music. The music is often scored by Abumrad himself, made specifically for a particular moment for a particular story. It's an intricate and time-consuming process.

"[When] you go to a movie, and it's crazy, radical things are happening underneath the story in terms of how it's cut, where the music is happening, the way the points of view are constantly shifting. One scene bleeds into another in ways you don't even notice. I try and do that stuff on the radio," he says.

"All I'm trying to do is create a sound and a music that makes sense to me and how I grew up," says Abumrad about how his childhood was consumed with playing the piano, watching movies, and becoming entranced by the sounds that surrounded him.

Abumrad is a Lebanese-American who grew up in Tennessee, the sons of two scientists. He took to music at an early age and dreamed of being a film composer.

So he headed off to Oberlin for college. There he felt isolated from the radical, experimental projects his fellow classmates were composing and performing. But one class something finally clicked:

"One of the teachers put on some Lutoslawski, an Eastern European post war composer, one of the gestural composers and the idea was the structure of the pieces. You could hear it.

The orchestra would act as an organic thing and they would rise up and fall. They would have all the individual instruments acting like molecules, and you add it all together and you get these undulating masses of sound that would shift and change and tork and tweak. And you could hear what the composer was doing because the structures where simple. But the underlying logic was very complicated. It was like film music. The same sort of music that I loved. That was the first time I was like 'oh, you could do that?' Maybe I could figure this stuff out."

After college Abumrad entered a period that he describes as 'mid-flail.' He was a trained composer but had not yet found a true outlet to express himself.

Eventually he ended up in radio. And after producing a few stories and " figuring out the whole journalism thing" he found himself with a big responsibility at WNYC – fill a weekly three-hour time slot.

"I basically worked around the clock to fill these three hours, mostly borrowing and stealing other people's work," he says.

During this period Abumrad became friends and started working with veteran journalist Robert Krulwich. They began experimenting with creative short pieces until they "fell into an easy partnership," as Krulwich describes it.

"I'd put [the story] out in front of us, and then he and I would improvise around it. I'd later put some weirdo sound design to it. Then I'd have a five-minute thing I could shove in the middle of this giant bit of real estate I had to fill every week," Abumrad says.

"It [Radiolab] existed for a long time in this state of like benign neglect. And somewhere along the way this station [WNYC] thought it was worth paying attention to," he continued.

People are certainly paying attention now. Radiolab has moved past its national success and gone international. "People in Australia, England, and places like China, Central and Northern Europe and Israel are listening to this program," says Krulwich.

As a perennial member of iTunes "Top Podcasts," Radiolab is now averaging over 2 million downloads a month.

"I think it's no coincidence that something like Radiolab would be invented in radio. I think there are all these little corners now in the creative world where people will just leave you alone. And they're successful enough to reach enough of an audience and turn it into a business," says NPR's Glass.

Jad Abumrad and producer Cubie King (Fort Greene, Brooklyn)

STEPPING OUT OF THE DARK

"Well maybe we could come at it from this side?," asked one of producers huddled on the house-lit Capitol Theater stage in Salt Lake City. It was hours before the show.

Abumrad and Krulwich were part of the huddle brainstorming changes hours before Rabiolab's traveling live stage show In The Dark. The previous night's performance had gone well but they felt there was room for tightening.

The Radiolab team discusses minor tweaks to the 'In The Dark' show in Salt Lake City

Executive producer Ellen Horne felt Abumrad and Krulwich's introduction could be improved. Comedian Demetri Martin offered his ideas on how to better transition off-stage more effectively. And after much back-and-forth they came upon a clever idea: why not use a single flashlight illuminating Krulwich's face to introduce the theme of the show? Darkness. And after introductions they'd bring up all the lights and expose the entire audience. Abumrad would take pictures of the crowd with his cellphone. The minor tweaks seemed to raise the already high exuberance level.

This creative improvisation hits at the core of Radiolab, whether its the radio show or live performance.

"What you’re doing is getting back to that initial moment of experiencing the story. As much as possible we try to improvise it because it comes alive somehow. Even when you don’t know the next word that’s gonna come out of your mouth it forces you backwards to re-embody the thing that you’re describing. And you talk your way out of it. It’s just more alive that way. For us I think that works."

Mintues before the show, ushers scanned purchased tickets with machines that sounded like a child's toy ray gun. The Capitol Theater's nearly 2,000 seats were sold out for the second day in a row. Ushers handed out tiny baggies containing 'something' audience members were told would be used later in the show. No one knew what to expect, but the enthusiasm was palpable.

The show had a diverse cast: Demetri Martin served as MC and kicked off the show with his usual wry, visually-based humor. The show also featured the dance group Pilobolus who acted out - or better yet 'danced out' - parts of the show like contortionist human statues. Live music and musical interludes were performed by the musician Thao Nguyen.

The show was divided up into three stories: the evolution of the eyeball; two blind men's dueling perspectives on their disability; and staggering tales from an astronaut who worked on space station. The show's structure mirrored the traditional Radiolab format in that each story mysteriously connected to the next, collectively forming a large thematic mosaic.

Radiolab's 'In The Dark' at The Capitol Theatre in SLC.

In The Dark's goal isn't necessarily to help audience members visualize what they're hearing. In fact, the imagery is fairly abstract. But fans weren't disappointed and most seemed to leave the theater stuck somewhere between wonder and awe.

"I'm really interested in that line between the limits of what we can and cannot know," say Abumrad. "I'm interested in charting that terrain right at the edge."

From the heights of New York’s most luxurious hotels to the far reaches of the African bush, Coté is spreading his fascination with bees
to people throughout the world.

He has his hands in many hives. He is a founder of both the New York City Beekeepers Association and Bees Without Borders, a charitable
organization teaching beekeeping as a means to alleviate poverty in third-world countries. He’s a beekeeping consultant to several private customers and businesses throughout New York and Connecticut, including the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, The Bridge Café and York Preparatory School.

Coté also maintains his own hives, bottling his honey to sell each week at the Union Square Farmers Market.

According to Cote, his New York City association was instrumental in overturning the city’s ban on beekeeping when, in 2010, he worked with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to write a best practices guide for tending hives in the five boroughs. Today, he offers year-round classes on responsible beekeeping and maintains a close relationship with city health inspectors, the New York
Police Department and the New York Fire Department as the go-to guy for city swarms and other bee-related problems.

Caring for bees is Andrew Coté’s passion, one that’s taken him literally around the world to share his love for these remarkable creatures. In the
process, he’s making all our lives a little greener – and a little sweeter.

And that’s what puts him on The Next List.

Tune into CNN 2 P.M. E.T. this Sunday to see the full 30-minute profile.

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(CNN) - Rube Goldberg machines - those contraptions that, like the board game Mouse Trap, aim to accomplish a simple task in a needlessly complex way - don't really fit in an age obsessed with efficiency and perfection.

Yet, online, these fun-to-watch systems do seem to have incredible currency. Think OK Go music videos, for starters.

The machine below, called Mini-Melvin, caught my eye this week. Housed inside two suitcases, Mini-Melvin employs an alarm clock, a smartphone, a child's xylophone, a toy train and many other trinkets - all to stamp a short message on a postcard.

Check out the video below:

As I watched, I started wondering what makes these kind of machines so compelling - both to viewers and makers. So I sent an e-mail to HEYHEYHEY, the design group behind this machine, to find out.

The following is an edited version of that interview:

CNN: How long did it take to build these machines?

Erik Sjouerman: Building and designing usually go hand in hand with projects like these and there's a lot of trial and error involved.

At first, both Elske (van der Putten) and I started out designing parts and setting the boundaries in terms of functions and styling and after that Elske pretty much built the whole thing by herself in about three weeks. Talk about girlpower.

I took care of the online part of Mini Melvin: the website and all online functions.

CNN: Is there a company associated with the project, or was it just for fun? Do you make any money on it?

Sjouerman: HEYHEYHEY is a design studio based in Eindhoven, in the south of the Netherlands with a soft spot for (what we call) hopeless projects. Melvin is one of them. Basically, this is what we do for a living – coming up with identities, campaigns and remarkable projects for clients (like the first Melvin). We also work on self-initiated projects if we have the time (like we did now) to hone our skills. In the case of Mini Melvin we wanted to see if we could build a machine as small as this, and get better at telling stories with film.

CNN: What’s the point of a Rube Goldberg machine in 2012?

Sjouerman: Good question. We're simply really into physical stuff, I guess. It's also really cool to see people's reactions to the machine. It really inspires them – both adults and kids. I think what we like about Rubes is that it's absolutely real, honest and far from flawless in an age of Photoshop and perfect 3-D rendering.

CNN: There’s something nostalgic and charming about the device. Can you explain your inspiration?

Sjouerman: That's a big compliment. We're admirers of both Peter Sellers and Jacques Tati and we love the look and feel of their '60s movies. We tried to make something that resembles that kind of non-verbal story telling with this video.

CNN: Can you briefly describe how the machine works?

Sjouerman: Haha! I can try. Here goes nothing: an alarm clock goes off, setting a bunch of parts in motion in the first suitcase. Then, a catapult flings a ball over to the second suitcase which opens all by itself. After going through another 10 steps (the first step being set off by the opening of the suitcase) the second suitcase then passes a ball back to the first suitcase setting off the fully automatic postcard-signer-dispenser. In the end a bell goes off (much like a microwave oven) letting you know your postcard is ready and it completed the run.

Luckily, there's a step-by-step explanation of each part of the machine on the website.

CNN: What does the phone do exactly, as part of the machine?

Sjouerman: An important aspect of both Melvins is the online identity: the first Melvin had a couple of webcams, buttons and computers built into it so it could take pictures of its audience and upload it to its website, Twitter account and Facebook page. We really liked the idea of an object talking about its fabulous life (it made and sold its own merchandise too).

Mini Melvin is meant to travel the world, so, much like a modern day tourist, it needs to be able to take pictures and post them online.

The bottom line is that we tried to create a machine that's - in a very non-human way - as human as possible by copying human behaviour.

CNN: Why did you decide to put the machine inside suitcases?

Sjouerman: We built a pretty big chain-reaction machine in the end of 2010 for artspace MU's (Eindhoven) Dutch Design Week show. In about three weeks we built it on location with a team of 8 designers, amateur-engineers and crazy people. A couple of months later we decided to completely rebuild and redesign it for a video.

Beginning of this year we had some time to spare and we decided to build a new Melvin (once you start it's hard to stop thinking along those lines), but make it as small as possible. Since the first Melvin was way to big to transport (even though we built it kind of modular) we set out to build something that would be extremely portable. It made perfect sense at the time.

CNN: Can the message on the card change?

Sjouerman: Of course – as long as it fits on our small rubber stamp. We've got two messages now. One says "Wish you were here, XOX, Melvin," and the other one simply says, "XOX Melvin." It's all very contemporary.

We considered adding a ticket printer and let Melvin decide what to put on the card, but we decided to scrap the idea because we'd need a power supply outside the suitcase and that's not very mobile. Melvin composes its own messages online though, without us interfering. That's good enough for now.

Ben Kaufman is determined to change that. He is the 25-year-old founder and CEO of Quirky.com, an innovative startup that is turning ideas into real-life products.

Kaufman, subject of last Sunday's "The Next List" on CNN, says his mission is “to make it possible for all people to execute on their great ideas, regardless of their luck, their circumstance or their pedigree. To give everyone a chance.”

The Quirky process leverages the power of thousands of community members and the experience of top-notch designers to take an idea from the “what if” stage all the way to the marketplace. Members not only vote on the products they’d like to see, they double as built-in buyers. And everybody who influences the final product gets a cut.

After only three years of operation, Quirky expects to pull in more than $20 million in sales revenue this year.

Joe Pine, veteran business consultant and author of “Infinite Possibilities,” says consumers are looking for the type of experiences that Quirky offers.

“To be on that site is an experience, to be able to contribute to it is an experience, to feel a part of a production process is an experience. And then you have the opportunity to be able to recognize the creation of something that you envisioned, and that’s just a powerful, powerful incentive.”

Kaufman is shaking up the way consumer products come to stores. More importantly, he is opening up a path to invention for anyone with a great idea.

(CNN) - OK, I know this sounds ridiculous. But hear me out. An Internet company in Mexico City recently tested the idea of giving responsible pet owners a treat for picking up after their dogs in public parks.

People put their dogs' droppings in a special container which measured the weight of the poop. The container, which doubled as a router, then emitted a set number of minutes of free Wi-Fi for every pound of feces it collected.

Yeah, that's kind of gross. And no, there apparently was nothing stopping Wi-Fi cheaters from putting rocks or other heavy objects in the bins instead of dog poop. But it's yet another example of game mechanics getting tacked on top of the real world we live in - trying to influence our behavior, for better or worse, with rewards. The same kind we give to our pets.

Human trick: Pick up after your dog.

Treat: Free Wi-Fi and cleaner parks.

And, of course, they called it "Poo Wi-Fi."

Check out the video below. It's hilarious:

We weren't sure this was real at first, so I reached out to DDB, the advertising agency behind that video, to be sure. Fabiana Antacli, a spokeswoman for that agency, told me by e-mail that Poo Wi-Fi is, in fact, real, and that it was tried but ultimately discontinued in 10 Mexico City parks.

"It was a very special and local activation, like a pilot program for the brand," she wrote. "Like every action, its reach was limited for a short period of time." Terra, an Internet company, sponsored the project, she said.

By Ben Kaufman, Special to CNN

(CNN) - Ninety-nine percent of consumer product companies are incredibly disconnected from the people that they serve. The process of trying to learn about what those people want only creates more distance.

We used to live in a world in which Big Companies made things, and people bought them, sometimes because they were the right things, sometimes because they were the only things. Before the Internet came along, this kind of worked. Before the Web, people’s expectations of how, where and to whom they could express themselves were very low.

Those days are over. People have a forum for their voices and opinions in almost every aspect of their lives; they expect to be heard - now - and on their own terms. When the government, Hollywood or manufacturers give them something they can’t use, they respond. And that’s why, rather than waiting for something to respond to, people are trying to be the catalyst. They think they can do better. I think they are right.

I believe that the world is tired of being told, “What’s New” instead of being asked, “What’s Next?”

Ask people who want to express themselves and who are equipped to do so to solve a problem, and they will. That’s the beauty of the age we are living in, and that’s what makes an idea like Quirky, a website I founded to help entrepreneurs, work.

At Quirky, products are not born out of the boardroom. They are born in the bedroom. They come from everyday people who experience common problems and want to find a way to improve them. Every single product that comes out of the Quirky platform was designed and developed by thousands of people form around the world who have had input in every aspect of the product's design from the original seed of the idea all the way to the price that the market will bear. Yes, we are making invention accessible, but we are doing a lot more than that. We are providing a voice for creative people to share their opinions and ideas and work together to make products that the world wants and needs.

The Quirky community and our team of in-house experts are creating beautifully designed products that inspire a visceral reaction for - and by people - who are emotionally connected.

(CNN) - This almost doesn't require comment. Check out David Goldman's CNNMoney story about a new white paper commissioned by Intel, in which researchers say it is inevitable - inevitable! - that smarpthones will plug into brains.

Here's Goldman's explanation of what could happen:

... Step one: a lag-free operating system that anyone can use intuitively to perform any computing task.

Step two: Interfacing with the body. These kinds of interfaces are already operating in a relatively rudimentary way, with implants and pacemakers. But in its paper, Intel suggests that the link-up will be much more robust.

How robust? Well, have you seen "The Matrix?"

"With thoughts able to be delivered seamlessly to the cloud and data projected in real time onto our vision ... our bodies and minds will become the devices with all of the associated benefits," the paper's authors write.

You'll literally be "plugged-in" to the cloud, so your brain will have access to all the information on the Internet. You'll never again forget a name or miss a meeting. You won't have to get a routine check-up from a doctor, either, since your gadgets will monitor your vital signs and test your blood for you.

Of course, for every wonderful benefit, there's an equally scary potential consequence.

Think about all the privacy issues we have today with sites like Facebook. Now imagine giving people the capability to record everything they see and hear and immediately post it to the Internet. The human race could turn into something like Star Trek's Borg, who can access the entire network and literally knew everyone's thoughts.

Plus, how would exam-taking work? If people begin to rely on their connectedness like a crutch, can it just be turned off or wiped out for security purposes?

The story does include a happy note, at least for people who are terrified of this transition: "Don't expect to plug your iPhone directly into your cranium in the next few years. There's a few remaining steps on the path toward turning us all into cyborgs."

(CNN) - How many times have you been in the middle of a routine day then - BAM! - a great idea pops into your head. Maybe it's a way to solve some annoying problem or to make a household chore easier. But for almost everyone, the next thought is this: "Never going to happen.”

That’s because bringing a product to market takes so much more than having a great idea. Invention, it sometimes seems, is largely the domain of large corporations, people with access to big time cash or big-time connections.

And that’s where Ben Kaufman comes in. He’s the 25-year-old founder and CEO of Quirky.com, a start-up website that gives would-be inventors a place to go with their ideas.

The CNN show "The Next List" will feature Kaufman on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET. Check out the preview video above.

At Quirky, a staff of experts and a community of thousands put every idea to the test. If a concept makes the cut, a real-life product is manufactured. The inventor gets his or her name on the package and a paycheck in hand. In fact, everybody who contributes to the final product gets a share of the revenue every single time the product is sold. Quirky keeps 70% of the revenue; the rest goes to the inventor and to the project's "influencers," leaving the actual inventor with about a 10% cut of the total revenue, according to the company.

With this model, Kaufman expects to pull in more than $20 million in sales revenue this year.

Ben Kaufman and his “Quirky” process are shaking up the way consumer products get to store shelves, giving people the power to choose what they buy. But most important, he’s providing creative people a platform to launch their invention ideas…a place to go when that “light bulb” moment strikes.

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