Breakthrough Thinking – Page 113

Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, New Inventions

Self-Strengthening Polymer Nanocomposite Works Best Under Pressure

March 27, 2011

Polymer Nanocomposite

No one keeps carbon nanotubes down — especially not these guys. The always popular allotropes have been enlisted by researchers at Rice University to create a composite material that gets stronger under pressure. When combined with polydimethylsiloxane, a rubbery polymer, the tubes form a nanocomposite that exhibits self-strengthening properties also exhibited in bones. During testing, the team found the material increased in stiffness by 12 percent after 3.5 million compressions…

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Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, Historical Perspectives

Auto Ink Tattoo Machine

March 27, 2011

Artist Chris Eckert uses the tattoo medium as a personal reaction against people being born into a religion rather than choosing one after research and reflection. This machine picks a religion at random and brands the willing subject with its symbol.

Auto Ink is a three axis numerically controlled sculpture. Once the main switch is triggered, the operator is assigned a religion and its corresponding symbol is tattooed onto the persons arm…

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Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Current Events, Great Videos, Historical Perspectives, New Viewpoints, Record Breaker

The Longest Film Of All-Time Screening In Helsinki, Finland

March 26, 2011

Screening the longest film of all time.

Superflex, a group of Danish artists, have created a 240-hour film titled Modern Times Forever (Stora Enso Building, Helsinki) and will screen it in Helsinki for the festival IHME Project 2011.

The film shows ‘ravages of time marking a box-like office block, Helsinki’s Stora Enso building,’ and they are in fact projecting the film on that same building. In the film, ‘centuries of decay are apparently compressed into the span’ of the 10-day runtime…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Culture, Entertainment, facebook, Great New Product, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Human Behavior, Humor, New Discoveries

Erase Last Night’s Indiscretions From Facebook & Twitter

March 25, 2011

It’s nearly the weekend, which means that it’s nearly time to make bad decisions, likely with phone in hand. While the tech world can’t stop you from shamelessly making out with that girl in that dive bar, it can wipe away all graphic mentions of how you did so from your Twitter stream.

Enter Last Night Never Happened, a rather well-made novelty iPhone/iPad/iPod touch app from22seeds. The app’s purpose? It deletes posts, photos, comments, tweets and direct messages from your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Unfortunately, you can’t delete as much from Facebook as you might like — merely comments and photos…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, New Viewpoints

Examining The Method Of Wiring Chips With Nerve Cells

March 24, 2011

Visions of a hybrid computer chip.

Research from the University of Wisconsin–Madison points to progress in creating hybrid computer chips combining silicon and neurons. Biomedical engineers demonstrated a novel technique for weaving the tendrils of mouse nerve cells into a network of semiconductor tubes. Yeah, that’s just an illustration above. But eventually, a neural-electronic device such as this could be used to study diseases of the nervous system, test drug efficacy, or potentially lead to new brain-machine interfaces…

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Analysis, Big Problems, Breakthrough Thinking, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, New Viewpoints, People Making a Difference

Bus Safety Rules to be Rewritten Because of People are Now Too Fat

March 24, 2011

Buses need to reassess because of our expanding rear ends.

Are buses less safe today? Yes, according to the Federal Transit Authority, because of … fat people. So it’s rewriting the rules to ensure bus safety:

The Federal Transit Authority (FTA) proposes raising the assumed average weight per bus passenger from 150 pounds to 175 pounds, which could mean that across the country, fewer people will be allowed on a city transit bus.

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Animals, Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Culture, Current Events, Human Behavior, Latest News

Man Sets up Hotel for Chickens

March 23, 2011

Having a clucking good time.

A Cornish man has set up a hotel for chickens to provide five star service for pampered hens while their owners are away.

David Roberts, 31, came up with idea for the Chicken Hotel in response to the growing popularity for people to rear their own hens. Many people thought he was joking at first but he now runs a thriving business on his farm in Helston, and has bookings as far ahead as Christmas…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Great New Product, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, Latest News, Latest Trend, New Discoveries, New Inventions

GiftRocket Makes a Gift Card Accepted Anywhere

March 23, 2011

A new spin on the popular gift card.

Is the gift card, a surprisingly desirable commodity for gift recipients, in need of a version 2.0? The decades old plastic present, predated by its paper cousin the gift certificate, may be in for a young and hip transformation at the hands of new startup GiftRocket.

GiftRocket’s version of the gift card is place-specific, but not in the traditional sense. The format is designed to open up the $100 billion-per-year gift card industry and allow gift givers to send gift cards to anyone via email for any thing — such as drinks, skydiving or a spa day — at any venue, regardless of whether the retailer sells its own gift cards…

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Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Health & Fitness, New Viewpoints

Printing Nutritional Info on an Egg with an Eggbot

March 23, 2011

The Informational Egg

Thingiverse member Dnewman has produced some nutritional templates for Eggbot owners (Eggbots are devices designed to print on eggs, ping-pong balls, grapefruit, etc). Clever!

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, Latest News, Latest Trend

Is Give2gether a Google Analytics for Philanthropy?

March 22, 2011

Non-profits can be the key to our local or global community success.

Everybody needs a little help every now and then. Give2gether is banking that non-profits want a little help from economic professors applying their years of study towards making online giving more efficient.

The site itself is similar to other philanthropy-enabling platforms like Kickstarter, Crowdrise or even Jumo. Non-profits can set up a page on give2gether and use it to share news and raise money…

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Culture, Historical Perspectives, New Viewpoints

Concensus Cloud on Books Everyone Should Read

March 22, 2011

What would you add or remove from this cloud?

Should Twilight be among the books that everyone should read? It is according to this infographic by David McCandless of great books (according to popular surveys):

Do Top 100 Books polls and charts agree on a set of classics? I scraped the results of over 15 notable book polls, readers surveys and top 100’s. Both popular and high-brow. They included all Pulitzer Prize winners, Desert Island Discs choices from recent years, Oprah’s Bookclub list, and, of course, The Guardian’s Top 100 Books of All Time…

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Big Problems, Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Culture, Current Events, Health & Fitness, Human Behavior, Latest News

Salt Panic: Chinese Fearing Japan Radiation Rush To Buy Salt

March 22, 2011

The Salt Panic in China isn’t pretty.

Due to radiation fears from the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan, many Chinese citizens have rushed to buy salt under the belief that it will help fight the effects of radiation due to it’s iodine content…

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