Breakthrough Thinking – Page 113

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.

Continue reading… “Bus Safety Rules to be Rewritten Because of People are Now Too Fat”

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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Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Culture, Food, Health & Fitness

Local Chinese Delicacy: Eggs Boiled in Urine

March 21, 2011

Urine luck with these eggs?

Of all the cultures in the world, you have to respect China for never letting go of thousands-of-years-old customs, even when it involves boiling eggs in the urine of young boys…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, New Discoveries, New Inventions, New Viewpoints, Video Games

Red Bull Augmented Racing Game Lets You Build Tracks With Red Bull Cans

March 20, 2011

Red Bull Can Racing

Sure, it may all just be an elaborate scheme to get you to buy more Red Bull, but it is a fairly ingenious scheme. In addition to a plethora of in-game advertising, the new Red Bull racing game for iOS devices also has an augmented reality component that lets you build tracks simply by lining up actual cans of Red Bull on the floor — at least twelve of them for a complete track, and only Red Bull will do, apparently…

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Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Entertainment, Great New Product, Green Friendly, People Making a Difference, Recycling

Hardwood Floors & Basketball Courts Recycled into Skateboards

March 20, 2011

Glide on your new ride.

Watching basketball, do you ever wonder what happens to the wood flooring when the court has to be replaced? Well, in the case of the court at Virginia State University, the maple planks once played on by the Trojans were recycled, and in an unusual way: they’ve been remade into skateboards…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, Health & Fitness, Human Behavior, New Inventions

The Sock Helper

March 20, 2011

Pull that sock up without getting close to your feet.

People have some strange phobias so I could see this strange aperture to be helpful who are afraid of their own feet.

Easy pull on sock aid supports compression hosier, medical stockings, socks and panty hose so it’s easy to slide your foot in and pull on with handles without having to bend down or struggle…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Great New Product, Historical Perspectives, Internet, New Viewpoints

Make Any Content on the Web Embeddable With Embedly

March 19, 2011

Embedly screen shot.

When traversing the web, most site visitors will stay on a page 250% longer when there’s embedded media, Sean Creeley tells me. This stat is based on findings from a Google AdWords test he ran last year.

Creeley is the founder of Y Combinator startup Embedly; Embedly’s mission is to make it painstakingly easy for publishers and application developers to add that embedded media and better engage their web users.

“The idea is to engage the user where they are,” says Creeley. “We really want to get the user where they live, instead of making them try to jump through hoops to view multimedia content.”

Continue reading… “Make Any Content on the Web Embeddable With Embedly”