Breakthrough Thinking – Page 114

Analysis, Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Entertainment, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend

Netflix Original Content Is Much More Than A Strategy Shift — It Could Shift An Industry

March 19, 2011

Three years ago, if you had asked people to choose between cable television and Netflix, the vast majority would have laughed at you. A DVD-by-mail service versus thousands of pieces of content always at your fingertips?

No one is laughing anymore.

Netflix has confirmed that they intend to pay forHouse of Cards a new show being produced by David Fincher (yes, he of Fight Club, The Social Network, etc) and starring Kevin Spacey (yes, he of The Usual Suspects, American Beauty, etc). Netflix is not paying for the full production of it, but instead they’re paying for the first-rights access to air it. In other words, they get the first “window” to show it to viewers…

Continue reading… “Netflix Original Content Is Much More Than A Strategy Shift — It Could Shift An Industry”

Big Problems, Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Globalism, Green Friendly, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues

Google Recruits Scientists to Use New Media to Tackle Climate Skeptics

March 19, 2011

In an effort to help improve communication regarding global warming issues and to counter the rampant ‘noise’ made by fossil fuel industry-funded climate skepticism, Google’s philanthropy arm has launched a new program focused on bringing together scientists, communications experts, and the world of social media. Google has tapped 21 top climate researchers to be fellows on the project, and they plan on mapping out a way to get accurate, scientifically sound information on climate to the masses.

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Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Entertainment, Health & Fitness, Human Behavior, Humor

Brilliant Board Game Idea: The Waxing Game

March 19, 2011

The Glaze Brothers have a great idea for a board game. The Waxing Game is quite straighforward. A Candy Land-like board is filled with body parts. Roll the die and move your piece forward. From whichever location you land on, you must have your body hair ripped off. What a pleasant way to spend a quiet evening!

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Crazy Stuff, Current Events, Entertainment, Great New Product, Internet, Latest News, Latest Trend, People Making a Difference

Youngest Y Combinator Founders Launch MinoMonsters, The Pokemon Of Social Games

March 18, 2011

At age 15, most normal people are going to high school, learning to drive, not listening to their parents, and doing things that they’ll later tell their kids not to do. Josh Buckley is not a normal teenager. At 15, he was selling his first company for just over six figures.

Today, the 18-year-old entrepreneur and angel investor has partnered with 17-year-old engineer Tyler Diaz to co-found MinoMonsters, a social game in which players collect and battle pet monsters.

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Alternative Transportation, Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, New Viewpoints

Large Hadron Collider Could Be World’s First Time Machine

March 17, 2011

The latest concept at what could product time travel.

If the latest theory of Tom Weiler and Chui Man Ho is right, the Large Hadron Collider — the world’s largest atom smasher that started regular operation last year — could be the first machine capable of causing matter to travel backwards in time.

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Breakthrough Thinking, Globalism, government, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Latest News, Latest Trend

U.S. Military Developing False Online Personalities to Counter “Enemy Propaganda”

March 17, 2011

The US Central Command (Centcom) has purchased software that creates false online personalities for what it calls “information operations.”

Using the software, one member of the U.S. Military can control up to ten different fake accounts that appear to belong to civilians living in other countries. The government purchased the software from California-based Ntrepid for $2.76 million.

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Architecture, Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Health & Fitness, New Inventions

Hexayurt

March 17, 2011

A hexayurt in action.

The hexayurt is an update on Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome and is a sturdy, affordable, easy-to-build temporary shelter. The geometry has been adjusted slightly to make it easier to build domes from materials like plywood, insulation, plastic, cardboard and more. The hexayurts are made from only one kind of triangle: an 8′ x 8′ isosceles triangle, rather than the strangely-shaped triangles which are standard for Fuller-style geodesic domes. They are not strictly geodesic, either, but it doesn’t seem to matter much in practice. The slightly stiff, angular lines look a lot like any other dome.

The most common place to see hexayurts is at Burning Man…

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Photos, Current Events, government, Latest News, Latest Trend

Sanity Comes to Sexting Laws in New Jersey

March 16, 2011

Where is the middle ground for sexting laws?

Salon’s Tracy Clark-Flory writes about a new bill in New Jersey that would prevent minors who engage in “sexting” (taking naked pictures of themselves and sharing them with boy- and girlfriends) from being prosecuted as child pornographers. As Clark-Flory explains, you don’t have to be in favor of kids sharing naked pictures of themselves to understand that child porn laws shouldn’t be used against them…

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, Internet, Latest News, Twitter

Is Twitter Dividing the Happy From the Unhappy?

March 16, 2011

Anyone who thought that social media was going to usher in a utopian era of communication without borders is going to have their faith badly shaken by a new study from Cornell University. On Twitter, it seems, there are already at least two walled-off nations: happy people and unhappy people.

And never the twain shall tweet.

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Breakthrough Thinking, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, New Inventions, Science & Technology News, Space

First Space-Based Gas Station Set to Open in 2015

March 16, 2011

Space gas to become a reality soon?

In space, no one can hear you scream — about the soaring prices at the pump, that is. For what will be the very first time, plans for a space-based satellite filling station have been announced, with a launch date set for 2015. It may sound like a bit of unnecessary convenience some 22,369 miles above our heads, but experts say that the gas station will do much more than make Earth a planetary truck-stop. “This is a first-time-ever, huge, huge, huge event,” says the director of the Space Protection Program — and it’s sure to make space a little cleaner, too.

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Breakthrough Thinking, Education, Internet, Latest News

Get Paid to Teach Anything With New Online Education Platform

March 15, 2011

Name: Learnable

Quick Pitch: Learnable allows anyone to create and charge for online courses.

Genius Idea: Many schools have started to take online education seriously. By 2006, 66% of postsecondary learning institutions included in federal financial aid programs were already reporting that they offered some form of Internet learning, and a 2009 report from the U.S. Department of education found that those students who studied in online learning environments performed modelstly better than peers who were receiving face-to-face instruction.

This is very much along the lines of what Futurist Thomas Frey predicted in his 2007 paper on the Future of Education.

It’s great news for people who are looking to work toward a college degree, but there are few affordable parallels for people who just want to pick up a skill. Where does one go for affordable online lessons on homepage design? Javascript programming? Guitar? the Irish Whistle?

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Alternative Transportation, Breakthrough Thinking, Ecological Products, Great New Product, Green Friendly, Historical Perspectives, New Viewpoints

Pedal Power Meets Photovoltaics via Solarbike

March 15, 2011

Solarbike aims at having electric bikes powered by the sun.

Solarbike specialises in electric conversion kits for bicycles. But the business’s founders, both research scientists at the University of Western Australia, have been working on a way to easily have electric bikes powered by the sun. After some trial and error, which they transparently document, they’ve arrived at reasonably affordable photovoltaic systems that allow electric bike owners to ride like a solar wind…

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