Category: Historical Perspectives

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Analysis, Brain, Breakthrough Thinking, DIY, Education, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior

Why Creative People Are Eccentric

Ibot Dean Kamen

Dean Kamen on his Ibot invention.

He is one of the world’s best known and most successful entrepreneurs, with hundreds of patents to his name—including the Segway scooter. But you will never see Dean Kamen in a suit and tie: the eccentric inventor dresses almost exclusively in denim. He spent five years in college before dropping out, does not take vacations and has never married. Kamen presides (along with his Ministers of Ice Cream, Brunch and Nepotism) over the Connecticut island kingdom of North Dumpling, which has “seceded” from the U.S. and dispenses its own currency in units of pi. Visitors are issued a visa form that includes spaces on which to note identifying marks on both their face and buttocks…

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Education, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend, New Viewpoints

Ruby on Rails popularity index 2012

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Are you using Ruby on Rails yet?

Ruby on Rails has taken the web development world by storm since its first full release in 2005. Yet with new web platforms arriving each day, usage share of frameworks has become quite fragmented. So in this post, I compiled the latest trends and figures of Ruby on Rails from different sources, as well as some stats of the Ruby language.

In a recent survey of Bestvendor.com, Ruby on Rails remains to be the preferred framework of choice among startups. But, how popular really is Ruby on Rails?

After the jump is an infographic created to show how far Ruby on Rails has gotten since its release in 2005…

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Brain, Breakthrough Thinking, Education, Entertainment, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, New Viewpoints

We’re heading towards a future where brain scans replace the SAT

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No memorization will be necessary in the future.

Imagine if the extent your natural intelligence could be determined with a simple scan where you’d have to do nothing at all. What if it became the new standard for college admissions. Deterministic as it may seem, at least we wouldn’t have anymore goddamn vocab flash cards to memorize.

According to Duke University professor Jonathan Wai, writing in Psychology Today, there’s been a study conducted at UC Irvine since 1988, in which test subjects were put through various aptitude tests while conducting brain scans. What they discovered is the smartest patients required less brain power to accomplish a task. Efficiency!

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Breakthrough Thinking, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries, New Inventions

Low-Cost nanosheet catalyst discovered to split hydrogen from water

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This magnified image from a transmission electron microscope reveals details of the unexpected nanosheet structure of the nickel-molybdenum-nitride catalyst, seen here as dark, straight lines.

Hydrogen gas offers one of the most promising sustainable energy alternatives to limited fossil fuels. But traditional methods of producing pure hydrogen face significant challenges in unlocking its full potential, either by releasing harmful carbon dioxide into the atmosphere or requiring rare and expensive chemical elements such as platinum…

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Current Events, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries

Quantum object teleported 100 kilometers by Chinese Scientists

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Teleportation is one step closer to reality.

Though quantum teleportation has existed for well over 10 years, it has never actually happened at a distance that would be of any use to people in the real world. But for the first time, Chinese researchers were able to teleport a quantum object nearly 100 kilometers, ramping up the real world applications for the idea.

According to Technology Review, the quantum teleportation does not involve dematerializing and then re-materializing physical matter, but rather using a photon to transmit the quantum state of one object to another, thus allowing the recipient to become a clone of the sender (think of it kind of like your consciousness inhabiting someone else’s body)…

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Analysis, Business, Corporate Manipulation, Crazy Stuff, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, New Discoveries

HP busted for putting less and less ink into printer cartridges

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What you see is not what you get.

The price for HP ink cartridges isn’t shrinking but the amount of ink that HP puts into those cartridges sure has, according to an investigation by HP Ink Cartridges.co.uk.

The site took two of the same model of ink cartridges, the HP 350. One was produced in 2010, the other in 2012. They sawed off the top and measured the spot that holds the ink with a sponge. The one from 2012 held about half the ink from 2010. But from the outside they looked the same…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries, New Inventions

Proof that even a screwdriver becomes obsolete

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Time to change your screwdriver.

Stanley Works has been making hand tools in New Britain, Connecticut, since the middle of the 19th century. Some time in the 20th, the company came up with this terrible screwdriver. It has a handle with rigid, jagged plastic edges that gouge your palms at every inch-pound of torque. Yet the handle is somehow always slick, requiring a firm, skin-sacrificing grip. The screwdriver is downright painful to use. It is, as far as toolbox technology goes, obsolete…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, New Inventions

The World’s Loudest Bike Horn Is More Deafening Than a 747 Taking Off

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Get out of the way!

A UK insurance company has found the perfect way for pedestrians and drivers to resent cyclists even more. It’s created the Hornster bicycle which features a triumvirate of horns on the handle bars capable of blasting out a deafening 178 decibel honk…

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Analysis, Art, Crazy Photos, Culture, DIY, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, Latest News, New Viewpoints, People Making a Difference

Photos of people living off-the-grid in the United States

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Living ‘off the grid’ can entail going without some common luxuries.

Eric Valli spent 3 years taking photos of people in the United States who have “decided to live light on the earth.” The photographs are terrific. It looks like Valli spent time with two clans: a frontier/settler type group, and another group that look almost like cave people. I wish he had included more information about them!

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, Latest News, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints, People Making a Difference

Dental plaque used to probe diet of ancient people

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Ancient people ate far differently than we do.

While we may brush and floss tirelessly and our dentists may regularly scrape and pick at our teeth to minimize the formation of plaque known as tartar or dental calculus, anthropologists may be rejoicing at the fact that past civilizations were not so careful with their dental hygiene…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, Medical Breakthrough, New Discoveries

Kid invents candy cure for ailment

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What other things can we cure with lollipops?

A 13-year-old girl from Connecticut named Mallory Kievman has come up with a pretty clever cure for hiccups: vinegar lollipops! She developed the idea after researching various at-home remedies—a teaspoon of vinegar, hard candy, etc—as well as the physiological reason for a bout of hiccups.

Mallory explained to the New York Times that the vinegar “triggers a set of nerves in your throat and mouth that are responsible for the hiccup reflex arc.” Over-stimulating those nerves cancels out the message to hiccup, problem sovled…

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