Historical Perspectives – Page 54

Analysis, Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Culture, Education, Entertainment, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior

Why QR Codes are here to stay

August 27, 2011

Scan that code for a shortcut to information.

If you raise the subject of QR codes among tech early adopters, you are likely to elicit a passionate response. Some people think QR codes, those scanable black and white squares on everything from billboards to product packaging, are on an unstoppable growth trajectory, while skeptics are quick to dismiss them as a fad.

This reaction is common whenever new technology formats or standards are being decided upon. Pundits want to exhibit their knack for predicting the future and stakeholders (of which I am undeniably one) want to make sure their format wins out. The general public, meanwhile, tends to lay in wait for a particular format to show dominance…

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Analysis, Big Problems, Crazy Stuff, Globalism, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Science & Technology News

Dispersants used on BP Spill contain chemicals associated with cancer: new report

August 26, 2011

What a non-surprise.

Many of us sounded the alarm as soon as we learned of BP’s plans to dump huge quantities of the chemical dispersant Corexit into the Gulf in an attempt to break up the oil slick. Experts were concerned, seeing as how the chemical had never been used in such quantities before, nor in such a manner — until the federal government made them stop, BP was blasting the stuff directly into the source, seeking to disperse the oil before it even reached the surface.

Well, now Earth Justice has completed a report on the chemicals that were used in the different blends of dispersant, and it appears that at least some of those fears were well-founded…

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Analysis, Animals, Crazy Stuff, Current Events, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, Latest Trend, New Discoveries

Dolphins now conch fishing

August 26, 2011

Dolphins are very smart creatures.

Researchers from Murdoch University have been watching bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia develop an ingenious way to fish. First witnessed by researchers in 2007, a dolphin will use a conch shell to trap and scoop up fish. The dolphin will then proceed to pour the fishies into its mouth as if they were the bottoms of a chip bag. The remarkable part is that this behavior seems to be becoming more widespread, marking it as a trend learned…

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Analysis, Big Problems, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives

Scented laundry products emit carcinogens

August 26, 2011

Dangerous scents abound.

Love the fresh smell of clean laundry? Be careful – you may just be snorting up carcinogens:

Analysis of the captured gases found more than 25 volatile organic compounds, including seven hazardous air pollutants, coming out of the vents. Of those, two chemicals — acetaldehyde and benzene — are classified by theEnvironmental Protection Agency as carcinogens, for which the agency has established no safe exposure level…

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Analysis, Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Current Events, Historical Perspectives, Latest News

Movie Trailers released exclusively via QR Code for the first time

August 25, 2011

QR Codes are being embraced by Fox Searchlight Studios.

Fox Searchlight is shunning traditional promotional opportunities for its upcoming film Martha Marcy May Marlene.
Instead, the studio is rolling out an elaborate QR code campaign for the movie, which hits theaters on October 21.

Rather than go the traditional route of releasing teasers and trailers, Fox Searchlight opted to go digital…

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Analysis, Big Problems, Crazy Stuff, Current Events, Globalism, government, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, New Discoveries

Brazil builds $127 billion “Offshore City” to harvest oil in the deep sea

August 25, 2011

Brazil is set to start gathering oil in new places.

Want to get a feel for how crazy the post-peak oil fossil fuels industry is getting? Here’s as good an example as any: Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras is about to embark on an unprecedented oil-gathering mission. It’s about to attempt to extract 30 billion barrels of oil from reserves that are locked in deepwater sub-salt fields at least 60 miles off the coast and up to five miles underwater. In order to get at the incredibly hard-to-get oily good stuff, Brazil is spending an estimated $226 billion — and $127 billion will be spent on exploration and production alone.

The product of that venture is already taking shape: a veritable floating “offshore city” has sprung up over 100 kilometers (62 miles) off the coast of Brazil, and it will lead the effort to drill into the deep sea sub-salt…

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Analysis, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, Medical Breakthrough, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

Going Under: What we don’t know about anesthetics

August 25, 2011

Are anesthetics as safe as we think they are?

The majority of people reading this sentence will, at some point in their lives, undergo a medical treatment that requires general anesthesia. Doctors will inject them with a drug, or have them breathe it in. For several hours, they will be unconscious. And almost all of them will wake up happy and healthy.

We know that the general anesthetics we use today are safe. But we know that because they’ve proven themselves to be safe, not because we understand the mechanisms behind how they work. The truth is, at that level, anesthetics are a big, fat question mark. And that leaves room for a lot of unknowns. What if, in the long term, our anesthetics aren’t as safe for everyone as we think they are?

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bicycle, Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries

Self-Inflating bike tires promise a future free of hand pumps

August 25, 2011

The PumpTire consists of an inner tube, the tire itself, and a special uni-directional air valve that screws into the stem of the inner tube. When the pump is active, it uses the tire’s rolling motion to draw in air from the atmosphere, through the one-way valve and into a lumen that runs along the outer edge of the tire. As the tire rolls, it squishes the lumen flat, forcing air into the main tube and when the weight of the tire is removed, the lumen re-inflates before it’s rolled over again. The system automatically shuts the valve when the desired pressure is reached. The doesn’t require any special modifications or rims…

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Entertainment, Food, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries

Scientists discovered the “Missing Link” of beer brewing

August 23, 2011

Beech galls in Patagonia inhabited by Saccharomyces eubayanus, the species
researchers think combined with domesticated yeast to create a lager-producing hybrid.

Mystery solved! Scientists have discovered the “missing link” in beer brewing. Ladies and gents, take a good look at the orange-colored galls on the beech tree to your left: they were found to harbor the specific strain of yeast that makes lager beer possible.

How did lager beer come to be? After pondering the question for decades, scientists have found that an elusive species of yeast isolated in the forests of Argentina was key to the invention of the crisp-tasting German beer 600 years ago.

It took a five-year search around the world before a scientific team discovered, identified and named the organism, a species of wild yeast called Saccharomyces eubayanus that lives on beech trees…

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Big Problems, Breakthrough Thinking, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues

Wikileaks releases thousands more cables Covering China, Taiwan and Libya

August 23, 2011

More Wikileaks released!

Wikileaks just dropped thousands more embassy cables today. These centered around China, Taiwan, and Libya.

The first batch to drop were 2170 cables about Taiwan. Some 3004 cables from China followed quickly behind…

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Animals, Breakthrough Thinking, Education, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, New Viewpoints

Android app locates endangered species wherever you are

August 23, 2011

Once they are gone, they are gone.

This is one of those cool-yet-terribly-sad-it-exists apps. The Center for Biological Diversity has created an app for Android users that will tell you exactly which endangered species are living in the area you’re standing in. On the one hand, it’s amazing to know at any point in time which species are living in the area you’re walking though, and especially interesting to know which endangered species are struggling to survive. It could be a way to stay aware of local ecology and how you can help with conservation efforts. However, it’s of course a bummer that there’s an app that will tell you all the species that are thiiiiis close to being found only in history books.

The free “Species Finder” Android app has over 1,000 plants and animals from the endangered species list in its database. Using your smartphone’s GPS, the app generates a list of all the threatened and endangered species living in whichever county you’re currently located in.

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Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Current Events, Great Videos, Historical Perspectives, Latest News

Facebook climbs to no. 3 video site in US

August 23, 2011

Facebook is gaining momentum in the video realm.

Facebook is already the largest photo site in the U.S., and now it is climbing up the charts for online video. Facebook now ranks as the third largest video site on the Web in terms of unique viewers according to comScore, with an estimated 51.5 million people on Facebook watching a video during the month of July. The month before it was No. 6. It passed Microsoft, Yahoo, and Viacom. Only Vevo (with 62 million monthly viewers) and YouTube (158 million) are bigger.

It is only a matter of time before Facebook passes Vevo, but can it ever take the crown from Google/Youtube?

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