Historical Perspectives – Page 63

Analysis, Art, Crazy Stuff, Culture, Current Events, Education, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior

The Connected States of America

July 10, 2011

When you think of a map of the US, you probably break it down by state or quadrants or party affiliation. But MIT, IBM and AT&T’s research teams decided to look at who was talking to whom, and the resulting map is pretty captivating.

The researchers organized anonymous data from AT&T mobile phones into interactive maps illustrating which areas place the most calls and texts, and who they’re communicating with. The colors represent areas that areas that communicate heavily locally, while the lines are for areas of the country that are in heavy contact remotely, like San Francisco and New York…

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Big Problems, Current Events, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, Internet, Latest News

15 suspected Anonymous members arrested in Italy

July 8, 2011

Anonymous may be slightly less anonymous shortly.

The Italian government capped off a long investigation yesterday with a series of 32 raids across Italy and one in Switzerland. Authorities arrested 15 alleged members of Anonymous and accused them with conducting denial of service attacks against government web sites and the web sites of private and state-owned media organizations…

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Architecture, Art, Culture, Current Events, Historical Perspectives, Latest News

Massive Mayan Gravesite found in the State of Tabasco

July 8, 2011

One of many relics found at the site.

Mexican archaeologists have discovered a Prehispanic grave site they believe to be Mayan in the state of Tabasco. Estimated to be around 1200 years old and containing 116 bodies, this is the largest group of skeletons found in the region. The area was thought to have been used as a cemetery, with the elite buried in a separate area from their companions, and skeletons found with dental inlays, cranial deformation and other body modifications…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, Green Friendly, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries, New Inventions

Solar Power Cells produced via inkjet technology

July 7, 2011

Harnessing the power of the sun through you injet printer?

Inkjet technology has allowed millions of people have the ability to print documents at home and even set up home offices. This technology may now even be used to create cheap solar energy cells…

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Analysis, DIY, Entertainment, Historical Perspectives

HOWTO clean LPs, DVDs, and CDs

July 6, 2011

REALLY close up of a vinyl groove.

I’ve recently picked up several old vinyl LPs at thrift stores and garage sales. My musical taste is very eclectic, but these discs have one big thing in common: they’re all filthy. Similarly, we have dozens of kids DVDs and CDs in our house coated in toddler goo that would almost certainly beat the adhesive that holds the tiles on the space shuttle. This weekend, I plan to brew up a cauldron of the cleaning solution used by the master preservationists at the Library of Congress. Or maybe I’ll just go with Ivory dish soap, warm water, and an old t-shirt. Anyway, here’s the LoC’s recipe..

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Analysis, Animals, Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Famous Inventor, Historical Perspectives

The shocking true tale of the Mad Genius who invented Sea-Monkeys

July 5, 2011

This was a classic comic book ad for many many years.

Did you ever order Sea Monkeys from an ad in the back of a comic book? The man behind the “Bowlfull of Happiness” was Harold von Braunhut, who’s life was so much more than sea monkeys…

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Analysis, Animals, Crazy Stuff, Historical Perspectives, Insects

World’s Loudest Animal is a tiny insect, says study

June 30, 2011

Loud things can come in small packages.

While normally a species measuring in at only around 2 millimeters in length might be easily overlooked, one tiny freshwater-dwelling critter has found a way to turn peoples’ heads. Researchers studying ‘water boatman’ (Micronecta scholtzi), an aquatic insect native to Europe, say that the minuscule species takes the mantle as the world’s loudest animal relative to its body size. The hard-to-see insect is capable of producing a song that reaches a whopping 99.2 decibles — roughly the equivalent to the sound of a motorcycle. What may be more surprising, however, is just how water boatman make their ‘song’.

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

Ultra-fast phase-change memory coming to a computer near you

June 30, 2011

A new memory system could change the whole computer market.

The age of flash memory might be nearing a close even before those sexy SSDs really hit the mainstream market, as IBM has just announced that they’ve figured out a way to make phase-change memory a commercial reality within five years. What’s in it for you? Well, how does accessing your data about a hundred times faster sound?

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Education, Entertainment, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend

Publishers Launch First Digital-Only Textbook for K-12

June 28, 2011

When will textbooks be a thing of the past?

McGraw-Hill launched its first all-digital, cloud-based textbook for the K-12 market on Monday at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference.

Unlike the company’s previous digital efforts for this age group, the books are intended to be used as primary texts (other McGraw-Hill digital texts have been sold as a companion of physical textbooks). This is the first time a major publisher has launched such a platform…

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Crazy Stuff, Culture, Historical Perspectives

The World’s Smelliest Man

June 27, 2011

Kailash Singh

Kailash Singh from India is probably the world’s smelliest man. He has refusing to wash for more than 37 years. Mr Singh has not bathed or cut his 6ft-long dreadlocks since 1974, shortly after he married. Explaining his unconventional decision, Mr Singh claimed a priest guaranteed him a much-prized son and heir if he followed the advice…

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Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Entertainment, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries, New Inventions, New Viewpoints

Japanese Pop Star revealed to be fake

June 27, 2011

Eguchi Aimi, the newest member of the all-girl Japanese pop group AKB48 is not a human being at all.

A Japanese pop group has fooled their fans by creating a fake member. No I don’t mean this was just another airhead pop star with no personality or talent. This was an actual non-existent computer generated person made from the faces of her band mates. The group even offers an app on its website that allows you do make a similar person mash up…

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Historical Perspectives

9 Steps to consider when valuing your Startup

June 26, 2011

Valuing a Startup can always be challenging.

Determining your startup’s worth is one of the hardest parts of the fundraising process. There is no magic formula that will spit out a valuation, namely because the number is highly subjective. The entrepreneur, for example, anticipates huge potential and may therefore put a high valuation on his company. The investor, on the other hand sees a company that needs capital to grow and may fail without it, so he may set a low valuation. To help the process, we’ve devised a few considerations to help value your company…

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