Historical Perspectives – Page 81

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

Examining The Method Of Wiring Chips With Nerve Cells

March 24, 2011

Visions of a hybrid computer chip.

Research from the University of Wisconsin–Madison points to progress in creating hybrid computer chips combining silicon and neurons. Biomedical engineers demonstrated a novel technique for weaving the tendrils of mouse nerve cells into a network of semiconductor tubes. Yeah, that’s just an illustration above. But eventually, a neural-electronic device such as this could be used to study diseases of the nervous system, test drug efficacy, or potentially lead to new brain-machine interfaces…

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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.

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Analysis, Big Problems, government, Historical Perspectives, New Viewpoints

A Brief History of How the US Chamber of Commerce has Been Wrong About Everything

March 23, 2011

Wrong again, wrong again, jiggidy jog.

Bill McKibben has a fantastic column up today in which he details the numerous times that the US Chamber of Commerce has been wrong throughout American history — they opposed the New Deal, policies to support the Allies against Hitler in WWII, and on down the line to blocking action to prevent climate change. So why does anyone still listen?

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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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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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Education, Historical Perspectives, New Viewpoints, Science & Technology News, Space

How NASA Recovers Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters

March 21, 2011

After they’re done getting a space shuttle into the upper atmosphere, the solid rocket boosters drop off and fall into the ocean. They’re recovered by the NASA vesselsLiberty Star and Freedom Star and refurbished for additional use. This video shows how it’s done. It’s rather long, so let me point out some highlights…

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Analysis, Crazy Stuff, Culture, Great Videos, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Human Behavior, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints, People Making a Difference

The Last Sword Maker in Taiwan

March 21, 2011

Maria Popova of BrainPickings has posted an excellent article about 7 micro-documentaries about occupations and crafts that are fast becoming obsolete. From being a shoe black to working the film projector to making glass signs, these are the stories of people who are the last of their kinds.

This one above is the story of Taiwan’s last sword maker…

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Business, Corporate Manipulation, Current Events, Entertainment, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, Latest News

In The Race For More Spectrum, AT&T Is Acquiring T-Mobile For $39 Billion

March 21, 2011

T-Mobile is getting swallowed up by AT&T. Is this a good thing?

As anyone who has read a tech blog in the past few years will know, AT&T has been under attack for not being able to match the network capacity of larger rival Verizon. And when they won the majority of the bids for the open spectrum in 2008, Verizon also had a clear path to the future. Now AT&T is taking another path: buying T-Mobile…

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Analysis, Big Problems, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, Science & Technology News

Tragedy in Japan May Be Most Globally Disruptive Natural Disaster in Modern Times

March 20, 2011

An elderly woman cries in the devastated town of Rikuzentakata in Iwate prefecture.

There are events in history that sear themselves into the world’s collective imagination, and enter the realm where myth meets heartbreaking reality.

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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.”

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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…

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