Category: New Viewpoints

Impact Lab > New Viewpoints
Architecture, Breakthrough Thinking, Education, Entertainment, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

The Obscura Society

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Local geography CAN be interesting.

Atlas Obscura had a great success earlier this year with Obscura Day, a project to get people all over involved in their local geography and interesting places. It was so successful that they are now forming The Obscura Society, a club in which people not only explore places, but share their experiences with others.

Born of the success of Obscura Day, this real-world exploration arm of Atlas Obscura will be seeking out secret histories, unusual access, and opportunities to explore strange and overlooked places hidden all around us, all year round – and we could not be more excited about it…

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Analysis, Education, Latest News, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints, Plant Life

New discovery on how sugars are moved throughout a plant

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An image of the localization of the identified protein in the molecular pump in the vascalature of a plant leaf.

Food prices are soaring at the same time as Earth’s population is nearing 9 billion. As a result the need for increased crop yields is extremely important. New research led by Carnegie’s Wolf Frommer into the system by which sugars are moved throughout a plant — from the leaves to the harvested portions and elsewhere — could be crucial for addressing this problem…

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Architecture, Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Crazy Stuff, Latest Trend, New Viewpoints, Recycling

60 recycled shipping containers transformed into London’s Boxpark Shopping Mall

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Recycling takes on a new form at Boxpark.

Boxpark is a new shopping mall built from standard-sized recycled shipping containers. Located in London’s ultra-hip east end, the shops are achingly trendy, with the majority selling tee-shirts, shoes and some jeans. All with attitude, of course.

The container village is painted black and white and contains 60 containers which are stacked two stories high and five rows wide. It is all a pop-up, easily plunked down…

Continue reading… “60 recycled shipping containers transformed into London’s Boxpark Shopping Mall”

Analysis, Humor, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

The Internet’s best 404 Error pages

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Getting a funny 411 when you get  404.

The internet isn’t just a bunch of cables, wires, modems, computers, silicon, protocols, h-tee-tee-pees and h-tee-em-els. There are people behind it! People with personality. People who like to laugh. People who put up hilarious 404 error pages so whenever something goes wrong on the Internet, people will remember that they exist!

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Photos, Crazy Stuff, Entertainment, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

V-Squared Labs Brings Visual Alchemy To A Performance

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Concerts simply aren’t the same as they used to be.

A visual revolution has been brewing in the image rendering and video projection realms transforming musical events into an entirely new multi-level experience. Objects resembling giant, white Tetris blocks on a stage suddenly are transformed into living video art that throbbed and pulsed along with the music. Audience members visit outer space and see spaceships fly by and explode in amazing high definition imagery. Cyber machines chug and churn before morphing into green blocks of electric contemplation and much, much more…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Entertainment, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

Bus/Tram combo charges battery as it picks up passengers

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Behold the AutoTram.

German researchers are testing a unique form of public transportation that borrows the best from busses, electric cars, trains and trams without contributing emissions. The vehicle, named AutoTram, is fully electric, but instead of running on a single charge, it charges when it stops, gaining enough power in 30 seconds to move another mile.

The project comes from the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI in Dresden and aims to offer the convenience, routing flexibility and affordability of a bus, minus the noise and exhaust. It also addresses the problem of lengthy battery charging cycles. While most cars are only in use for a few hours per day, public transportation vehicles can be in action around the clock, offering nearly no battery charging opportunities…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, New Viewpoints

Street lights of the future will be powered by the sun and wind

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Solar and wind are much more logical.

Those humming orange lights that illuminate your city streets typically rely on High Pressure Sodium bulbs (HPS)—and longer lasting than other conventional options, sure, but not exactly energy efficient. No worries though, they may soon be obsolete thanks to these LED street lamps powered by the sun and wind…

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Education, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

Quantum entanglement demonstrated in macroscopic objects

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interdependence of quantum states between particles not in physical contact
needs some props to explain the concept more clearly.

A pair of diamond crystals, large enough to be seen by the naked eye, have been linked together by quantum entanglement. The diamonds are entangled such that manipulating one affects the other, even though they are physically separated. In this case, the crystals were 3 millimeters wide and 15 centimeters apart. (One of the diamond wafers is pictured below.) Indeed, Einstein called this phenomenon “spooky action at a distance,” and scientists still don’t understand how it’s possible. The University of Oxford physicists published their work today in the journal Science…

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Award Winner, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

Japan hopes world’s tallest tower will boost tourism

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A new record tower.

If you’re afraid of heights, this may be a story you want to skip. The Guinness Book of World Records recently certified that the tallest tower in the world is indeed the Sky Tree which stands in Tokyo, Japan. A work in progress since 2006, the Sky Tree was constructed to be a radio and television tower while at the same time helping to revitalize tourism after the earthquakes and tsunami the country experienced. Sporting two observation decks, at 1,148 feet and 1,476 feet, tourists are guaranteed to get a spectacular view of the city.

Measuring in at 2,080 feet, the tower cost $440 million to construct. It has thirteen elevators, a restaurant, and shopping. What is interesting is that because it has less than 50% usable floor space, it fell into a different category with Guinness than the Burj Khalifa building in Dubai. It’s because the Sky Tree is technically not a building but a tower, it captured it’s own world record…

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Discover the Hidden Patterns of Tomorrow with Futurist Thomas Frey
Unlock Your Potential, Ignite Your Success.

By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.

Learn More about this exciting program.