New Viewpoints – Page 53

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.

Continue reading… “Bus Safety Rules to be Rewritten Because of People are Now Too Fat”

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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Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Health & Fitness, New Viewpoints

Printing Nutritional Info on an Egg with an Eggbot

March 23, 2011

The Informational Egg

Thingiverse member Dnewman has produced some nutritional templates for Eggbot owners (Eggbots are devices designed to print on eggs, ping-pong balls, grapefruit, etc). Clever!

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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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Architecture, Art, Latest Trend, New Viewpoints, Recycling

Rain Collecting Skyscraper Cuts Water Usage

March 22, 2011

Rain is an under valued resource.

Gutters aren’t pretty. Most architects, given the choice, try to find a way to conceal them so they don’t turn an elegant roofline into a clunky mess. But when it comes to the ‘Capture the Rain’ skyscraper, gutters are perhaps the most important element of the structure, and they’ve been integrated in a way that makes them a design statement of their own accord.

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Art, DIY, Music, New Viewpoints

3 String Guitar Projects

March 22, 2011

3 strings are easier to learn than 4 for children.

Teaching children how to play a musical instrument from an early age could prove very important for their creativity in the future. If your kid is more attracted to stringed instruments than to pianos and such, a 3 string guitar may be the perfect choice…

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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…

Continue reading… “The Last Sword Maker in Taiwan”

Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, New Discoveries, New Inventions, New Viewpoints, Video Games

Red Bull Augmented Racing Game Lets You Build Tracks With Red Bull Cans

March 20, 2011

Red Bull Can Racing

Sure, it may all just be an elaborate scheme to get you to buy more Red Bull, but it is a fairly ingenious scheme. In addition to a plethora of in-game advertising, the new Red Bull racing game for iOS devices also has an augmented reality component that lets you build tracks simply by lining up actual cans of Red Bull on the floor — at least twelve of them for a complete track, and only Red Bull will do, apparently…

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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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Current Events, Health & Fitness, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints, Robots

Japan Nuclear Crisis: “Monirobo,” the Radiation-Monitoring Robot Arrives

March 19, 2011

Monirobo

A remote-controlled disaster monitoring robot has reportedly been dispatched to Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, to measure radiation levels within a site now so contaminated, it is unsafe for humans.

Monirobo (“monitor” + “robot”) was developed by the Nuclear Safety Technology Center, at Japan’s Ministry of Education. Monirobo is about 32 inches long, 52 inches in diameter, and 52 inches high, and weighs about 1300 pounds (600kg)…

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Analysis, Animals, Culture, Food, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, New Viewpoints

A Century of Meat Consumption

March 18, 2011

Meat eating trends have changed quite a bit over time.

The New York Times has created a chart that illustrates changing meat eating habits among Americans over the past century. Chicken, as you can see, is steadily on the rise, whereas lamb (black) eating has dropped to almost nothing…

Continue reading… “A Century of Meat Consumption”