Impact Lab – Page 1329 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

Analysis, Big Problems, Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Culture, Current Events, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Human Behavior, Internet, Latest News

Anonymous fires back at NATO with FBI hack, releases 400MB of their data

July 31, 2011

Anonymous is scared no longer.

Despite the recent spate of arrests on their side, Anon released 400MB of NATO data courtesy of big-time cybersecurity firm ManTech last night. This is their way of making good on a promise and reiterating that they “aren’t scared anymore”.
You’ll recall that NATO officially condemned Anonymous early last month. Well, as part of their long attack on ManTech, you’ll find a bevy of stolen NATO reports from the past several years, financial charts, and pictures of personnel both on duty and at rest. Pretty big, and this is only a portion of the gig of data they say they’re sitting on…

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Analysis, Brain, facebook, Human Behavior, Internet, Science & Technology News, Twitter

Facebook and Twitter creating a generation of self-obsessed people

July 31, 2011

Top scientist has warned that repeated exposure to social networking websites could harm users.

According to a top scientist Facebook and Twitter have created a generation obsessed with themselves, who have short attention spans and a childlike desire for constant feedback on their lives.

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Analysis, Birth, Breakthrough Thinking, Education, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, New Viewpoints

A font for dyslexia

July 31, 2011

Watching my kids learning how to read made me truly appreciate how difficult it can be to distinguish letters of the Roman alphabet. If you think about it, a lot of the letters are truly alike – b and p are the same thing with different rotation, v and w look almost the same and so on. Dyslexics have even greater trouble because their brains constantly “mix up” these letters…

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Art, Crazy Stuff, Photo Perspectives, Science & Technology News

Castle made entirely of human hair

July 31, 2011

“I Wanted To Be A Princess” series used clumps of hair to create 3,000 bricks.

Designers have utilized human hair in an incredible range of applications from sunglasses to dresses, product packaging and even woven mats that keeps weeds from growing in lawns. Artists like Agustina Woodgate have also taken note. She has transformed strands from countless heads into a hair bricks that she uses to construct gigantic castles. (Pics)

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Insects, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Beekeeping thrives in U.S. cities

July 31, 2011

There are more than 1000,000 bees in a hive on top of City Hall in Chicago.

On top of Chicago’s City Hall is a garden with wildflowers and native grasses. In the garden stand two beehives where more than 100,000 bees come and go in patterns more graceful, but just as busy, as the traffic on the street 11 stories below.

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Analysis, Business, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Apple is No. 1 in smartphone sales rankings

July 31, 2011

Apple sold a record 20.3 million iPhones in the second quarter.

Apple and Samsung Electronics ended struggling Nokia’s 15-year reign at the top of the smartphone sales rankings in the second quarter, researchers said on Friday.

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Analysis, Animals, Art, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

Nature by the numbers: Fibonacci Sequence animated in mesmerizing video

July 30, 2011

We all learned about the Fibonacci numbers in school. If you need a refresher course, the integers in the Fibonacci sequence start with 0 and 1. Each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two, so the third number in the sequence is 1, the fourth number, is 2, the fifth number is 3, and so on. The Fibonacci spiral is something we see every day in nature but never really pay much attention to. However, an amazing YouTube video called “Nature By Numbers” puts the mathematical sequence into perspective for us…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, New Inventions

Google and NASA team up for a Green Flight Challenge with $1.65M prize

July 30, 2011

Are you ready for the Green Flight Challenge?

Air travel may be time efficient, but based on planes’ carbon emissions, it’s not good for the environment. And while purchasing carbon offsets is a good move, it’s just a drop in the bucket. That’s why Google has teamed up with aircraft technology research group the CAFE Foundation to sponsor the NASA Centennial Challenge competition, called the Green Flight Challenge.

The more than $1 million first place prize will go to the team that designs the aircraft that best shows that the emission-free flight is not only possible, it’s practical…

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Animals, Art, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

GDT Nature Photograph Winners

July 30, 2011

This winning photo of creatures of land and air colliding taken by Bence Máté.

The German Society of Nature Photographers — the trippingly named Gesellschaft Deutscher Tierfotografen — holds a contest every year for the best photographs. Featured in the Guardian are some of the winners with some truly stunning photographs. Check out this year’s winners on display at the Guardian’s website, including this wonderful example by Bence Máté taken in Hungary. Who do you think won this standoff? My bet’s on the bird…

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Breakthrough Thinking, New Discoveries, New Inventions, Science & Technology News

MIT develops sun-free photovoltaics

July 30, 2011

Materials engineered to give off precisely tuned wavelengths of light when heated are key to new high-efficiency generating system.

MIT has developed a new photovoltaic energy-conversion system that can be powered solely by heat, generating electricity with no sunlight at all.

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Analysis, Food, Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News

Chewing more helps you eat less: study

July 30, 2011

Chewing food 40 times caused study participants to eat nearly 12 percent fewer calories.

People who chew their food more take in fewer calories, which may help them control their weight, according to a new study.

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Analysis, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Global population to hit 7 billion in 2011

July 30, 2011

“7 billion and counting”

The global population is expected to surpass 7 billion later this year, up from 6 billion in 1999. An estimated 2.3 billion more people will be added—nearly as many as inhabited the planet as recently as 1950 between now and 2050. The population will reach 10.1 billion in 2100 according to new estimates from the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations.

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