Culture
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Background: Sometimes, classic art intentionally evokes a negative emotion. Here are some classic examples: The Issue: However, perhaps the world is already cruel enough, and humans don’t need to be subjected to further psychological trauma. But how can we continue to enjoy classic art while simultaneously making sure our fragile emotional state is coddled at…
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Background: Some people have noticeably different behavior depending on the amount of caffeine they have ingested so far that day. An person’s level of caffeination may be useful information to others, allowing them to discern the reason for the under/over-caffeinated individual being overly lethargic or excessively manic. Proposal: Obviously there is no easy way for…
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Background: The term ”helicopter parenting” refers to an intrusive style of overprotective parenting where a parent is constantly micromanaging their child’s every activity. (Metaphorically, the parent is “hovering” like a helicopter around their child.) Proposal: Until recently, this was just a metaphor: it was simply not technically feasible for a parent to supervise and express…
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Background: Textbook publishers will often issue a new edition of a textbook every few years. Sometimes, this is necessary to reflects new developments in the field, but for many topics, the field has been static for hundreds (or possibly even thousands) of years. For example, it is unlikely that the 15th edition of an “Introduction…
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Background: Some vacuum cleaners are capable of measuring how much junk they’re currently pulling up off the floor. These vacuums will usually turn on a “this surface is now clean!” light to notify the user that their vacuuming job has been sufficiently through on a particular tiny section of the floor. The Issue: The “floor…
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Background: Some acronyms already include the “name” of the noun in the acronym: for example, an “ATM” [*] (automatic teller machine) or “PIN” (personal identification number). But for the sake of clarity (and maybe because it sounds more natural in some cases), people will often say “ATM machine” or “PIN number.” [*] Yes, yes, “A.T.M.” is…
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Background: Job-related social media sites (the largest of which in 2025 is LinkedIn) typically have a newsfeed that shows users what their former co-workers and classmates are working on these days. The Issue: There is a strong selection bias for what actually gets posted: most posts are from people reporting their successes in business. This…
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Background: One unfortunate consequence of the invention of the car is that cities started being designed for car-only use. In most cities built in the last ~70 years, the concept of a high-density walkable residential-and-commercial space only exists in shopping malls and amusement parks (Figure 1). The Issue: The main issue here is that cars…
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Background: A common issue in many interactions is that different people have different ideas of what is enjoyable. This comes up a lot when multiple people are trying to decide on a single dinner location, pick a movie to watch, etc. The Issue: In particular, let’s investigate the situation where two people want to go…
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Background: The “spaghetti strap” top (Figure 1) is a garment that is conceptually similar to a tank top, but with especially thin—one might even say “spaghetti-like”—shoulder straps. The Issue: Even though there have been hundreds of years of clothing development after the invention of pasta, there are shockingly no other widespread types of pasta-themed clothing.…
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