Culture
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Background: Every four years, interest is re-kindled in the odd “Electoral College”-based method of tallying up American presidential votes. Since the electoral votes are actually assigned on a per-state[*] basis (Figure 1), this has the side effect of making the presidential elections hinge on a few “battleground” districts—tiny subsets of swing states whose voting outcome…
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Background: The traditional flat-surfaced desk has been more-or-less unchanged for thousands of years. The issue: People often place a drink on their desk. However, this makes it very easy to accidentally knock the drink over onto (depending on the era) a stack of rolled-up papyrus scrolls, a Gutenberg Bible, or a laptop (Figure 1). Proposal:…
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Background: When typing on a phone with an on-screen virtual keyboard, the auto-correct feature is essential. Strangely, this auto-correct / auto-complete feature has never been monetized! Proposal: In order to bring great deals to consumers and new advertising opportunities to companies, we describe the following auto-correct enhancement. Currently, auto-correct is boring and predicable. For example:…
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Background: Humans frequently wear metal adornments that have a small chance of being caught on something. Under most circumstances, this is fine, but occasionally this may lead to situations with a high probability of disaster (e.g. operating a lathe while wearing a dangly necklace). The issue: Somehow, it is still the case that very little…
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Background: With the 2020 COVID plague, work-related video chats have become increasingly full of a large number of participants (Figure 1). The issue: Video chats have a problem that in-person office work does not: there is no convenient way for participants of an unreasonably-large video chat group to split off into subgroups. Instead, every discussion…
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Background: A successful game of golf is heavily dependent on the technical execution of the golf swing. The issue: It is possible to imagine many games that are similar to “golf,” except that they do not use a golf club to drive the ball (perhaps “frisbee™ golf” is the most well-known existing example, although it…
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Background: Recently, there has been discussion around the futuristic concept of “vertical farming”: growing crops in skyscraper-style greenhouses in city centers. The issue: Although there are many conceptual advantages to such a farm, there is at least one major difficulty: light. Obviously, only the topmost layer of a vertical farm would be practical to light…
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Background: Most kitchens contain a countertop and overhead cabinets. The doors on these cabinets generally swing open. The issue: An unlucky individual may stand up underneath one of these open cabinet doors and injure themselves on the edge. Although this situation may seem unlikely, it can arise when a person bends over to pick up…
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Background: It seems that nearly every electronic device with a camera or microphone is now Internet-enabled and can wirelessly send video and audio to the world. The issue: Due to the preponderance of electronic hardware in a modern household, it can be difficult which (if any) device is spying on you at that exact moment…
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Background: In most regions of the world, gambling is regulated by government bodies. Unrelatedly, one of the criticisms of the stock market (especially the derivatives market) is that many participants use it exactly like a casino. Proposal: In regions where gambling is prohibited, but access to a stock market exists, a stock trading app could…
WorstPlans: updated every Monday since July 2014! 