Culture
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Background: Part 1: As Internet speeds have increased, web sites have become more and more enormous (Example: Figure 1). Part 2: Additionally, people have become more and more accustomed to impulsively wasting time on the Internet. The issue: Here are the two problems that we can solve simultaneously: Enormous web pages are slow to…
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Background: Sometimes, a game will have a political statement to make, which you might disagree with. For example, in the game “Papers Please,” you must perform bureaucratic duties in a stifling faux-Eastern Bloc nation, and there is a strong negative message about the oppressive regime. But what if you think that totalitarianism is actually a…
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Background: Airport terminals often have small golf-cart-like trams that can be driven around in the passenger concourses. These are often used to help people move around the concourses (for example, one might be used to help a passenger with a leg in a cast who is trying to make it to a connecting flight). The…
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Background: When printing non-color text on paper, you generally want to print the text as dark as possible, for maximum contrast. Proposal: With this new “two-sided mirror printing” idea, text can be printed darker than is normally possible, with this one trick: the printer automatically prints a mirror image of your text on the opposite…
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Background: Copyright laws are generally over 100 years from the creation of a work. For example, a book written in 2020 will not be part of the public domain until after the year 2120. The issue: But if extending copyright so long is good, why is it that we allow it to expire at all?…
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Background: People often don’t pay much attention to movies, preferring to play on their cell phones while the movie runs in the background. (After all, if you miss an important scene, you’ll can always rewind and watch it again.) The issue: This lack of dedication to the cinematic arts is a phenomenon that movie directors…
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Get exercise and improve your self-control with this new eco-friendly hand-crank-powered cell phone!
The issue: It is frequently asserted that people are addicted to cell phones. If only there were a technical solution to this problem! Proposal: Here’s a simple solution to discourage casual cell phone use: a cell phone with two features: A strict limit on the amount of time you can use each program. (This feature…
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Background: Online discussion forums often have posts that look like this: Air pollution actually SAVES 10,000 lives per day worldwide >109 Comments [Upvote] [Downvote] [View Comments] Or: Futuristic economic model allows Swedes to make $200,000 a year without having jobs >274 Comments [Upvote] [Downvote] [View Comments] The issue: Crucially, the comment page is usually completely…
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Background: Sometimes, someone will send out a company-wide email that is CCed to everyone else at the company. The issue: Anyone who sends a “reply all” response to that initial email will generate another company-wide email. After a while, people will start getting annoyed by the constant irrelevant emails and will request that people stop…
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Background: Many types of cars—e.g. hatchbacks, SUVs, “crossover” vehicles—do not have a secure trunk space. Although these vehicles often come with retractable covers that can hide the contents of the trunk, they often don’t have 100% coverage. (So if you have a laptop sliding around in the back of your car, it’s entirely possible that…
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