Culture
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New site feature: An index of all posts, available here Plus an archive page showing all posts, organized by month. Background: Historically, wedding rings in many Western countries have been a moderately reliable indicator of someone’s marriage status (Figure 1). The issue: However, as it has become more common for people to postpone marriage or not…
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Background: A lot of kitchen tools have a non-electric version that is hand-cranked: for example, a coffee grinder, ice-cream maker, mixer, or salad-spinner. Additional common hand-powered items include the can opener and pepper mill. The issue: Unfortunately, many of these tools are slow and inefficient to operate by hand. However, if there were some way…
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The issue: It’s hard to believe, but sometimes people are jerks. Most people are also bad at apologies. But, what if, after committing some transgression, you could apologize and easily demonstrate your sincerity? Proposal: The “jerk card” provides this opportunity: if you feel like you were a jerk, but aren’t sure how to apologize, you can…
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Background: Slide presentations are now a main ingredient in almost all lectures and presentations (Figure 1). The issue: Computers have made slide presentations extremely easy to make (example in Figure 2), but haven’t helped with one issue: presentations often go on FAR TOO LONG. For example, none of these ideas for promoting short presentations…
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The issue: Imagine this situation: You are a high-ranking member of the royal family. One day, you drive your expensive sports car to your downtown office, park it in the garage, and head to the elevator. You get in, and press the “6” button, to take the elevator to your sixth-floor office. But as soon…
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Background: Most methods of catching fish—with the notable exception of bare-hand catfish noodling (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noodling)—do not involve direct contact with the to-be-fished aquatic life. Proposal: In order to both: make humans more attuned to nature and to promote a fishing method that discourages overfishing… …the following “baleen fishing attachment mesh” is proposed. This “baleen mesh” is a…
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Background: Something that is difficult to obtain tends to be appreciated more than something that is easy to obtain. For example, people rate the same wine more highly when it has an expensive price tag. We can use this information to design a new style of art museum that will be a huge hit with all…
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Background: On many web sites for automotive parts (e.g. Amazon, AutoZone), you can specify the exact car that you own. Then, the web site will only show results that work with that car (Figure 1). Fig 1: You can specify the details of the cars in your “garage” and will only see car parts that…
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Background: In the Western custom known as “the handshake,” two individuals greet each other by smooshing their hands together, transmitting every disease (Figure 1). Additionally, this custom can serve as a mini-battle between people with differing ideas of handshake firmness. Fig 1: A clammy and moist hand is offered for your approval. The issue: There…
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Background: The Indiana Jones movies (especially #1 and #3) have taught that it’s a serious liability for an adventurer to acquire a phobia against any animal that may be seen in the course of adventuring (e.g., snakes, rats). Proposal: In order to avoid these problems, we can easily desensitize a future adventure to dangerous animals…
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