Culture
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Background: Although there are many counter-examples, cats are often unpredictable and frequently skittish. Here, we theorize that this neurotic pet behavior is due to the cat’s lack of feeling safe in the domestic environment, and propose a possible solution, which we refer to as CATMOUFLAGE. The theory: Cats are skittish and unpredictable because they are…
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Background: As time goes on, certain emoji will become obsolete. Some of them already have! Although this is not a huge problem right now, it may become one in the future: will anyone understand what the “pager” emoji means in 100 years? Fig 1: In a hundred years, this pager icon will will baffle and…
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Background: Our current alphabet is derived from an ancient system of representational icons. These icons were once pictures of actual objects, but have been simplified to an easier-to-write form over the millennia. For example, according to the inerrant source of knowledge known as Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenician_alphabet): The letter “Q” used to be one of these: This…
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Background: Back in the ancient days before iPhones, people would store files in a hierarchical fashion in “folders” or “directories” on their computers. The issue: Sometimes, despite relatively descriptive folder names, it is not clear what a folder / directory actually is. For example, on Mac OS X, a casual user may be flummoxed by…
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Background: If you stay in one apartment or house for a long time, you tend to accumulate a large number of superfluous possessions. But it’s hard to get an idea of exactly how much stuff you have. Proposal: Moving trucks should have a weight sensor on them to tell you how many pounds of stuff…
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Background: Many cities have serious shortages of buildable space in the most desirable areas—most land that is available for development has already been taken. Proposal: Allow building of a “second level” of city on the un-used space above the streets Fortunately, there actually is a large amount of unused space in each city (generally, approximately…
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Never be confused by a signaling bus again, assuming you frequently drive behind buses instead of taking public transit (you monster)
automotive, blinker, car, emergency blinkers, hazard lights, is amber even a color or what, is the light yellow or amber or orange or what, official color names are lacking, what are those emergency lights even called, what if the lights are like tangerine or something, who came up with that double triangle icon anyway
Background: Every vehicle has two turn signals on the back. These can indicate one of two things: 1) Car is turning left / right. 2) If both lights are blinking: “hazard / emergency / vehicle is stopped in roadway.” Fig 1: The emergency / hazard lights are usually activated by this button. The issue: Unfortunately,…
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Background: Housing is incredibly expensive in many major cities. Some people try to cope with high housing prices by living in their cars. However, it is generally illegal to sleep in a parked vehicle. Additionally, there are often restrictions on vehicle height for parked vehicles. Proposal: None of the caveats above apply to a moving…
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Background: Relatively few games have equipment choice as an element. For example, in tennis, there is no such thing as a “lob racquet” versus a “serving racquet.” Presumably this is because of the difficulty in quickly switching out equipment in a time-sensitive sports. But in a game like golf, where there is plenty of time…
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