Culture
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The horrifying issue: The “apostrophe + s” ending in English has multiple meanings. This can be confusing. Fig 1: Hypothesis: the apostrophe (as seen above) is a poor choice of symbol for indicating possession. Here are some examples of a few applications of ’s (or s’ ) : Singular possession (“The cat’s tail.”) Plural possession…
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The issue: The original shape of a film camera was dictated by the physical constraints of film and lenses. However, digital cameras have maintained the same unwieldy and awkward layout of film cameras, even though there is no longer a reason for a camera to be shaped in such a way. In fact, the asymmetrical…
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Background: In this plan, we will discuss a sub-category of indoor climbing: bouldering. Bouldering involves climbing up a surface that is studded with various hand- and foot-holds, and it generally involves no safety equipment beyond a padded mat. The Issue: Bouldering / rock climbing has gained significant mainstream popularity since 2010. However, one thing that…
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Background: Many citizens in countries with jury duty find it to be a somewhat burdensome obligation. Jurors are either unpaid, or paid only a nominal amount (on the order of a couple hours of minimum wage for an 8-hour day). (Note that the jury system is by no means a requirement for a trial. In…
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The issue: The classic yellow-and-white “danger!” tape is visually apparent and can be quite useful for indicating that an area is hazardous or off-limits. However! There are two problems: Fig 1: The classic “danger” tape. But you might not know it if you couldn’t read English! First, the “danger” text is specific to one language.…
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The issue: Sometimes, you don’t like a programming language (like Perl or Python), or a natural language (like English or Spanish). You might have your reasons, or maybe not—maybe you just want to destroy it completely for no reason at all! Proposal: Here’s a simple way to go about wreaking destruction on the language…
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The issue: Soccer matches have a very high probability of ending in a draw. In the few cases in which a draw is not allowed as a final outcome of a match, the game will (eventually) go to a one-on-one penalty kick shootout. This method of resolution uses a very different skill set from the…
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The issue: Public comment sections on the Internet are famous for requiring non-stop moderation in order to prevent them from becoming populated exclusively with spam and/or horrifying comments. Many solutions have been attempted, including: 1. Do nothing. Disadvantage: spam / scams overrun the site, making it totally un-usable for legitimate users. 2. Ban / block…
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The issue: Pet ownership can sometimes be problematic in today’s mobile society. For example: if a person has to leave on a business trip and doesn’t have friends or family to take care of their dog / cat / capybara / etc., they have to deal with the hassle of kenneling their treasured beast. This…
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