Monthly Archives: August 2014

Invention Idea: Crutch Stand

George, Idea Polish Level: 1, My Ideas, ,

After two weeks of being on crutches (fortunately I don’t need them anymore), I’ve had plenty of time to notice how annoying they are. One of the many annoying things is that every time you sit down you have to find somewhere to lean them without them falling over. So I thought, why not make a stand of some sort that you just put wherever you usually sit so that you can always hang your crutches on it? I can’t decide if I’m serious or joking about it, but I’m adding a tag to this post for humor either way. Here’s an illustration to show the idea:

Blog - Idea Level 3 - Humorous Invention Idea - A Crutch Stand - Crutch Stand Drawing

🙂

~ George

 

The Universal Dream

George, Idea Polish Level: 2, My Ideas,

What if everybody was sharing one universal dream? The “dream world” would be built by people’s memories, of real things or of fake things, and everything you see would be something that someone else (or yourself) has seen/imagined while awake. If this were true, then when you were in “dream world”, your mind wouldn’t be creating the crazy things, it would be seeing what has already been made. That could explain why sometimes you go to the same place in different dreams. And perhaps when you learn and/or create new stuff, “dream world” is expanded when you  sleep and think about it. Perhaps this is why independent breakthroughs of the same thing are often made within a short time of each other; once someone has imagined it, the other person might stumble across it in their exploring.

Also, what if everybody you saw in the dream was simply exploring the world while they were asleep to? They probably wouldn’t remember seeing and interacting with you in their dreams though; after all, you remember very little of your dreams after you wake up. While this might not make sense if only one of you was asleep, it still would be interesting to think about.

Needless to say, this post was inspired by a weird dream I had a few nights ago

~ George

Change Log of August 20th, 2014

Change Logs, George, Miscellaneous Posts

At the end of every day (or, at least every day that I change something), I’m make a post that highlights all of the changes and/or posts that have been made that day. This way I can update previous posts and actually have the changes be found, plus readers will be able get easy access to all the new posts without scrolling down too much. Note: Since this post will be the last thing I post each day, it is less likely to be properly cleaned up, as I will be rather tired at that point

New posts:

  • I’ve made a site To Do List! Although, since it’s in my are of the blog, perhaps I should say it’s my to do list. IDK, if I need to I’ll make a site to do list.

Major Changes:

Minor Changes:

  • I changed the text that I copy and paste into each Change Log a little bit, fixing a few things that were bugging me.

Of Special Note:

  • The reason this is being posted on August 22 is that we lost power (for a few hours) and we didn’t manage to get the computer to turn on till this morning.

 

~ George

To Do List

George, miscellaneous, Miscellaneous Posts

I’ve wanted to have a public to do list that could show various things I want to change about/add to the site, so here it is. I will cross off things as I do them, and at the beginning of every month I’ll remove the checked off items. Making the to do list in the first place was the first thing on it 🙂

In no particular order:

  1. Make a private to do list for myself for things that wouldn’t make sense to others and/or apply to future posts?
  2. Find all the places I use the underline to separate topics and make the underline longer (sorry if that makes no sense to anyone besides me)
  3. Add an “About Us” page
  4. Decide on the Idea Polish Level of Interesting Observation: Social Norms, Story Idea: Benedite, Time-Based Game (Tag?), and Type-able Lewis Dot Structure.
  5. Add a featured image to each post
  6. Make a section/page for things I find online that aren’t “Certified Brilliant”
  7. Find a way to make “Certified Brilliant” work again
  8. Add a category for my favorite posts?
  9. Make a “Change Log” that includes links to posts I made before I started using change logs
  10. Find the site mentioned in The Scientific Ideal World
  11. Go through all the posts and make sure that the links function properly
  12. Finish the To Do List 🙂

~ George

Change Log of August 19th, 2014

Change Logs, George, Miscellaneous Posts

At the end of every day (or, at least every day that I change something), I’m going to make a post that highlights all of the changes and/or posts that have been made that day. This way I can change previous posts and actually have the changes be found, plus reader will be able get to all the new posts without scrolling down too much. Note: Since this post will be the last thing I post each day, it is less likely to be properly cleaned up, as I will be rather tired at that point

New posts:

  • The Planets of Star Wars contains some of the thought I had while watching Star Wars Episode I earlier today. I’m realizing just how cool a universe such as Star War’s actually is 🙂

Major Changes:

  • I added the new 4th paragraph to Story Idea: Benedite, after thinking about how benedite might have affected the food industry. I also changed the last two sentences of the post.

Minor Changes:

  • On the main “George” page, I added a link to the latest change log to the  very top of the page
  • Previously, the “George’s Posts in Reverse Chronological Order” (that’s a mouthful) only showed the last 20 posts, but since by now I’ve posted more than 20 things (Yay!!) I increased the number, substantially. (I added a zero 🙂

Of Special Note:

  • I’ve made a game idea that is actually playable! It took me a few days, but I’ve written a post explaining how to play it. Now I’m just waiting for it to be read by a few select people to see if I explain the game well enough to play 🙂

 

~ George

The Planets in Star Wars

George, Idea Polish Level: 2, My Ideas, , ,

My family an I just watched Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and I enjoyed it more than I ever had before by thinking of how amazing the galaxy of Star Wars is. Having just finished reading Orson Scott Card’s book Speaker for the Dead, I have an even greater appreciation of what an interstellar society would be like.

What I thought was most interesting about the film was something its makers probably didn’t intend. When Qui Gon Jinn left the space ship and set foot on Tatooine without any preparation I realized just how much technology it would take to make it safe to do that. Think about it. What is the likelihood that so many planets have the perfect atmosphere and gravity to support not just humans, but aliens from thousands of different stars?

This is a feet of massive scale. Somehow, the sentient species of the galaxy have managed to make every planet compatible with every species in the entire galaxy! This could be accomplished by a combination of a few things that we currently know of.

Massive Terra-formation (the changing of the planet itself) would be required, ranging from increasing or decreasing gravity, changing or even creating an atmosphere, and maybe even moving the entire planet, so that the planet is the “right” temperature. And they would have to do this to almost every single planet they encountered, because face it, not very many planets would be even close to being able to sustain human life.

Now that there are planets that are uniform, every species needs to be uniform. Large changes in the very genetic nature of the aliens would be required. Every species of sentient life form (and some non-sentient life forms) would need to be genetically modified so that it could breathe the same air as every other species, survive the same level of gravity as every other species (so as to not be crushed because of stronger gravity or accidentally destroy everything because of weaker gravity), and endure the starkly different levels of radiation than their home planet would usually have. Biotechnology would be able to help in some cases, but not in every case. Biogenetics and Biotechnology would also be used to make every species more adaptable to different climates, because there is no way that every planet would be the exact same.

In addition to modifying the body, the brain, or whatever passed as a brain for different aliens, would also have to be genetically changed. Vastly different species would surely speak in vastly different ways, and something would need to be done for aliens who don’t “speak” like “normal” aliens do, instead using various forms of communication from body language to physic thought. There would also need to be a huge change in the culture and way of thought for some species. With vastly different cultures would come vastly different ideas, and many cultures would be completely incompatible with a uniform galactic government, among other things, with some cultures whose sole focus would be warfare and other cultures which would have no concept of government.

And even after all that, I haven’t even started to talk about what it would mean to have a planet with an aquatic center, or why everyone knows English, or what a moon sized spaceship would be. Star Wars has suddenly become a lot more interesting to me 🙂

~ George

Change Log of August 12th, 2014

Change Logs, George, Miscellaneous Posts

At the end of every day (or, at least every day that I change something), I’m going to make a post that highlights all of the changes and/or posts that have been made that day. This way I can change previous posts and actually have the changes be found, plus reader will be able get to all the new posts without scrolling down too much. Note: Since this post will be the last thing I post each day, it is less likely to be properly cleaned up, as I will be rather tired at that point

New posts:

  • Universal Solute came from a joke that I read about a universal solvent. If I have more time tomorrow I’ll add it to the post

Major Changes:

  • I’ve update How To Randomly Choose A Winner Using Only A Watch (previously “How to do a Coin Flip with a Watch”) so thoroughly that it might as well be a new post, but nonetheless it’s an update. Also, because of the large increase in polish-ness of the post, it has been upgraded to Idea Polish Level 2, being the first to be leveled up purely because I added more to it
  • I’m trying to work out the my Idea Polish Level system again, so I changed a few Polish levels: Funny Knights Names from 1  to 2, and Story Idea: Benedite from 4 to 3;

Minor Changes:

Of Special Note:

  • none

 

~ George

Change Log of August 10th, 2014

Change Logs, George, Miscellaneous Posts

At the end of every day (or, at least every day that I change something), I’m going to make a post that highlights all of the changes and/or posts that have been made that day. This way I can change previous posts and actually have the changes be found, plus reader will be able get to all the new posts without scrolling down too much. Note: Since this post will be the last thing I post each day, it is less likely to be properly cleaned up, as I will be rather tired at that point

New posts:

  • How to do a Coin Flip with a Watch is a step toward my goal of having something that is equivalent to a coin flip without needing anything at all. Because I always wear a watch and rarely have coins, this life hack has helped me a number of times

Major Changes:

  • none

Minor Changes:

  • Fixed a bunch of titles in the last few change logs, and also categorized and tagged them properly
  • Added Sir Loin’s occupation in the post Funny Knight Names. Feel free to leave your own knight occupation/name suggestions in the comments!

Of Special Note:

  • none

 

~ George

How To Randomly Choose A Winner Using Only A Watch

George, Idea Polish Level: 3, My Ideas, ,

Do you ever need an easy, random way to choose who among you and your friend(s) can go first? Just look at your watch.

How To Replicate A Coin Flip With A Watch

My friend and I often have trouble deciding who goes first. We usually end up doing some sort of coin toss, but (over) half the time we don’t have coins. This is my solution: I’ve only tried this with a digital watch, but I’m sure it could be applied to analog watches too in some way (I’ll update this if I can think of how). Have the other person choose Even or Odd. Then look at your watch’s seconds (or minutes, if necessary). If the number is even then whoever chose even wins, and if the number is odd then whoever chose odd wins. Simple as that.

How To Choose A Winner From A Small Group of People Without Checking Your Watch More Than Twice

The basis of the randomization process is the seconds on your digital watch (or the seconds hand on your analog watch). Give everyone a number, starting with one and working your way up from there. Then check your watch and see how many seconds have passed since the last minute.

  • If there are…
  • 2 people and number of seconds that have passed is below 30, then person #1 wins. Otherwise he loses
  • 3 people and number of seconds that have passed is below 20 then person #1 wins, if the number is equal to or above 40 then person #3 wins, and otherwise person #2 wins
  • 4 people, do the same thing as with three people, only the seconds are split into four areas, 0-14, 15-29, 30-44, and 45-59
  • 5 people, analog watches would have a harder time, but digital watches’ would have the five areas be 0-11, 12-23, 24-35, 36-47, and 48-60
  • 6 people, it should be obvious if you’ve read this far, just divide 60 by 6
  • 7 people, I don’t know yet
  • 8 people, then split the group into two groups of four and check your watch, selecting one person from both groups at once. Then check your watch again to see who of the two of them wins
  • 9 people, split the group into three groups of three and check your watch. Pick the winner from each group and check your watch again using the method for three people
  • 10 or 12 people , instead of giving each person 6 seconds give them each five, that way it would work for an analog watch
  • For greater numbers, try dividing 60 by the number, breaking them into groups, or using my next suggestion which I came up with while writing this one
How To Choose A Winner From A Large Group Using A Watch (Or A Coin)

Have everybody pick 1 or 2 (this would also work with heads or tails). Decide if 1 equals odd or even, and decide that 2 is the other. Check your watch, and say which group stays based on which number they picked. Keep doing this until there is only one person left, and if everybody goes out in one round then have a do-over. If everybody keeps picking the same thing, try having them pick between other numbers, letters, or even colors, and keep switching up what they have to choose from.

~ George