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5 Terrible Ideas That Solved Huge Global Problems. The ability to think outside the box is a valuable skill that tends to bring its possessor fame and fortune. But there's a fine line to be balanced -- if you think too far outside the box, the best you can hope for is that your padded cell is somewhat clean. Yet sometimes, the most far-fetched, cartoonish ideas are the ones that work best. All it takes is the right idea and the ability to convince somebody to spend lots of money trying it. #5. The Plan: Nearly every city in the world wishes it could flip a magic switch that would cut down on crime, and only one city has a switch that turns on the Bat Signal.

PsychcentralThat's the sign for robot prostitutes. Yeah, right. How It Worked: Oh, wait, it totally did. And piped in some smooth jazz. Next, the Tokyo railroad decided to get in on the blue-light action, though the problem they wanted to solve wasn't so much the crime. Seriously? Getty"I just can't leave a world that invented The Smurfs. " There are several theories. . #4. . #3.

See? Right. The 10 Types of Writers' Block (and How to Overcome Them) Personality test based on Jung and Briggs Myers typology. Sheet-for-Emotions.jpg (JPEG Image, 1700x2200 pixels) - Scaled (25%) What Is The Hardest Language To Learn? One question that’s been asked several times is, “What is the hardest language to learn?” After some extensive research, we’ve discovered that the answer can be quite complicated.

It’s complicated because the answer is largely subjective (opinion) and it also depends on what your native language is. The answer for one individual may be different for another. Your Native Language While no language is simple to learn, those that are more closely related to your native language are going to be easier to learn than those that are not. Learning a completely different and exotic writing system can also be a big challenge, though that does not necessarily make a language more difficult. The Most Difficult Language According to the NVTC and the Foreign Service Institute, Japanese is, on average, arguably the hardest language for an English speaker to learn.

Photo credit and Infographic source. Personality Tests. Amazing Fact Generator. World-resources-map-r2.gif (GIF Image, 1450x1450 pixels) MIT Creates New Energy Source. This is some pretty exciting news. It seems that researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the most prestigious science and engineering schools in the United States, has created a new energy source -- and it's clean and renewable.

The odd thing is that the only way you can see this energy source is with a very powerful microscope, because it is created by using nanotechnology. For a few years now, we have been hearing about the possibilities offered by the new field of nanotechnology. Now it looks like the first usable breakthrough has been accomplished. The researchers built tiny wires out of carbon nanotubes. The nanotechnology batteries will have a couple of other advantages over current batteries.

Second, these batteries are non-toxic since they are made of carbon. Computers, cell phones and other electronic devices will be the first to benefit from the nanotechnology batteries. (The picture above is an artist's rendition of a carbon nanotube.) 11 cheap gifts guaranteed to impress science geeks. Science comes up with a lot of awesome stuff, and you don't need a Ph.D, a secret lab, or government funding to get your hands on some of the coolest discoveries.

We've got a list of 11 mostly affordable gifts that are guaranteed to blow your mind, whether or not you're a science geek. Click on any image to see it enlarged. 1. Aerogel Also known as frozen smoke, Aerogel is the world's lowest density solid, clocking in at 96% air. Aerogel isn't just neat, it's useful. Price: $35 2. Inside these sealed glass balls live shrimp, algae, and bacteria, all swimming around in filtered seawater. EcoSpheres came out of research looking at ways to develop self-contained ecosystems for long duration space travel. Price: $80 3. NASA has been trying to figure out how to get a sample of rock back from Mars for a while now.

Every once in a while, a meteorite smashes into Mars hard enough to eject some rocks out into orbit around the sun. Price: $70+ 4. Price: $150 5. Price: $110 6. Price: $80 7. Price: $15 8. MNT-SOCCER-SALARIES-R3.jpg (JPEG Image, 900x1750 pixels) Critical thinking web.