The Good Ideas Page.

[Nordic]

i think we've had a thread just like this before. i'm pretty sure i posted to it (my ideas are all very pricey).

might be fun to dig that one out and look at previous entries.

i love this kind of stuff.

the book thing is a big deal i think. the serendipity thing can be a big thing in peoples lives. i'm pretty sure that's how alfonso cuaron stumbled upon the book "children of men" for instance.

my wife has an amazing knack for that bookstore thing too.

[sunny]

Here's an idea. Let's stage a general strike until the government agrees to tax the rich up the wazoo then give each and every family and single individual 1 million dollars, whereupon we will pay off all our debts and buy stuff, whereupon jobs will be created but only to make the stuff we we need to buy, whereupon workers seize ownership of the means of production.

Yeah.

[Simulist]

Here's an idea. Let's stage a general strike until the government agrees to tax the rich up the wazoo then give each and every family and single individual 1 million dollars, whereupon we will pay off all our debts and buy stuff, whereupon jobs will be created but only to make the stuff we we need to buy, whereupon workers seize ownership of the means of production.

Yeah.

Yeah.

[Project Willow]

Here's an idea. Let's stage a general strike until the government agrees to tax the rich up the wazoo then give each and every family and single individual 1 million dollars, whereupon we will pay off all our debts and buy stuff, whereupon jobs will be created but only to make the stuff we we need to buy, whereupon workers seize ownership of the means of production.

Yeah.

[Harvey]

I was wandering through a graveyard recently and it comforted me to be able to stand up the occasional flowerpot that had blown over. One or two pots had blown over and it wasn't clear where they'd come from, so I took a minute to distribute the flowers across a number of nearby graves that had no flowers at all.

I was incredibly moved and humbled reading so many of the inscriptions, with their beautiful expressions of love and celebration, and I pondered the odd graves which had none, no headstone or even a plaque.

It occured to me that it would be wonderful to have something like a biodegradeable cardboard dispenser that people could purchase at a florist nearest to a specific graveyard. It could be delivered and attached to railings or whatever and filled with flowers for people to distribute among the graves as they see fit, with particular regard to those without any.

They could be inscribed to a loved one and distributed in his or her memory:

"These flowers are to remember a light not gone, they are placed here to celebrate the life of __________ Please take a flower for your loved one's or to brighten a lonely grave with their blessing. If you take the last one, please dismantle this dispenser as instructed for recycling."

Or something like that. It would just be a nice way to encourage visitors and strangers to pause and reflect, and maybe encourage a thought in passing for all those in unmarked graves.

[Harvey]

I exist on a very low income and one thing that would be very useful would be a real time site where supermarkets could list surplus perishable goods which would otherwise be wasted, where and for how much they are available.

Most supermarkets have this data, most if not all items which are marked down are bar coded. It would be relatively simple to forward the data to a site which could parse the data, format it and display it automatically.

A one stop shop for those who are hard up and looking for bargains. If such a site existed the supermarkets might well get involved if we all persuade them. Shelters could have a real time display updated with nearby supermarkets and what is available. Everyone benefits and less food is wasted.

supermarketbargains.com or some such.

I was thinking that a site maybe called freebay which encourages people to list the kinds of things charity shops can't easily stock in stores to give away to people who need them, and can collect etc (like freecycle) but have charity buttons to encourage people to donate when they go and pick up something from someone else.

Anyway I love the fact that freebay already exists, apart from the charity buttons.

I'd love to see an imprint for books, comprised of as many publishers as possible to share the burden, which exists to publish books for authors when they wish to give royalties from a particular book, story, whatever to a specific charity as they do from time to time. But instead of being an occasional thing it would operate full time publishing, books magazines, prints and cards at reasonable prices, for specific charities. More authors might be able to do it without contractual difficulty it it was a cross publisher organisation.

Perhaps the same thing in the recording industry, so that artists could easily say, right, this ones for charity and just do it without having to go through contractual hell to do so...

[Harvey]

One technology that would be interesting, isn't novel in any way, it just utilises existing technology, but I don't know if anyone has done it. It's an old idea and it's a while since I've checked so I expect it has.

The idea comes from a Bob Shaw Story called Light Of Other Days and which concerns an invention called slowlass, through which light passes outside the radius of capture of the material, to emerge on the other side of the glass as coherent light, some time in the future depending upon the thickness of the glass. It's a quiet and perfect little gem which will haunt anyone who reads it.

Major Spoiler

Spoiler:One of the characters we meet, a slowglass farmer is gazing adoringly into his house at a young woman the narrator slowly realises must be blind. While the farmer is off collecting a window for him, the narrator snatches up a rug to take it into the house out of the rain and discovers the house in disarray, he realises she is long dead or gone, and that light passes out of a window as well as in.

Anyway, the upshot is, you can stand the slow glass in front of a waterfall, or a beach view of the seychelles for a year and then for the thickness of the glass a year or two, you get a perfect beach view in your city apartment.

So, with high definition camera's, high speed cable link, large plasma screens, so far so good. We have our slow glass technology. You can have camera farms all over the world delivering remarkable views to all time zones. All recordable, but realtime would be the extra added value. The night shift worker can see the sunrise in high def on the other side of the world, in real time.

It's not something I could ever afford anyway so it's not something I'd be interested in.

But what about all those charities that sponser children around the world, any company selling this product could easily afford to set up a few projects that really bring people together across the world in a remarkable way with such technology.

But also many other things.

Imagine going into a coffee shop with a wall of screens, inside which you can see yesterday's customers going about their business. They could be positioned and designed to look like mirrors which don't reflect today. It might show a year ago to the day, whatever. It would be quite a powerful experience, it could make for some profound installation art but it could just as easliy be a real time wall sized view of a coral reef. Or even the moon if someone has enough initiative and money to do it. Perhaps Google could. Google Moon View. The technology is slight and non invasive if done properly, so lots of wonderful things could be achieved with this.

It's a bit Ray Bradbury too.

[justdrew]

alternative capital formation system required

[Nordic]

Why was this moved to the Lounge? Just to spice the place up a bit?

Curious.

[Simulist]

Was it? Or was it moved from the Lounge?

In the Lounge, it says "Moved: The Good Ideas Page."

Here, in General Discussion, it doesn't say "Moved" at all.

[Nordic]

Was it? Or was it moved from the Lounge?

In the Lounge, it says "Moved: The Good Ideas Page."

Here, in General Discussion, it doesn't say "Moved" at all.

I guess someone thought it was a "good idea"

[Harvey]

Perfect Toaster

A wide girth toaster for all bread sizes, which when cooking multiple slices can be programmed to cook each subsequent slice 5, 10 or 15 seconds later, giving ample time for the user to butter each slice straight out of the toaster while hot.

It also weighs the bread and has an idea of it's volume, (via the prongs which hold the bread centred) and with smaller arrays of heating elements, heating only where the bread actually is (saves energy with single slices or smaller size bread) plus it correctly toasts the bread evenly. Sensors cut the heat immediately if there is any smoke produced.

You can set the toaster to cook to your preference for well done, lightly done etc, with a single digit code instead of trial and error dials, each different user keys in their preference and it's done automatically.

(Perhaps the materials used might catch and recover some of the heat energy through thermal expansion of piezoelectric materials? Don't know whether this is feasible.)

Perfect Microwave

A wi-fi enabled microwave that can scan bar codes and be kept up to date on all barcodes via the net (i see the first part exists) for best cooking times but more importantly it weighs raw foods on the turntable (is able to quickly subtract the weight of dishes or food containers etc) and can sense the volume of the food and temperature (is it frozen, warm etc)

With a reasonably smart chip onboard it can accurately cook all foods as required. Over time it would give huge energy savings. All that wasted heating after the food is already properly cooked could be avoided and with with smart stepping up or down of the power as required it can help with more uniform cooking and greater efficiency. Also, no need to worry about foods being undercooked either.

[Harvey]

On that note, what other technologies could come with greater energy efficiency as standard? I notice a lot of kettles have a heating elements that require at least two cups of water to be fully submerged. So if you only need one cup of boiled water, you're wasting energy either way. Doesn't seem like good design to me.

[blanc]

On the subject of energy why haven't govts installed solar panels on all public buildings and introduced affordable schemes for householders on a so much free to you rest goes to the grid basis? And helped along the development of electric cars?
Not claiming ownership of this good idea, or wanting the answer to the rather obvious question btw. Solar panels round nuclear plants to provide emergency power in the event of cooling problems might be a start.

[Nordic]

On the subject of energy why haven't govts installed solar panels on all public buildings and introduced affordable schemes for householders on a so much free to you rest goes to the grid basis? And helped along the development of electric cars?
Not claiming ownership of this good idea, or wanting the answer to the rather obvious question btw. Solar panels round nuclear plants to provide emergency power in the event of cooling problems might be a start.

Well yeah, you know how fast cities were electrified back in the day? And how quickly they got natural gas?

Why aren't cities now fitted with solar power? And all new houses? Especially in the American Southwest?

We could manufacture the damn things here in this country, and suddenly have an economy again.