I've always had a curious bent of mind, so I've always read voraciously. I subscribe to six magazines and receive three university alumni magazines and read them all. This, in itself, is not an education. I got that first via several colleges, earning two BA degrees, an MA and nearly through a PhD (before finding out I was no longer interested in the field the PhD encompassed). Therein lies the problem with college educations - mind and interest changes, which can't easily be re-channeled.. But I don't begrudge the time in school. It taught me there are myriad other less stereotypical ways to learn whatever it is one wants to learn. And reading is high on the list.
This column, in fact, will be comprised of items of interest I wouldn't have known if I didn't read.
The most fascinating thing I've been reading about is the 3-Dimensional printer, in the December 2014 issue of National Geographic. Also called "additive manufacturing", it has actually been around for about 30 years. The quick pace of advances is why it is such current news.
It works pretty much the same way a desktop printer does. Instead of using ink, though, it "prints" in plastic,wax, resin, wood, concrete, gold, titanium, carbon fiber, chocolate, and even living tissue. It builds an object a bit at a time, placing material only where it needs to be. Thus, it can make geometrically complex objects that can't be made by injecting material into molds, often at considerable savings in weight with no loss in strength.
Thousands of digital designs are already available on Thingiverse.com where anyone can download the blueprint to "print" out objects from chess pieces to napkin rings to World of Warcraft characters. Rapidly evolving technology has already seen printed rocket engine parts, chocolate figurines, replica pistols, a Dutch canal house, designer sunglasses, pizzas, a two-seater car, a rowboat and a prototype bionic human ear. The world's smallest lithium battery, just a millimeter wide, has been made to power medical implants. Harvard researchers have printed living tissue interlaced with blood vessels. The blocks needed to build a 13-room house will be printed with a specially developed bioplastic compound that is 80% vegetable oil.
So it is easy to see why this has intrigued me.
Next, computer technology! Within a single generation it has developed exponentially. A computer can now be snapped together from a kit - by Kano, $99 - and it can help users learn code and build games!
Because easily accessible drinking water is scarce in Peru, a tech college there, with the aid of local scientists and advertising firm FCB Mayo, developed a billboard for the school that draws moisture from the air, purifies it, then sends the water to a reservoir where locals can fill up tanks to take home.
Fastcompany.com followed up this story with one from Mexico City's Manuel Gea Gonzalez Hospital, which last year unveiled a "smog-eating" facade covered with titanium dioxide, a catalyst that breaks down pollutants from a thousand cars per day into less harmful compounds, then neutralizes them. Next year Milan will open Palazzo Italia, a six-story pavilion with "air-cleaning cement" exterior.
A new 2014 company named VMatter sells knives harder than steel with a glass-like finish that maintain sharpness and resist bacteria and rust. Injection molded, rather than cast and polished, they can be manufactured with less waste. An immediate fan of the $150 to $400 costing knives was co-host Geoffrey Zakarian of Food Network's The Kitchen program.
The new (in 2014) DC59 Motorhead vacuum claims to have out-cleaned the top five best selling full-size vacuums across both carpets and hard floors in independent floor care tests. And the user doesn't have to wrestle a cord around with it!
Cycling's not-for-profit Oregon Manifest challenged five designers to create bicycles for better ways of conquering their own cities' terrains (Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Portland, Oregon) in 2014. The winner was Sizemore Bicycle of Seattle, Washington. To be sold in 2015, their bike will encompass removable handle bars that form a sturdy U-lock so other security is unnecessary, lights that illuminate when the bike starts to move and brighten as the sky darkens, a cleaner belt drive instead of an oiled chain, rubber-bristled fender brushes that sweep water off the tires, and an electric-powered pedal assist that turns on automatically to tackle Seattle's notoriously steep hills.
Fastcoexist.com reports that a former New York City firefighter has done a drastic redesign of the old fire hydrant, which has been notorious for breaking, leaking and freezing. The new model is also tamper-proof.
As a lifetime writer, the dictionary has been my constant companion and it never ceases to amaze me how it keeps growing. Just recently I've come across words in print that are not yet in it. First noted was "dataclysm", found in an article about Christian Rudder's new book titled "Who We Are (When We Think No One Is Looking). The term is used to describe dating data collected by his OK Cupid dating site.
Another made-up word is "staycation". It refers to vacationing comfortably and inexpensively by staying home. Don't remember where I read it. Still another is "dogoir", which describes a memoir about a pet dog, from "Our Dog Years" by David Dudley in Jan 2015 AARP, The Magazine. "Thinspire" is also new, used as the title of a book by a lady who was inspired to lose a large amount of weight. "Mansplaining" is from another book, "Men Explain Things to Me" by Rebecca Solnit. It's "an essay collection about the ways women's voices get silenced in a world of tired rhetoric and the same faux-feminist solutions to gender inequality", according to the Fast Company Magazine reviewer.
Another book you might find interesting is :"Don't Put That In There" by Aaron Carroll and Rachel Vreerman. They debunk myths about sex that everyone thinks are true, like having sex will help one lose weight. Actually, they report, "one would need to have sex 35 times, for 30 minutes at a time, to lose a pound". Our comment: What a wonderful way to commit suicide!
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