Items of Interest

Typographic Posters

Typographic Posters is a repository of poster designs, grouped and searchable by country and colour.

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Researchers in the U.S. have created the first organic robots which measure at less than 1mm long. The living programmable organisms are first simluated using evolutionary algorithms to create random designs using combinations of different stem cell types. Successful xenobot designs are then created in real life using frog stem cells.

Innovation

Science

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PS3 Supercomputers

#194

The Verge posted an interesting article on the story of how, for a few years, Playstation 3 games consoles were used by researchers and the U.S. Airforce as supercomputers to work on black hole calculations, win cryptography contests and process images from surveillance drones.

History

Innovation

Tech

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Sos Lóin

#193

Má tá tú i gcathair Corcaigh, tá deis leat do Ghaeilge a labhairt gach Máirt ag Sos Lóin i O'Sho. Tá agallamh go deas i Zín eagrán 05 le John O'Riordáin ó Sos Lóin. / If you are in Cork city, there is an opportunity for you to speak Irish every Tuesday at Sos Lóin in O'Sho. There is a great interview in Zín eagrán 05 with John O'Riordáin from Sos Lóin.

Gaeilge

Life

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Your Boat, Your Compass

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With the new year upon us, some may have felt the affects of blue Monday this week. Thankfully, Seth Godin comes to the rescue with some straight and to the point advice for the year ahead; own your priorities, your boat, your compass.

Business

Motivation

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Zero Is The Hero

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Atlantic Philathropies, the organisation setup by Chuck Feeney to give away his huge fortune, has published their final report titled Zero Is The Hero. The report gives an overview of the amounts invested around the world in different industries. The fascinating story of Chuck Feeney is told excellently in the book The Billionaire Who Wasn't (affiliate link) by Conor Clery.

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52 Things from 2019

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Tom Whitwell has put together a cracking list of interesting facts he learnt in 2019. These include why British motorways are not built in straight lines, where the 10,000 steps thing came from, there were between 0 and 2 Nigels born in the UK in 2016, and that Ireland had it's own timezone until 1916 (see also Mean Time at Richmond Barracks).

Life

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Toyota Future City

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Toyota are planning to build a prototype city of the future called Woven City on 175 acres at the base of Mt. Fuji. The city will be fully powered by hydrogen fuel cells and it will feature segregated transport links for different type of autonomous zero emissions vehicles and state of the art robot filled smart residences made of wood using traditional Japanese wood joinery. The first population set of 2000 people will be employees, retirees and industry partners. Ground breaking is due to start in 2021.

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What Colour Is Your Name?

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Synesthesia is a rare sensory trait shared by about 4% of the population. Bernadette Sheridan has created an interactive tool to visualise the colours associated with the letters of a name as experienced by people with grapheme-color synesthesia.

Data Vis

Life

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The History of Ketchup

#192

The Saturday Evening Post has an interesting article on the history of Ketchup. It originated in 17th century China as a fermented fish sauce, without tomatoes, called ke-tsiap before travelling along the British empire to the west.

History

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