Tag: cool things

prophecy0922:

seemeflow:

They say necessity is the mother of invention and this is sure the case when it comes to 13 and 15 year old, Nigerian brothers Anesi and Osine Ikhianosime. Their necessity is their need for a faster mobile web browsing experience…because who wants to wait a few extra seconds for Google Chrome to load when you can build a better browser?

The dynamic coding duo are your ordinary African teenagers. They attend school in Greensprings school, Anthony Campus, Lagos. They love their friends, soccer, to have fun and coding, obviously.

The young problem solvers got tired of waiting for Google Chrome to load on their mobile phones, so decided to do something about it instead of complain. They decided to build a better mobile browser last year and called it Crocodile Browser Lite. It is currently live and ready for your download in the Google Play store right now. Raised by parents who believe education and technology is very important to the lives of all, they were raised with high aspirations in mind. Their mother says they were able to use the computer before they know how to read and have always been fascinated with technology, creating, building and solving problems. 

By the age of 7 & 9, the duo knew they wanted to start their own technology company. Inspired by Microsoft Windows platform, they decided to name their company “Doors”. However, later they discovered that the name was taken, so they changed it to Blu Doors”, which is still the current name of the company.At the ages of 12 and 14, they decided to take on the task of learning how to code. They taught themselves, but had much encouragement, inspiration and access to computers from their school. 

They did take advantage of free resources. “I learnt to code by myself. I startede in 2013, I used sites  like Code Academy, Code Avenger and books like ‘Android for Game Development’ and ‘Games for Dummies,” said Anesi.The plan to create a better browser for low end featured phones is one that is needed for the developing world. While Chrome and other browsers work great on high end smart phones, the majority of the world are not using this technology and need a low-end option that still provides quick browers response, so this is what the young men did. 

They built a better mouse trap for the phones they were using.Crocodile Browser Lite 3.0 will be available this year [available now] in the Google Play store and something you should check out to give the young people support. They currently have over 500 [between 1000 – 5000] downloads of their browser, but hoping to see it grow in the near future.Their future plans are to attend MIT in the United States because they feel the educational opportunities, resources and access to technology are exactly what they need to positively impact the future as then intend.Hats off to these young men and their family!

http://urbanintellectuals.com/2015/06/05/13-15-yrs-old-nigerian-brothers-built-mobile-web-browsering-alternative-to-google-chrome/

Hats off! !

Source: handsometruth

wolffuchs:

micdotcom:

This magical new underwear could replace tampons and pads 

Menstruation is a natural part of life, but it has long been and continues to be stigmatized. Three women have come up with a way to change all that. Twin sisters Radha and Miki Agrawal and friend Antonia Dunbar innovated THINX underwear, which completely eliminates the need for tampons or pads and could also help in need in the developing world.

No more pads???

Source: mic.com

theplaceyoustillrememberdreaming:

provocative-romantic-unique:

TOP TEN BEST MOVIE THEATRES AROUND THE WORLD

1. Hollywoos Studios, California

2. Olympia Music Hall, France

3. Pula Arena, Croatia

4. The Odyssey, France

5. Electric Cinema, England

6. Hot Tub Cinema, England

7. Transatlantyk Festival, Poland

8. Film on the Rocks, United States

9. Orange Cinema Club, China

10. Ugc De Brouckere Grand Eldorado, Belgium

The first one is actually in Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida 🙂

Source: coolthingoftheday

medievalpoc:

Interactive Map: The History of Gender Diversity

This interactive map from PBS is a good starting point for people who would like to learn the history of gender diversity around the world. Although the information isn’t anything I would cite directly or take without a grain of salt, it’s a testament to the fact that gender categories are nowhere near as universal as many seem to believe they are. It also isn’t complete-there are many more peoples, cultures, and genders to explore beyond the map as well.

Related: Medievalpoc tagged “qpoc”

Source: pbs.org

Woman saves three relatives from Ebola

fluffmugger:

22-year-old Fatu Kekula nursed her entire family through Ebola. Her father. Her mother. Her sister. Her cousin. Fatu took care of them all, single-handedly feeding them, cleaning them and giving them medications.
And she did so with remarkable success. Three out of her four patients survived. That’s a 25% death rate — considerably better than the estimated Ebola death rate of 70%.
Fatu stayed healthy, which is noteworthy considering that more than 300 health care workers have become infected with Ebola, and she didn’t even have personal protection equipment — those white space suits and goggles used in Ebola treatment units.
Instead Fatu, who’s in her final year of nursing school, invented her own equipment. International aid workers heard about Fatu’s “trash bag method” and are now teaching it to other West Africans who can’t get into hospitals and don’t have protective gear of their own

DUDE. SHE MANAGED TO GET A FUCKING 75% SURVIVAL RATE OUT OF A DISEASE WITH A 70% DEATH RATE.

Woman saves three relatives from Ebola

thepeoplesrecord:

How Hong Kong protesters are connecting, without cell or Wi-Fi networks
October 3, 2014

As throngs of pro-democracy protesters continue to organize in Hong Kong’s central business district, many of them are messaging one another through a network that doesn’t require cell towers or Wi-Fi nodes. They’re using an app called FireChat that launched in March and is underpinned by mesh networking, which lets phones unite to form a temporary Internet.

So far, mesh networks have proven themselves quite effective and quickly adopted during times of disaster or political unrest, as they don’t rely on existing cable and wireless networks. In Iraq, tens of thousands of people have downloaded FireChat as the government limits connectivity in an effort to curb ISIS communications. Protesters in Taiwan this spring turned to FireChat when cell signals were too weak and at times nonexistent.

And FireChat’s popularity is surging in Hong Kong. About 100,000 users downloaded the free FireChat app between Sunday morning and Monday morning, according to The Wall Street Journal. While there are no reports of cell-network outages so far, student leaders are recommending FireChat for fear authorities may shut off communications.

Gizmodo explains why mesh networks can be critical during tense showdowns with governments:

“Mesh networks are an especially resilient tool because there’s no easy way for a government to shut them down. They can’t just block cell reception or a site address. Mesh networks are like Voldemortafter he split his soul into horcruxes (only not evil). Destroying one part won’t kill it unless you destroy each point of access; someone would have to turn off Bluetooth on every phone using FireChat to completely break the connection. This hard-to-break connection isn’t super important for casual chats, but during tense political showdowns, it could be a lifeline.”

And as we have previously reported, Open Garden, the company that made FireChat and an Android mesh networking app also called Open Garden, has bigger ambitions for mesh networking:

"Once you build a mesh network … now you have a network that is resilient, self-healing, cannot be controlled by any central organization, cannot be shut down and is always working,” Christophe Daligault, Open Garden’s vice president for sales and marketing says. “I think that solves many other drawbacks or challenges of the mobile broadband Internet today.”

He says none of this would be possible without the rapid spread of smartphones, because that means no extra hardware is needed.

“Each [phone] becomes a router and in a sense you’re growing the Internet — everyone who joins the mesh network creates an extension of the Internet,” Daligault says. “In a year or two from now, I think people won’t even remember that you had to be on Wi-Fi or get a cell signal to be able to communicate.”

Source

Source: thepeoplesrecord

is-it-hi-or-ehhhh:

neurosciencestuff:

A sensational breakthrough: the first bionic hand that can feel

The first bionic hand that allows an amputee to feel what they are touching will be transplanted later this year in a pioneering operation that could introduce a new generation of artificial limbs with sensory perception.

The patient is an unnamed man in his 20s living in Rome who lost the lower part of his arm following an accident, said Silvestro Micera of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland.

The wiring of his new bionic hand will be connected to the patient’s nervous system with the hope that the man will be able to control the movements of the hand as well as receiving touch signals from the hand’s skin sensors.

Dr Micera said that the hand will be attached directly to the patient’s nervous system via electrodes clipped onto two of the arm’s main nerves, the median and the ulnar nerves.

This should allow the man to control the hand by his thoughts, as well as receiving sensory signals to his brain from the hand’s sensors. It will effectively provide a fast, bidirectional flow of information between the man’s nervous system and the prosthetic hand.

“This is real progress, real hope for amputees. It will be the first prosthetic that will provide real-time sensory feedback for grasping,” Dr Micera said.

“It is clear that the more sensory feeling an amputee has, the more likely you will get full acceptance of that limb,” he told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston.

“We could be on the cusp of providing new and more effective clinical solutions to amputees in the next year,” he said.

DO YOU PEOPLE EVEN REALIZE HOW AWESOME THIS IS???

TO DO THIS MEANS WE CAN FINALLY STITCH AXONS (LONG PART OF NEURON OR NERVE CELL THAT TRANSPORTS SIGNALS FROM JUNCTIONS BACK TO THE BRAIN) BACK TOGETHER

DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND HOW IMPOSSIBLE THAT WAS? TO ALIGN THE DAMAGED AXONS BACK TOGETHER WAS IMPOSSIBLE 

WITH THIS BREAK THROUGH YOU COULD EVENTUALLY WORK UP TO GIVING THE ABILITY TO WALK AND MOVE AGAIN TO THOSE WHO CUT THEIR SPINAL CORD IN AN ACCIDENT THIS IS BEAUTIFUL

THIS. IS. AMAZING.

Source: neurosciencestuff