Oil Shortages

Some of us remember the oil shortages of the late seventies. It isn't just the inconvenience of occasional gasoline rationing that remember. Numerous elderly people actually died in the New York City area because of a lack of heating oil, and many people thought it would only get worse, that we would run out of oil completely before long.

However, at the same time, gold and many other things much rarer than oil were available to anyone who wanted them. They always are, and this gives us a clue to what causes an oil shortage, or any other shortage. Normally, it is just one thing...

To find out the cure for shortages, one that will simultaneously stimulate the creation of new inventions and technologies, you can finish the article here:
http://www.999ideas.com/oil-shortages.html

There is also a new page on our sister site, www. Increase Brain Power .com. It is on the IQ scale; what it means, what an average IQ score is and a bit of IQ history:
http://www.IncreaseBrainPower.com/iq-scale.html

New Brainpower Pages

Here are the newest pages of the 999ideas sister-site,
http://www.increaseBrainpPower.com :

Riddles and Puzzles : All riddle and puzzle pages are indexed here :
http://www.IncreaseBrainPower.com/riddles-and-puzzles.html

Funny Thoughts : To make you laugh and get you thinking.
http://www.IncreaseBrainPower.com/funny-thoughts.html

Brain Facts : Did you know...
http://www.IncreaseBrainPower.com/brain-facts.html

A Probability Lesson: Can you answer a simple probability question?
http://www.IncreaseBrainPower.com/probability-lesson.html

Word Riddles: Word riddles, and a few tests of your lateral thinking ability.
http://www.IncreaseBrainPower.com/word-riddles.html

Above Average IQ Score - A How To Guide : A few more ways to boost that score.
http://www.IncreaseBrainPower.com/average-iq-score.html

Enjoy!
Steve

Thought Provoking Questions

Six Thought Provoking Questions:

1. When several million want a given person or party in power, but can never elect them because only Democrats and Republicans will be elected by the other 90 million voters, can they believe that this is a representative government? Would a system that allowed them to send their own representatives to congress be more fair? Is there a way to devise a system which allows any million voters that agree on a candidate to have representation? (There are a couple million libertarians, for example, who never get represented.)

4. Since a moral rule like, "don't steal," can lead to immorality, as in not stealing to feed your child when that's the only option, is it possible we need a new way to define morality? Can morality be permanently codified in words, or should we use words only to point at what is beyond the definitions, and alter the definitions as often as we come to understand new things about the world and our role in it?

For the complete article, see the page:
http://999ideas.com/thought-provoking-questions.html

Backpacking Inventions

Part two of the page "Backpacking Gear Ideas." A few more inventions or ideas for backpacking inventions.

Inflatable Frame Backpack

Those of us with frame-less backpacks often put folded sleeping pads in the pack, against our backs. This provides some cushioning and some support for the load. This could be also be done by having the part of the pack that rests against the user's back inflate. Using the same technology as the lightweight self-inflating sleeping bag pads, it would only add about six ounces, and the backpack could then double as a foot-bag/pad for sleeping.

Water Bag Pillow

I usually use a plastic soda bottle to carry water when backpacking, but when I need to carry more water I have used the plastic bladders from boxed wine. They are very strong, and I inflate the bag with air to use as a pillow too. To market this as a dual-purpose water container/pillow, it just needs a soft covering of some sort.

For the rest of the backpacking inventions, see the page
http://www.999ideas.com/backpacking-innovations.html

Here are a few new internet business ideas that I won't be using, but I hope that someone will. The first comes from peoples frustration with technologies like e-books. They don't want to spend the hundreds for the software, and even when they do, they have trouble learning to use it.

A service business that compiles e-books for people is a solution to this problem. You could even have customers e-mail a photo and story about each family member or friend, and have you make a photo scrapbook for them. The idea is that they can download the book when done.

You also host it on your site for a year or more, with the download link on a page that only they know the address of. That way they can give the book away, sell it, or otherwise distribute it to whomever they please. A larger contract might be the first high school yearbook in an e-book format (probably already done by the time you read this).

New Internet Search Engine Ideas

If you know a little about search engines, you may know that Google and others give preference to sites that are older. This is a part of their search algorithms, and probably a good idea. It does mean, however, that even the best site in the world on a given topic may be nearly impossible to find. This can also happen because the site has few incoming links (another part of the algorithms).

One solution is a search engine that gives priority to new web sites. In fact, this search engine might drop sites from the results once they are six months old, or perhaps always display those older sites on the bottom half of the page. The top results would be the most relevant sites that are the newest... (continued at http://www.999ideas.com/internet-business-ideas.html )

Great Ideas

How do you have great ideas? You could wait and see if they pop into your head someday, and they honestly might. If, however, you want a more immediate and systematic method, here it is in three steps:

1. Gather knowledge.

2. Apply idea-generating techniques.

3. Pick out and refine the best ideas from the results.

Great Ideas Come From Knowledge

Really, you wouldn't expect to come up with a new theory of relativity if you had no knowledge in physics or mathematics, would you? Of course not. You have to have some knowledge in the area in which you want new ideas. If you want great ideas, you should probably have a great deal of knowledge.

If, for example you want to create a new transportation device, you would want general knowledge in that field. The more specific things that would be helpful, would be a listing of all the current modes of transportation. Add to that a list of things that have been tried and failed, and a list of all the things that people want in their transportation.

Great Idea Generating Techniques

Inventions start in the mind, and the mind follows certain patterns and rules. This is where tools such as problem solving techniques and other idea generating techniques come in. Take the "concept combination" technique, for example. If you tell your mind that you need a useful combination of a plane and a motorcycle, it will search for it until it finds it. It took this mind twenty seconds to imagine wings that expand out at high speed from a motorcycle, allowing it to be used as a glider.

The technique of redefining problems can open whole new areas...

( continued at http://www.999ideas.com/great-ideas.html )

Words To Live By?

While watching the news the other day, it occurred to me that people who have "words to live by" often begin to attack and even kill others. I remembered my own angry attitude from years ago, when I could easily use words to justify violent thoughts which might have become violent actions. Words are valuable tools, and yet it seems that they can be more dangerous than gunpowder.

For a moment, imagine two men facing each other, pointing past one another. One man is pointing at a tornado that is coming. The other is pointing at a raging fire headed towards them. They each see their own truth and each is angry at the sight of the other's hand. They feel that the other's hand is "wrong." This seems silly, but replace the tornado and fire with any modern issues, and the hands with words, and this scene describes how we often try to communicate.

People point past each other with their words, arguing as though they are looking at the same facts and experiences. They want to prove that their words are the right ones, instead of learning to look at what the other's words are pointing at. Words are seductive, and for all their undeniable usefulness, they also can lead us away from understanding when we focus on them, when we make them more important than the truth they are meant to point at.

There Are No Words To Live By

It isn't just a matter of communicating with others. We often focus on, and get trapped in a net of words that we use to explain the world to ourselves. We easily call things "right" or "wrong" for example, according to how they compare to our "definitions." However... (continued at http://www.999Ideas.com/words-to-live-by.html)