Can you push your mind for an inventive idea?
Sit in front of TV and spin new ideas!
We are all addicts of movies and all things visual. Young and old are alike and some spent a large part of their time watching TV shows. And after following the saga on the television, we would continue to talk about it the next day at the offices. Even in our phone conversation with others, we invariably talk about the previous night’s story, making it as if our lives wholly revolve around it! Is it time well spent? If you were to project your life thirty years from now, you will not remember anything at all about the things that you see on the TV now. In short, the time that you spend watching the TV now will not make any difference for your future. Yet, we just can’t shut out the TV and go about doing our things as if nothing happens. The reality is that TV is indeed pervasive. And not only that, it has now gone into ‘reality gear’ and a lot of us just got to tune in at the allotted time. We are all slaves to the idiot box! However, it is not all bad. You can really make good use of the TV. Besides the many leisure programs, there are also documentaries, news and National Geographic’s. These are shows that relates to facts and the realities of live. There is a great amount of gold to be found here. Knowing about these facts will enrich our lives. You must have been aware of the fact that ‘knowledge is king’, but very few people pay much attention to it. They would rather prefer to spend their lives dabbling in fictitious innuendos. When they are not sure of anything, they will just call their friends who would provide them with an answer. In most cases, their friend’s answer is just as dumb as theirs. For people who have to use knowledge to earn a living, learning about the factual things in life is very important. They can make good use of TV programs to enhance their knowledge. For example, if they watch a lot of Animal features, they will invariably have a better understanding of their pet’s behavior. If their dog were to howl the whole night, at least they will not bash their pet to death. They know that something is wrong and they will go to find out and solve it, before the neighbors can come complaining. Besides improving on one’s knowledge, watching factual TV shows can help trigger off ideas. These seeds of idea can be developed into full gear items. Artist, writers, creative personnel and inventors often get their spark of idea while watching TV shows. But that is their little secret, and they don’t usually go about evangelizing about it. Well, what do you know, even when watching TV shows, there is a big difference between a right and a left brainer! A left brainer guy will go for the shows like ‘Desperate Housewives’ and the right brainer will go for ‘American Inventors’. How about your preference then?
Yap Tat Meng
You can republish this ezine article with the condition that it is not edited and our resource box is included with the articleWhat if tornadoes come visiting more often?
Can you sense the impending world weather changing? Yes, you will remember the Katrina disaster of 2005, the severe February 2007 of Worcestershire in South West England and the Antarctic ice sheet melting now at an unprecedented rate! Just recently, you have severe snow storm in Northern and Central China that disrupted power lines and also preventing millions of its inhabitants traveling back to their hometowns for their New Year celebrations. Then you have the unusual snow storm in Central United States and also the recent tornadoes in Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky and Alabama in early February 2008.
We are also aware that governments are not prepared to cope with these large scale disasters. They are just hoping that nature will be kind to them by not causing too much of such natural disasters on their own turf! But shouldn't we, puny little creatures, be more proactive by asking our politicians to face up to the fact that natural weather caused disasters will be knocking at our doorsteps more often, and that they will have to buck up and take immediate actions. On our own part, should we not take the bull by the horn and start creating changes to our lifestyles that can mitigate the ill effects of natural disasters?
Perhaps it is no use to go into rhetoric’s, but instead deliberate about the actions that we can take. Here is an example that you can think over.
Tornado proof house They use to say that if the tornado were to cross path with your house, you will be done for. Yes, indeed, no house will be left standing along its path. But be aware, with today's advances in weather for castings, we should be able to take advantage of those less than an hour weather warnings from the National Weather Bureaus to protect ourselves from being a victim. As far as our existing house design is concerned, it will not stand a chance if it is being struck by a tornado. Even with all the known fortifications known to man!
Here is my redesign suggestion. Build a house that can be quickly retracted underground! The idea is to shelter it from the twisting winds and the only way to do it safely is to hide underground! Not only should it retract, there should be a kind of cover to prevent the roof from being sucked out of the ground. As we are talking about a house that can weigh several tons, or even part of a house, the mechanism for the retracting job will have to be very robust. One method is to use huge hydraulic jacks built underground and powered by diesel engines (in case there is power outage) that is housed at roof top levels. The structures and foundations of the house will have to be redesigned to accommodate the jacks. Now, assuming that you know the tornado's path is coming your way, you will have to trigger the power to lower your house underground. In case there is inundation of water underground, powerful pumps will have to be used to suck up the water in double quick time. There should also be a cover over the submerged house for further protection. When the twister has subsided, reverse the process and jack up the house again.
Now, just in case there are floods after the storm, you can also design the house to be jacked up to a higher than ground level. It should be noted that there should be devices fitted so that you can observe a clear signal before either jacking down or up of the house. I would have to admit that I have never built any houses before, so there might be insurmountable problems that I am not aware of, that might make this idea silly. However, since mankind have already conquered mighty space, we should at least be able to tackle problems on the ground.
This idea is only at the conception stage and I would like to invite others who are more qualified to give their inputs. You are invited to give your comment by emailing me at here and I will also publish them on this column, with your permission of course.
Unconventional ideas for a conventional world.
Yap Tat Meng