How Much Digital Data Will Humans Create This Year?

Found here: How Much Data Will Humans Create & Store This Year? [INFOGRAPHIC]

Organisation charts of major tech companies

Found here: The Org Charts Of All The Major Tech Companies | Pic | Gear

Transparent Airbus Airplane of the Future

Airbus showed off their concept airplane that will be efficient and environmentally friendly. By 2050, air travelers can enjoy bio-morphing seats, automated luggage handling, high-tech holographic amenities at your fingertips, acupressure seats, and oh, yeah, a see-through airplane skin.





This goes along well with the airport check-in of the future:





Sources: Airbus 2050 Concept Cabin Has Transparent Skin | Geekosystem
Sources: IATA Checkpoint of the Future (Geekosystem)

What happens in 60 seconds on the Internet?

This infographic illustrates what happen every 60 seconds on the Internet. [Click to enlarge].

Source: 60 Seconds on the Internet [Infographic]

Why do so many people worldwide have no access to clean water?

About 70 percent of the planet is covered in water, but millions of people do not have access to clean drinking water. This infograph aims to explain the situation [Click on image to enlarge].

Source: GOOD.is | Not a Drop to Drink (Raw Image)

Timeline for technologies of the near future

Found here: http://michellzappa.com/map/

PhD-Comic Movie Trailer

Ants that change color according to the food they eat

Ghost ants (Tapinoma melanocephalum) are a widespread tropical species and have transparent abdomens, which allows us to see the the food they eat in full color (see picture above).


Found here: The Presurfer: Ghost Ants Change Color According To The Food They Eat

Blue Lobster

An estimated one 4 million lobsters is blue. A genetic defect causes a blue lobster to produce an excessive amount of a particular protein. The protein and a red carotenoid molecule known as astaxanthin combine to form a blue complex known as crustacyanin, giving the lobster its blue color.


Found here: The Presurfer: Blue Lobster

Proto-Knowledge celebrates 30000th view!

The Proto-Knowledge blog celebrates over 30,000 page views. Many thanks to all the readers!

UN considers internet access a human right

Internet access is a human right, according to a United Nations report released on Friday.

"Given that the Internet has become an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human rights, combating inequality, and accelerating development and human progress, ensuring universal access to the Internet should be a priority for all states," said the report from Frank La Rue.

This report by the UN is particularly important in view of the recent incidents when governments shut down internet access nationwide during political uprisings in the Middle East.

Read more here: United Nations report: Internet access is a human right - latimes.com

The Immersive Cocoon: Get your own Holodeck

The Immersive Cocoon is your personal Holodeck. It surrounds the people inside with light and sound, can detect their position and movements, and offers an isolated workspace. Designer Tino Schaedler predicts that the Immersive Cocoon will be installed in airports and malls and available for rent for travelers and business conferencing types.


Read more here: The Immersive Cocoon: Your Very Own Holodeck

RIFD tags to track food intake

Designer Hannes Harms suggests to add disposable rfid tags to our food. This would allow to automatically track our food intake.


NutriSmart from HannesRemote on Vimeo.

NutriSmart on Vimeo

Panasonic wants to build eco-friendly city Fujisawa SST by 2018

Panasonic, along with eight partner companies, have announced plans to construct the Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town (Fujisawa SST) by 2018 - an eco-friendly city for 1000 residents. Fujisawa SST will combine a number of energy-saving methods:  A smart power grid; solar cells and batteries in every home; roads designed for bikes, walkers, and electric vehicles; networked public lighting, and more.



Panasonic Plans Bottom-Up Green City Fujisawa SST in Japan | Geekosystem

Goodbye Food Pyramid, Hello Food Plate

The first food pyramid was introduced in 1992 by the USDA, which replaced it now with MyPlate (see below).

Below is the new MyPlate. It shows a plate with the recommended distribution of different nutrients. In my opinion, the plate is much easier to understand than the pyramid as it shows you what your plate should look like. One only wonders if the powerful US dairy industry shoehorned in "Dairy" as being separate from "Protein".

USDA Ditches Food Pyramid for a Food Plate | Geekosystem

Window to the Outside World

Outside World Real Life 20 | Pic | Gear

How toy advertisements reinforce gender stereotypes

Blogger Crystal from Achilleseffect.com gathered key words from television toy advertisements targeted towards boys or girls. The gender stereotypes are striking when looking at the wordle pictures below.

Toy advertisements for boys

Toy advertisements for girls

Read more here: Word Cloud: How Toy Ad Vocabulary Reinforces Gender Stereotypes | The Achilles Effect