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Monday, February 9, 2009
bic pen - reinventing the most popular ballpoint
bic pen - reinventing the most popular ballpoint
---
when lászló bíró saw a ball rolling through a puddle
on the street and leaving a trail of water behind it, he
conceived an idea that would go on to change everyday
life forever. based on what he had seen, the hungarian
journalist along with his brother georg, began to work on
the first commercially successful ballpoint pen.---
a brief history
bíró had become frustrated by the time spent filling-up
fountain pens and waiting for the ink to dry. he had seaen
that the ink used to print newspapers dried much quicker
and so decided to create a pen using the same type of ink.
in 1938 the bíró brothers patented a design which featured
a tiny ball in its tip, which turned freely in a socket. as the
ball moved along the paper it rotated, picking up ink from
the cartridge and leaving it on the paper.whilst ballpoint pens had existed in the past - none had
proved very popular due to constant problems with clogging,
leakage and ink distribution - the bíró's, was the first pen
that significantly overcame these problems.after relocating to argentina in 1940 the bírós licensed
their design to a number of makers in the US and britain but
it was almost ten years later when the design was mastered
and introduced to the rest of the world. marcel bich a french pen
manufacturer who had bought the ballpoint pen patent from
lászló bíró - ironed out the remaining design problems
(mainly ink distribution) and began huge, low cost
mass prodctions of the 'bic crystal'.it's not surprising to hear that in 2005 bic sold its one hundred
billionth pen, when you consider just how many of their pens
you might have owned, borrowed or even stolen.---
designboom competition entries
at the same time as being a icon of democracy - almost anyone
can afford to buy one - the ballpoint pen is also one of the first
products of the throw-away culture in which we now live.in some instances the ballpoint pen has been used
for much more than the initial scribbling-down of an idea.
the 'bic pen' has seen numerous incarnations in
recent years - in more than one of designboom's competitions,
participants have decided to transform the iconic writer.one of the ex-equo winners of the macef award 2008
- dining in 2015, was 'din-ink' by andrea cingoli,
paolo emilio bellisario, cristian cellini and francesca fontana
from italy. the design sees pen-lids integrated with cutlery
allowing the user to transform their writing tools into a knife,
fork and spoon. finally there is a good excuse for when
you're caught gnawing on the end of your pen!another designboom competition entry which used the
'bic pen' was giffin termeers 'dasiy vase'. developed for
the macef award 2004 - H2O_on the table, the american
design duo blow-mold the pens by hand. as the plastic
becomes flexible its stretches allowing the vase to
sit naturally. since its initial competition success the
'daisy vase' has been shown at designboom marts,
and can also be purchased online from the designboom shop.
bic pens have found their way into the work of
several other designers and would-be inventors.
from maneuverable lighting and chandeliers to
candy and weaponry - more 'bic pen' projects are
featured (right) here...
'din-ink' by andrea cingoli + paolo emilio bellisario + cristian cellini + francesca fontana, 2007
shortlisted entry of the designboom dining in 2015 competition,
a set of biccaps, including a fork-cap, a knife-cap and a spoon-cap, that replaces
the normal bic cap during lunch time
‘
'daisy vase' - inflated bic pen - by jim termeer and jess giffin, 2004
shortlisted entry of the designboom H2O_on the table competition,
how to fill a daisy vase
‘anemone’ lamp, by paolo ulian, made out of 400 bic pens,
part of the exhibition ‘ la meravigliosa avventura del barone bic ’, aosta, italy 1998
'301 chandelier' by studio empieza, made up of bic pens and paper-clips, 2006
‘volivik 50 na’ table lamp by studio empieza, 2007
a bic pen bow + arrow is a good way to waste time at work or school
see how to build it here
how to make a little blowgun
see also hot to make an Improvised tiny funnel
http://www.instructables.com/id/Improvised-tiny-funnela spiral pen
http://www.instructables.com/id/spiral-penan Iink tube shooter
http://www.instructables.com/id/Ink-tube-shooter
‘suck my bic’ candy cup, by clement eloy
available 5 different flavored cups.
‘object (all around)’, by herbert hinteregger, 2003
‘all over (volume 4)’, by herbert hinteregger, 1998/99
'all over store', installation by by herbert hinteregger, 2006
exhibition view georg kargl permanent
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Marijuana Linked to Aggressive Testicular Cancer
MONDAY, Feb. 9 (HealthDay News)—Smoking marijuana over an extended period of time appears to greatly boost a young man's risk for developing a particularly aggressive form of testicular cancer, a new study reveals.
In fact, researchers found that men who smoked marijuana once a week or began to use the substance on a long-term basis while adolescents incurred double the risk for developing the fastest-spreading version of testicular cancer—nonseminoma, which accounts for about 40 percent of all cases.
"Since we know that the incidence of testicular cancer has been rising in our country and in Europe over the last 40 years and that marijuana use has also risen over the same time, it seemed logical that there might be an association between the two," said study co-author Janet Daling, an epidemiologist and member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center's public health sciences division in Seattle. "And when I analyzed the data, we found a fairly strong relationship with this aggressive type of testicular cancer."
No link was found between the drug and a less aggressive and more prevalent form of the disease, known as seminoma, which strikes 60 percent of testicular cancer patients.
The findings were published in the Feb. 9 online issue of Cancer.
According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, testicular cancer is very rare, accounting for just 1 percent of cancers among American men. Nevertheless, the disease is the most common type of cancer for American men between the ages of 15 and 34, the study noted.
Across North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, testicular cancer rates have increased by 3 percent to 6 percent in the past half-century. That has led some researchers to suggest that the upward trend might be the product of increased exposure among young men to one or more external factors, including a simultaneous and comparable rise in the use of marijuana.
Along those lines, the researchers noted that the testes could be particularly vulnerable to the effects of marijuana, given that the organ—along with the brain, heart, uterus and spleen—carries specific receptors for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.
As well, previous human and animal research has indicated that marijuana use might lead to reduced hormonal production (particularly testosterone), poorer semen quality and impotency in men.
Daling and her team explored the notion of a marijuana-testicular cancer connection by analyzing data on 369 testicular cancer patients that had been collected by the Adult Testicular Cancer Lifestyle and Blood Specimen Study.
Participants were between the ages of 18 and 44, most were white or Hispanic, and all were residents of the Seattle-Puget Sound region. All had been diagnosed with the disease between 1999 and 2006. The men reported any history of marijuana use, as well as alcohol and smoking habits, and the same information was collected from about 1,000 healthy men.
The researchers found that current marijuana use was linked to a 70 percent increased risk for the disease.
Independent of known risk factors, nonseminoma risk was particularly high among men who used the drug at least once a week and among those who had started using it before age 18.
Though Daling emphasized that the findings are preliminary, she suggested that attention should be paid.
"We know very little about the long-term health consequences of marijuana smoking," she cautioned. "So, although this is the first time this association has been studied and found—and the finding does need to be replicated before we are really sure what's going on—this does give some evidence that testicular cancer may be one result from the frequent use of marijuana. And that is something that young people should keep in mind."
But the prospect of a causal relationship between marijuana use and testicular cancer raised a lot of unanswered questions for Gary Schwartz, an associate professor in both the department of cancer biology and the department of epidemiology and prevention at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.
"The consensus is that most testicular cancer is thought to originate with lesions in utero, and that the peak age for testicular cancer to actually occur begins, really, right after adolescence," he noted. "That's when hormones released during puberty appear to promote [full-blown] cancer by essentially throwing fuel on the lesion fire, following a relatively long latency. The point being that you don't suddenly wake up one morning with a tumor. So it's a little hard to understand how exposure to marijuana beginning at that point could somehow play an immediate causal role."
"But certainly, the idea that cannabis may cause cancer cells to proliferate is interesting," Schwartz acknowledged. "It could, however, also be that recreational drug use is simply a marker for affluence, since we know that testicular cancer is traditionally a disease that is more common among the affluent. Or it could be a marker for some other event that comes along with it, that triggers lesions that lead to tumors. So, at this point, it's just not clear to me how exactly the association between marijuana and testicular cancer would work."
Phone Won’t Stop Ringing? Here’s What You Do… | Funtasticus.com Humor & Fun Blog
Leola Starling of Ribrock, Tenn., had a serious telephone problem. But unlike most people she did something about it.
The brand-new $10 million Ribrock Plaza Motel opened nearby and had acquired almost the same telephone number as Leola.
From the moment the motel opened, Leola was besieged by calls not for her. Since she had the same phone number for years, she felt that she had a case to persuade the motel management to change its number.
Naturally, the management refused claiming that it could not change its stationery.
The phone company was not helpful, either. A number was a number, and just because a customer was getting someone else’s calls 24 hours a day didn’t make it responsible. After her pleas fell on deaf ears, Leola decided to take matters into her own hands.
At 9 o’clock the phone rang. Someone from Memphis was calling the motel and asked for a room for the following Tuesday. Leoloa said, “No problem. How many nights?”
A few hours later Dallas checked in. A secretary wanted a suite with two bedrooms for a week. Emboldened, Leola said the Presidential Suite on the 10th floor was available for $600 a night. The secretary said that she would take it and asked if the hotel wanted a deposit.
“No, that won’t be necessary,” Leola said. “We trust you.”
The next day was a busy one for Leola. In the morning, she booked an electric appliance manufacturers’ convention for Memorial Day weekend, a college prom and a reunion of the 82nd Airborne veterans from World War II.
She turned on her answering machine during lunchtime so that she could watch the O.J. Simpson trial, but her biggest challenge came in the afternoon when a mother called to book the ballroom for her daughter’s wedding in June.
Leola assured the woman that it would be no problem and asked if she would be providing the flowers or did she want the hotel to take care of it. The mother said that she would prefer the hotel to handle the floral arrangements. Then the question of valet parking came up. Once again Leola was helpful. “There’s no charge for valet parking, but we always recommend that the client tips the drivers.”
Within a few months, the Ribrock Plaza Motel was a disaster area.
People kept showing up for wedddings, bar mitzvahs and Sweet Sixteen parties and were all told there were no such events.
Leola had her final revenge when she read in the local paper that the motel might go bankrupt. Her phone rang, and an executive from Marriott said, “We’re prepared to offer you $200,000 for the motel.”
Leola replied. “We’ll take it, but only if you change the telephone number.”
Witty quotes and sayings
If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done. What does not kill me makes me stronger. Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other. If one has not given everything, one has given nothing. If you choose not to decide - you still have made a choice! Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists? The best way to succeed in life is to act on the advice we give to others. The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. Seventy percent of success in life is showing up. If you can't convince them, confuse them. It usually takes a long time to find a shorter way. Every man is the architect of his own fortune. The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot. There are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.
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| The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits The quality of an organization can never exceed the quality of the minds that make it up. Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure. With stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain. No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience. The first rule to tinkering is to save all the parts. Wine is bottled poetry. He who cannot agree with his enemies is controlled by them. "Reality" is the only word in the English language that should always be used in quotes. I think; therefore I am. It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen. I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it. The key to being a good manager is keeping the people who hate me away from those who are still undecided. |
| Never argue with a fool. Someone watching may not be able to tell the difference. If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to. Nothing endures but change. True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing. All jobs are easy to the person who doesn't have to do them. Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. A picture is worth a thousand words is not an old proverb Wretched the man whose fame makes his misfortunes famous. 'Tis better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than open one's mouth and remove all doubt. Necessity is the mother of invention. A free society is a place where it's safe to be unpopular. Wine gives courage and makes men more apt for passion. 'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. It's better to be quotable than to be honest. Start every day off with a smile and get it over with. |
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