Here are the top ten reason why intelligent people fail.

1. 

   Why Intelligent People Fail

   Lack of motivation. A talent is irrelevant if a person is not motivated to use it. Motivation may be external (for example, social approval) or internal (satisfaction from a job well-done, for instance). External sources tend to be transient, while internal sources tend to produce more consistent performance.

2. Lack of impulse control. Habitual impulsiveness gets in the way of optimal performance. Some people do not bring their full intellectual resources to bear on a problem but go with the first solution that pops into their heads.
3. Lack of perserverance and perseveration. Some people give up too easily, while others are unable to stop even when the quest will clearly be fruitless.
4. Using the wrong abilities. People may not be using the right abilities for the tasks in which they are engaged.
5. Inability to translate thought into action. Some people seem buried in thought. They have good ideas but rarely seem able to do anything about them.
6. Lack of product orientation. Some people seem more concerned about the process than the result of activity.
7. Inability to complete tasks. For some people nothing ever draws to a close. Perhaps it’s fear of what they would do next or fear of becoming hopelessly enmeshed in detail.
8. Failure to initiate. Still others are unwilling or unable to initiate a project. It may be indecision or fear of commitment.
9. Fear of failure. People may not reach peak performance because they avoid the really important challenges in life.
10. Procrastination. Some people are unable to act without pressure. They may also look for little things to do in order to put off the big ones.

If you are ready for the rest of the list you can read them on Accelerating Future.

Yellow Red Dread

If you have been watching the 2010 World Cup, what do you think so far? There have been some good games, some bad ones and then there are the referees… Which have mostly been bad.

A couple of them immediately come to mind. One of there is the referee that managed to put himself in center stage of the Germany – Serbian game. And another was the blind/bribed ref that cost the US the win against Slovenia.

As I type this I see that the US won their game against Algeria so at least they’re further.

Hopefully the trend of terrible referees doesn’t continue with tonight’s game between Germany and Ghana… Though he is known by the nickname, “The Sheriff”. We’ll see.

Guinness Storehouse St Patrick's Day sign

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day everyone. Hopefully your celebration was a safe and happy one!

Here is an example of ice containing methane which has been lit on fire.

Combustible Ice

I have known about ice containing methane for quite a while because as it melts, it poses a severe threat to the environment. The more that is released, the warmer it gets, the warmer it gets, the more combustible ice melts… And, well, you can see how things can quickly begin to spiral out of control.

Well steps are currently being taken to study the use of this energy source and at the same time reduce the threat it has on the environment. And this is a step in the right direction. Recent studies have shown that more than 8 million tons of previously unknown methane has been leaking into the atmosphere each year.

In September of last year China discovered a previously unknown reserve of combustible ice on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The find is equal to 35 billion tonnes of oil. To get an idea of how much this is, it is enough to power China for the next 90 years.

Before the source of fuel can be effectively utilized though, researchers believe that it will have to undergo a phase change.

That means that the ice will have to be melted, separating the methane from the water. The methane that would be won from one single cubic meter of ice is equal to 164 cubic meters of natural gas. With fewer impurities it will burn cleaner, and this is a good thing, since it will produce fewer pollutants than gas won from other sources.

Of course, it should be made clear that natural gas is not a clean source of energy, and when it is burned, it does create pollution. However, it is is cleaner than oil.

This is a dilemma, since the methane will be released into the atmosphere as the ice melts, regardless if it is used or not. Is this a viable solution for the search for cleaner energy? Probably not, since there are multiple methods to produce workable renewable energy.

Further research will have to be invested into this “new” source of energy before it can be clear if it is usable or not.

While I have been meaning to post about bioplastic for a while, it seems like I haven’t had a moment of free time to do it.

Here is the video from their first post about homemade bioplastic.

While there is a lot of different aspects to think about when bioplastics are used, that isn’t the main focus of this article. If you want to learn more about the current state of this technology, you can read an extensive article on Wikipedia.

The part that really interested me about the post was that you can make it at home without much effort. And the recipe isn’t complicated:

“Combine 7 parts water, 1 part vinegar, 1/2 part glycerine, 1 1/2 parts starch for the basic recipe. You heat this in a pan for several minutes and presto you have bioplastic. More glycerine makes for a harder plastic. More starch makes for a denser and less viscous plastic. An 8 parts water, 1 vinegar, 1 gycerine, 1.5 starch variant worked best for filling molds and was much easier to work with. A recipe with 4 tablespoons water, 1 starch and 1 teaspoon of both gylcerine and vinegar made for a bit tougher but also less uniform result.”

I haven’t had time to try it yet, but the original poster, Joris Peels, experimented with the recipe over a weekend and posted extensively about the results.

Here is a teddy bear that he produced using the method.

Home Made Bioplastic

You can read his entire post entitled: Cooking & molding bioplastics at home: recipes, results & tips

If you take the time to try making your own plastic from this recipe, don’t forget to share some pictures!

Here is one of the toys he has made. It is particularly interesting how he made the robot suit, which he named the RetroRobo, fit around the pilot inside.

Mani Zamani 3D printed robot

You can get a better idea of the size and shape of the toy in this turntable video.

As I have already said he has a large portfolio of toys he had designed. Here are a couple of my favorites.

Mani Zamani 3D printed-steel revoltech 4

Mani Zamani 3D printed-steel revoltech 5

Mani Zamani 3D printed-steel revoltech 6

You can see more of Mani’s designs by visiting his website: manizamani.com

Goats are exceptional climbers, and they are extremely nimble on their… Hooves.

A Short Story

A couple of years ago we were at a zoo that had goats in one section walking around freely. I can’t tell you what kind they were, they were rather small, and had short legs. They were friendly and would walk around people, but they didn’t like it when the visitors would try and touch them.

No, they weren’t mean, they didn’t ram anybody, but they were able to read the signs better than the people. No petting. Anyway, there were some children there who absolutely wanted to get their hands on this sweet little goat. She had other ideas and she was quicker than the kids.

I was standing next to a park bench when she came running at me. Before I had time to move out of the goat’s, way she jumped up on the bench, which was maybe 18” wide, ran along it and sailed into safety. She sprung about eight feet off of the other side before she hit the ground and then she was gone. I am assuming she could have jumped further when you look at what these mountain goats are capable of.

Goat Pictures

The reason for this post is still these incredible pictures of mountain goats in action. They can reach staggering heights, climb the most unfriendly walls, and they do it all without fingers. Take a look at some of these pictures for unbelievable mountain goat action!

african goats in tree

Jumping Goat

Funny picture of a goat on rocks

Mountain Climbing Goats

Mountain Goat

Tree Goats

Cliff Full of Goats

Goat on mountain

Gravity Defying Goat

And as you can see I’ve saved the best for last!

Cute Goat Photo

I originally saw these photos on Digg and they were just so fun I had to share them with you. You can view all 30 of them here.

world strongest dog

Some of you may recall the post I made late last year about the World’s Strongest Dog. In that post I talked about the Whippet named Wendy that suffers from a rare myostatin gene defect which causes her to have a double muscle layer. This is the same defect that causes the Belgian Blue to grow to the proportions it does.

If you’re wondering what a Belgian Blue looks like, you can get a pretty good impression for their size in this video. You will also be able to learn why the myostatin gene defect makes Wendy so muscular.

Returning to Wendy, I decided to do a little more research on her and see if I could learn more about this fascinating dog, even if she wasn’t the World’s Strongest Dog. And through a little digging I found that she has her own website. Who doesn’t have their own website these days?

You can visit her website, rightly titled: Wendy the Incredible Whippet. There you can learn more about this amazing dog and read along with her story. To peak your interest, here is a small excerpt:

“Wendy came into my life in August 2003. The breeders gave her to me as a companion to another puppy that my employer was getting. They had kept Wendy because her double muscles made her abnormal, and not wanted by most people. They also wanted to make sure that if they let her go she would end up at the right home.”

Read Wendy the Whippet’s complete story.

So you’re still not convinced that Wendy is in fact a Whippet. Don’t feel bad, the very first thing it says on her website is that she is often mistaken as a Pit Bull. But she is not, she is a loving, doubled muscled Whippet that loves to sit on her owner’s lap and get petted.

Here she is with a normal sized Whippet.

Wendy and Normal Whippet

And I thought that this photo really showed off how muscular she really is.

Wendy the Whippet

The last update on the website mentioned that Wendy was going to start taking advanced obedience training. She had finished up her novice class, even running through a mock trial with few mistakes. This might be due to her love for hotdogs as a reward.

Look at this bird for example. It is alone. And that means, all 12 of these tigers are very interested in making it’s acquaintance. Now, if there had been other foolish birds that were willing to land in a tiger’s enclosure, this one bird wouldn’t have been the center of so much attention. Take a look at the picture to see what I mean.

Tigers Wrong Place Wrong Time

I am not sure if the bird made it out, but its biggest advantage is that so many tigers are competing for its friendship. Combine that with the amount of effort the bird is making to hotfoot it out of the enclosure, and its chances are pretty good.

Scale of Justice

Okay, you really can’t call it theft when the company decides to revoke your username. But it is dishonest and unethical when they decide to take it away from you when they think they can turn a profit. And that is exactly what happened to Harman Bajwa, who’s account has been in good standing.

This looks really bad for a company that has already had a string of embarrassing mishaps with their privacy protection and questionable ways of making money at their users’ expense. All that aside, here is what happened in the most recent incident.

Yesterday his vanity URL was unceremoniously revoked from him by facebook, the grounds: violations of the company’s policies. And he was given a new URL, something that was much more fitting with his name: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=538612932

Here is the message that facebook sent him:

Please Read This! Warning The username you selected was removed for violating Facebook’s policies. A Facebook username should have a clear connection to one’s identity. In addition, impersonating anyone or anything is prohibited. If you see other people with usernames that do not accurately represent their real names, it is only because they have not yet been removed for misuse. To select a new username, please visit the following link: www.facebook.com/username Thanks for your understanding, The Facebook Team

None of this would have come out, however, the company (Harman International) that was approached by facebook with the option to buy the facebook.com/Harman vanity URL contacted the original Harman. This was all news to him, and now fb has to recover from a black eye, which was most likely caused by Mike Murphy. Here is the email that they sent to Harman Bajwa yesterday:

From: Tyler Bahl To: Harman Bajwa Sent: Fri, January 22, 2010 11:25:21 AM Subject: HarmanHi Harman,Thanks for accepting my friend request on Facebook.I?m the emerging media strategist at Carat in Boston and I work on the Harman International account. We?re launching our first initiative in partnership with the GRAMMYS on Monday. Harman International is looking to obtain the vanity url facebook.com/harman for their Facebook fan page.We are currently working with Facebook to reclaim (http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=896#/help.php?page=899) the username, but I wanted to explore opportunities to work with you to acquire the name. In the past, we have offered product in exchange for social domain names. One case in mind was for the new movie Avatar , we were able to give promotional items to the owner of twitter.com/avtr for Coke Zero.Do you have time to connect today to discuss this opportunity in more detail?Best,-tb

You can read more in the TechCrunch article on the Washinton Post.