Nerds Republic

Have you ever found yourself needing to distract yourself while waiting for a train, an appointment, or a friend? Nowadays, most people rely on their smartphones or tablets to cure impatient boredom. Gone are the days of carrying around a good book. People often play games or surf the Internet while trying to kill time…but one company in France is trying to change that.

The start-up in Grenoble, France, created something called the Short Edition. It’s a vending machine, conceived by Christophe Sibieude, that doesn’t dispense junk food…but short stories.

The next time you have time to kill, don’t stare at your cell phone.

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Instead, you could be finding a brilliant short story to read!

Short Edition

So far, only eight machines have been installed in one French city.

You select how much time you have to kill (1, 3, or 5 minutes) and then it prints out a story for you.

Short Edition

The stories themselves are written by the Short Edition community. There are poems, short stories, and comic strips that anyone can browse.

Short Edition prints the stories out on narrow, receipt-like paper.

Short Edition

The recyclable paper is easy to read, store, and share with others.

If you’d like to know more about this genius project, visit the Short Edition website. They have FAQs and videos that explain the vending machine and community (although the site is, admittedly, in French).

(via This Is Colossal)

Smartphones are insanely useful, but sometimes it’s good to find a reason not to stare at a little screen like a technology-obsessed zombie.

I don’t know about you, but I seem to misplace my phone ten times a day. Even though I can hear it buzzing away somewhere with countless calls and texts, I can never seem to track it down. Is it under the couch? In my coat pocket? In any case, there’s nothing quite as frustrating as listening to your phone go off and having no idea where it is.

Luckily for us, someone has come up with a way to recycle something old into something new — and totally useful. As it turns out, you can make a phone holder out of something you (or your parents) already have at home.

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You’ve had a perfect phone holder sitting around your house for years without even knowing it! When it comes to outdated technology, I guess you really can teach an old dog new tricks.

The oceans are becoming more and more polluted every day. Some people fail to take recycling seriously, and others just litter all over the place. From oil spills to intense amounts of garbage, our oceans are dirtier than ever. It’s becoming a real problem that we need to face, and we need to do it quickly.

Fortunately, 20-year-old Boyan Slat has taken it upon himself to tackle the issue.

Slat invented a way to rid oceans of damaging plastic refuse. It sounds rather far-fetched, but when you hear more about his invention, you’ll understand why his project is garnering so much support.

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Slat’s plan is to place enormous floating barriers in rotating tidal locations around the globe (called gyres), and let the plastic waste naturally flow into the structure. By not using traditional nets, he avoids putting wildlife at risk. Instead, he plans to employ the use of V-shaped buffers anchored by floating booms.

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Slat’s company, called Ocean Cleanup, states that the currents will flow underneath barriers, easily trapping garbage in its path.

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This innovative mission is set to launch in 2016. The first barriers will be placed in the ocean near Japan, and plans are in place to install one in the ocean between California and Hawaii.

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The barriers are approximately 6,500 feet long, and they’re storm resistant. They are the longest floating structures ever placed in the ocean.

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This campaign started as a crowdfunded project, and over time, it’s raised $2 million. Now that the project has picked up steam, more and more people are beginning to take notice.

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(via boredpanda)

Sounds like a good plan to me! What do I know, though? I’m older than this kid and I haven’t invented anything, so I’ll just take his word for it.