Winners of the Solutions/60 Second Idea to Change the World

Congratulations!

“All [we] need is love” won by virtue of having the most nominations.  Well Done, Eli.

She will receive a $25 credit to Kiva.org, the microlending site we read about.  Hopefully, when she selects who to give it to, she will have her loan count towards the lending team “Bucknell Folk” which your class has inspired me to launch.

I’ll invite all of you all to Kiva and the Bucknell Folk.  Consider it a belated way to give thanks and a cool way to do 60 seconds of work to help your fellow travelers here on starship Earth.

Other awards the Blog Council (Kelly C, Mackenzie, Evan, Katie, JC) decided on.  The most important criteria were effectiveness, creativity, clarity and conciseness of pitch, and after that we just started showing the love (and a little good-natured ribbing) to the rest.

Easiest to Implement Good Idea:Increased Transparency  by Alex H

Highly Creative (and aerobic):    Fix Childhood Obesity, A GROWING Problem by Kelly C

Particularly Practical: A Tie!   Simply Give by Megan M  AND Get off Your High Horse and Help Someone by Odeke

Simple and Unexpected   Drop out of the Electoral College by  Carl

Fastest (and effective) Elevator Pitch:Just a Dollar by Katie

Tough Love Trophy: Throw out Bad Apples!   by Kelly R

Improving Communication Good Ideas Awards: Communication can Change the World by Justin AND Think Before you Speak by Mike

Inverse Relationship Record for Best Idea Relative to Lamest Title (it really is worth a read).  My Solution   by Alex L

Synchronicity Silver Medal for Most In Sync with the Wired World: A Tie!  Opening Up the World’s Data by  Rick AND Decentralize and Conquer by Jason

Chalk it Up for Chock Full of Health Facts: Ethics of Consumption    by Alyssa

Mouth- Watering Title: Clean, Clean Water…Yum    by Mackenzie

Perhaps Missed the Point But Valiant Effort to Link Product to World Betterment: Weather-a-Wear   by Slade

Nice Idea but Good Luck With That: Stop World Hunger by Nate and Enough is Enough by Bryce

ROFLMAO: More Chemical Spills to Increase Chance of Superheroes  by  Tom

Coda:  Some of you, well one maybe, asked me about my other ideas I did not present.  here they are:

Work for money, not health care [60 second ideas]

America can free employees and employers from the shackles of a health care system that depend on employment status.  How many people stay in jobs they hate, where they are miserable and unproductive, to hold on to health care for them or their loved ones?  How many businesses shy away from adding employees because they can not cover rising health care costs on their budget?  As Bryce discovered,  Wal-Mart essentially gets a subsidy from us in the form of government aid for health care for children, food aid, and housing aid for many of its workers whose salary does not cover the essentials of life.

Health security, and retirement security, that depend on your employment status were never great ideas and are now liabilities.  They are the weight of dead ideas made heavy by the amount of structural and historical inertia they have.

A rich and vibrant ecology of health insurance companies, co-ops, and government programs can replace employee-based systems.  The same model can be applied to retirement security.  Life is full of risks to health, and the “risk” of living a full and lovely life beyond one’s working years.  As a society, we can find ways to protect against those life risks and in doing so liberate employees and employers.

 

Social Media Revolution!!!!! Sooper kewl

Enough is enough.

Enough is Enough!

Not being greedy is my simple solution that could have such a profound impact on the generations of our world today.  When you actually sit back and think about it, how many major problems have occurred as a result of greed.  Slavery was a result of greedy slave owners trying to increase their wealth.  The Financial Crisis was a direct cause of greed.  So many people tried to make quick bucks by buying and selling subpar mortgages.  Now that I think about it, our very nation was founded on greed.  Every person that came on an expedition to this land were in search of either gaining more wealth by trading, or expanding their territory into new areas.

Weather A-Wear

This is a small idea my friend and I have been working on since last summer, and since we are all trying to do our 60 second ideas, I figured I would see what everyone thinks…

Our Premise

Basically we want to create a website that combines fashion advice with the weather. Similar to http://www.swackett.com, we are planning on essentially giving clothing recommendations based on the weather for the day. Where we differ from swackett is that we are going to be much more specific with the clothing recommendations. Users will pick a style from a pre-set list that best matches their style. They also input their location to get the weather. From there, the website takes into account the forecast and the person’s style and gives personalized fashion suggestions.

Simply Give

When one thinks how they might change the world it is a daughnting thought. As I’ve been sitting how I would I have one simple solution, give back. Giving back is something so simple, yet so broad and complex. One can give back through donating money to charities or NGOs. Other’s can give back by providing jobs for less fortunate individuals. Others can also simply volunteer as a way to give back. I want to focus on how one can change the world simply by volunteering.

lit·er·a·cy “The ability to read and write”

I believe if there were more focus on literacy in our world, our world would improve tremendously. In America alone 40 million adults are illiterate. Literacy is essential to living in any society. In order to fully develop a sense of well being and citizenship in any country you must be literate. Children who are solid readers perform better in school, have a healthy self-image, and become life long learners, adding to their viability in a competitive world. There are many causes of illiteracy that can be improved by our government and societies these causes consist of class and wealth, the poverty cycle, our school systems, the lack of resources, motivation, and upbringing. The causes are very intertwined; if you are stuck in a poverty cycle your class is going to be lower leading to an unpleasant school system with lack of resources deterring motivation in students.

If there is not a major change in the literacy rates in the world and America today, our world is going to continue to be stuck in a vicious limited cycle. Illiteracy not only hurts oneself but also hurts ones family and future generations. The consequences of illiteracy are so large they are the bases of many other problems in our world today, such as communication, employment, and many other issues.

Get Off Your High Horse and Help Someone

If someone hits their "help" button, help them out!

One idea to improve the world….try to help one person a day.

I know we have all heard this but if we actually did this then we could actually see huge improvements in our world.

Dropout of the Electoral College

While there are plenty of things I would like to change in this world (many have already been covered), I’m going to go with abolish the electoral college in this post.

Just a Dollar…

One major issue that is very important and a major problem in our world is the lack of funding in education. Education is very important in this world, as it plays a major role in the development of children who will grow up to play major roles in our future and society.  My solution to change this problem is simple.

There are currently 193.3 million employees in the United States. Most people get paid every two weeks, which is roughly a total of 26 pay periods per year. If one dollar is deducted from each paycheck and donated to education, it would make a huge impact. The impact on one’s finances would be negligible, and would only be losing $26.00 annually. But this small amount annually would total to be more than $3.5 billion annually. The money should be earmarked for education, and should be split up in each state based on how many employees participate in this program in each state. By doing this small, simple thing, we could raise $3.5 billion dollars in 60 seconds. It would also create even more opportunities in creating extra jobs to help carry out this plan.

Communication Can Change The World

Some people hate OWS. Some people love it. Some people support the message. Others adamently oppose it. Some like the people. Some write them off as lazy hippies. Regardless of how you feel, it’s undeniable that the movement has GOTTEN PEOPLE TALKING.

Ethics of Consumption

Not only was this the title of my foundation seminar, it is also my plan to save the world.

How much waste (in pounds) do you think YOU waste every year?

Clear, clean water…yum

My idea to improve the world is to one day have clean water available for everyone living on our lovely mother earth.  Everyone should be able to get clean water from a source near them, especially since it is essential to staying alive.  

Don’t Shop at Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart is generally accepted as an evil company.  Destroying this empire will bring nothing but good things for everyone involved.  Competitors, suppliers, local communities, Wal-Mart employees and taxpayers in general lose out thanks to Wal-Mart’s business practices.  An outright boycott of the mega-store would be the best way to improve the outlook of all of these stakeholders.

Throw Out Bad Apples!

Make kids Appreciate their education by…

throwing out the bad apples.