I submitted this discovery of physical phenomena of magnetic attraction-repulsion, which is analogous to love-hate relationship, to journal Nature and to magazine Science in a letter which was slightly longer than the 1/2-page article that won the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physics. NASA Tech Briefs published the discovery in The Create the Future Design Contest. Although a ceremonial trip to Stockholm, Sweden, will not be won without theoretical analysis and/or killer applications, the unexpected effect of magnetic attraction of like poles and magnetic repulsion of paperclips and nails can be experienced by any 10-year old school kid, who would then challenge "My teacher and the textbook are wrong!". So, it could inspire them to pursue a career in STEM and go on to make new discoveries and inventions for Canada's future.
I submitted this design comprising an AA battery, a disc-shaped rare-earth magnet and a copper wire with only 1 bend point (change in the angle of curvature) as "The Simplest Homopolar Motor" to the Guinness World Records. Since electric current flow in the circuit is not continuous but intermittent, power consumption is low enough to keep the rotation going and going and going like the Energizer Bunny. I am hoping that such a challenge in simplicity could benefit STEM education for the progress of human civilisation.
Innovation150 was a one-year affair, but I still would like to thank you again for the priceless experience in 2017 at SNOLAB in Sudbury, ON, and especially for reminding me, through the Innovation150 Canadian Life Hack Contest, of the true meaning of innovation as defined by the former Governor General of Canada in Inside the Perimeter Magazine: Spring/Summer 2017 as follows.
DJ: "Innovation is a very broad term, but at its simplest it's doing things better. Usually it means taking an existing idea and crafting it in a certain way that improves a process, an institution, a technology. Innovation comes from the Latin innovate which means to refresh or to alter. It's very interesting, that notion of a refresh - of looking at things from a fresh view or angle, and doing it a little bit differently. Very often innovation is a series of steps, not a light bulb going on at a particularly time. It's a series of light bulbs or flashes that are built upon."
Thanks to the encouragement from @innovation150_canada, i.e., "The contest officially closed June 9 (2017), but keep sending us hacks!", I have continued to create and document my life hacks in #CanadianLifeHacks on Instagram (419 original life hacks so far and still counting), and also to submit them to ENGINEERING.com's ProjectBoard, taking special advantage of my being poor and lazy. They are mostly junk after junk, but I would be pleased if 1/2 of 1/2 of 1/2 of 1/2 of them inspired some Canadians to see the merits and say, e.g., "If Simon could do it this way, I can do it better!", and if just one became a mega-hit.
I sincerely appreciate your making me realize that life hacks are an epitome of continuous improvement with occasional quantum leaps, the mentality of forward-looking attitude that should apply to any field of human endeavour for progress towards a better civilization. Applying such concept to education should be as important as teaching students "how, "what if", "why" and "why not" rather than "who", "what", "where" and "when", for developing constructively critical thinking towards absolute simplicity and ultimate consistency.
So, my spirit of innovation lives on forever towards a long-term future prosperity of Canada. A friend of my daughter's calls my house a museum because of all the life hacks. You are quite welcome for a visit if you can dare to taste Agar-O (solid wine), to drink TeaVin (matcha tea + unfiltered home-made red wine), and to eat Quinolent GREEN (pucks), Quinolent ORANGE (curry), etc., featuring complete portion control, no added salt, no added sugar, and absolute-zero wasted food, i.e., no composting.
"I have Asperger's syndrome and that means I'm sometimes a bit different from the norm. And - given the right circumstances - being different is a superpower. It makes you think differently. And especially in such a big crisis like this one we need to think outside the box. We need to think outside our current system, that we need people that think outside the box and who aren't like everyone else. We need these people, especially now, when we need to change things and we can't see it just from where we are. We need to see it from a bigger perspective and from outside our current systems. That's why people who are different are so necessary: because they contribute so much. Therefore we need to really look after the people who are different and who may not be heard. We need to listen to those and to look after each other."
"Whether or not you agree with that, or with any of the later incarnations, all have one thing in common: they questioned the status quo. And that's an example we can still follow: not to blindly follow conventional or majority views, but to think hard about what is truly valuable. Thinking critically about our institutions and way of life is more important than ever."
Thank you very much for your attention.
Merci de votre attention.
