Museums, Exhibits, And Galleries

Growing up in Chicago I had two favorite museums: the Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry. For those familiar with Chicago it’s not hard to see why these museums stood out. The Field Museum is home to Sue, the most complete T-Rex in the world, and the Museum on Science and Industry is awesome because, well, science.

As a history geek and museum-phile, I would be ecstatic if these Chicago museums and others around the world used OurPangea to showcase their exhibits and events by creating virtual galleries for any type of display, be it historical, artistic, or scientific, offering an inclusive destination for visitors to share photos and have discussions all centering on a specific exhibit.

I myself can see how cool it would be to be able to hear others thoughts on their favorite parts of the Field’s mummies exhibit, which I must have visited almost 100 times.  And with OurPangea, if there’s a special paid exhibit, I could get a sneak peek before spending the dough to get a ticket.

Imagine the possibilities as an art patron or curator if you could put up and see all of your art ahead of time to showcase a gallery event.  All of the work could be organized by artist, medium, theme or anything at all, and the artists could interact directly with their fans before, during, and after the show!

Or, picture yourself in the mood for some mummies (cause who doesn’t like mummies), but you don’t know which museum has the best mummy exhibit.  Enter OurPangea where you can narrow down the museums according to whatever criteria suits you – how many mummies they have, which exhibit is most popular, or even which exhibits are considered scariest.

Mummies and all, that sounds awesome to me!

The Importance of History

Most inventions are the result of incremental steps taken to improve what we currently have. The human drive to innovate is infinite, but it relies on our understanding of history and progress. The internet could never have been invented without the first computer, which wasn’t possible without the first computer chip, which needed electricity to function, and so on and so forth. The same deduction can be made to understand the history of any industry. It’s critical to understand the history that made our world possible and history isn’t just valuable in framing the nature of innovation. The lineage of every aspect of modern society—from socioeconomic, political trends to pop culture—can be traced back by looking at how we’ve changed the way we do things.

What’s even more interesting are the people that have done the changing. It took the brilliant minds and uncompromising determination of individual humans to discover the Theory of Relativity, to have a dream, and to think different.

As a global humanity we have never really forgotten history.  This is a good thing. However, we don’t really consciously remember it either. Our history, except in the rare world changing cases of a few people, exists in the back of our minds subtly influencing our thinking.  This is one thing we think can be better. We think everyone’s individual history is important. We think we all have valuable lessons to share, even if they aren’t newsworthy or globe-changing. And we want to put this collective knowledge at our fingertips, to make our history important again and resurrect it from our combined subconscious.

So over the next couple months we’re going to be highlighting some of the benefits of knowing our history. We’ll touch on how cross-cultural discovery has impacted the global economy for the better, how many people (famous and unknown) have thought differently, and what social and technology trends have meant to our global culture through the lens of history.

Enjoy! Please let us know what you’re interested in hearing about on our Facebook page!

Hail to Briggo Coffee, a New Coffee Experience in Austin!

Are people ready for something different when it comes to getting coffee? Briggo Coffee, a new take on the coffee experience created in Austin, TX, thinks so.

In a world of dark-roast inundated coffee swilling connoisseurs, Briggo has found a way to make things better for the people buying the product. They thought, ‘hey, we shouldn’t make our community wait for 15 minutes just to get a good cup of joe, and getting coffee between classes shouldn’t be a nightmare for students.’ So Briggo has eased the entire process for getting caffeinated. Here’s how it works:

1. Download the Briggo App
2. Customize the perfect coffee right from your phone, and order it through the App
3. The Briggo Coffee Robot receives your order and goes to work for you, before you even get there.
4. Pick up your order at the Robot

Because of the Briggo App, you never have to wait in line for coffee again. Go check out what they’re brewing at the Flawn Academic Center on the UT campus. You can just stop by to pick up coffee and if you have a few minutes take a second to make friends with the attendants and founders themselves!  They’ve got a good story to tell and are bringing culture, convenience and the beginnings of a new community to Austin.

Hail to Briggo!

Noah Simon, Co-Founder of OurPangea Knows That Hard Work and Some Insight Can Go A Long Way

Some people are fine with being products of their environments, but not Co-Founder, CEO and OurPangea’s perennial wiz kid Noah Simon. The Chicago native and Colorado College Alum has discovered that he will never be satisfied until he has completed the project which he knows has the potential to truly make the world a better place.

Over the past few years, Noah has encountered more than his fair share of challenges, motivation and inspiration. When it came to choosing where to go to school, Noah jumped at the opportunity to move to Colorado. He wanted to take the opportunity to escape the familiar and enjoy all of the natural wonders that Colorado had to offer. He wanted his college experience to equip him for all of life’s challenges, so in addition to climbing, skiing and hiking the snow-capped mountains of Colorado Springs, Noah created his own major: leadership.

While Noah knew that the skills he could take away from his studies would offer him invaluable insight into the world of management and business, he also wanted to learn more about himself and self-expression. The curriculum covered business management and organization, social and cognitive psychology and political science, but he also learned from several experiences as a young entrepreneur.

OurPangea is not Noah’s first scrape with the rough and tumble world of small business. The young businessman admits that OurPangea is actually his fifth attempt to start a business, but he feels more motivated and better equipped to succeed than ever before. As a sophomore, Noah started his own student painting business at the same time he tried to launch an earlier version of OurPangea. Although both failed, he still contends that he has no regrets because of the valuable lessons he learned.

Meeting his birth mother for the first time last summer gave Noah a unique perspective that has stayed with him ever since. This perspective, coupled with the hard learned lessons of his earlier business ventures have given Noah the insight and extra motivation he needed to help OurPangea reach its true potential. Noah has devoted himself to studying and understanding the power of creativity and human emotion and believes that both provide the keys to ushering in a whole new age of human interaction.

Noah believes the time has come for a social network that will help its users reach out and learn more about themselves and the world around them. He wants that social network to be about helping communities grow and better equip their citizens for all of the joys and challenges that life has to offer. Most of all, he wants to unlock the true potential of the internet by creating a place for the sharing of knowledge and ideas that can connect people and groups who may have never had the opportunity to meet otherwise. While some believe that it is the uniqueness of every individual that divides the human race, Noah Simon believes that it is that uniqueness that can unite us and, eventually, help us grow and prosper as a people.