Boklöv won with V-style despite judges' penalties
Jan Boklöv kept flying the V-style despite style penalties, winning on distance until judges rewrote the rules.
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3,236 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDBombas built a company around the one donation item shelters actually run out of
Bombas founders asked shelters what they truly needed, found socks, and built a one-for-one sock company around that gap.
Read the caseBorlaug bred wheat that stands up to fertilizer
Norman Borlaug crossed disease-resistant wheat with a Japanese dwarf variety to stop stalks from collapsing under heavier grain, boosting yields.
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Bowerman poured urethane into a waffle iron to prototype a tread no manufacturer would build.
Read the caseBrabham beat ground-effect rules with a fan that really cooled the engine
Brabham's Gordon Murray built a fan car that genuinely cooled the engine, so its downforce was a legal side effect under the rules.
Read the caseBrannock's device standardized shoe fitting
Charles Brannock replaced eyeballed foot tracings with a single metal gauge measuring length, width, arch, standardizing shoe fitting.
Read the caseBrawn GP won F1 by reading a rule literally, not by intent
Brawn GP, a bankrupt Honda team, won the 2009 F1 title by exploiting a literal reading of a new diffuser rule that rivals read by intent.
Read the caseBrazil ended hyperinflation by inventing a currency nobody had to trust yet
Brazil ended hyperinflation by pricing in a notional dollar-pegged unit while paying in old money, then switching after trust was earned.
Read the caseBreault and Hedgewick's Palm N Turn cap cut child poisonings
Breault and Hedgewick's Palm N Turn cap required a coordinated press-turn toddlers couldn't manage, cutting poisonings 91%.
Read the caseLoren Brichter removed the refresh button by mapping it to pull-to-refresh
Loren Brichter removed the refresh button in Tweetie and mapped reloading onto the pull-past-top gesture users already made while scrolling.
Read the caseBT Sport published AI's season predictions to prove football can't be scripted
BT Sport, with a slashed budget, published AI's full season predictions, turning their inevitable failure into proof of football's unpredictability.
Read the caseCao Sanxi bought grain after a field report found hidden pests
Cao Sanxi's branch manager found hidden pests in sorghum stalks, so Cao bought grain cheap before the market saw the short harvest.
Read the caseZeiss founder made layoffs costly by writing severance into the charter
Ernst Abbe wrote a tenure-scaled severance obligation into Zeiss's founding charter, making layoffs costly to the firm.
Read the casePortugal taxed Indian Ocean trade with cartaz permits
Portugal, unable to out-trade Indian Ocean merchants, taxed their voyages with cartaz permits enforced by its navy.
Read the caseClaude Chappe moved messages at the speed of sight
Claude Chappe built a tower chain that relayed coded signals by sight, moving messages faster than any horse.
Read the casecharity: water separated public donations from overhead to rebuild donor trust
charity: water split bank accounts so public donations only funded projects, while major donors covered overhead.
Read the caseChen Liji sealed pills in beeswax to beat humidity
Chen Liji pharmacy sealed each honey-bound herbal pill in an edible beeswax shell, making it impervious to humidity and lasting decades.
Read the caseChicago Daily News ended fixed ad positions, rotated all ads
The Chicago Daily News stopped selling fixed ad positions and rotated all ads, so no advertiser got a habitual premium spot.
Read the caseChicago tricked drivers' own sense of speed into slowing them down at a dangerous curve
Chicago's transportation engineers painted narrowing white bars on the road to trick drivers' speed perception and slow them at a dangerous curve.
Read the caseChicago Public Library dropped late fines and got books back
Chicago Public Library eliminated overdue fines and forgave debt, betting the penalty was suppressing returns, and saw returns surge 240%.
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