Where
Things Work RightWhere
Things Work Right
** New ideas added 01/21/06 starting at number
275.
275. Glow-in-the-dark lawns -
Choose your favorite color.
I was reading an article about how tobacco plants were made to glow green
and thought there might be a
commercial application for this. Since they already know how to do
the genetic tinkering involved they just have to
come up with a palette of colors for you to choose from and modify grass
the same way. Your neighborhood could
have lawns that glowed blue, red, or yellow at night. (Conservative types
could have theirs glow green).
276. Self-cleaning Phones -
Making life a little less dirty.
After watching a segment on TV about how we should always wipe off a phone
with disinfectant before we use it
if the phone is also used by other people (to stop the spread of things
like the flu) it seemed like there had to be a
better way to accomplish the same thing. Very few people would carry around
a bottle of disinfectant just to do
this. A self-cleaning phone would solve the problem. Every time it
was put back in its cradle a 30 second blast of
ultrasound would kill any germs that had just been deposited on it. See
link.
Ultrasound
and germs - good for us, bad for them
277. Mapquest - Avoid Option
Don't go where you don't want to go.
There are some roads that I always want to avoid, either because there
are known speed traps on them,
construction is being done, etc... This idea is for a simple enhancement
to either Mapquest or Google maps that
would let you key in roads you want to avoid and then have it build the
best route to your destination that skipped
them.
278. Bonsai Daisies -
How come only trees get special treatment?
Seems like if we can breed miniature trees we should also be able to breed
pretty miniature flowers. Imagine a
plant terrarium with small hills covered in tiny tulips, rose, daisies,
etc.. The 'Sound of Music' could play softly in
the background while you meditate on this miniature landscape
279. We Fixed That -
Solutions from around the world.
It seems like a lot of times a government will say they can't do this or
that and give some plausible-sounding reason
for their position. At the same time the problem has been solved
elsewhere in the world despite those plausible
excuses. A couple of cases in point:
1. There's no way to keep potholes from popping up in the highways in the
Northeast US while other countries
have solved the problem just be adding more rubber to the asphalt.
2. You can't put Bott's Dots in northern highways because the snowplows
will tear them up, while other countries
that get snow have no problem keeping them on the road.
This idea is simply for a website that's set up in point-counterpoint fashion.
Categories would list problems people
say can't be solved for such-and-such a reason. The counterpoint
section would tell where the solution was
widely-known to exist. (Although I've never felt comfortable with
the 'widely known to exist' phrase that's often
thrown around. Unless someone is well-travelled 'narrowly known to
exist' might be more accurate. But I digress.)
Having a website like this with proven solutions would save a lot of arguing.
You'd just send a link showing the
solution to both the politician that said something couldn't be done and
to the news station that carried his comments.
280. Pitch Perfect Music -
Sometimes it's hard to hear if you're on key.
This would be a simple clip-on that could be attached to something like
the sheet music choir members were
reading during practice (or to the inside edge of the lens of their glasses
during a performance) that would glow
green when they're on key the same way an electronic tuner does when you're
tuning a guitar. It would make it a
lot easier for choir members to stay on key.
281. Fill Her Closet -
Personalized catalogs.
This would be for guys who'd like to surprise their significant other with
a gift of clothing that comes somewhat
close to the style and colors she'd like without having her point them
out ahead of time (eliminating the surprise
element). The idea would be to send a digital set of pictures of
her wearing various outfits along with the size she
wears to a catalog company which would then send back a personalized catalog
in an email for you to order from.
Women might want to send in their own set of pictures to get a personalized
catalog this way too.
282. Shock-Absorbent Seats -
I don't need to feel the bounce.
A bumpy flight only adds to the stress for those of us who don't like to
fly. If shock absorbers were added to the
seats it might feel like you were floating through the turbulence instead
of being roughed up by it. Since tray tables
are connected to the seats in front of you it might also cut down on the
number of spilled drinks. (In my case, valium
also works as a good shock absorber.)
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