Saturday, July 08, 2006

New Inventions - Useful and Otherwise

The science magazine New Scientist has an interesting column by Barry Fox which keeps track of recent inventions, some of which look extremely useful, while others... well, let's say they are tributes to the human spirit of creativity. Among the recent items spotlighted are:
-- A cheap, throwaway parachute made of polypropylene, very useful for dropping military or relief supplies
-- An electronic system, using an LCD watch, that keeps the members of a handbell choir in tune by telling them when to ring, very useful for... well, something.
-- A "fermented coffee beverage" that pours and foams like beer, has the smell and caffeine of coffee. Nestle apparently plans to inflict this on the market.
-- A car navigation system (brought to you by Microsoft) that turns navigating into a video game - the driver pursues a cartoon car on the navigation screen.

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