Here’s my entry: I was watching Charlie Rose and he had a replay of an interview with Ahmet Ertegun, from a few years ago. Ertegun said (paraphrase): Every region of the world has its own beautiful music. But no one ever hears that music outside of the region. With the exception of music made by African Americans: jazz, blues, rock n’ roll.
Now that’s an idea I’d never heard before. Don’t know if I’d agree or not, but that’s not the point. So let’s hear any really original ideas: things you thought of, things you read or heard, whatever.
One of the few ideas I remember from policy school came from Regulating the Poor, which in part says that welfare programs are used to control the supply of labor in the US; when more workers are needed, welfare programs are cut. Programs become more generous when fewer workers are needed. The individual worker is making his own decision about whether to work or go on the dole and can be “regulated” this way.
Airlines: Provide realistic flight status information. No airline anywhere EVER admits that a flight will be late until after the schedualed arrival or departure time. If a flight is delayed two hours at the departure end…do you really think it will arrive on time? If it is one hour prior to departure, and your airline doesn’t have an airplane anywhere within two hours…guess what?
Airlines: At busy airports, it is not uncommon for arriving aircraft to have long waits for an available gate. While your waiting, shut down the engines, hook up a tow tractor, and unload the freaking luggage already. Save fuel, and save time. Better yet, lose the jetways, and use the bus and stair system like most of the rest of the world, so you don’t have the delays in the first place.
Airports: Put some freaking clocks around. AT LEAST put the current time on the arrival and departure monitor banks. Even those that wear watches may well not be sure what time zone they are currently in.
Airlines: Sell drink vouchers at the check-in counter. This will save your flight attendants lots of time and hassle. If they elect not to serve, they can refund. Print the seat number on the voucher, and it will be a handy way for attendants to be sure they don’t over serve.
What makes you think that’s original? Why, it’s the entire basis of the Oakian vs. Cedarian schism in the 12th century! Luckily, the Corkists put an end to those heresies.
I dunno… I live pretty far away from Germany and Austria, but I’m quite familiar with quite a bit of music composed there several hundred years ago.
Anyhow, here’s something that I read about once, and think would be a blast: Build a vertical wind tunnel blowing air upwards at around a human’s terminal velocity. It should a be a huge-ass enclosed space. Then people can go in there and fly! Wouldn’t that be like the most fun ever?
Yeah, like that, only awesomer. That seems to be a single room where a single person can float in a single skydiving position. I envision a really big enclosed space where near the bottom of the room, the airspeed is high enough to keep a person floating in any position. So you could hover over the ground with your arms by your sides, then turn over horizontal and go shooting upwards. (Baffles would slow the air down so that you wouldn’t be able to go crashing into the ceiling.
Sure, you could crash into other people. But that’s true of skiing, also.
But are any ideas truly original? Or did they always exist in some form, like higher mathematics??? If you believe that mathematics was discovered rather than invented, I would hold that by the same token you must believe that ideas are discovered too because to the extent they can be communicated, as communication involves the transfer of information which can be quantized into logical bits, and all of these so-called “ideas” are really subsets of all the possible ideas that have always existed as such!
(Of course, if you don’t believe maths and physics were discovered, this doesn’t apply to you.)
Jesus’s soul was formed of the purest cedar. That’s why he was able to walk on water! The Corkists’ “waterskiing thesis” is, and I’m being kind here, fully uncromulent.
Cars should be designed with an optional U-Turn signal indicator that would be just as easy to see as brake lights and turn signals. That way, you’d be able to see if the car in front of you is actually going to make a yooey and not a left turn, and then you’d know enough to give them a few extra seconds to get out of your way.
I would really like this country to start building bottle openers into the 500 CFA ($1.00) coins. 500 CFA is exactly the price of a beer, and honestly thats what a good chunk of 500 CFA coins get spent on. Bars are rarely prompt with the bottle openers. Everyone would win.
I also want to make motorcycle helmets that are designed to double functionally as a seat and have flashing lights to alert moto taxis as to when you want a ride.
I’m mulling a project to encourage people to grow beards as a form of carbon sequestration, to fight global warming. I think it could put a real dent in the problem!
I think someone should give me a grant to miniaturize the American buffalo, gradually. We’re using up a lot of space with suburban sprawl, but we should still find a way to appreciate the nobly unique heritage of the American West. Hence, miniature buffalo. Sure, they’re mean, but they’d be no worse than Pomeranians if they could be walked on leashes through Manhattan or scooped into a tote bag when they misbehave.