This is almost the correct design, but much smaller, 18” only. And the curve would have to be more flared, at the ends, I think, to really toss the snow to the side.
It’d be brilliant for old folks who just need to clear the path so they deliver the mail!
At my place it’s maybe 15’ to the side walk, maybe 20’ in each direction to fully meet the cleared sidewalk bylaw. Made out of hard plastic it’d be light to use too!
No space between sidewalk and roadway, I’m afraid.
It’s not in anyway like pushing a machine. It’s a lightweight plastic shovel(ish) that is made to glide along the surface and fling snow off to each side, instead of building up in front and forcing a stop and shovelling.
I’m pretty certain it’d work a treat!
Yeah, not thinking of an auger. But if the blade curve was right, as you slide it along it should just spray light snow.
I live where we also get monster storms sometimes. It wouldn’t work for that understandably. But that’s not the everyday.
OMG I despise such bylaws! Fortunately I’ve never been subjected to them or I’d have been tempted to ignore them out of spite. My sidewalks have always been plowed by the city. London (Ontario) is a very pleasant town, but it used to be famous for the notorious cheapness of the city council. Sounds like they still are.
All the sidewalks are ploughed, eventually. But homeowners are required to clear a path, otherwise people would be in the roads, very unsafe in snowy conditions.
(The current council is spending money like crazy, they just bought the police a 3Mil$ vehicle! Gah! )
Back to the genetically manipulated foods- I want a sweet lime. Just a regular lime, but with the sugar content of a ripe banana or fig.
I’d like someone to invent whole-area noise canceling technology, like Bose headphones, but for my house.
We live in an urban area with a traffic light nearby and thoughtless clods driving by playing unpleasant music at inappropriate volume with the windows rolled down, all summer long. We also have neighbors who believe everyone wants to hear their music on the patio every day.
Wouldn’t it be nice to press a button and have it all simply disappear, allowing us to hear the natural sounds of birds chirping?
Hearing aids that will noise cancel the tinnitus ringing. My tinnitus is number of different frequencies, and one that is sort of analog. But dammit, I have new hearing aids that will block some outside sounds. Why not cover up some of the the ‘inside’ sounds.
Audiologist says it can’t be done.
Dammit.
That’s not really an invention as such… You could quite easily make one of those.
(Welcome btw !)
A strain of grass that grows to one inch and then stops.
And why couldn’t they do something similar for tinnitus?
I suppose sampling the noise isn’t possible because it’s all in my head, but how about generating a noise to match and putting it out of phase to cancel the noise?
As an arachnophobe, I propose a global campaign to genetically engineer a much-needed makeover for spiders—they’re too damned ugly. For starters, eight legs? That’s overkill and creepy—even octopuses are side-eyeing them. Let’s dial it back to six legs max; four would be even better—and way less likely to haunt my nightmares. And what’s with the eight eyes? No one needs that much peripheral vision unless they’re cheating at hide-and-seek. Let’s simplify things with just two eye-lashed peepers. While we’re at it, let’s add some cute bunny ears. Picture it: tiny, fluffy-eared spiders bouncing around—suddenly they’re less “creepy crawler” and more “hoppy floppy.” Now that’s a spider I wouldn’t mind finding in my bathtub!
And, the homely proboscis monkey definitely needs a nose job.
AIUI, the human auditory system cannot detect phase. When one of those little hairs in your cochlea is vibrated by incoming acoustic waves, it sends neural impulses to your brain, and the firing rate on those impulses can only indicate how loud the sound is. This would mean that you could adjust the phase of the acoustic waves you send into your ear, but it wouldn’t have any effect on the neural impulse train going from your ear into your brain.
I’d like to see a water flosser attachment for showerheads. It would have carefully tuned pressure and pulsation settings, strong enough to remove plaque but gentle enough to protect your gums. By merging flossing with your daily shower routine, you’d save time and avoid needing a separate gadget. No need to worry about refilling a water tank, either—you could use it continuously without interruptions. Plus, this design would free up counter space by eliminating the need for a standalone water flosser in your bathroom. The ease and convenience might even inspire people who usually skip flossing to improve their oral hygiene habits.
Another billion dollar idea shot to hell… 
That’s a great idea. An additional advantage would be that any mess they make would be contained within the shower. One problem with using countertop water flossers is that they splatter all over the place and make a mess. I would think it could be done with simple plumbing and not need power. It seems like the normal water pressure could be used to create a fine stream that you could floss with. Kind of the way that you can get a jet stream attachment for a garden hose.
Love the shower flosser idea! My problem with the water oik is that in my bathroom, I have to run the water for so long to get water that isn’t ice cold
The problem with trying to noise-cancel tinnitus is there isn’t any noise to cancel. In most cases the perceived sound is entirely illusory, created by your brain, not your ears. Adding more noise of any frequency or phase won’t affect it. But if I’m wrong and such a device were possible, I’d pay a few hundred thousand dollars to get rid of my tinnitus.
Same with a lot of chronic pain. The actual physical injury, such as a puncture wound of the eyeball, has already healed. But unfortunately the brain has re-programmed itself to continue to feel pain even when there is no injury to feel pain for.
On an unrelated note, not sure if already mentioned, but if a company could invent a reliable harm-free sleeping pill that would be near-guaranteed to deliver a solid 8 hours of deep sleep per night, demand would be off the charts worldwide.
I have seen proposals to research certain techniques/devices to treat certain specific types of tinnitus, involving things like a controller that emits some type of pulsed sound synced with electrodes that stimulate certain cervical nerves. Not sure how well it works, but it is definitely not some simple “noise cancelling”.
