There are a few things that would make my life easier. Unfortunately, they have not been invented yet. I’d appreciate if some entrepreneur could invent the following:
*Forget the Adkins diet. All I need is a pill that makes sugar taste bad for 24 hours.
*We can send a man to the moon but we have not invented a nail polish that doesn’t chip within a day.
*A hair coloring system that differentiates new hair growth from previously colored hair. You shampoo it in and it knows not to re-color the already colored hair. I’m thinking maybe marking your hair with some sort of radiation would do the trick, though the FDA would probably frown on that.
*A service that would notify consumers via e-mail or letter if a credit card has been requested in his/her name. Identity theft is a big problem. Why can’t we be more proactive on this?
The Apollo missions, while NASA tried to make them reasonably comfortable, ended up contracting the meal service out to PanAm–resulting in airline food. If that doesn’t resolve your appetite for one day (hey, they ate it for 6 or 7), then nothing will.
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Neil Armstrong did not wear nail polish while taking the first human steps on the moon. As far as history knows, no astronauts did their nails in space, as the droplets of acetone-based polish would find their way into the ventilation system and create a highly flammable atmosphere. As such, nail polish has been fairly low on NASA’s research and development priorities.
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Back in NASA’s lunar heyday, most of the astronauts had either crue cuts or flattops, limiting the hair on their head. Thus, research into coloring small amounts of cranial hair was limited.
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Unfortunately, DARPA hadn’t invented a practical e-mail system until Al Gore came along. The radio systems the Apollo missions used, while limited on the far side of the moon, may be practical in today’s age.
I heard a great story on why touch screen voting machines are terrible (as opposed to mechanical ones) on NPR.
Basically, all the software and hardware is proprietary, so no testing by people outside the company is allowed. Also there is no provision for a recount and no proof that the vote was recorded correctly in the first place. When asked if they could make a machine that recorded the vote electronically and then printed out a slip of paper with the vote on it which could be checked by the voter and dropped into a ballot box for future possible recount, the companies replied that the ‘printers would jam’. These are the same companies that make ATMs and their printers work just fine most of the time…
There is some sort of …herb? Um, something, that makes sugar completely tasteless. I took a food science class during my final quarter at school, and the professor (during a lecture about professional food tasters) demonstrated this. Four students volunteered, they each swished a pinch of this stuff around their mouths for a minute or two, then he handed each one a sugar cube, without telling them what the effect was supposed to be. The first guy’s reaction was “Man, this sucks,” heh. Apparently, sucking the sugar cube was something like eating dissolvable sand. No taste, just a gritty texture.
I could email the professor and find out what it is and where you can get some
This already exists. There are credit protection companies that will send you a report any time a credit check on you is requested. Any time you (or someone using your name) applies for a loan or credit card a credit check is run and you will get a report of it sent to your house.
Sugar makes me tired (but not as much as some people,) so I avoid sugar, especially sucrose. As a matter of fact, overly sweet things don’t taste as good as they used to since I associate them with a tired feeling (before I cut down, I didn’t associate them with that since I was always tired.)
fRevlon makes a great nail polish that even on my brittle weak nails lasts for 3-4 days before starting to chip. It’s called Color Stay or something like that.
And YES–I’d love to know what herb makes sugar taste bad.
I tried looking for one of these companies. The best I could find was a service that would check the Big 3 bi-annually or annually. None of them offered the above.
I don’t want to suppress my appetite entirely because I think it’s healthy for us to eat. Problem is that the peanut M&M’s always look more delicious than that nice, healthy orange. So I would like a pill that would suppress my appetite for refined sugar.
These first three are primarily vanity-oriented. First we solve world hunger, then we start giving a damn about how pretty you look. Nail polish is one of the most pointless things ever invented.
*A service that would notify consumers via e-mail or letter if a credit card has been requested in his/her name. Identity theft is a big problem. Why can’t we be more proactive on this?
Because of that damn Sandra Bullock movie.
What was it called? Hope Floats?
**An on-line voting system. *
It would be prone to cheating(hacking), and that’s not something we want in elections. That’s why the idea has not been widely implemented.
“The substance was an extract of the plant gymnema sylvestre.
Hard to believe that sweet suppression would be a valuable plant property, but it seems to be so.”*
*This is not an endorsement of this extract or any substance as a diet tool or endorsement for use without consulting a physician as the world may end or all your limbs may fall off or He Who Must Not Be Named may come back to power or blah blah frickin’ blah.
Ok, you know those cameras that are in public spaces but look for and recognize people with warrants out for thier arrest? These cameras are linked to a computer with a huge data base of criminals mugshots and a fairly complex reconition program.
Well who cares about putting criminals away. I don’t. I just want my frozen pizza not to burn.
So, put a camera in an oven. It will look at the food and figure out what kind of food it is and when it turns, golden brown/cheese is melted/what ever, a recording of Morgan Fairchilds voice will call out “Zebra! Come get some hot pizza you big stud!”
Thx for the info, Phoebestar. I can now cross one item off my list already!!
Moo, Moo, Moo – Yeah, yeah, solving world hunger would be nice and all, but we’ve got to solve the little things before we can hope to tackle the big things. What better place to start but my toenails? I can think of none other than perhaps Zebra’s oven.
