Warning: NERDY (at least at times) :P

I was thinking about how many infomercials were on TV for crappy inventions a few days ago, when I ran across this:

Go Ahead, Finish Your Dinner
February 12, 2006 - 5:24 pm

Taipei, Taiwan (AP) - Diners tempted to lick a plate after a delicious meal can now go a step further - eat the plate. Chen Liang-erh, 50, an amateur inventor, announced Friday that he had perfected an edible plate made from wheat grain, and that he planned to mass-produce it and other edible crockery including cups, bowls and food containers. Chen spent six years developing the plate, which he said would retail at about 7 cents each. Diners who don't want to eat the items - which taste like unsalted popcorn - can boil them for a nutritious meal for animals, he said. Chen said this can help reduce pollution caused by discarded crockery. The only disadvantage, he said, is his crockery cannot be washed and reused.

Source: corndoggy.com

So I was sitting down thinking how neat it is that they make edible crockery. It's not like it hasn't been around for a while. We've had the ice cream cone for ages. But to have it developed to the point that it is practical, nutritious (to a higher degree than any of its predecessors, anyway), and actually rather inexpensive for what it is, I find astounding.

Another invention that's rather neat to think about is the Faraday Flashlight. Now here's something that has a history. Faraday's Law of Induction was developed 175 years ago. For physics people, this theory states that a change in the magnetic flux over time is directly proportional to the emf (electromotive force...an oxymoron, since its units are actually Volts). In more practical terms, if you rapidly change the effective strength and/or polarity of a magnet, you get electricity (voltage).

Essentially, this thing works by having a tightly coiled wire (with at least some small component being steel) and moving a magnet through it rapidly. This is a simple inductor (woohoo). You're constantly reversing the magnetic field (not to mention changing magnitude), thus inducing a voltage. The only thing I'm a lil fuzzy on is how they store the voltage...but I suppose that's a simple enough matter...*shrugs*

I know this is really nerdy, and I apologize for that, but it's one of those things that happens occasionally...plus this is something I've actually studied, and it's the coolest thing to see such a pivotal idea come up in something so mundane...

In any case, these inventions encompass two of the neater and more practical ideas I've seen in the last several years.

And yet for every good (truly practical, and environmentally friendly) invention, we get 3 or 4 crap ones. For instance, the scoop-n-strain, or the omelet maker, etc. Why is there such a demand for inventions that don't improve much of anything?

I guess I'm harsh on this, but if you're coming out with an idea, and you really think it's revolutionary, you should always think about 2 things...
1. Is it a practical item that is not situation-specific?
2. If it is situation-specific, is it replacing an obviously insufficient tool?

I, for one, hope they come up with more of these sort of Faraday-esque items. I think the idea of kinetic power is brilliant, as a gross understatement. We'll never get to perpetual motion (it violates the 2nd law of Thermodynamics, among other critical physical laws), but I don't think that's something we should worry about. Rather, we should take what we know and apply it to make products safer and more environmentally sound...We can't ever eliminate pollution...but we can certainly reduce it :)

Hrm...guess I should stop now :P

Sorry bout the spammy/nerdy thoughts of the morning...

Source (Induction): Jackson's Classical Electrodynamics and Griffith's Introduction to Electrodynamics

The edible crockery sounds like a really good idea, but they should probably add some sort of flavour to it because it's pretty bland if it just tastes like unsalted popcorn. Even if it isn't reusable, at least it's not that expensive, especially if it's bought in bulk.

The flashlight sounds very..umm..complex? But it's great that it would use magnets instead to generate the electricity that it needs.

If an invention seems useless to us, it might be really useful to someone else. Maybe some people really do need some sort of contraption to help them make omelettes.

you are right about an invention being useful to some even if it seems completely extraneous to us...

but here's what I don't understand...we come out with some new idea...one that could have drastically positive effects on the future state of the planet, and we use it once, never really trying to put it to use in other applications...

And what about the ideas that get delayed indefinitely because they might threaten the profit margin of a few people running multi-million and multi-billion dollar industries? Oil industry comes to mind (and how much cheaper and more readily available E-85 is, since it comes from CORN, instead of millions of years of decay)... Those don't make a whole lot more sense...

I guess it all comes down to making the most of ideas, and making them readily available to preserve the planet for future generations, even if you have to disregard the bottom line once in a while...

disclaimer: I'm not an environmentalist, but it only makes sense that we should keep this planet in the best shape possible until we can find someplace new and get the technology to go there...cause till then, we're stuck here :P

Many great ideas are not used to their full potential because there are many people in this world who don't think outside of the box. They use things in the way that it is presented to them, and do not bother to think of other applications it could be used for either because they don't care or are too narrow minded [or maybe even both]. The only way good ideas could be used to their full potential is if there were more people who think the way you do. But alas, there are too many people who are more talk and less action.

Also, if going through with a certain wonderful idea that could help the entire world required spending more money, most people would rather keep their money. Many people are becoming more materialistic and care less about the well-being of our environment. I mean, if someone had to choose between spending money on luxuries[like a fancy car and a huge mansion] or saving an entire rain forest, it's not that hard to predict what most people would choose.

The only reason why ideas get delayed because of multi-million dollar industries is because those industries have power. People are more worried about what those industries could do with their power than anything else. And right now, the people who control the oil industry have enough power and money to control a big chunk of the economy. If you compare them to the corn industry, the corn industry looks pretty darn weak. People just don't want to do anything that might threaten the state of the current economy, because if they anger the wrong people, everything would go spiraling down with them.

IMHO, it's kind of pointless to just have ideas that are readily available to help the planet in the future, because if those ideas aren't put to action soon, it wouldn't help to save a lot since the state of the environment is already pretty bad.

Anyways, I'll stop here, since I already typed so much XD. If I somehow offended anyone, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. Oh and excuse me for taking so many days to reply, haven't been on here in a while.