Steal My Ideas, Please

More than two million homes are expected to be foreclosed this year. What a waste. All because the owners can’t affort the particular payment on that house. Hmm. So what if we switched the people and the houses? Orchestrated a kind of mortgage musical chairs? Take Joe. Can’t afford his $600,000 house. But he could afford the […]

String theorists investigate the possibility that the universe has more than three dimensions of space and one of time. Positing more dimensions (usually curled up in tiny spaces) yields equations that, in some sets, describe facets of the universe very well. Problem is, as I foggily understand it, is that the possibilities are so astronomical (excuse […]

The other day my daughter, or someone she was reading, likened the future of newspapers to the fate of milkmen. They couldn’t imagine the service would fade away, but it did. Radio dramas were once popular, too, but they’re now a relic too.
But in these examples is kind of buried a lesson for newspapers: Don’t confuse […]

This a wild idea. Maybe it’s more of a stunt than a service. But with the power of the Web perhaps it’s possible: A way to ship something cross-country in just one day using almost no extra energy. Really puts the UNITED in United Parcel Service. Or maybe call it the Hand-Off Shipping Network. Basically people go to […]

Have tryouts to find a new Three Stooges. The national search! The embarrassing auditions where the losers can’t help coming across with dignity and intelligence! The judges … who … hit each other with seltzer and pies?
My best reality-TV idea since “Beer Factor“?

Not surprised: This has been thought of before. If electric cars have a limited range, why not be able to pick up recharged batteries as you drive? Swap ‘em like tanks for gas grills. Freshcreation.com has a post, including a neat video of how electric car battery exchanges could work.

Basically, this website looks like a house. Maybe an old house, maybe a new one, maybe you get to pick. But everyone is free to go around and destroy stuff. Tip that vase over. Crash. Take a sledge hammer to the walls. Drive a car into the porch. Take a chainsaw to spiral staircase, watch […]

Do the cross-eyed “stereovision” trick! Remember those Magic Eye puzzles? You kind of looked “through” two pictures till they combined to make a 3-D image? Well, if you do the same with the Picture Puzzles found in the back of Life magazine, the “differences” will pop right out at you!
Obligatory warning: Always check with your eye doctor […]

If they can put talking or singing chips in birthday cards, you know it’s gotta happen with food. Probably a no-brainer figuring out how to add this feature to parts we don’t eat, like lollipop or popsicle sticks or cups or lids or bags or wrappers. But why? Contests (”You’re a winner!”). Advertising. Product identity. […]

Ever use that algebra and calculus you learned in high school? Most people don’t, I’ll bet. But every day we make decisions or encounter information involving odds and numerical evidence. Play poker? Buy a lottery ticket? Decide to fly or drive? Read a story about how married people live longer? Or how a drug cuts the risk of a rare […]

We have days for honoring military heroes, but why not a holiday to honor other people who risked their lives to protect and save their fellow man? Police. Fire fighters. Transplant donors. Rescuers from accidents and disasters. Extend gratitude to doctors, teachers, parents, too. If as a society we’re not going to pay these people as well […]

The presidency’s too much for any one man. Or woman. So divide it up. Besides, the more responsibilities a leader has, the more failures are accepted, and the more elections focus on likeability instead of issues. So suppose there were multiple ”presidents,” (or commissioners) each independent with only one problem-solving job: Improving education. Winning the war on drugs. Making Americans […]

If celeb baby news is beaucoup bucks (People mag paid millions for pics of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s newbie, Shiloh), well, celebrity baby publishing is bound to become its own industry. People begat Teen People, so why not Baby People? Babies are people, too, after all. And plenty of advertisers are out to Pamper […]

OK, I’m doubting Chrysler going to call, and pay me for this great idea. But, honestly, as anyone who’s driven in a city knows, it’d be great to see a car revamped just for cities. It should have … bulletproof glass … a removable glovebox you can carry away … a removable ignition you can […]

Seriously. Think about it. Does it makes sense to measure cholesterol after you’ve fasted? OK, sure, gotta establish a baseline, see how high it always is. But think. Some people with high cholesterol never have heart attacks, while some with low cholesterol do. Uh, could it be because some low-baseline people chomp on Dorito and, […]