Yes. Post-exams again. Coincidence? Or something more.
Anyway, all this free time has allowed me to think of random things. I was thinking the other day. There are all these inventions - some trivial, some not so trivial - that are pretty awesome, that people don't know the inventor of. Take, for example, the sticky ads on the side of buses (three guesses where I was when I saw this invention). From the outside, they're an almost perfect image of whatever they happen to be spruiking. On the inside, not only do they allow you to see outside, they also act as a massive pair of sunglasses. The only resemblence being the light-filterage that it provides.
The pencil in itself is a great invention. Even greater, however, is the pencil sharpener. Presumably, people would have had to use a knife to sharpen their pencils. This would have been fine, albeit a little cumbersome. Therefore, it takes no small amount of resourcefullness, initiative and creativity to stick a blade on a solid piece of something and poke a pencil sized hole in for pencil sharpening purposes. Since the creation of the pencil sharpener, knife sales have irreversibly spiralled downwards, limited only to kitchens and ghettos, while sharpener sales have soared. A further inovation, the two-holed sharpener, widened the gap between the redundant knife and the chic new sharpening implement.
A not-so-great, but world-changing, anonymous invention, is the examination. Evidently, somebody, presumably a teacher, somewhere along the line in history, decided that there had to a be a morale-sapping, anxiety-inducing, insomnia-causing method to seperate the best from the rest. Clearly a very sadistic, disturbed person. Now, you can see its effects everywhere. From is traditional acedemic sanctuary, to driving, music, entry into an obscure clique. Everywhere. Anywhere. Thanks Mr. Exam.
Whoopie cushions. Someone clearly thought that people sitting down and making farting noises was funny. It is not.
Swimming pools. Although not a great leap of creativity ('hey, instead of us going to the water, why don't we bring the water to us'), it nevertheless took brains to turn it into a business venture. And we still have to go to the water.
Anyway, there'll be more posts like this in the coming weeks and months, due to excessive boredom. If it floats your boat, stick around.
Word of the Day: Inventions
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