Remember the last time you had one hand Twittering away on your Blackberry and the other hand locating the nearest Prius dealership on your iPhone's GPS, all the while talking to Best Buy on your Jawbone bluetooth earpiece about your 42-inch HD plasma TV? That was a moment to truly appreciate the staggering speed of technology's march towards progress. Now imagine you were doing all that while sitting on the toilet. Whoosh, one flush just ended technology's march forward. Why? Because, despite the amalgam of technological advancements in phones, televisions, transportation, and the Internet, the one item we use everyday, multiple times a day - the ubiquitous toilet - has remained in the technological dark ages for centuries here in the U.S.
I sat on several of these in Japan about twenty years ago. They worked quite well then and probably have been improved since then. They were add-on toilet seats with the same functions but I didn't bring one home because they were about twelve hundred dollars. We can find fault with just about anything but the bottom line is, the Japanese have been creating great toys as long as I can remember. Necessity was once the mother of invention...that has change somewhat. Bob
Just as the 1960 election was the first to be truly shaped by the television medium, this year's presidential throwdown will go down as the first that was undeniably shaped, and perhaps even decided, by technology. From the very beginning, the news media, the pundits, the public, and the candidates themselves have engaged tech in ways and to levels that simply weren't possible before now. As a technology enthusiast, it's been thrilling to see things like blogs, widgets, Twitter feeds, Facebook, and text messaging enter the mainstream political lexicon.
A few days ago I emailed Pop Sci voicing my discontent with the jump into the political arena. It doesn't matter which side you are on, this is a science magazine that is becoming a political magazine. STOP IT! I subscribed because I have grown tired of listening to and reading politics... It seems a lot of you agree.
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In our December issue, Popular Science names the 100 best innovations of the year: bombproof wallpaper, self-parking cars, the fastest helicopter, and 97 more. Plus inventor profiles and videos.
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