10,000 Brilliant Ideas

For those not yet on the single-stream craze, imagine a cool recycling thing that accepts, let's say, glass, paper, cans and plastic bottles. You remember those cool sorting coin banks they used to have? You put a coin in and it sorts it into the right compartment? Sort of along that same vein, you put something to be recycled in the top, turn the crank and it shreds, smashes, or flattens the item and lands it in the correct bin. This has many advantages. 1-it's fun. 2-kids will love doing it. 3-it takes up a lot less space for apartment dwellers. 4-it takes up less space in recycling bins saving more energy. 5-it looks cool.

You know the corners that you try to vacuum as close as you can, but it's never close enough? How about a little door on the side of your vacuum that opens when pressed against something (like a wall). When open it sucks out of the side of the vacuum. When moved away from the wall it automatically shuts.

I realize I wasn't the most with it teenager, but I certainly wasn't the bottom of the ladder. My knowledge of politics and the political system was restricted to national systems and that was last informed in 5th grade. What I'm thinking of is some kind of letter or email or web site where a new 18-yr-old can go to and see "Hey, you're of legal voting age. Welcome to the board." This would then explain that there are a whole lot of public servants out there working for you. And in fact, you don't have to hate the police, because in effect they work for you. And if you have a problem you can contact Mr Chief of Police or you can vote for the other guy when reelection time comes up. Also you have all these other people working for you including the mayor, governor, and up. If you think things should be run differently (and chances are they should) you should write to this person, or attend this meeting, or vote this way. Essentially demystify the behemoth o...

Kids love to play in the sink. Mine do anyway. They enjoy a basin of water as much as the next kid, but they really want the tap on-full blast. Couldn't we invent a pump that keeps the water flowin without causing local droughts? If electric isn't feasible, perhaps using the pressure from the tap to circulate some water (albeit not at the same volume).

Employers want someone with skillz, mad skillz. True. But they also want someone they can work with. Someone with soft skills. We all know people who were hired because they looked good on paper, and actually they could do everything they said they could, but they just didn't get along with their boss, coworkers etc. Personality conflicts. Are they unavoidable? Do you just have to hire with your fingers crossed and try someone out for 6 months? You can contact references, but legally in the US about all you can ask is "did this person work for you?" And why in the world would that person give an honest appraisal? What have they got to lose? And chances are, they could be a competitor. And what about the potential employee? There are scads of people that would be great to have on board. But how do you put soft skills on a resume? Well with this new company, you can. Much like microsoft certification, this company certifies people with soft skills. The difference with micro...

Surely this already exists and a bit of research would turn up whether it serves this exact need or not or if it needs to be adapted. But how about if a school puts in little scanner thingies on every classroom doorway and then requires each child to wear a badge or something. If a child hasn't come through the door at the specified time a text is instantly sent to the parent. Although this may be handy for all kids (teens will game the system of course) I'm thinking more for primary school-aged kids. This would prevent the dreaded situation of a child being forgotten in the car in the parent's work parking lot or left sleeping on the bus.