Jetpacks become a reality – an annotated graphic

Your boring commute to work could be a thing of the past if New Zealand inventor Glenn Martin has anything to do with it. Forget the car, bus, train or subway – travel to work by jetpack. Following over 30 years of development, Martin is aiming to have the world’s first commercially viable jetpack on sale within 18 months. The Martin Jetpack has already reached an altitude of 1,500m and is undergoing final testing. Up, up and away – although you’ll have no excuse for being late for work if you can’t blame the traffic… Click on the graphic for … Continue reading Jetpacks become a reality – an annotated graphic

Edison’s lesser-known inventions

A little light invention retrospective for a Monday morning, courtesy of Gizmodo: a photo gallery of Thomas Edison’s strangest inventions. Here’s one example to pique your curiosity, the electric pen: It begs the inevitable question: “Why?” When did a non-electric pen strike Edison as an exercise in unnecessary frustration? Apparently, it sort of became the forerunner of the electric tattoo machine, so now we have Thomas Edison to blame for idiot celebrities spelling their names wrong in Sanskrit in a permanent disfiguration of their torsos. Continue reading Edison’s lesser-known inventions