Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2006
November 13, 2006 4:17 PM Subscribe
Time Magazine has released its picks for the best inventions of 2006. Youtube beat out a vaccine that cures a STD that causes cervical cancer. Not to mention this extremely lifelike robot, this magic mirror, a wine-tasting robot and a shirt that simulates a hug!
You get the impression that the woman in the "hugging shirt" pic might also have a boyfriend-pillow at home. I'm just sayin'.
posted by clevershark at 4:24 PM on November 13, 2006
posted by clevershark at 4:24 PM on November 13, 2006
At least when you're dying of a painful STD you can watch some topless teenage boy trying to play "Plug in baby" on his guitar to take away the pain.
posted by fire&wings at 4:26 PM on November 13, 2006
posted by fire&wings at 4:26 PM on November 13, 2006
I LOVE the hug shirt, and it appears to be a vast improvement on my own rudimentary version: the still-pulsing, stretched-wide carcass of a freshly killed animal that contracts and releases as it slowly looses its last vestiges of verve on aromatic clouds of mammal-steam. Bear cubs worked best for this, I found.
posted by Powerful Religious Baby at 4:39 PM on November 13, 2006 [2 favorites]
posted by Powerful Religious Baby at 4:39 PM on November 13, 2006 [2 favorites]
Do I remember that robot?
When a reporter's hand was placed against the robot's taste sensor, it was identified as prosciutto. A cameraman was mistaken for bacon.
posted by Richard Daly at 4:39 PM on November 13, 2006
When a reporter's hand was placed against the robot's taste sensor, it was identified as prosciutto. A cameraman was mistaken for bacon.
posted by Richard Daly at 4:39 PM on November 13, 2006
ahhh yes, but youtube wasn't controversial with some members of the christian right because it might make young girls go "oh! less chance of cervical cancer? SOMEONE SEX ME RIGHT NOW!"
which in my mind makes it the inferior invention.
posted by haveanicesummer at 4:41 PM on November 13, 2006
which in my mind makes it the inferior invention.
posted by haveanicesummer at 4:41 PM on November 13, 2006
Small point: vaccines don't cure diseases, they prevent diseases.
Anyhow, interesting post. As inventions go, YouTube = meh, shirt that simulates hug = interesting, vaccine = awesome.
posted by koeselitz at 5:10 PM on November 13, 2006
Anyhow, interesting post. As inventions go, YouTube = meh, shirt that simulates hug = interesting, vaccine = awesome.
posted by koeselitz at 5:10 PM on November 13, 2006
Y'know, they say that having your soul stolen by a doppleganger robot adds ten pounds.
posted by XMLicious at 5:33 PM on November 13, 2006
posted by XMLicious at 5:33 PM on November 13, 2006
The religious right: Some Girls Might Fuck, So We'll Fuck Them Instead.
posted by Malor at 5:58 PM on November 13, 2006
posted by Malor at 5:58 PM on November 13, 2006
I just have an uncontrollably urge to make fun of anyone wearing a self-hugging shirt.
posted by Atreides at 6:10 PM on November 13, 2006
posted by Atreides at 6:10 PM on November 13, 2006
Can you remote-choke someone wearing the hug shirt?
posted by clevershark at 6:19 PM on November 13, 2006
posted by clevershark at 6:19 PM on November 13, 2006
I'm still waiting for the underpants that simulate a blow job.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:17 PM on November 13, 2006 [1 favorite]
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:17 PM on November 13, 2006 [1 favorite]
Damn it. I want a hug shirt.
I hate it when I see a product up on the internet that's obviously a prototype - especially when I know it's something that will never be commercially available.
Wearable pc, anyone?
posted by Baby_Balrog at 8:03 PM on November 13, 2006
I hate it when I see a product up on the internet that's obviously a prototype - especially when I know it's something that will never be commercially available.
Wearable pc, anyone?
posted by Baby_Balrog at 8:03 PM on November 13, 2006
When a reporter's hand was placed against the robot's taste sensor, it was identified as prosciutto. A cameraman was mistaken for bacon.
I think I'd be a little concerned if the robot correctly identified the taste of human flesh. Maybe that reporter really did taste like prosciutto.
posted by bob sarabia at 8:25 PM on November 13, 2006
I think I'd be a little concerned if the robot correctly identified the taste of human flesh. Maybe that reporter really did taste like prosciutto.
posted by bob sarabia at 8:25 PM on November 13, 2006
Oh, come on, the taste of human flesh is one of the easiest things in the world to recogn---
Never mind.
posted by j-dub at 8:54 PM on November 13, 2006
Never mind.
posted by j-dub at 8:54 PM on November 13, 2006
I'm still waiting for the underpants that simulate a blow job.
Oh? It won't be long! (NSFW)
posted by Pollomacho at 9:45 PM on November 13, 2006
Oh? It won't be long! (NSFW)
posted by Pollomacho at 9:45 PM on November 13, 2006
That HPV vaccine has been around for a few years. I've got some pretty good, first hand knowledge of it.
posted by Titania at 11:15 PM on November 13, 2006
posted by Titania at 11:15 PM on November 13, 2006
I would be willing to hug the model wearing the hug shirt. I'd probably come in 2nd, though.
posted by pkingdesign at 11:44 PM on November 13, 2006
posted by pkingdesign at 11:44 PM on November 13, 2006
What class of "invention" is YouTube? The creators didn't invent websites, they didn't invent streaming flash video, they didn't create any of the site's content, and they weren't even the first to throw all the elements together.
YouTube isn't a world-changing invention. It's a successful web2.0 marketing campaign.
posted by tehloki at 12:26 AM on November 14, 2006
YouTube isn't a world-changing invention. It's a successful web2.0 marketing campaign.
posted by tehloki at 12:26 AM on November 14, 2006
Oh? It won't be long!
Not long? It's here already:
VOICEOVER : The latest menace to require urgent warnings from expert communicators.
NICHOLAS OWEN (ITN Reporter) : Right so if you could just take that and hold that right under the camera.
BARBARA FOLLET (MP Labour) : Pantou the dog, a child's game on the internet. But look again. An online paedophile has converted that eye to work as a webcam to look at the child player.
NICHOLAS OWEN (ITN Reporter) : Sometimes the child can glimpse the molester in that kennel bouncing around and waving.
PHILIPPA FORRESTER (Presenter) : Wearing a t-shirt like this, the online paedophile can disguise himself as a child.
(holds up tshirt with crudely drawn small body on the chest)
BARBARA FOLLET (MP Labour) : So the child thinks it's playing with another child.
KATE THORNTON (Broadcaster/Journalist) : It's called a HOECS game. A Hidden Online Entrapment Control System.
NICHOLAS OWEN (ITN Reporter) : Singapore police have sent us these pictures. This man has plugged his groin into his computer to get sexual pleasure from the actions of a child playing with Pantou.
RICHARD BLACKWOOD (comedian/musician) : So every time your kid tickles Pantou, the paedophile gets his rocks off, and it doesn't stop there.
BARBARA FOLLET (MP Labour) : In this shot, Pantou the dog has told the boy to press his face onto the soft screen. Online paedophiles use special gloves to feel and palpate the child's face.
PHILIPPA FORRESTER (Presenter) : In fact with gloves like these the manipulator can molest any part of the child's body placed against the screen.
KATE THORNTON (Broadcaster/Journalist) : We even have footage that would be too alarming to show you of a little boy being interfered with by a penis shaped sound wave generated by an online paedophile.
SYD RAPSON (MP Labour) : We believe that paedophiles are using an area of the internet the size of Ireland and through this they can control keyboards.
RICHARD BLACKWOOD (comedian/musician) : Online paedophiles can actually make your keyboard release toxic vapours that make you suggestible. (sniffs keyboard) You know I must say I actually feel more suggestible and that's just from one sniff.
KATE THORNTON (Broadcaster/Journalist) : HOECS games can cause serious damage. One child was trapped online for a whole night and, according to a psychiatric report, came away with the jaded listless sexual appetite of a 60-year-old colonel.
RICHARD BLACKWOOD (comedian/musician) : Now here are the warning signs to show that your child might be in trouble. Are they upset? Do they smell odd? Weird question but HOECS games actually make your child smell like hammers.
KATE THORNTON (Broadcaster/Journalist) : So come on experts. Why is no-one telling us about this stuff. There's a kid in Canada who's gone almost completely 2D and no-ones doing anything about it.
PHILIPPA FORRESTER (Presenter) : Please - sit your kids down tonight and tell them about HOECS games. Let strangle Pantou.
NICHOLAS OWEN (ITN Reporter) : Let's put a bomb under Pantou's chin and stamp on his throat. Let's rip this dog's brains out.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:38 AM on November 14, 2006
Not long? It's here already:
VOICEOVER : The latest menace to require urgent warnings from expert communicators.
NICHOLAS OWEN (ITN Reporter) : Right so if you could just take that and hold that right under the camera.
BARBARA FOLLET (MP Labour) : Pantou the dog, a child's game on the internet. But look again. An online paedophile has converted that eye to work as a webcam to look at the child player.
NICHOLAS OWEN (ITN Reporter) : Sometimes the child can glimpse the molester in that kennel bouncing around and waving.
PHILIPPA FORRESTER (Presenter) : Wearing a t-shirt like this, the online paedophile can disguise himself as a child.
(holds up tshirt with crudely drawn small body on the chest)
BARBARA FOLLET (MP Labour) : So the child thinks it's playing with another child.
KATE THORNTON (Broadcaster/Journalist) : It's called a HOECS game. A Hidden Online Entrapment Control System.
NICHOLAS OWEN (ITN Reporter) : Singapore police have sent us these pictures. This man has plugged his groin into his computer to get sexual pleasure from the actions of a child playing with Pantou.
RICHARD BLACKWOOD (comedian/musician) : So every time your kid tickles Pantou, the paedophile gets his rocks off, and it doesn't stop there.
BARBARA FOLLET (MP Labour) : In this shot, Pantou the dog has told the boy to press his face onto the soft screen. Online paedophiles use special gloves to feel and palpate the child's face.
PHILIPPA FORRESTER (Presenter) : In fact with gloves like these the manipulator can molest any part of the child's body placed against the screen.
KATE THORNTON (Broadcaster/Journalist) : We even have footage that would be too alarming to show you of a little boy being interfered with by a penis shaped sound wave generated by an online paedophile.
SYD RAPSON (MP Labour) : We believe that paedophiles are using an area of the internet the size of Ireland and through this they can control keyboards.
RICHARD BLACKWOOD (comedian/musician) : Online paedophiles can actually make your keyboard release toxic vapours that make you suggestible. (sniffs keyboard) You know I must say I actually feel more suggestible and that's just from one sniff.
KATE THORNTON (Broadcaster/Journalist) : HOECS games can cause serious damage. One child was trapped online for a whole night and, according to a psychiatric report, came away with the jaded listless sexual appetite of a 60-year-old colonel.
RICHARD BLACKWOOD (comedian/musician) : Now here are the warning signs to show that your child might be in trouble. Are they upset? Do they smell odd? Weird question but HOECS games actually make your child smell like hammers.
KATE THORNTON (Broadcaster/Journalist) : So come on experts. Why is no-one telling us about this stuff. There's a kid in Canada who's gone almost completely 2D and no-ones doing anything about it.
PHILIPPA FORRESTER (Presenter) : Please - sit your kids down tonight and tell them about HOECS games. Let strangle Pantou.
NICHOLAS OWEN (ITN Reporter) : Let's put a bomb under Pantou's chin and stamp on his throat. Let's rip this dog's brains out.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:38 AM on November 14, 2006
What class of "invention" is YouTube? The creators didn't invent websites, they didn't invent streaming flash video, they didn't create any of the site's content, and they weren't even the first to throw all the elements together.
YouTube isn't a world-changing invention. It's a successful web2.0 marketing campaign.
Uh... well duh. I guess almost nothing has ever been invented then. Web sites weren't invented because someone had already invented paper fliers and bulletin boards... etc etc.
posted by pkingdesign at 10:17 PM on November 15, 2006
YouTube isn't a world-changing invention. It's a successful web2.0 marketing campaign.
Uh... well duh. I guess almost nothing has ever been invented then. Web sites weren't invented because someone had already invented paper fliers and bulletin boards... etc etc.
posted by pkingdesign at 10:17 PM on November 15, 2006
Uh... well duh. I guess almost nothing has ever been invented then
What are you talking about? You're about 80 kilometers away from my argument. Tell me, when I said "they didn't invent the website", did you read that as "nobody invented the website?"
I'm trying to say that an individual (that's right, individual, I'm going to put it in bold for you) website, no matter how popular or successful, is not an invention. Inventions are not just things that are novel to you. Streaming flash video is an invention, websites are an invention, you could even call web 2.0 an invention, but YouTube is just an iteration of the concept of "website".
Somebody invented books, but I don't invent the book every time I write one. Thank you.
posted by tehloki at 10:50 PM on November 15, 2006
What are you talking about? You're about 80 kilometers away from my argument. Tell me, when I said "they didn't invent the website", did you read that as "nobody invented the website?"
I'm trying to say that an individual (that's right, individual, I'm going to put it in bold for you) website, no matter how popular or successful, is not an invention. Inventions are not just things that are novel to you. Streaming flash video is an invention, websites are an invention, you could even call web 2.0 an invention, but YouTube is just an iteration of the concept of "website".
Somebody invented books, but I don't invent the book every time I write one. Thank you.
posted by tehloki at 10:50 PM on November 15, 2006
« Older An Otter Family Album | Ben takes a photo of himself every day. Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by ORthey at 4:21 PM on November 13, 2006