For years I've maintained that one of the best inventions ever is ...wait for it! ... the umbrella! An umbrella is so simple an invention that's been around for thousands of years. It dates way back to ancient China. Just think: it's pouring with rain and you, under your umbrella, are in your own little dry cocoon. Such a simple but effective invention.
...except if you'[re in Windy Wellington, of course. I once went through five umbrellas in one week - a record for me.
One invention that has never been updated since Victorian times, and I can't for the life of me think why not? ... is the flush toilet. In such a technical age, why are we still operating on a plumbing and pipe system that has been roughly the same for the last hundred or so years? Why aren't lasers getting rid of the waste? How come there are brainy scientists working on the next new detergent and no boffin is out there thinking about a toilet with its own laser beams that operate by the touch of a button (or chain, if you prefer old-school)?
When I was a teenager in the Department of Education typing pool, I was given an electric IBM golfball typewriter. Wow, what technology, what magnificence! Typewriters would never, surely, be the same again? The older typists in the pool hovered away at a distance. They wanted nothing to do with this new-fangled invention; it was just too-too modern for them. Will the same thing happen to the whiz kids of today when they hit, say, 60 years of age? Will they shrink back over the new technology of the day?
Speaking for today, I quite like microwaves, and fridges, and television Oh, and what about electric blankets, and don't forget Kindles and Diet Coke. 3D movies are a joy ...
xxx
Here's a pic of my local picture theatre, the Roxy, in Miramar, Wellington, New Zealand. They, of course, operate 3D - otherwise I'd move to another suburb.
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