A Better Rechargeable Battery

I've never been a fan of rechargeable batteries. I like them in theory, but they never seem to last very long. It turns out some of the problem is that conventional NiCd and NiMh batteries will lose their charge just sitting around. This is known as "self-discharge."

There is a new kind of rechargeable battery - a "LOW self-discharge" (lsd). Rather than the charge lasting 1-2 months, these lsd batteries can last up to a year. When you buy them they are fully charged - you can use them immediately.

So I bought a few - I love them. I bought Titanium Enduro LSD batteries from Battery Junction, but there are others. Besides the Titanium brand, I also know of the Sanyo Eneloop. Click here for an excellent website regarding lsd batteries.

It's not just a green idea, it's also cheaper than buying endless piles of single-use batteries.

Living Museum of the Sixties

A few years ago, we went to Stawbery Banke in Portsmouth, NH. with my parents. If you've not been there, it's a neighborhood in Portsmouth where each house is a historical recreation of a different time period: everything from the 19th century to 1970s. What I found unique among this sort of "living museum," were the 1940s vintage house and store. They provided an opportunity for my parents to reminisce, telling stories I had not heard before.

And that got me thinking. What if there were a living museum, not of the 18th century or Plymouth Plantation, but of the 1950s or 1960s? What a great opportunity for parents and grandparents to share their stories with their children and grandchildren.

So here's what I envision: In New England, where I live, put the majority of it in a large warehouse. This way there is no weather damage to anything. Inside this warehouse, build a neighborhood of the 60s, complete with street, period cars in the driveways of 1960s era suburban homes.

There could be a diner, or perhaps a period resaurant, like Howard Johnson's or Burger Chef. You could have a movie theater, or a miniature golf range, perhaps a slot car store, complete with track. The more diversity, the better. There could be a corner drug store, or a Five and Dime. Some of these could be museums, but others could be real establishments; have dinner at the diner, for example. It might be fun if you created your own "Sixties Money." When you enter the Sixties, you "buy" or exchange your 21st century money for 1960s money. Then you could "buy" a 20-cent hamburger (although the 20 cents cost you $1.50 in real money). It would help give a sense of how much inflation there has been.

The houses would be furnished like the 60s - it is still a good time to pick up a lot of 60s stuff, without spending too much.

You could either charge admission, or support the place through grants, donations and the revenue from the businesses.

So there you have it. I'm not aware of anyplace like this. If you know of one, please let me know. If you decide to create one, Just tell me when the opening will be (and send me a ticket).

Ideas That Didn't Make the Cut

Not all ideas are good ones. Ask my kids, for example, about jelly bean pancakes. They weren't very good. But the point is, I tried them. Not all ideas are good ones. It turns out, you can't make artificial snow with a power washer (at least I wasn't able to). You can't fly a kite indoors with a fan (the air stream is too narrow; the kite likes to wander from side-to-side and slips right out of the breeze, falling to the floor). You can't use crayons to fill nail holes in wood, even though they come in many shades of brown and are a wax, like the nail-filling pencils you buy at the hardware store - crayons are too hard and brittle.

These are just a few of my ideas that were duds. My boy-hood hero was Thomas Edison. He didn't invent the light bulb, but figured out how to make it practical. After he had tried 700 times to come up with a filament material that lasted a reasonable amount of time, a New York Times reporter asked him, “How does it feel to have failed seven hundred times?” He responded, “I have not failed seven hundred times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those seven hundred ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.” *

There is no failure in trying something that doesn't work, as long as you learn something. So, I'll keep thinking and trying my ideas. Give it a try. And please post a comment about some of your ideas.

* http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/747226.html