Dog Poop DNA, Sean Avery Rule 2008 Ideas

For the eighth straight year, the New York Times Magazine has compiled the best—and worst—ideas that influenced the past 12 months:

• Can’t get enough of popping bubble wrap? A Japanese, battery-operated key chain now simulates your favorite mindless activity.
• Sean Avery not only made his name as a hockey player, but as a rule-breaker: The NHL created a penalty named after him because Avery enjoyed waving his hands in the goalie's face.

• Petah Tikvah, a city near Tel Aviv, discovered a way to stop dogowners whose pooches poo in the street: a dog-poop DNA bank.
• A study found that women are made to fail by being given powerful positions in bad times. Exhibit A: the US presidential campaign. Only during hard times could America consider a female candidate.
• Rolling Rock promised to display laser ads on the moon this year, but never got around to it. Moonvertising "might take a decade to develop and cost somewhere between a big-budget movie and a week in Iraq," one scientist says.
• A German entrepreneur says his spray-on condoms are sensitive—like a "second skin"—but take 2 minutes to dry and spray on cold.

For more bright ideas, click on the link below.

(More Sean Avery stories.)