Best Inventions of 2018

One thing about being in Tokyo is my hotel room always has the latest copy of the Asian version of Time Magazine. I used to read it in my youth but stopped as an adult as I didn't see the need to pay for a subscription. When I do see a copy in my hotel, I will go through it and this time found a number of interesting articles. The one that made me stop browsing and focus on the entire article is the one on the 50 best inventions of 2018.

I think Time has a tough job trying to come up with the top inventions for any given year. What may seem groundbreaking to some is ordinary to others. Therefore it is not surprising that I disagree with some of their winners. For instance, they awarded a bicycling helmet with built-in headlights and turn signals. While that is a cool-sounding idea, it is actually a bad one. Bicycling helmets are disposable items that are not meant to be kept for more than a year or two, depending upon frequency of use. Embedding lights in the helmet double the cost. That means people are going to be reluctant to replace their helmet at proper intervals. Now if the helmet lights could be removed and put in a new helmet shell, that would be an innovative idea and deserving of an invention-of-the-year award.

While I disagree with some, there are a few inventions that I agree should be listed in this year's awards. I think my favorite is the roofing from 3M that fights smog pollution. This is probably important to me because of the recent fires in California reducing air quality to extremely unhealthy levels. I also know that I create a lot of pollution driving my car and flying all over the world. Doing something to right that wrong should be high on my priority list. When it comes time to put a new roof on my house, I will definitely look into pollution reducing shingles.

Going through Time's list of inventions for 2018 has been insightful. There are a lot of good ideas out there. Reading about them may spark new ideas. I know I came away with some thoughts on how to improve some of the things I use every day. You may too.

Bay Area Air Quality

I just got to the airport to catch my weekly flight home back to Salt Lake and got an interesting e-mail from my employer. The air quality in the Bay Area is so bad that they are giving us the option of working from home tomorrow. While it is nothing extra special for me, I am sure a lot of my fellow employees are happy that they don't have to try and come in tomorrow.

The wildfire in Paradise, California is really wreaking havoc for the state. While it has a very negative effect on the Bay Area air quality, it has killed many people and destroyed countless homes. Compared to that, I can put up with a some bad air without complaining.

I arrived in the Bay Area this week knowing the air quality would not be healthy. My son who lives in San Jose spent Saturday running around to various stores looking for air purifiers. On his 5th store, he found one and immediately purchased it. By the time I arrived on Monday, all of the stores were completely sold out of air purifiers. I almost bought a few filters, some duct tape, and cardboard so I could make my own (I already have a fan on my sailboat). Knowing I only would be here for 3 nights, I didn't worry about it.

Today at work I passed quite a few of my coworkers wearing masks as they walked between buildings on our campus. Here is a good link about what the government recommends for masks. It is good advice and should be followed.

If you don't have the luxury of being able to skip town and get away from the bad air quality, do what you can to protect your lungs. The best advice I can give is to avoid heavy exercise. Use this as an excuse to play video games. That is what I would do if I had to stick around.