Any wild ideas?

How about formlessness as freedom?

http://toddmertz.blogspot.com/2008/05/formlessness-as-freedom-and-awakening.html

Reusable refried beans, they would solve so many problems. Art T.

Thinking of finding a way to turn Sea Water into Crude oil of late:-)

How about a home that would harness human energy, convert it to electricity, and store it for later use?

Anytime you're active in your home, you'd be your own source of electricity.

Maybe combined with Art's idea? Ahem.

Flavoured finger nail polish! Perhaps not polish, so much as some form of colouring that gave you 10 taste delights during the day.

As babies we all sucked thumb (tastes like chicken, that's your thumb, not babies...I have no idea what babies taste like, although they smell like marshmallows, so I may lick one, if I ever get into politics), so why not as adults.

Added bonus, quieter life, less fattening, you could share fingers and you can't text with all your fingers crammed in your mouth, so teenagers could go and suck!

Lots of them --most I'm still holding onto with old school paranoia of sharing and getting them stolen. But I'll tell you one. Remember the website HotorNot.com where you would simply vote on how hot a person is, then see average ratings, etc.

How about something like "Thought or Not". Bad name, but here's the idea.

You simply vote on quotes in different areas of life -marketing, marriage, spirituality, how to solve the oil crisis, etc. and the best ideas/advice in different categories (not to mention the most sagacious voters) rise to the top based on people's votes.

There are different layers:

• Single Quote
• Paragraph
• Page
• Maybe longer

I've developed the idea much more and even gotten to the point of various ways to monetize it (ie "click to the amazon book this came from for more from this author", etc.) but I just don't have the time to develop it. If you're interested and have the skills, then by all means talk with me and don't steal it! Just thought this was a fun topic and that it was time to throw the idea out to the universe ;) -Leif

Absolutely! I have the best idea ever.......but can't seem to find the information as to whether or not I can do it=( Somewhat discouraging, but I am pressing on! It could be bigger than My Space. Someday I will meet the right person who might be able to help me!!!! That is why I am starting to network=)

I am with Leif. I have a bunch of ideas but am paranoid to even think too hard about them lest someone out there tunes in. Of course the major problem is that I have too many and have to shelve most of them while I work on existing projects. <sigh>

I want somebody to make a national chain of Ethiopian restaurants called Mr. Tibs.

For a long time I wanted a magnetic Scrabble board so the letters wouldn't fall off if you looked at them the wrong way. Then the Scrabble people finally made one.

In the late 80's in San Diego, we started a business called Korporate Comedy Concepts. Knew how important it was to make people laugh but couldn't talked the human resource managers and CEOs with tight budgets to actually spring for programs that would ease stress, make the workplace more fun and improve employee relationships. Seems like the really valuable stuff always gets cut.

Ah Judy, you get it too! Yay! My other biz, Spark Northwest, has play at its heart. Sadly, due to the ego, fear and misperceptions of many leaders, I have to sneak it in it looks like.

Judy: I too wanted that board and then when they made the magnetic board I hated using it. The tiles would always flip over.

Your idea is tremendous Leif and people need laughter so much more than thay want to let on in the work place....that is sad.

I have a zillion ideas in my head and my sister Amanda is always poking at me to finally take the leap of faith to pursue one of them. Does anyone have $100,000 seed money?

Beth, does Mr. Tibs deliver? I could get into that.

Leif, if it helps you: From my experience in Corporate World I think that middle management is typically very open to having fun with their work. Upper management only needs to see how it increases productivity and the bottom line. So, if you approach the upper strata with a straight accountant face and middle management with a clown face, you might be "in." Sure, it's a game, but you can make it a fun one.

Back to the topic of "wild ideas," I really like flavored fingernail polish. It sounds weird, but it's one of those things that suddenly goes big.

Another Wild Idea: Tree house home offices!

David - I haven't fleshed out the Mr. Tibs idea... My husband & I were tossing around restaurant concepts and got stuck in the North-African modality. His fave was Wat Wat, mine was Mr. Tibbs. (as in Mr. Pibb). Cause if you brought ethiopian food to the masses, it would be really funny to have chicken mr. tibbs, beef mr. tibbs, etc.

(For those who don't get the joke, check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_cuisine or any local ethio restaurant.)

Back about 20 years ago, visited the Museum of Holography in New York (SoHo). One hologram showed a chocolate lab: as you walked around the image you could see the shine of his nose and incredibly fine details in his coat.

I read the description of how easy it is to create a holographic portrait (with expensive equipment). A feature of a laser-etched glass pane is that if broken or cut, each piece contains the image. That gave me the idea of hologram portrait studios. One-upping JC Penney, you bring in the fam and get a hologram. Then the glass is cut into 8x10 glossies and wallet sizes.

(One challenge is you do not capture true chromatic details, the image is an iridescent multi-tone one.) One feature of these is they can depict different aspects of an individual as the observer's perspective changes relative to the image. I saw a great moving portrait of Shakespeare (actor portrayal) in the Kaknas Tower in Stockholm. He's musing, then as you walk by the spark of an inspiration is evident, until he lifts his head and smiles with revelation.

Tangential to this, or perhaps peninsular: 3D images using stereopticons have been around since the days of daguerreotypes. With the advent of digital photography, the low cost of parallel camera technology and programs like photsynth, it seems to me it would be easy to create home 3D videos and galleries. The special 3D glasses are very cheap.

I guess the question is market demand.

Cool idea Brian. Reminds me of the pix in the Harry Potter series (though obviously those were much more like movies).

Oh, speaking of Harry, here's another one I thought of.

Remember how the paintings in the Harry Potter books/movies had characters that were 'alive' in some sense and how they could leave their frame and go over to another painting. Well, I was thinking how cool it would be to create a screen-saver where you get to choose various painting scenes with some primary character in them --that intelligent agent would then wander around the net to other people's screen savers and interact in some way. The 'wanderings' could include information gathering/exchanging, social exchanges with those who meet a similar 'match' of your profile, or perhaps just be fun to see that Abdul's character (A smurf) from Saudi Arabia has wandered into your Van Gogh...

Man, I really want to do this one too! -Leif

Trombone mouthpieces custom-fitted for dogs.

When I was younger I though it would be great to have a restaurant theatre, but the theatre would be hallograms that would be reinactments of old movies like White Christmas, Anchors Away, etc. Then I saw a show where they actually use hallograms for medicinal surgery purposes and I thought that was genious. However, I guess I just can't get away from my fun and creative mind.

I really wish I had been the creator of the swifer products; I bet that team of people are millionaires ten times over.

Cheers!

Quick Kitty Litter,

Like quick sand. Cat goes into the box and disappears!

Odour free

Hilarious Stephen! Though, I actually do have 2 cats. How about something for dog hair!

I don't know why my dogs cannot be fitted with some sort of contraption that sucks up the dog fur that falls from their bodies. I see those dog harnesses that pets wear all the time, this one would have a built in battery operated vacuum system that would keep up with the fur.

MONEY MAKER MONEY MAKER

Awesome, idea, Elizabeth! Why stop at dogs? My entire family is covered in cat hair. We look like another species.

I love this topic.

When I get stuck for an idea, I use a little system whereby I come up with the craziest, weirdest, most impossible solution ever.

Usually, there's a nugget of reality in there and I can start paring it down to the possible.

Not only is it fun to think that way, I get my best ideas.

So, from trombone mouthpiece fittings for dogs, we've got dog hair collector vacuums.

We're getting somewhere with this.

That's why we're independent business people, isn't it? We can thinkify stuff that corporations repress.

Funny how life can be a circle sometimes. I'm actually working with a partner in NY on a social site the primary focus is idea generation like this. coolness.

Oh, Leif. I need to talk to you some more! Idea generation is my most favorite thing in the world (and it sucks up great gobs of time). Please keep me informed on your partnership!

And Stephen, well, we both know how we feel about cats. But, still, I feel like there's something about you I like. Can't explain it.

I think there will reach a day when the BIG executives will realize that their most productive and creative employees are the ones who are allowed to think in different ways, to create and, yes, to laugh.