I'll tell you a secret. I'm addicted to "American Inventor" the TV show.

[Radio_Lady]

I have no idea why. There's two hours of it coming up at 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM Pacific Time. I'm going to watch it now.

Has anyone else seen it?

[Starbucks Anarchist]

1. Yes, but I have to watch it for work.

[Radio_Lady]

3. You have to watch it for work? Why? What kind of work?

Are you an inventor? Or with a company that contacts prospective inventors to help them patent their ideas?

[Starbucks Anarchist]

6. No -- check your PM shortly.

[Radio_Lady]

12. Thanks, Starbucks Anarchist!

Sounds like an interesting job. My grandchildren are learning to read, and I find that captioning is quite useful.

We didn't have it when I was on TV. As a matter of fact, most of the kinescopes of the show I did in the late 50s have been destroyed (they weren't that good anyway).

In the 1960s, we physically had to type directly on a roll of teleprompter paper -- I think the roll was about 22 inches wide -- and then the roll was mounted above the large TV camera to cue the talent. Of course, there were "CUE CARDS" and I've done hundreds of those with markers and cardboard!



It all seems so archaic now! At KOPB-TV, they just type regularly on a keyboard and it comes up on a monitor screen on top of the camera lens for talent to read. Most all of the shows are "closed captioned" as well as "described video" or DVI for the blind, which runs on a second audio channel on many programs.

I have to laugh when I remember it took a letter two or three days to go from one building in Manhattan to another.

Before FAXES.

Before CELLPHONES.

Before COMPUTERS (well, they were around in university settings, I guess...)

Here's what I feel like think about it --

[Radio_Lady]

15. Here's the link to "American Inventor" web site:

http://abc.go.com/primetime/americaninventor/index.html

[bigwillq]

2. I watched it for the first time last night.

But only the first hour. Then it was time for CSI!

I liked the show. Some cool ideas.

[Wapsie B]

4. Yes I have.

The guy with the football training aid has an invention that shows a lot of promise. I hope he gets that thing to market.

[Radio_Lady]

5. I'm not sure how that items works (never played football). Does it

keep the received from holding the ball against his chest, or "trapping" it?

It looks like a long plastic toy called a "noodle" that we use in water aerobic classes.

[Wapsie B]

8. Yes that's the general idea.

It's supposed to teach proper hand position to receivers.

[serryjw]

7. I watched every week

and forgot this week..What happened?

[Wapsie B]

9. They narrowed the field

down to 12. I can't remember who got kicked off.

[Duer 157099]

10. Yeah, I've watched all of them (but haven't seen last night's yet)

It drives me nuts that they spend so much time on really stupid stuff, and then they show you one second clips of some that really looked interesting. I can only guess that they are saving those for later episodes.

It was amazing to watch how passionate some people got about some really er... uh.. (trying to be kind here) "uninspired" inventions.

edit to add: the one I really wanted to see was the dog hamster-wheel thing!! My dog needs that!!

[Nicole]

11. I'm addicted to it also.

I'm really pulling for the guy who invented the infant car seat made of spheres that will spin in case of crashes.

I was surprised the restroom door clip made the finals.

[Radio_Lady]

13. My father invented a coin-operated microscope machine.

He patented it and put some prototypes of the machine in the Miami Seaquarium, the zoo, and a couple of other places in Florida.

For 25 cents, you could see the eye of a fly, the stinger of a bee, human blood cells, and a couple of other slides I don't remember.

He made quite a hunk of change at the places he put those machines.

I'm sure you can see all of those things for free on the Internet today.

[Radio_Lady]

14. Nicole, I like the spherical baby seat, but wouldn't it be hard to clean?

After all, babies have lots of spit-up and other delightful discharges.

I don't know how the baby seat would be anchored.

In general, I don't there there is any one of the twelve items that I would go out and purchase!

(I fell asleep during the second hour, so can't recall who is in the running now...)

[Nicole]

17. I wondered about cleaning too

Maybe with the $50K he won to develop it further, he will make that part of it's modifications.

I agree with you on the purchasing, I don't think I would purchase any of those items.

The link below will show you is in the finals.


http://abc.go.com/primetime/americaninventor/

[Nicole]

16. That sounds neat

Glad he was able to see his work pay off. :toast: