Sunday, May 07, 2006 AD
Umbrella with a Sting in the tail
"Sting" was, of course, Frodo's sword in Lord of the Rings, which had the useful feature of glowing blue whenever orcs were in the vicinity. Conrad Gempf reports on an ingenious real-life counterpart: an umbrella that glows blue depending on how likely it is to rain. How does it know? Well, depending on where you are on the poetic/literal continuum, it's either elvish magic, lost in the mists of Middle Earth history; or else it's WiFi technology cooked up by a couple of guys in Chicago. Your choice, but I know which I prefer to believe. ;-)
