The Cubicle Celebrates its 40th
The soulless, misunderstood cubicle is celebrating its 40th birthday this month, according to the Kansas City Star (via CareerBuilder.com).

Will you be celebrating?

An Umbrella for the 21st Century
It's been pretty rainy around here lately. Here's one possible solution: A hands-free umbrella that straps onto your shoulders.

via Neatorama

Will the Nubrella replace the humble umbrella?

It's the "ultimate weather protector" that apparently has been wind tested up to 50 miles per hour. The Nubrella promise: "It can not and will not invert in any wind."

Stimulating the Economy
We recently mentioned how some companies are responding to high fuel prices by offering gas cards to workers. These days, such gift cards for employees AND clients are proving fruitful.

To wit, in a report from Reuters:

Clients of the Shady Lady Ranch in Beatty, NV, now have another reason to be happy at the end of an hour-long session: They'll be treated to a complimentary $50 gas voucher.

One-hour's worth of services usually runs $300, but the owner of the brothel figured clients need extra incentive to make the trip to the ranch 130 miles away from Las Vegas.

Although "June and July historically are not big months," the brothel went through $1,000 in gas cards in less than a week and has had to order more to keep the promotion going.

The Upside of High Gas Prices
Researchers at the National Safety Council report a 9 percent drop in motor vehicle deaths overall through May this year, compared with the first five months of 2007, including a drop of 18 percent in March and 14 percent in April.

The Associated Press reports that, while eight states have noted increases, 31 states have reported traffic death declines of 10 percent or more, and some report a drop of 20 percent or more.

No one can say definitively why road fatalities are falling, but the council, which has released its findings in an unofficial study, says the last time road deaths fell this fast and this sharply was during the Arab oil embargo from 1973 to 1974.

Futuristic Windshields
Researchers at General Motors Corp. are developing a futuristic windshield to aid the elderly in keeping their eyes on the road.

The windshield will employ lasers, infrared sensors and a camera to enhance visibility of objects on the road and will focus on select objects. For instance, the infrared sensors would detect a person crossing the street in the driver's path and project that person's outline on the windshield.

According to the Associated Press: "GM's new windshield won't improve their vision, but it will make objects stand out that could otherwise go unnoticed by an aged eye."

So it's kind of like giving drivers Terminator vision — except it's trying to save people's lives rather than take them.

In Which this Blogger Betrays His Non-Geeky Exterior
The 2008 Space Elevator Conference took place last week. Yes, there is a conference on space elevators.

And at the official conference blog (via Gizmodo), there was a working model of a space elevator — made of LEGO blocks. Yes, it is as cool as you'd expect it to be.

Cheers.