I have had a very simple invention in mind ever since they came out with scratch off lottery tickets. I don’t think anyone has ever make it. A plastic item that would scratch off the card and at the same time scoop up the mess that comes off the card. These could be made with 4 leaf clovers or other lucky charms on them or with the names of companies to give out instead of cards.

I have invented something that I know would sweep the world if I could ever have it produced, but I would be a total knucklehead to elaborate on it and risk having one of you savvy ladies pounce on it and make millions!

My oldest son was born in 1982 and when he was about 2 or 3 I used to mix fruit juice with soda water as an alternative to “pop”. We called it “Juice Pop”. It was a couple years later that the bottled, fizzy juices came out. I remember at the time I was making “Juice Pop” I said, I should bottle this stuff.

I invented a way to clean calcium deposits from my kitchen faucet. I have hard water and the minerals leave spots. Mix lemon juice with water 1:4 an add a few drops of mild dish soap into a large spay bottle. You can spray on and let set for a few minutes if it has built up some deposits. If you use it every day you just spray and wipe. If you have extremely bad calcium deposits (white water spots and build up) use lemon juice FULL strength, let sit a few minutes and attempt to scrub carefully with a non-scratching scrubber or plastic utensil (or toothpick in the cracks will work, too)—then rinse with water. This solution will leave your chrome faucets very shiny with no streaking. This also works very well on glass vases that are cloudy on the bottom, much better than vinegar.

My invention is strictly in-house. I use PVC glue by the gallon making books by the edition. So I invented a round wire that goes around the outside of the glue jar with a piece of the wire going across the center of the jar. It’s to wipe your gluey brush on instead of wiping on the edge of the jar and losing quite a bit of glue down the inside of the jar. Now, isn’t that brilliant?! Only a big-time gluer would understand, but all my students over 30 years of teaching know about it.

Yeah, well, old Tom took a lot of credit for things Tesla dreamed up. Tesla: alternating current, (the Hoover Dam) and zero-point energy, among the hundreds of other patents he developed - and manipulated in his own imagination because he could visualize in 3-D. Every time you plug something into a socket- that’s Nikola. He was underfunded and doubted, but his ideas about energy are being taken very seriously now and and may still liberate us from all fossil fuel and nuke dependency. This I know because my father drummed it into me. Also an inventor, of mostly games, and sold his concepts to Bennet Cerf and 3-M. Like this: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Dennis_Matheson/3m19.htm Boxes of these and other games would suddenly appear in the house. In my teens, I worked with him, building tiny wooden prototypes on the kitchen table. My first science project was a pretty snazzy rotary generator for my Brownies group. There is no end to how this gene has permeated my corpus and psyche.

I have an invention, but do not have money too market it, do you know how I can get some funding? I have been using it for 4 years, and it makes a world of difference, in the bedroom. No it is not a sex toy!

In the sixth grade, early sixties, I won second place at the school science fair for my “automatic paint brush.” All I did was put a paint on a crank and attached it to a cart built from my brother’s erector set. (Do they still make erector sets/) It was great if all you wanted was a slopping stripe about a foot above the ground. I don’t know why they gave me a prize. Beyond that, I’ve invented a lot of effective sales copy, lyrics, poetry, songs and jingles, along with a few original characters for stage and screen, and a life-style that suits me. But nothing that another could actually pick up and use to support their daily function.

I invented excercising the right to vote for the best candidate in my geographic area (for you-know-who) today. I tried to get yard signs but they would only sell them in the area I am presently planted, and never seemed to have any on hand. I highly suspect some women are closet-voters, though; however, I have not found 1 person in “these parts” who has read a book during this non-ending campaign, nor will they check out www.factcheck.org or even www.snopes.com. He’s still a Muslim terrorist-plant. Well, at least some healthfood stores are still functioning but the best social comment movies don’t last long, or don’t get here (and it’s not in the hinterlands). There have been petitions at the local stores (are those ACORN workers?) to sign to move this area into a “wet” environment, so the students don’t have to drive 21 miles for “beer” on game nights (and guess who profits anyway?). I so wanted to put up a huge yard sign - I’m too old for anyone to beat me up (I hope). To think that was the first goal I put in place for Ann’s re-election campaign in Dallas; then registering voters in the workplace (it worked, too!).

I am a futurist… and my ‘invention’ is a Global Organization called AlterQuest (which is short for ‘THE Alternative Quest for Answers!’). I hope to use AlterQuest to gather people from communities all over the world, so they can unite and make a better way of life for themselves, their families, their communities and ultimately the entire Planet. The idea is that people join (for free) and they get a myriad of ideas and concepts which they then take to their localities and, along with others in their region, they implement these new methods which are an adjunct and work along side the ‘old’ system. This way people can implement their own community food supply, power sources, monetary system, job creation schemes and more… This is all REAL. The concepts I teach people are workable, and they are being used successfully in communities all over the world - at this moment. My goal is to help women, men and children everywhere to find new ways of living and not just leave them stranded in the ‘old system’. If the world is going to survive, and if our civilization is going to progress in the 21st century, we must start using new ways of living - ways which are kinder and more beneficial for all mankind - and not just good for a few! My biggest obstacle has been sharing this concept to everyone around the globe. I don’t have big advertising budgets and I live in Australia and yet I really feel it is my life’s work to get this message out and teach others how to think outside the box in order to survive in this century and beyond. See: www.alterquest.org PS If you have any ideas which are working in your community and which might be useful for others, please let me know. We can add them to the AlterQuest.org ideas exchange. Conversely, if you want ideas which work, just let me know.