Word: detectors
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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NIGHT LIGHT Here's a bit of practical magic: Huffy Sports' Twilight basketball ($25). A battery-powered bulb shines through the ball's translucent skin, so you can shoot hoops long after the sun goes down. It's easy to turn on and has a motion detector to shut it off automatically after five idle minutes. But what good is seeing the ball if you can't see the net? You might just have to spring for Huffy's Satellight lighted backboard...
...There's more, like the female scientist who saw a flashing light in the smoke detector and heard "an unusual noise that sounded like an auto-focus camera lens as it adjusted" whenever she got undressed. Another scientist traveling in a foreign country checked his laptop - which had been padlocked - to find it had been entered with a "guest access" sign-in. Computer logs revealed that the same logon had been used the last time he was in that country...
...reason why, within the next quarter-century, the industry can't at last conquer a driving menace as old as the automobile itself. Think of it: a built-in car-sickness detector, able to identify the motion-queasy before they get into the car and start whining, and instantly bar their entry. Surely it's not asking too much to expect cars of the future to incorporate a dainty but palpable electric shock that reminds front-seat passengers to keep their stupid feet off the dashboard...
...located on page 18 of the newspaper, just to the left of the U.S. temperature map. Eighteen pages earlier, the day's top headline proclaimed "U.S. Will Let Friends From Cuba Visit Elian," which was closely followed by the revelation that Jon Benet Ramsey's parents rejected a lie detector test...
...naps dried up ten people ago. Luckily, I'm male, and don't have to come into contact with the seat I'm standing over, and I indulge myself in what has to be done. I am, in the process, distracted by the warning label next to the smoke detector. "Tampering with the smoke detector," it reads, "is strictly prohibited." I take a sigh of relief, and am thankful of the warning. My uncontrollable urge to vandalize would otherwise have gotten the best...