Word: jetpack
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Gist: When freelance writer Mac Montandon was growing up, he explains at the outset of Jetpack Dreams, he saw the turn of the millennium as a distant future full of awesome toys. "In that glorious future," he writes, "we would have long ago traded in our dirt-streaked Hyundais...at the very least, we'd have hovercrafts and flying cars. But really, the future meant jetpacks." Now that the future has arrived, he asks a simple question: "Where's my 'f-----g jetpack?' The device captured imaginations in movies like Thunderball and The Rocketeer, but attempts to harness its potential...
...Jetpack Dreams: One Man's Up and Down (But Mostly Down) Search for the Greatest Invention That Never Was By Mac Montandon Da Capo Press; 261 pages...
...superhero—“The Great Machine”—and dons a really goofy-looking suit. With the help of his best friend and his mentor, he builds the cool gadgets that start coming to him in dreams. Zipping around the city in a jetpack, he tries to save lives. Problem is, he’s not so good at it. His wild powers end up causing more trouble than they prevent. In a typical example, he saves a kid by shouting “full stop!” at an oncoming train...
...likeable and multi-dimensional. Mitchell’s dreadlocked deputy mayor generates much of the political tension, arguing with Mitchell over school vouchers and gay marriage. Kremlin, Mitchell’s grizzled Russian mentor, strains their relationship by trying to get Mitchell out of politics and back on the jetpack. Even Mitchell’s mother appears for a few quirky-yet-tender moments, when the story flashes back to his childhood...
Nike has not been as active in the commercial market, but it may have developed the most innovative cooling product for the Games. This winter Nike tested its Precool vest, which looks like a James Bond jetpack, on the Australian field-hockey team and found that it slows the rise of athletes' core body temperature 19% during competition. The company's researchers instruct athletes to wrap themselves in the close-fitting vest, which holds about a dozen ice packs, for 60 minutes before a race or game. During the first 30 minutes, the athlete relaxes; the next 30 are spent...