the landfill prize

behold, a new annual award that purports to:

" ... celebrate the stupendous creativity of the people tasked with inventing constantly inflated new wants for us to want. It's a monument to perverse imagination and needless consumption. Most importantly, it's a plea for us to say, "Thanks. We've got enough stuff", and to evolve ourselves out of this crazy cycle."

click here to find out more about "enoughism". i certainly could be interested in something viable that cuts down on useless 'necessities'. john naish, the guru behind all this, wrote a brief piece in the times last month to inspire nominations for the prize. among the top ten useless inventions he nominated:

"The combined plow and gun
Patent no 35600, issued 1862

Balloon propelled by eagles or vultures
Patent no 863087, issued 1887

Water-filled brassiere
Patent no US4734078, issued 1988

Alarm-equipped fork
US patent 5,421,089, issued 1995"

for the others, look here.