Leigh’s Five Things to Listen to, Watch, Read, Sign up to and Do (May)
If you want to reflect on the madness of modern life, Google ‘National Days’ and read the list of things that have days of celebration allocated to them. It’s birthdays gone mad and May is a doozy of a month for national days! Apart from Mothers’ Day, May contains World Cocktail Day, Global Love Day, National Scavenger Hunt Day, International Red Sneakers Day and my personal favourite, National Cellophane Tape Day. Known in my house as sticky tape, May 27thcelebrates this amazing product, invented by Richard Drew in 1930.
Imagine what life would be like without this…how would we wrap presents or fix hems that are falling down (although I have been known to use staples for this)? There are so many things that we take for granted in our day-to-day life, but it’s worth remembering that someone spotted an opportunity to make life easier and did something about it. So this month’s LWRSUD celebrates invention and innovation and I’m going to go out on a limb here and say I did not expect to learn as much as I did!
Listen: Ted
I put inventions into the TED search engine and then spent an hour trying to work out which one to choose. There is so much good stuff that has been invented or can be considered inventions so I’m going to leave it up to you. The link in the title, takes you to my search…good luck and enjoy!
Watch: 20 Inventions That Changed The World! YouTube
A list like this is a hard task as there is so much that has made a difference to our lives. However, there are some major improvements that should probably be on any list, so watch this 7 min video to explore more. I’ll never think of containers in the same way again!
Read: Sisters in Innovation 20 Women Inventors You Should Know A mighty Girl
Wow – what an amazing list of women!! Their inventions have changed the way we can drive, carry groceries, drink coffee and use nappies and so much more. There are many times when writing LWRSUD when I alternate between being really proud about what women have achieved and really frustrated that I didn’t know about it….this is one of those times. The blog starts with this quote “Around the world and across history, innovative women have imagined, developed, tested, and perfected their creations, and yet most of us would be hard pressed to name even a single woman inventor. In fact, women inventors are behind many of the products and technologies used every day!” Who knew? But we should do!
Sign up to: inventorsmart monthly.
OK – if you’ve got this far, you need this newsletter. It will help with what I’m suggesting below. This newsletter has everything – tips, resources, advice…and it comes out once a month! All you need to do is get your invention. So read on….
Do: Spot an invention
Spend a bit of time looking for a household item that you can innovate and therefore make it better. I’m always saying, ‘this would be better if…’ and if I followed through, I might have made a million. That’s got to be worth a few minutes!