The Land of Opportunity

Tyler Cowen reports on an advance so awesome that I'm prepared to declare 21st century Japan the pinnacle of human culture -- a glasses-cleaning machine that deals with the problem that the post-cleaning drying of the glasses tends to smudge them again. "I've never ever had my glasses so clean before," reports Tyler.

And yet, this kind of miracle is never going to be properly accounted for in purchase power parity calculations.

Comments

The same could be said for CPI bias.

Posted by Cisco | May 24, 2008 3:23 PM

If you get the cloth and cleaning fluid for cleaning camera lenses it's just as good for a much lower price.

After all, this is the country that though it would be a good idea to put lasers on their robots.

Posted by Nicholas Beaudrot | May 24, 2008 4:22 PM

I have never wanted a gadget so much in my life.

Posted by Persia | May 24, 2008 4:34 PM

After all, this is the country that though it would be a good idea to put lasers on their robots.

It was sharks, wasn't it? Not robots?

Posted by rea | May 24, 2008 4:45 PM

That sounds pretty awesome.

Posted by djw | May 24, 2008 6:23 PM

"It was sharks, wasn't it? Not robots?"

Dr. Evil could not get "frickin' sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their frickin' heads." He had to settle for mutated sea bass.

Posted by Michael Kelly | May 24, 2008 8:04 PM

Those things have been around in Asia for years and years. I think I remember seeing them in COEX mall in Seoul at least four years ago...

Now as far as great advances in society, I'm a big fan of the Korean DVD Bang ;)

Posted by Bosh | May 24, 2008 8:44 PM

If you are at home, and have a few minutes, washing the lenses with liquid dish-washing soap and setting them down on a paper towel for a few minutes works quite well.

Posted by josephdietrich | May 25, 2008 7:01 AM