“NASA spent 8 years and billions developing a pen that could write in space. It needed to be able to work in zero gravity, at a range of temperatures, and be able to write on any surface. The Russians used a pencil.”

It seems that the pen took only 2 years and 2 million to develop, but it is a great story that is true for many products.

This reminds me of term for useless inventions coined by Kenji Kawakami: chindogu, more here and here. Some of these inventions are hilariously funny, however, I suspect that car companies stumbled accros the the Softdrink Holder and thought it wasn’t such a useless idea after all.

Portable office tie.