You're out and about. You need a decent reflection (something superior to a car windshield or restaurant window), but there's no mirror handy. Whip a can of Mirror-Mist out of your backpack and spray a small quantity on any flat surface. When the liquid dries, you'll have a perfect albeit temporary mirror: on the sidewalk, on a mailbox, on the cover of a book, on your briefcase, anywhere. It's easy to wipe away with a paper towel and completely biodegradable (based on the same compound that makes the skin of an apple shiny and reflective).
Also useful for people with a fear of breaking mirrors.-- earl, Jul 08 2002 I'd carry this around with my saline solution....it would help me be able to *fix* a contact lens anywhere without having to search for a bathroom or peer awkwardly into car mirrors. Croissant!-- runforrestrun, Jul 08 2002 what is it made of? fear of mirrors = catoptrophobia I believe.-- po, Jul 08 2002 I haven't settled on a final formula, but the main ingredient will almost certainly be love.
The most important difference between Mirror-Mist and the roll-up mirror is portability.
Mirror Mirror on the go,
Who looks the most like J-Lo?-- earl, Jul 08 2002 //main ingredient will almost certainly be love//
Do you also make 'bucket-in-a-can'?-- drew, Jul 08 2002 [bliss]: My definition of a reflectiphobiac would be someone who refuses to take stock of his or her life, refuses to introspect even in the slightest degree, and refuses to meditate on the consequences of his or her decisions and actions. An impulse-driven rejector of the inner life.-- earl, Jul 08 2002 love is a form of madness. hardly a topping for pizza let alone a formula for a spray-on-mirror.-- po, Jul 08 2002 [po]: OK then, the main ingredient will be wisdom, because it lets you see yourself as you truly are
My first prototypes used mercury (borrowing the idea from liquid mirror telescopes such as the one at the University of British Columbia), but I was so wretchedly ill all the time I couldn't bear to look at myself-- earl, Jul 08 2002 are you trying to annoy or what? these are abstracts.-- po, Jul 08 2002 Must, resist, m-f-d WIBNI, uh,...-- [ sctld ], Jul 08 2002 OK OK, no more kidding around, the spray is made of mercury. Now I just have to figure out how to make it safe.
I think that each HB idea and its set of annotations is kind of like a developing weather system. Both follow some basic rules and patterns, while leaving room for wildness and unpredictability. Both feature interacting cold fronts and warm fronts. Both have activity on multiple levels (in the case of the HB, these might be the pedantsphere, the jokesphere, the dreamsphere, etc). Sometimes the right circumstances and entities come together to form the "perfect storm" - older bakers would have better examples than me. I think I might turn this into an idea - a way of thinking about the Halfbakery.
Back to the mercury. Any thoughts?-- earl, Jul 08 2002 For what it's worth, the most important element of a mirror is its smoothness. So you either want a compound that automatically smooths its surface perfectly, or start out with a smooth surface (say, window glass in the city, water in the country).-- DrCurry, Jul 08 2002 In the former case, it's WIBNI. In the latter case, it's basically silver spray-paint.-- bookworm, Jul 08 2002 Stuck between a rock and a baked place.-- earl, Jul 08 2002 Martha Stewart: "A gentle coating of mirror mist is the hospitable way to brighten those sturdy but dull pewter table utensils."
I agree with the abstracts, and I'm with them.-- reensure, Jul 08 2002 It's the company motto.-- drew, Jul 09 2002 Puritans didn't/don't like mirrors? Man, those people don't like the truth and they don't like lies. There's no pleasing them (which I suppose is part of the point).-- earl, Jul 09 2002 Earl: Many people are under the mistaken impression that the Puritnas emigrated to the New World tom escape religious intolerance. In fact, they went there so they themselves could be intolerant in their own particualr way. I believe historical fact will back me up on this (c.f Bill Bryson). But the list of things they did and didn't like is surprisingly contradictory.
Mirrors (and mirror type effects) rely on nothing more than an extremely smooth planar surface. An intriguing idea. I'll give it some thought.-- 8th of 7, Jul 09 2002 no, I want real Mirror-Mist. When I look into mirror there, through a swirling mist I see myself.-- rmtmaine, Jul 09 2002 rmtmaine: "When I look into mirror there, through a swirling mist I see myself." .... "As in a glass, darkly", perchance ?-- 8th of 7, Jul 09 2002 "I am half-sick of shadows," cried the Lady of Shalott.
"shadow": Victorian term for reflection-- earl, Jul 09 2002 No, but that girl certainly knows her onions .....-- 8th of 7, Jul 09 2002 + This is awesome, even if it may be bad science...-- xandram, Nov 05 2015 random, halfbakery