We’ve all read the advice on how to get ketchup out of a bottle. That we need advice in the first place strikes me as a problem. It’s a bottle. It contains a viscous substance. That damn stuff likes to stay in its place.

There’s the tap on the “sweet spot” solution. There’s hold the bottle at a precise angle and gently but firmly (do those two words belong together) shake. Both methods achieve the same goal – get some air in there to ease the suction (or something more scientific) but in my case, both methods almost always result in me slathering my meal or myself in ketchup. There is a reason why I almost never wear white.

MIT engineers have come to the rescue. 6 researchers, working on an entrepreneurship competition, created a non-toxic material dubbed “LiquiGlide” (snigger away). They used it to coat the inside of the bottle so no ketchup is left behind.

Condiments may sound like a narrow focus for a group of MIT engineers, but not when you consider the impact it could have on food waste and the packaging industry. ‘It’s funny: Everyone is always like, “Why bottles? What’s the big deal?” But then you tell them the market for bottles—just the sauces alone is a $17 billion market. And if all those bottles had our coating, we estimate that we could save about one million tons of food from being thrown out every year.

http://www.fastcoexist.com/embed/89099ca915d05

They sound very altruistic and it is a nifty idea but they left out the part about them becoming very rich in the process. I also can’t help but wonder whenever I read that a newly invented product is non-toxic – ‘Is it really?’ Did they put it through vigorous testing? Wait long stretches of time to ensure subjects didn’t develop side effects? Let’s see what they say in 10 years. Until then, we can eat ketchup with great ease.

- via NPR

I took the photo above in Sweden. You can’t tell, but the hotdog is wearing an American flag over his bun. The picture is a tad out of focus, but it was so bizarre I had to keep it, and now share it with you.