Lester Clancy of Mansfield, Ohio has invented what could be called the air guitar version of jump rope - two maraca-like weighted handles* that offer the pleasures of rope without the associated nastiness:

[CNN] It's perfect for the clumsy, Clancy said. "If you are still jumping, you're still using your legs as well as your arms, and getting the cardiovascular workout. You just don't have to worry about tripping on the rope."

It is also good for mental institutions and prisons where rope is a suicide risk, said Clancy, who works as a laundry coordinator in a state prison. And low ceiling fans aren't a hazard any more, he said.

The Cordless Jump Rope is the heir apparent to a long line of what are called chindōgu in Japan...devices like these really inspire me to become an intellectual property lawyer. Who wouldn't love to represent the inventor of the Hay Fever Hat? [via Patently Silly]

* Clancy has only built one of the Cordless Jump Ropes so far, in anticipation of investor financing, so what we have at this point is the zen Sound Of One End Of A Jump Rope Twirling; a Cordless Lasso For Phantom Dogies Lost in the Desert of Dementia. Not sure about these being ideal for prisons, though; rope problems aside, these look like they could do some serious damage in the wrong hands - or orifices.

---