In a joint project, the University of Leicester and Doritos have been working together to create and broadcast the first commercial aimed squarely at aliens. You know, because they might be looking for a different kinda chip after all several millenia of the same old junk.

Maverick Professor and crazy as a bag of chips, Darren Wright says that “everything is going as planned” and that it’s sure to be “an historical moment for it is the first time that we will broadcast a message to the space, far beyond our Solar System.” The target seems to be alien consumers located about 42 light years from the Earth, in an area that’s virgin territory for Cool Ranch and the mystery flavor gimmick known as “The Quest”. I’m sure they’re itching to corner the market in that sector of space before everyone from Coke to Pringles starts sending their own spam.

Here’s another one of those ideas that is so simple it’s amazing no one has come up with it before. It’s actually the work of a genius. It’s a plastic bottle with a special cap that holds 1.4 grams of a powder, like powdered green tea for instance. It’s released into the water below when it’s twisted open. So, you can mix fresh powdered drinks from a standalone bottle that you buy at the store.

I know, I know. In a way it’s pointless. Powder doesn’t need to be fresh and you can already buy your drinks premixed. But it’s just the kind of cool thing we would have seen Marty McFly do in the future.(Had the writers thought of it.) I see more of a future in using the caps with bottles you already reuse so you can have something on the go, when you need it.