Coughing and Inventions

Every once in a while, it will happen. An anchor will be reading a news story and a coughing fit will occur. To make it worse, the coughing doesn't happen at the end of a news block, but rather in the middle. That was the case this morning for Shannon. And as you saw, it doesn't always lead to a graceful exchange. Admittedly, it cause me off guard. I had just walked back into the studio for the coughing. Good timing, except my scripts were a little out of order and the prompter operator got slightly ahead of me. The first story after the switch... not so good. Thankfully, I got my bearings and finished the news. Shannon was okay, but had water nearby for the rest of the show.

Our ABC Tech Bytes segment had a story that peaked our curiosity this morning, and we had to figure out how a gadget worked. In case you missed it, it was the Bottoms Up Draft Beer Dispenser. As the name implies, it's a beer dispenser, but it fills the cup from the bottom. Naturally, we had to find out how. Apparently, there's a magnetic valve at the bottom of the glass. Beer enters through the valve, and when the glass is full, the pump shuts off. The pressure of the beer pushes down on the valve, keeping it closed. And how do they disguise the valve? As an advertisement for beer. Oh technology, you never cease to amaze us.