"There's a machine for that"

Sometimes science and technology make you wonder. Just like the food and wine industry spend approximately the GDP of a small equatorial country on crop enhancement, the science industry spends hugely disproportionate amounts of money on sometimes useless products with a view to the market where gadget-junkies shop.
If we stop to think about it, how many things do we own that actually save time and enhance the quality of our lives? I, for instance, own two teapots. One large enough to serve several people, and one small one that fits on top of a cup. I thought the small one was really cute, but now that I've used it a couple of times, I know that the fact that it fits on top of a cup is a bit of a moot point as I can't drink out of the cup if the teapot is on top.
Some things can of course be both time and labour efficient, such as the KitchenAid add-on that grinds sausage meat directly into sausage skins. Titti has been hand-stuffing all her sausages - and I tell you, you did not want to be the happy person to tell her "you know, there is a machine for that". I somehow could tell by the look on her face that she knew that.

The BBC has just announced the fabulous invention of the 3D chocolate printer. It can print 3D images in chocolate, such as letters, shapes and maybe even faces. This is, apparently, a great commercial aspect. So let me ask, how many times in your life have you thought "wow, if I could just print my face in chocolate my life would be so much better/easier". Who wants to eat a chocolate face anyway? The letter thing I get, but - hang on, here it comes - aren't there moulds for that? Or even piping bags? Buying a chocolate printer seems quite an investment when silicone baking moulds are ubiquitous and cheap. Sometimes I think that the scientist stereotype of an out-of-touch-with-reality geek sticks around for a reason...
It actually gets better, this chocolate printer thing. Apparently its inventors want to make a chocolate-oriented website to go with it. Wow. Now that's something that hasn't been done before. I feel I need to give these people some advice: before securing an investment for this amazing project, you might want to find out if it's been done before. There is a machine for that. It's called a computer, and it has something called "Google" which is a bit like an oracle-encyclopaedia hybrid. It's a really good invention that saves both time and money. You might want to try it sometime.

(picture from bbc.co.uk)