Despite the negative rap associated with drinking alcoholic beverages, it cannot be denied that many ingenious ideas have been spawned over an ice-cold beer. While having a beer with a friend, photographer and inventor John Carnett of Philadelphia, came up with the idea to make an all-in-one beer-brewing machine. I credit him especially for, after having about 6 pints, remembering the next day to follow up on the idea. Had it been done before? Did something like this already exist? Lucky for John and his partner, John O’Donnell, they are the very first to manufacture and market the all-in-one beer-brewing machine. It’s called the NanoBrewMaster.

Automotive designer/builder Jack McCornack of Cave Junction, Oregon, is the proprietor of Kinetic Vehicles, an organization that designs alternative, fuel-efficient, low cost sports cars, in addition to selling racecar kits for street, autocross, and track uses. Over the past 40 years Jack has built a name for himself in the spectrum of independent automotive design, accumulating many followers. He actively takes on new challenges and puts his concepts into action. His most recent challenge, summoned up by the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize (PIAXP) competition, is to build a viable, super fuel-efficient car that gets at least 100mpg, is production worthy, and is salable in today’s automotive markets. In August of ’07, Jack immediately got to work building his prototype MAX which, in giving credit to his sponsor, Mothers Earth News, stands for Mother’s Automotive X challenger.