In The Pipeline

Got e-Moo?

Mac Farms of Burlington, Mass., hopes to get e-Moo, its new beverage, into the hands of young consumers this June.

The milk-based carbonated drink, made for the "Internet generation," will be available in the Northeast in three flavors: bubble gum, chocolate raspberry, and orange creamsicle. It's about 95 percent milk, and not nearly as carbonated as most sodas, according to Mary Ann Clark, Mac Farms owner.

A similar product, "MooSoda," launched several years ago by Rosemont, Ill.-based Dairy Research Inc., failed to sell.

e-Moo's price: 70 cents per bottle

Self-inflating roundball

It's a timeless frustration: searching through drawers of bric-a-brac for a needle to inflate your basketball.

Strange, then, that it has taken sports-equipment makers so long to debut the first "built-in pump."

Available next month, Spalding's "Infusion" ball has a Q-tip-size device that can pump about one pound per square inch of air into the ball per minute. When not in use, the Micro Pump supposedly remains flush, locked down, and hidden from sight - so it won't give hoopsters a bad bounce.

Suggested price: $44.99

More light, less cost

A new lamp could help address America's energy woes. Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California have designed a fluorescent lamp with the same power as a halogen one, but uses only one-quarter as much energy.

"The Berkeley Lamp," according to its creators, is cooler than a halogen bulb and far less likely to cause fires. Its dual-bulb design also better distributes light. A June debut is planned by Light Corp. of Grand Haven, Mich.

Suggested price: $120

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Monitor