The Invention Of The Century...

[Pat McCarthy]

I was reading through digg.com, and found something that could fit the bill of what Dave was hinting at.
http://asap.ap.org/stories/240474.s
It is an article about Dean's water purification machine. I'm not sure about the simplicity factor, but it's possible it is that simple.

[Greg Needel]

While i agree that the lifestraw is amazing and will be very beneficial, it can't desalinize water. Since 97% of the earth is covered in salt water that defiantly would be a feature i would want to have in a portable water purification system.

[Jessica Boucher]

I had a lot of time to think driving home from CT this weekend, and the thought smacked me over the head...

...why on earth would Katie Couric be at a dinner about a water purification device?

The only logical explanation would be that the media will be doing a piece on it in the near future. Recent news stories about Katie's Today Show contract coming up and her future plans have shed some light on Katie's changing career preferences: although the offer she is receiving for anchoring the CBS Evening News is much less than Today, it would allow her much more family time, which shows a strong desire for Katie to spend as much time with her daughters as possible. Hand in hand with her extremely focused philanthropic efforts toward cancer research (after losing her husband and sister to different forms of cancer), this leaves very little time for something that was not related to something she already does.

I'm not sure about the lead time concerning news stories, but it's certainly something to think about.