(a) it would enhance phone sex; (b) it would allow you to engage in group meditation via conference call.

Okay, you get a beer. The group meditation angle I don’t buy, but the phone sex angle makes sense. I don’t know why the axiom that all new media technologies find their first success in the sex industry didn’t occur to me.

I offer another beer for the first compelling application that I’d feel comfortable discussing with my 80-year old grandmother back in Nebraska. :)

Quote of the day: "Whilst it's not necessarily very efficient, in many ways it's very pragmatic."

I'd offer a free beer to anyone who uses "Whilst" in everyday conversation. Because as you know, Bob, they surely NEED one.

From a science-fiction angle, you could argue that being in a complete sensory-deprivation phone booth would allow you to communicate telepathically over the phone line, or something.

Definitely, Mike.

Rob, it might be a somehow more telepathy-like experience, but I’m still not sure what the compelling advantage is over an ordinary phone conversation. For those sorts of conversations (as opposed to the businesslike sort where you’re referring to notes and computers and things), I’m pretty good at filtering out my surroundings anyway.

If we’re talking about actual psychic powers, that’s a little too Dianetics-era Astounding for me. :)

I suppose there might be medical applications for people with certain sorts of ADD, but I’m looking for something a little more mainstream.

The only (non-embarrassing) use I can think of is if you're in some sort of physical therapy, ie, recovering from spinal cord damage or some equally traumatic, where the pool is used in recovery.

This is, however, a complete WAG.

And there all you really need is a waterproof phone, not a sensory deprivation unit.

Well, they actually do use sensory deprivation in physical therapy. It's not total, but it is done. Phone would seem like overkill, tho'.

Alternatively, I wonder if you could use it some sort of psychological therapy: put the patient in the pool wearing the phone. Then all they can hear is the sound of the therapist's voice. I don't know if this is desirable (as I know little of therapy), but it might have some interesting results. Someone will do a study, I'm sure.

I guess it's also possible the guys who invented this thing just have serious trouble paying attention to phone calls.

Or there’s somebody they spend a lot of time on the phone with who does.

You know, if you stuck me in one of those things, I probably wouldn't be paying attention to the caller. I'd be thinking, "Ooh, this is creepy. Who the hell talked me into this?" Until I got used to it, of course. Then I'd probably start snoring.

Well, if you have to kick someone's ass and humiliate them at the same time, you put keep one of these things handy. After you knock your foe down, but it on, call their SO, and while taunting them, headbutt the your prone victim repeatedly.

*BAM* "Hear that?" *BAM* "Yeah, that's your boyfriend's skull!" *BAM*

For those times when you want to have a long, emotionally and/or intellectually intense conversation on the phone -- and you've just quit smoking.

Being immersed in a swimming pool with a helmet fully encasing your head while you talk is possibly the only thing that will keep you from perishing of nic fits.

Okay, Nick gets the beer, because if I’d been drinking one when I read his suggestion, it’d have come right out my nose.

But what the hell; this round’s on me. Beer for everybody.