The folks up the road at Xerox PARC (onetime home of the Adobe founders) have been busily developing a new kind of paper that erases itself after 16 hours or so.  The idea is to reduce waste by letting people reuse some of the large percentage of paper that’s printed & recycled in short order–often on the same day.  More details are in the press release.

The story provides some background on the research that gave rise to this technology: “What she has discovered is a notable change in the role of paper in modern offices, where it is increasingly used as a medium of display rather than storage [emphasis added]. Documents are stored on central servers and personal computers and printed only as needed; for meetings, editing or reviewing information.”

It’ll be interesting to see what, if any, role this technology plays in a world of email, electronic paper, etc.  “I worry that this would be like coming out with Super 8 just before the video camera,” says consultant Paul Saffo.  Time will tell. [Via]

PS–At the other end of the permanence spectrum, tattooing has become so popular that even Chinese fish are doing it.  No word on whether "Shanghai Ink" will be airing soon. [Via]