Sort of baked, because my Venturer unit already has one, but here goes:- A large, prominent, red button. When you push it, or whack it, it resists your hand slightly, and goes in with a satisfying thunk or click or what-have-you. That's it. When panicked, you just hit the button once, or a few times, and you'll feel better. The weird thing is, it works.

A more upmarket version goes bright red when pushed in, and changes to green, to indicate that the panicable offense has passed.
-- QuadAlpha, Jan 23 2002

Stress Ball City http://www.stressballcity.com/budget.html
[phoenix, Jan 23 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]

This is, I believe, called a "placebo" in medicine.
-- neelandan, Jan 23 2002


I had hoped we were beyond mere placebos.
-- jurist, Jan 23 2002


There are all sorts of stress-relieving doodads. I'm pretty sure this is baked.
-- phoenix, Jan 23 2002


Yeah. I had this "panic brake" on my car before I had it repaired. You want to stop, you stomp on the pedal, it goes all the way in with a satisfying feel to it, and NOTHING HAPPENS.

And the steering wheel had a panic feel to it for about a quarter of a turn.
-- neelandan, Jan 24 2002



random, halfbakery