For this contest, the goal is to create fear. Not just any fear, but a fear that you can alleviate through the sale of your new product idea. There are lots of risks out there, some of them serious, some of them so unlikely that we shouldn't worry about them, and some of them completely made up. And there are lots of products out there that provide security against those risks.

Your job is to invent one. First, find a risk or create one. It can be a terrorism risk, a criminal risk, a natural-disaster risk, a common household risk -- whatever. The weirder the better. Then, create a product that everyone simply has to buy to protect him- or herself from that risk. And finally, write a catalog ad for that product.

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Entries are limited to 150 words ... because fear doesn't require a whole lot of explaining. Tell us why we should be afraid, and why we should buy your product.

Submissions are in. The blog entry has 327 comments. I've read them all, and here are the semi-finalists:

• DNA adulteratometer to detect waiters spitting in your soup.
• Toothpaste test strips.
• SOS device for people locked in car trunks.
• Anti-laser-pointer eyeglasses.
• "Alertness alert" heartbeat monitor.

It's not in the running, but reader "False Data" deserves special mention for his Safe-T-Nav, a GPS system that detects high crime zones. It would be a semi-finalist, but it already exists.

Cast your vote; I'll announce the winner on the 15th.