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Think your girlfriend/wife/daughter/sister's time of the month is approaching but you just aren't sure? Why ask the lady such a delicate question when there's a much more subtle option out there? Just sneak a peek at the colour of her bracelet.

A British inventor has reinvented our favourite seventies accessory - the mood ring - in the form of a fashionable wristband with a built-in thermometer. Its colour will change based on body temperature, so it can tell you if you had that fight with Janine because of her hormone levels, or because you're a jerk. Imagine the possibilities!

The Daily Mail reports that inventor Karl Dorn will present his idea in the finals of a competition (much like CBC's Dragon's Den) in hopes of winning money to get the concept off the ground.

"But wait!" you say. "What sane woman would agree to wearing an accessory that announces to the world that she'll soon be on the rag?"

Worry not - Mr. Dorn has that base covered. Though he hasn't yet built a prototype, he apparently plans to design the bracelets to look like the ones that were distributed by charities a few years back.

"I'm not PMSing! I'm just trying to Livestrong!"

Of course, if you still can't get a woman to wear one of these, there are other (much more unsettling) ways to keep tabs on her cycle. Flojuggler, the iPhone app that entered the market with much fanfare last year, allows users to track the menstrual cycles of the women in their lives. The Flo Predictor feature apparently lets you plan vacations with ease.

There's also Code Red, which was proudly designed by men, for men, to translate a woman's cycle into an "intimate moments" planner. Does a date fall under part of "Code Red" week on the calendar? Pfft. Lost cause. But if you discover she's in the green zone, well son, "get some! Her hormones are doing most of the work for you. Your only job is to not screw things up."

Looks like we've got a great candidate for next year's Ig Nobel Awards.

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