by Kitty Bean Yancey and Jerry Shriver, USA TODAY

Just in time for next week’s Democratic National Convention, Boston-area businesses are rolling out some eye-catching innovations.

The city’s Nine Zero hotel has installed a security system that uses digital photos of the irises of employees, vendors and VIP guests to admit them to certain areas. It’s billed as the first lodging with the LG IrisAcess system, also used in high-security areas at airports such as New York’s JFK.
Also geared to convention time, Boston-area dessert-makers are taking a sweeter approach to the poisonous world of politics.

And Brighton, Mass.-based mail-order bakery Geoff & Drew’s is selling gift packages containing gourmet cookies decorated with Democratic donkeys and/or GOP elephants ($8 to $34).

Now, partisans can bite the opposition’s heads off without fear of rebuttal.