RSS Feeds
Online
Google Street View Becomes Google Bag View in Alaska
Posted by Addy Dugdale at 10:40 PM on May 8, 2008
One of the occupational hazards of Google Street View is, I guess, having the camera obscured by something. It could be a pterodactyl, perhaps, flying low for a closer view, it could be a giant Monty Python-style animated brogue homing in on the car as if it were a roach ripe for the squishing. Or it could be a plastic bag. One minute it's dancing around, American Beauty-style, the next it's spread-eagled over the camera rather like an over-amorous spinster at a barn dance. This is what College Road in Fairbanks, Alaska, looks like, according to Google Street View. [Google Maps via Google Sightseeing]
As Adrian pointed out, if we had these PSP bath bags when we were nine, we'd be a whole lot cleaner and a whole lot wrinklier than we are now. It's a bag. It holds your PSP. It goes into baths. That's pretty much all you need to know. It's unclear to us why you couldn't just get a sandwich bag from Target that would do the same thing, but sandwich bags don't have that fancy pants cord at the top. Does the PSP camera work with Skype video? Because we have an idea... [
The reason plastic is awesome is that it's super durable, so it lasts forever. The problem is that it lasts forever, even when we want it to just go away and take its place in the circle life. Biodegradable plastics aren't new, but in the past they've been pretty weak and expensive, so not optimal replacements for your grocery sack. Eco-geeks at the Missouri University of Science and Technology have come up with the anti-daywalker of plastic: All of its strengths, but it disintegrates in four months. 
Plastic grocery bags are a blight on the environment, given out by the millions and clogging up landfills. Sure, you could bring a canvas bag to the store with you, but you're lazy. Why not just do something useful with the bags? Enter the Grocery Bag Chair, a seat that takes shape when you stuff it full of 2,000 plastic bags for pure crinkly comfort. The problem? They want US$150 for what's essentially a shaped bag. Thanks, but I'll just keep polluting the environment for that price. [
If you like pictures of stuff that look way more awesome than they are actually are, feast your eyes on Jerome Olivet's new iPod shoulder bag, with the narcissistic title of Jeromeolivet 32. You could probably take iPod out of the product description and have a fully-fledged, regular shoulder bag, but as Olivet has included the ubiquitous noun and has a kick-ass, porn star esque nomenclature for his person, we'll give his new wonder, constructed from fabric and PVC, some well-deserved attention. 
A bag for all seasons, this Flo backpack is modular and can change with your moods—which, if they're anything like mine, rage from Breeze of Sweet Pea to Tsunami of Bitchqueen Stompiness. You can adapt the Flo to any size—from a pack worthy of a long hiking weekend to an afternoon trip to the city. Here's how it works:
Seriously, if you ever thought those around you doubted your supremacy in the nerdiverse, buying something called a "quiver" for your keyboard and mouse will settle the matter once and for all. It's no +2 Quiver of Plenty, but the $70 Dust-Off Keyboard Quiver, coming this October, may feel like one.
These bullet-proof backpacks are claimed to offer as much protection from a shooting as police armor, but at one tenth of the weight. They're aimed at kids, to protect them from all the dangers that 21st-century schooling entails. One immediate problem I see is that it will only protect you if you're shot in the back, at just the right height. Check out a video after the jump.
Going on a trip? Forget those standard plastic coolers. This Thermo MP3 cooler can keep 16 cans at 40 degrees F, but that's not the best part. The best part is the two speakers on the front that can take in any MP3 player and pump out your tunes while you're out camping. All this by just plugging the Thermo into your car's cigarette adapter. Makes us all but forget the time we had to pee into a cooler because our dad wouldn't stop to let us go. [
Some horrible inventor has taken two things that should never be mixed — dogs and fanny packs — and mutated them into one terrible invention.
