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CIA Airlines: Inflatable Getaway Plane Delivered Upon Request
Posted by Wilson Rothman at 10:50 AM on May 22, 2008
You find yourself held under "house arrest" in a remote jungle region of Indonesia, sometime in the late 1950s. You may have your suit, fedora and at least one halfway decent tie, but the chances of getting back to the US of A seem slim. The CIA thinks you're not so dispensable, so spytechs—with the help of the always patriotic Goodyear Company—build an inflatable aeroplane that they can drop into a jungle clearing. Here's what it looks like when fully inflated and ready for takeoff:
Just what the hell fool came up with this idea? Let me just put my T-focals on and read you what the blurb says. "A soft tub for the body. For children and adults. For play and healing. In the garden or the stylish bathroom." Healing? HEALING? What kinda fool tub gives you healing??? It gives you cleaning, that's what a tub gives you. It's made of EDPM rubber and cork, and I have a message for the sucka behind the design. Ole Jensen? I think you wear panty hose! [
A new rubber compound that's made from fatty acids and a component of urine retains its shape to such a degree that it can be cut in half with a knife and then repair itself, retaining its original form. Imagine it: you break a plastic toy in half, only to have it seal itself back together, with the only downside being that your hands smell like you didn't wash them after going to the bathroom. Science!
Manly and rugged outdoorsmen with small rucksacks might find Minox's DC6033 WP so far up their mountain path it's parked in their crevasse. Encased in rubber armour, the six-megapixel point-and-shoot camera is dust, dirt, sand and salt-proof, and you can take it underwater to a depth of 10 metres.
If you are anything like me, your cell phone takes a beating. If you're not sitting on it, it's getting scratched in your pocket, and if it's not getting scratched you're dropping it in the toilet. The SaY concept phone may not be able to withstand a good toilet dunking, but it's rubberized exterior should be able to handle just about anything else you can throw at it. If the SaY was an actual product, it would also feature an angled keypad for better ergonomics, a 4-megapixel camera, and a pair of stereo speakers that are intentionally designed to resemble a dead cartoon character. A nice touch...I think.[
Nothing screams "cool" like the Nooka rubber and plastic Zub-20 Zot watches. Coming in six different colors (because who doesn't want an orange rubber watch?) the Nooka watches display hours as a progression of 12 dots while the minutes flow along the horizontal line below. The date and seconds -- because the company ran out of unique ways to show numbers -- are shown in a generic digital window. 
Behind the Wall is a two-sided couch with a stretchy membrane dividing those on each side. I'm not sure how practical it is, but it sure looks like fun. People sitting on the opposite side form a bulge in the membrane, meaning that people can interact through the furniture. There's bound to be a lot of fun games you could play with this, like guess the body part.
The couch was designed by industrial designer, Jordi Canudas, who seems to specialize in designing attractive, digg-bait furniture. [
Oh man, I wish you didn't look so happy. It's not that I want you to be sad, it's just that you look so ugly when you smile. Your smile, frankly, sucks. Fortunately, it's a solvable problem. Simply stick this piece of rubber in your mouth that forces you to smile, and in a matter of days you're sure to have a smile that won't be so revolting to those around you. It's the Beauty Smile Trainer, yet another device that could only come out of Japan. Thanks again, Japan! [
