As soon as it starts raining, wouldn't the lack of spokes on this thing cause it to wrap around the wearer's head like a wet plastic bag, smothering them?
"Rain Bonnet, Los Angeles, is making an inflatable hat-umbrella of Vinylite plastic. Blowing into a small valve inflates the hat's tubular brim to the size of a woman's umbrella. When deflated the entire unit fits into a Vinylite envelope the size of a cigarette pack."
Newsweek - Aug 27, 1951
Mark Gregory invented the Buttleopener, which is a bottle opener shaped like a woman's buttocks. Gregory also served as a member of the Williamson County school board in Tennessee, recently rising to become chairman. But the two aspects of his life (buttleopener inventor and school board chairman) have proven to be incompatible. Gregory recently resigned his position as chairman, bowing to pressure from parents who really, really didn't want him involved with the school board. [
rawstory.com]
These "Din-ink" ballpoint pen caps from
ZO_loft allow you to transform your pens into cutlery. Why you would want to do this, I'm not sure. But you can!
Another strange invention from Japan. This one is designed to exercise your facial muscles. Just hold it in your mouth and swing the bars up and down.
Back in the late 1970s, Bill Tolle of Woodlawn, Ohio figured out a way to use empty beer cans to heat his home in the winter. Basically he made a solar heater, with the empty cans trapping the sun's heat. But the beer can angle perked the media's interest.
Apparently, some 75 years on, people are still trying to prove the reality of this perpetual motion machine.
I imagine this is what investment bankers do at parties. Just spray each other with money while laughing maniacally! Available at
thecashcannon.com. Real cash not included.
This sounds like some kind of new self-torture device from Japan. Available at
Japan Trend Shop.
Masunaga Wink Glasses
These clever specs can detect when you haven't blinked in five seconds and fog up one of the lens. This simple function will then "jolt" the eyes and make them focus, thus waking you up before you drop off fully. Men blink once every three seconds; women once every four seconds. So any longer than this and you are slowing down, which generally means you are getting sleepy.
Vittel has introduced a water bottle cap with a built-in timer. After an hour a little flag pops up on top of the cap, reminding you that it's now time to drink more water. Just in case you forgot. Apparently this is a problem for some people.
The "This Is Me" is a plastic blade that you can put on the end of your finger to help you shovel peas (or any other food) onto your fork. Its inventor, Bob Heller, says he called it the "This Is Me" because that's what he says whenever someone objects to him using his finger to push peas onto his fork.
Heller hopes to start selling "This Is Me"s for $14.95 each later this month. More info at
nydailynews.com.