Daily Dose of Common Sense

Want a cup of coffee but not the annoying part where you actually have to drink it? Well, lazy caffeine junkies, there’s a product for you called Le Whif. It’s an inhaler of coffee. Here’s how it works:

The canisters spray an edible aerosol shot of the substance directly into your mouth, without your lips even touching a single glass.

It takes 8 whiffs to give the same results from one cup of coffee.

Is this how desperate and lazy we’ve become? We can’t even enjoy a cup of freakin’ coffee? This company also sells another product where you can whiff chocolate. It gives you a burst of chocolate flavor without the calories (or drool-worthy enjoyment) of real chocolate. Maybe this is the direction food science is headed: all science and no actual food?

[Thanks to Kathy D. for the link!]

There’s an iPhone app for everything. Case in point is Bedometer. It’s an iPhone app that measures the calories you burn while having sex.

How does it work? Well, you put your phone on the bed while getting busy, and the application measures the calories burned by the vibrations.

I’m all for trying to stay fit, but if you’re worried about how many calories you’re burning during sex then you’re worrying too much. Relax and enjoy the moment with your significant other. Tracking the fifty or one hundred calories you’re burning during the horizontal mambo is not really that important, especially when your attention should be elsewhere.

[Via MomLogic]

According to the Huffington Post, this is a collection of the most absurd warning labels of all time. Included in the slideshow are gems like this one:

Drunk, pregnant, or BOTH?! If you’re both, your spouse really better hope you read the third warning. Anyway, enjoy the slideshow.

Yesterday was World Water Day. Did you celebrate? No, we didn’t either. But, water is a huge issue globally. Did you know that dirty water kills more people than violence? It’s true, according to the U.N.

We’re not a fan of bottled water, so it was great to find this. “The Story of Bottled Water” is by The Story of Stuff Project, and it should make you think twice about buying that next bottle of water.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se12y9hSOM0

We’ve talked about water more than a few times here on DDOCS. (See “Water, Water Everywhere” and “The Great Water Debate: Bottled vs. Tap“.) But this video, while slightly on the hippie side, makes it plain and simple: you’re a rube if you buy bottled water. Unless your community has proven unsafe tap water, purchasing water in plastic bottles is absurd.

Drink tap water and save the money. If you don’t like the taste of your city water, buy a filter.

[Source: BoingBoing]

Talk about a genius invention! The PeePoo bag allows someone to pee and/or poop in it and then bury the bag to use as fertilizer. Now, you might not need this in your suburban town with fancy city-run sewage. But, think about third-world countries who struggle with the human waste issue every day.

For slums in the developing world where human waste is an unregulated nightmare and flying toilets are common practice, the bag provides a means of waterless sewage disposal and organic fertilizer all in one easy, biodegradable step.

The bag has special lining that breaks down the waste and it even kills any bacteria or pathogens inside. Completely brilliant! If only every invention could be this useful. Sort of makes the Flowbee all that more embarrassing….

[Thanks to Denise R. for the link!]

This pillow freaks me out. It’s called the Hug Me, and it’s a pillow in the shape of a man’s clothed arm.

I understand loneliness and the need for human contact. But, this pillow seems hardly the answer. It just comes off as creepy. And sad.

Please, buy a cat, fish, parrot, guinea pig…anything, instead.

Thanks to Sara B. for the link!

Unveiled at Fashion Week 2010 was the “sweater-kini.” Yes, that’s a sweater bikini. Just perfect for summer, ladies! Besides uncomfortable and impractical, they aren’t very attractive.

I love the Daily News’ description:

Firstly, the pool water would surely shrink this onerous one-piece around your body. And HELLO, ever hand-washed a cardigan? You need a forklift just to hang the thing to dry.

Plus, anyone who’s ever gotten doused by a rainstorm while wearing a sweater knows that no amount of Chanel No. 5 can cover that wet dog smell.

Seems obvious that the designer, Victoria Bartlett, did this only for publicity and not for sale. (Which is the same with most all high fashion and couture designs.) But, this is so beyond a high ruffle or too-short dress. I wonder if the models on the runway experienced any chafing?

[Via PatsPapers]

It’s water-proof, flexible, self-adhesive and dishwasher safe. And it’s taking the world by storm. In fact, many folks are calling it the best invention since Duct tape or Blu tack. It’s called Sugru.

Sugru is the brain child of Jane Ni Dhulchaointigh, a former product design student, who thought one day, “I don’t want to buy new stuff all the time. I want to hack the stuff I already have so it works better for me.” Aside from unleashing your inner inventor (C’mon, we’ve all had the “I could’ve made that better” thought), Sugru is the ultimate reduce-reuse-recycle tool.

But what exactly is it? Essentially, it’s a silicone based play-dough for adults that you can adhere to surfaces to improve, repair or hack them.  Scissor handles pinching? Use Sugru and mold a fix. Wish your mobile phone had a bigger volume control button? Make one.

Still a little confused? The Sugru website and blog do a beautiful job demonstrating its many uses. And as Jane says herself on the website “People are natural hackers, we’ve just gotten out of the habit of it.”

Watch more about Sugru here:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeJsH5WL9IE

Here are some of our favorite brief Web stories from this week.

Some people had common sense.

• The city of Boston dismissed thousands of tickets and tow fines for people who were issued violations while preparing for a storm that never came. The city had declared a snow emergency in expectation of the big storm cutting up the eastern seaboard. Stay classy, Boston.
• A 5-year old girl in Indiana called 911 when her dad experienced chest pains. She remained calm and stayed on the line for nearly ten minutes. She is now credited with saving her dad’s life.

And, some did not.

• Southwest Airlines kicked Kevin Smith off a flight for being too fat. Smith claims he fits between the two arm rests, which is the test of whether a person is too large for their seat. Huge PR nightmare for Southwest Airlines because Smith is a celebrity. I ask why the airlines even let him board in the first place, instead of kicking him off once on the plane?
• New toy: Fisher Price’s Bigfoot the Monster. It’s cute in a Muppet-gone-bad kind of way, but do we really want to encourage children to believe in this nonsense?

If it’s between this and flowers for Valentine’s Day… FLOWERS! Dear god, let it be flowers.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPoDIhTRo1k

[Via MomLogic]