It’s no surprise that the Japanese have beat other countries to the first duty-ready exoskeletons. Indeed, while the rest of the world is conducting research on exoskeleton designs for whatever mad-scientist reasons we can imagine, the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology believes they can begin issuing exoskeletons to Japanese farmers in two years. That is, if the farmers in question are rich, and, per Gizmodo, ready to shell out as much as $11k to “pull radishes” and conduct “other farm work”.

What we’d like to see is an actual study showing the efficiency of this kind of exoskeleton. That is to say, with the added weight and potential discomfort wearing such an exoskeleton could entail, is a full day of farm-hand labour really going to net a greater among of radishes pulled than continuing to farm without a robot strapped to one’s back? And, if the efficiency is greater, is it worth the fancy price-tag? Might we not buy a mule for cheaper?

Similar Posts:

• High heels: healthy. – I tend to be fond of studies done that assert two things: 1) Women should wear hight heels, and 2) F…
• Power armour ala Starship Troopers a reality? – Alas, the Starship Troopers movie didn’t include the wrockin’ powered armour from the book, but chan…
• Fivefingers: beyond the first week. – Our first week wearing Vibram Fivefingers made for an interesting experience, and while we intended …
• Blizzard loves PvE players more. – To all those who keep whining about Blizzard turning World of Warcraft (WoW) into a PvP game, I’ll v…
• Mangs have two heads. Now hard-drives do too. – Traditional hard drives, as you may have guessed, have only one head, like women. However, some geni…

As fans of machines, we’re inevitable drawn to vehicular transportation, which is why we were crazy enough to buy a 25-year old DeLorean despite already owning two other vehicles. (We won’t chalk the DeLorean up as anti-green though – we’re reusing old stuff!) We also used to own a 2005 Ford Mustang GT, which was one of the most enjoyable rides we’ve ever had. In short, we have nothing against American-made cars (well, some of them), and are actually quite fond of Detroit’s history as the automotive capital of the world.

That said, with American car companies losing money left and right, we don’t agree with bailing the guys at Ford and GM out, not because we don’t appreciate their contributions to the industry, but because we won’t agree with bailing out businesses that seemed to make decisions aimed at purposely going under. For example, with Ford’s steady decline and the obvious rise in green consciousness (what with the Toyota Prius’ great sales), Ford still won’t bring their 65 MPG diesel wonder to the States. Nevermind that Ford’s home base is the United States – Ford America President Mike Fields stated simply, “We just don’t think North and South America would buy that many diesel cars.”

If American car manufacturers don’t want to get on the green bandwagon, they deserve to be doomed.

At the very least, if Ford and GM can’t muster the innovation to compete with Japan on the basic consumer level, then they should ditch that part of their business and instead focus purely on their commercial (truck) and luxury/sports (Mustang, Corvette) offerings. But don’t beg for bailout funds – where is your sense of pride?

Similar Posts:

• Ford knows what consumers want. – The Ford Ka is a sub-compact, reminiscent of Asia’s offerings for the American small-car market. Yet…
• DeLorean: Front-speaker replacement. – It wasn’t long ago that I bought myself a vintage ’81 DeLorean. As with any car 25 years old, she ha…
• Nintendo must be high. – The rumour band-wagon is hastily moving forward that a gyroscopic controller from Microsoft will ful…
• No, Mr. Garrison, we cannot get rid of all the Mexicans. – So, I’m sitting in my car the other day, stuck in some particularly awful traffic (how does a car hi…
• You probably don’t need a big home. – Granted, America is a place where people tend to buy things they want rather than need, or often, ca…

Somehow, at the 2008 Good Design Expo, Japanese company Willcom showcased a concept phone to what Forever Geek refers to as “the adoring public”. The phone is not only oversized, but in the shape of a teddy bear, and requires the user to talk into the bear’s crotch as though to give it fellatio. Fortunately, the bear is anatomically incorrect.

How such a design monstrosity (it’s not even a good-looking teddy bear) is being displayed at the Good Design Expo is amazing. Even more frightening is that the concept phone sells for $500 (which would tend to suggest there’s little concept about it). While we hate to say it, only in Japan could such a monstrosity be considered a desirable product to both manufacture, and ultimately buy.

What’s with designers coming up with wholly unpractical products, anyway? While the phone’s design is an expensive novelty aimed at being “cute” (presumably in an attempt to infer that the bear is whispering to the user), there’s no clear way to dial un-programmed numbers via the bear-phone. All in all, the novelty of the phone could probably be re-created with some clever hackery of an existing phone and teddy bear, for much cheaper than $500 and with arguably better results on the cuteness scale. Plus, enterprising folks at home could either find a way to make communication work in a way that one doesn’t need to talk to the bear’s crotch, else slip full-on into the realm of bear-phone bestiality. Either way, we bet it’d sell in Japan.

Similar Posts:

• Nokia’s inability to compete confirmed. – As I predicted back when it was first announced, Nokia has stopped production of the N-Gage in the U…
• Where’s the Druid feral form? – And don’t say it’s the “Dire Bear,” because that’s lame. In previous World of Warcraft (WoW) patches…
• Video on your phone. – It seems like companies have given up the idea of seeing the person you’re talking to, and instead a…
• Cell phone gaming. – While clowns like the guys behind the NGage tried their hand at mobile gaming via cell phones, the i…
• AT&T screwed up our iPhone upgrade eligibility. – While we may not think that the 4G iPhone is an enormous upgrade, it’s all about the cameras, and th…