Image provided by: West Linn High School; West Linn, OR
About The amplifier. (West Linn, Oregon) 1921-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2009)
£009 Features Strange products stock shelves, more to come _ P atricia P alczewska ________ Staff Reporter Everyone loves waking up in the morning to grab a piece of freshly browned toast and spread it with....a tube full of butter? It's true! Many families are ditching the knife and turning to a container filled with this breakfast necessity for easier spread and accessibility. Foods aren't the only products that have been bizarrely altered . As technology advances, crazy inventions seem to continually stock the shelves. Stores are filled with self-opening trash cans, baby bottom fans, air fresheners that smell like corn dogs, and other almost useless trinkets. However, not all of the things eccentric geniuses come up with are unfit to be seen in public— some are oddly capable of being used. A boost in baby goods In the world wide V* web of cra z y g o o d s, there are many sites selling baby products created by moms set on lessening the work that comes along with their child. Knee-pads and head gear are donned by waddling toddlers for their daily protection, and infant clothing companies are now attaching pacifiers to their fabrics so that the frustrating dilemma of losing it is eliminated. Even baby high heels find their way into infant clothing stores! The Babykeeper Basic, created by Mommysentials, is like a backpack for a child, except for the fact that it's ____ not made to be w o rn . Its two metal hooks can clip onto any home, store, or public bathroom wall for those times when a mother "doesn't have enough arms." out of clothes hangers, and ice cream cups can come as bobble heads. To throw even more into the bargain, the next time someone visits the beach, they may see a swimmer with a large fiberglass dolphin fin attached to their feet allowing them to reach speeds of 33 miles per hour. Japan: the hearth of inventions Though these odd goods come from all around the world, most seem to be concentrated in the production of one country: Japan. With its booming technological rise, more and more zany inventions Strange but usable products Adults and teens are receiving a larger market for these odd goods as well. Things that look almost too silly to use nowadays seem more ratio n al to buy. Scissors with multiple blades for shredding paper find themselves in competition with normal two-blades. Tables are now inventively being made are being thought up by the Japanese population, and food related contraptions seem to be popular. One them. Another company designed their chopsticks to be able to dispense sauce while dining on an under seasoned meal. Their love of food creations doesn't stop there, but other strange developments are also made by their population, and not just for humans. Dogs’ barks are more inventive then their bites In 2002, Takara, a Japanese toy company created an electronic device that was able to translate dog 'language' to human. A microphone attached to a dog’s collar picks up its barks and sends it to the translator, which then processes the sound and tells the owner their pet's mood in cute sayings. These sayings distinguish six emotions of the dog: frustrated, happy, sad, on-guard, assertive and needy. The moods are usually up to 75 percent right if no other sounds get in the way of the dog's bark, but creators say the device still should not be used as a classification of the dog's personality. Along with a translator for dogs, Japan has also produced the Meowlingual, a cat-to- human translator that has so far only been released in Asia. With so many ridiculous products out there, it's hard not to succumb to the curiosity of buying one, or even creating one of your own. Technology allows us to create what is not given and the results can be hilarious. As we continue to think up kooky contraptions, it's hard to imagine what kinds of strange things will be on the market in the future. I woman attached a fan to her chopsticks to cool down her noodles while she was eating Rooter bus needed for Girls' Basketball Rooter bos continued from page 3 Whether or not there was funding available, you can't provide a bus for the boys' game and not for the girls' game. Title IX was supposed to create equal opportunities for and treatment of all students, male and female. No person in the United States shall judge on the basis of sex, be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance, states the document. While this isn't that huge of an issue of discrimination, it is one ^ ^pfeeds to be addressed c^ecause if this is allowed, what else is allowed? This isn't the first time the school has had to address Title IX issues. They have had numerous complaints in the past, some that even resulted in bus for the girls' game down at South Eugene. After the boys game against Sunset, many people came up asking for a rooter bus to be taken to Medford," Rob Holstrom, athletic director, said. "In order to actually be able to is less than that of boys' games, but the problem is that the bus wasn't even offered. No one knows if 30 people would have signed up to ride on the bus because people were never given the chance to lawsuits, so the administration and especially the athletic department has tried to be especially careful in their treatment of male and female athletes. "The rooter buses are a direct result of student interest and are student driven. After the girls game at home against Grant, there were no students from ASB or any other group that was requesting a student rooter cover the cost of the bus trip, we would need to have at least 30 people sign up for the trip, which was about how many made the trip. I'll agree that student interest in girls' games teams were given equal footing in that the cheerleaders attended both games and the band attended neither, but the atmosphere was noticeably different. Any athlete knows that the energy, positive or negative, from a crowd can make a huge difference in how the game is played. Both of our playoff-bound teams should have been given the chance to have that positive energy from their own Lion student section. Maybe I'm biased, because I'm on the team, but if I don't address this topic, who will? Maybe students wouldn't have signed up, but they should have at least been given a chance to. To be fair to the students and the athletes, a rooter bus should at least be offered in the future for all sports, boys and girls.
