Monday Juvenilia
Irradiated by LabRat
My mother, bless her heart, finds both of us difficult to shop for when it comes to holidays. Her being a determined “internet is a series of tubes” dinosaur in an age in which geeky eccentrics can make life easier on their relatives by setting up wish lists at online stores doesn’t help, so in order to avoid the obvious problem with simply buying me books (finding me things I will enjoy and do not already own without the aid of Amazon.com), she tries to find us things that will be useful in the event of zombie apocalypse or something with similar impact upon Radio Shack. This has led to a variety of items, some big hits (thanks for that weather station, Mom, we even bought an upgrade when that one started to die), and some that left us scratching our heads a little. From the department of “good idea, questionable execution” comes the Shakelight, which is basically a shake weight with the idea that all that kinetic activity will generate light rather than toning your arms. Presented, without further comment, the manual’s visual depiction of how to bring the flashlight to climax operate the device. Click for big, and I suggest you do:
September 27th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
I draw the line well prior that point where one is giving small appliances handjobs.
Just sayin’
September 27th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
So that’s what happens when you put a Mr. Fusion in a vibrator….
September 28th, 2010 at 4:27 am
They actually come in very handy. I keep a couple in each vehicle for emergencies and bad batteries in the maglites. Also, they’re great for giving munchkins something to do during blackouts. “Here, shake this up. It’s your flashlight.”
It’s also interesting when a non-gunny tries to buy gun stuff for a hunter/shooter’s birthday and Christmas.
September 28th, 2010 at 5:21 am
Great. Now I have the giggles to go with the “somebody stuffed a wet quilt in my head” thing going on with my sinuses. Hehe. Ow. Heh. Ow. Hehe. Owie.
September 28th, 2010 at 5:54 am
One word of warning, they WILL fry credit cards, bank cards, and any electronics within about 6 inches… Having said that, they are not bad for vehicles as emergency back up light!
September 28th, 2010 at 7:09 am
Assuming it uses the energy put into shaking it reasonably efficiently, and given that considerably more than five minutes of happiness can be produced by the same gesture, we learn here that happiness consumes much less energy than light does.
September 28th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Give me a place to whack, and I could light the world.
Well, at age 14.
September 28th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Since she wrote this rather than me, and the tone is therefore somewhat different, I would like to point out just for clarity’s sake that no, this would not be useful to keep in anything for an emergency, unless your emergencies involve a sudden need to keep a fluffer’s arm limber.
This thing is the most singularly useless device ever.
The amount of light produced after vigorous jerking is dimmer, and of shorter duration than striking a paper match. The wire might be useful for something if you smashed it open, but otherwise this device’s only use is as a comedic implement.
September 28th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
When they reach full, um… charge, do they pulsate a bit, flash brightly several times, and then slowly dim over the next few minutes?