Category Archives: Stuff We Don’t Need

From caffeinated waffles to nipple enhancers to chili beer, this is stuff we decidedly do NOT need.

Stuff We Don’t Need: Cardboard record player

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Last week I introduced a new series I’ll be running here at Fish & Bicycles, a little thing I’ve titled Stuff We Don’t Need (aka SWDN). And in that introductory post, I described items that could be featured in this series like this:

…a thing can be simultaneously utterly pointless and funny at the same time.

Since this is such a new idea, it’s not surprising that I’ve come to find so soon that I need to revise that description. While any given SWDN item might be something we don’t need, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is utterly pointless. It could be that, despite how little we need it, it might actually be kind of cool that someone came up with the idea, which is rather different than something that is so stupid that it’s funny. For instance, last week’s Rock-Paper-Scissors Glove is, in my opinion, most definitely utterly pointless and funny, but this week’s installment?

Via Gizmodo:

Audio engineering company GGRP Sound sent a 45rpm record in a corrugated cardboard sleeve that doubles as a record player. You can put it together in one single step. Once in position, you can play and scratch using a pencil.

No, we don’t need it, but it’s just about the coolest thing I’ve seen lately.

Stuff We Don’t Need: Solitaire Rock-Paper-Scissors

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Back in December, I wrote a post declaring my appreciation for graphic and industrial design, stating that they represent one of capitalism’s few redeeming values.

I still stand by my comments in that post, but as I browse my favorite websites featuring design, particularly prototype or new product designs, I come across many items that elicit the reaction, “Who the HELL needs something like that?”

Listen, I try to be open-minded and non-judgmental, but some things just seem to cross some kind of line, where any honorable creative elements seem overshadowed by frivolity, superfluousness, banality, or triviality.

And so, I’ve decided to start a new series here at Fish & Bicycles titled Stuff We Don’t Need (aka SWDN), because a thing can be simultaneously utterly pointless and funny at the same time.

For the inaugural SWDN post, I bring you the Rock-Paper-Scissors Glove:

Per the inventor, Steve Hoefer (via Gizmodo):

This is a glove that plays a very competitive game of Rock Paper Scissors against the wearer. It learns how they wearer plays and plays to their weaknesses…

It remembers how you play so that if you always open with Rock it will tend to open with Paper. And if you tend throw a Paper after a Rock it will counter it with Scissors. The glove’s current record for best-of-five matches against me is 71 wins and 62 losses.

Well, ok. I don’t need one. You’ll have to decide for yourself.

Regardless, you know you want to check out the video of the glove in action!