Ergonomics: A Quiz Featuring Sex Toys

So it all started with this:

It's a lip balm by EOS. My friend Walter said it looked like it was supposed to vibrate. I told him it was supposed to be ergonomic. He replied, "It would be more ergonomic if it vibrated."

I didn't think much of his comment until I came across an ad for this in a magazine:

Lotion, also by EOS, also with ergonomic design. Now, I don't think I have a particularly dirty mind, but just a few pages later in this magazine, I came across another ad, this one for this:

 

And yes, this one is a sex toy.

So, for funsies, I decided to do a little Googling on sex toys and ergonomic design, for points of convergence and divergence--and have compiled some images here for you, in quiz form. Now, I am not any kind of product rep, so should you find any of these products, um, inspiring, or you're like, "How does that even work?!" I have to tell you I don't know. It's like the three shells in Demolition Man. Anyway, answers at bottom.

1.

2.

3.

 

4.

 

5.

6.

 

7.

8.

9.

 

10.

 

11,

12,

13.

14.

15.

 

Answers:

1. Pen; 2. Sex toy; 3. Chair; 4. Sex toy; 5. Wii bowling apparatus; 6. Chair; 7. Sex toy; 8. Digital jump rope; 9. Baster; 10. Sex toy; 11. Kitchen implement; 12. Sex toy; 13. Garlic peeler; 14. Sex toy; 15. Garlic crusher

If you scored:

13-15: You are into kitchen implements, furniture, sex toys, or some combination thereof.

9-12: You generally see things as they are, but can get... imaginative, if the situation calls for it.

5-8: You're kind of boring. There, I said it.

4 or less: You need to get out more. Put some shoyu into your life! Or, you're twelve years old and shouldn't be taking these kinds of quizzes anyway.

Technology in classrooms: confusing for everyone, especially NY Times readers

In the past few days, the NY Times, bastion of everything educated and literate, has run a bunch of single articles (at least, I don't believe these are part of a series) about technology in the classroom. Spurring intelligent discussion or spreading confusion? You decide.

Screen Time Higher Than Ever for Children:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/us/screen-time-higher-than-ever-for-children-study-finds.html
(my summary: studies show increased tech use; term "app gap" used for the division of people who use apps and don't)

And
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/opinion/occupy-the-classroom.html?emc=eta1
(my summary: we need to change classroom tech inequalities instead of financial/job inequalities)

And
Out with Textbooks, in With Laptops for an Indiana School District:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/education/19textbooks.html?pagewanted=1
(my summary: this school uses only laptops and PDF textbooks; it's ka-ray-zay!)

Contrast this with:

A Silicon Valley School That Doesn't Compute:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html?hpw
(my summary: these rich IT execs send their kids to a school with no computer use; the kids learn fractions from cutting fruit; it's ka-ray-zay!)