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Sun Herald

Sunday May 11, 2008

Kirsty Munro, Ella Mudie, Helen Hawkes, Trent Kusters

Exercise for slackers, English takes on the undead and profit at a click.

On guard

A "second skin" keeps bananas safe from bumps and bruises.

David Agulnik, a former emergency room doctor in Canada, found the bananas his wife packed for his lunches often got squashed. Other staff and their children had the same problem, so in 2004, Agulnik developed a case, the Banana Guard, to protect his favourite fruit. Made from coloured plastic, the guard features perforations to let the banana breathe (and prevent premature ageing) and, Agulnik believes, it will fit 90 per cent of bananas. As for other innovations, Agulnik jokes, "Yes, we also have several other products in the works: grapes are where the serious money is!" The guard is $10 from Remo.com.au or go to Bananaguard.com for further details. Kirsty Munro

Instant entrepreneurs

You can customise practically anything online but could you spin a profit from your efforts? An article in the March issue of Wired noted a side effect of the boom in online customisation is the rise of the "instrapreneur" - people on-selling their internet-produced designs for profit. With no minimum quantities, dreamers can dabble at sites such as Blurb.com, where you can self-publish a book; customise cushions at Freddyandma.com; or go to the New Zealand site Ponoko.com where they will manufacture any viable design and deliver direct to your door. Ella Mudie

Swap my style

A new clothes-swapping service is giving women a chance to snap up designer bargains. Swapmystyle.com.au is the brainchild of 29-year-old Sydney fashionista Shaughla Ahmad. "I realised that although there were several online swap sites, there were no face-to-face events in Australia where you could see and try on items before you buy," she says. Entry to the event costs $40 and you can exchange up

to five items for tokens, from $50 to more than $200, which you can use once the swap opens. Events are held regularly in Sydney and will start soon in other capitals. Helen Hawkes

New yoga

It may sound lazy but slackline yoga - which means you perform yoga moves on a line of flat, narrow webbing stretched taut off the ground between two anchor points - is anything but. It is a hybrid of regular yoga and slacklining (similar to tightrope walking except the webbing is dynamic not rigid). The style was devised by Jason Magness, a US ultra-endurance yogi athlete, who has put together an instructional DVD, Slackasana: The Art Of Slackline Yoga. The point of this extreme exercise is to improve fitness while training for sports that require a combination of balance and focus, such as surfing and climbing. The DVD costs about $27 (plus shipping) from Amazon.com or go to www.yogaslackers.com. Ella Mudie

Dead language

Thought zombies were only interested in eating your brains? Wrong. They're also quite keen on teaching English, if the makers of the latest educational video game are to be believed. In Japan, English Of The Dead aims to educate and keep the living dead at bay. Developed by Nintendo for its handheld DS system, all the user has to do is fight off wave after wave of zombies by spelling out English words. The game is already generating buzz, with gaming site Kotaku predicting it will be "totally awesome". Trent Kusters

© 2008 Sun Herald

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