While reading this article, I got this picture in my head.
Y’know, all my life I’ve heard that the secret to commercial success is to find a need, and make a product that fills that need. But it’s just not true. It’s really more accurate to say the secret is to invent a product, and then convince people they need it. :rolleyes:
I agree. The phrase “Necessity is the mother of invention” was created by marketing people.
The frightening thing is that if this catches on, phrases like “pass me some air” will no longer be an amusing sequence of words.
Then again oxygen bars were a bit of a fad once.
Well, whaddaya know, i guess the term “Canned Air” is now literally true, what should we call those cans of compressed air dusters then…
…time to work on my Dehydrated Water project now… 
P.T. Barnum was right…
Me, I’m gonna start working on my Personal Hyperbaric Suit™ (pat. pend). It’ll pressurize to three atmospheres and deliver 100% pure oxygen from lightweight tanks affixed to each side of the helmet. I’ll put those crappy canned air pushers outta business!
35 doses a can? A high, euphoric feeling? Can anyone else see this being massively misused?
I wonder if they’re aware (or they care) that too much oxygen is toxic.
It is, but at that price, and for the amount of pure oxygen you would have to be breathing before it became toxic, it would be cheaper to buy a garbage bag full of crack. You can go for quite some time (as long as a week or two) on pure oxygen, as long as you’re breathing it under normal pressure (one atmosphere).
They sell canned oxygen in Tibet, which proved quite useful. Here’s my wife using some, just after collapsing from the altitude on our arrival in Lhasa.
Huh. I had no idea. Thanks.
After I finished laughing, I had to find my diving reference book to double-check this one. Brilliant invention! Let’s start a marketing campain.
There have been oxygen bars in Japan since the '90s. Here’s a write-up of a place called Neo in Shibuya. The only new thing about this is that they’re going to be packaging it for sale at convenience stores. I think there may be about 3 or 4 other things that they don’t sell in a Japanese 7-11. I haven’t seen a kitchen sink for sale there (yet).
You call Chiat/Day, I’ll try and find someone who actually looks hot in it. Then we need a jingle. I’m thinking Tom Jones…
We need a big event to do a product rollout, with Bill Gates doing a live demostration. How 'bout ComDex. Vegas, baby!
Joking aside, is it possible that a hit of pure oxygen could act as a nice pickup? Don’t pro football players sit on the sidelines guzzling pure oxygen between series?
Generally, it probably would. Getting more oxygen into the blood would act as a stimulant – I don’t know that I’d go so far as to say “euphoric” unless you suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome and were ecstatic about having some energy for a change – but it would definitely wake you up after a few hits. (I doubt a single hit would give you anything more than a mild but brief burst) I don’t actually think it’s a dumb idea considering how most of us are overworked and probably don’t get as much excercize as we should, which would leave us feeling rather knackered most of the time. It would also work faster than caffeine, though not last nearly as long. I’d be interested in the long term effects on the alveoli with heavy, extended use of canned oxygen – because you know there are some who are just going to get addicted to the stuff.
I’ve also heard that doctors use pure O[sub]2[/sub] as a hangover cure. It reputedly works a treat.
When I read about this, I wondered about a bottle standard drugstore antiseptic hydrogen peroxide. Assuming we could release all the dissolved oxygen and it’s breathable, would it be cheaper than this canned stuff?