CrunchGear

Stunning! Imaginative! Practical! Never to be mass produced! All words and phrases you can use to describe Shiu Yuk Yuen’s concept umbrella, the Eco Brolly, which looks a lot less douchey than that other umbrella concept from a while back. It’s a plastic sleeve that you slide newspapers, shreds of cardboard and other assorted doodads to protect you from the cold hard rain.

Speaking of which, here’s a troubling anecdote. One afternoon about a month ago, it started to rain like the dickens. An elderly woman didn’t have an umbrella, so she put a plastic bag over her head. So, in the interest of not getting wet, she risked suffocation. Like, the bag was over her head and pulled tight as can be. It was both hilarious and thought-provoking.