Normally I offer comment to the Mainichi Shimbun's snapshots of all things Japanese but this one deserves the paper's own caption:
Masumi Gotoh, president of Japanese telecommunications-equipment company Let's Corp., explains about the company's new invention called Ka-on, that turns the petals and leaves of flowers into an audio speaker. The ka-on, which means "flower sound" in Japanese, consists of a donut-shaped magnet and coil at the base of a vase that hooks up to a CD player, stereo or TV.Place the flowers into the vase, turn on Ka-on and the magnet and coil relay the sound vibrations up the stems through the plant's water tubes.
It brings a new meaning to "audio boutique." Some advertising board is no doubt perfecting a commercial that depicts a mass of Ka-on-activated plants smashing the windows of their greenhouse in slow motion to AC/DC's "Back in Black." When Let's Corp. makes a hasta bunch put out like a subwoofer, I'll call it genius.
It's Friday, my print batch is done, and I'm off for a well-deserved falafel wrap at the West Side of Cleveland's best source of Near Eastern food that's cleverly disguised as a deli.