Counterintuitive, maybe?

Thanks to my good friend Heidi via Google Buzz (still not sure how to even use Buzz, but I seem to get notifications from everybody else), I noticed this retarded little goody: Solar-powered cell phone covers.

Like the author of their article even says:
"I have no idea if the environmental cost of making these things cancels out the benefits..."

My point, exactly! I have no doubt that every sandal-wearing, paper-recycling, hipster-wannabe in Portland will be toting these contradictory phone covers around by summer. But there is no way these things do more good for the planet, especially with an $80 price tag. Assuming they only make a marginal 25% profit off of them (and they're probably marked up much, much more than that), they would cost the company roughly $66. In reality, it's probably closer to $50 per cover.

There is no way they've been churning these things out sans a huge electricty-guzzling factory.

But here's the real kicker: It takes a 2-hour sunbathing session to garner enough power for only a 30-minute charge. If you're going to spend $80 for something to just charge your phone for 30 minutes, why not buy a spare battery? Wait, it's an iPhone? Damn... You can't even touch the battery.

(Want a spare iPhone battery? You have to do this).

I've got a better idea: Take that $80 you would have wasted trying to "go green" and put it toward cancelling your AT&T contract.

Go to Verizon and get a Blackberry. Then kick Luke Wilson in the head.