Strange New Products blogged about ScatShovel, yet another pooper scooper. But what is really amusing are the brand extensions on their site. The obvious ScatRake, and ScatBags, and the not-so-obvious ScatManual

written primarily to assist young people ages 10 – 15 in establishing and building a dog waste removal business. Although it is geared to a specific age group, all of the information in this manual and material included in its appendices can be used by anyone regardless of age to start a profitable business. This manual is a compilation of lessons learned through trial and error by two young entrepreneurs over the course of three years. The ScatManual describes a business model that works. The manual describes all aspects of the business model, from marketing to accounting and all the important details in between. Click here to view the Table of Contents.

With a minimum investment in time and money, your young entrepreneur will learn valuable lessons that go beyond the money he/she will earn.

Right. Because there’s a real demand for such a service, and poop cleanup is really the kind of thing that young people are looking to go into (when the paper routes, mall jobs, fast food, babysitting and lawn mowing gigs are all taken), but are stymied by the lack of information available.

I guess if Zingerman’s deli can spin off ZingTrain, the scat people can do it too? At least they didn’t call it ScatTrain.

William Gibson’s Idoru

Laney, glancing down as they passed one of the glowing loops, noticed, on the treads of the stairs, hardened trickles of something that resembled greenish amber. ‘There’s stuff on the stairs,’ he said.

‘Urine,’ Arleigh said.

‘Urine?’

‘Solidified, biologically neutral urine.’

Laney took the next few steps in silence. His calves were starting to ache. Urine?

‘The plumbing didn’t work, after the quake,’ she said. ‘They couldn’t use the toilets. People just started going, down the stairs. Pretty horrible, by all accounts, although some people actually get nostalgic about it.’

‘It’s solid?’

‘There’s a product here, a powder, looks like instant soup. Some kind of enzyme. They sell it mainly to mothers with young kids. The kid has to pee, you can’t get them to a toilet in time, they pee in a paper cup, an empty juice box. You drop in the contents of a handy, purse-sized sachet of this stuff, zap, it’s a solid. Neutral, odorless, completely hygienic. Pop it in the trash, it’s landfill.’

They passed another loop of light and Laney saw miniature stalactites suspended from the edges of a step. ‘They used that stuff…’

‘Lots of it. Constantly. Eventually they had to start sawing off the build-up…’

‘They still…?’

‘Of course not. But they kept the Grotto.’

Another flight. Another loop of ghostly undersea light.

‘What did they do about the solids?’ he asked.

‘I’d rather not know.’

And today, this – Dog Poo Spray – the spray hardens the dog stuff so its owner can dispose of it more easily. I think it’s a concept at this stage, the winner of a design contest.