[Pizza]
[Meat]
[Fruit]
[Cookies]

The user places the PlantSense GardenGro sensor in a spot right next to the plant, and 24 hours later, plugs the USB hub into their computer. The sensor's data will then upload to PlantSense's website, which doles out tips like “water more,” or “pile on less plant food, your peppers are getting fat.”

The service is a little expensive—$59.95 for each USB stake. But isn't that a small price to pay to be able to munch on your own home-grown Roma tomatoes, your black thumb overcome by the wonders of technology? [EverythingUSB]

After the water finishes its route through the grill plate, it's cooled down again via a heat exchanger before making its way back into the grill. According to Wellbas, the system not only keeps food from turning black, it also lowers the fat content of your steak... supposedly because fat can't drain properly from charred bits.

I'm no Alton Brown, but some of this science sounds kind of iffy. Isn't adding heat to meat the whole point of grilling? If you're grill's getting cooled, I would assume it means the food would just take way longer to cook. Plus, the design doesn't seem to take into account heat distribution—some parts of the grill will be much colder than other parts.

But what do I know? The grill's apparently already won some design awards. Pricing is unlisted on the Wellbas website, but each system looks like it'll cost a couple thousand dollars at least. [Wellbas via Cnet]

The bags, made from sugarcane, corn or wheat, can increase greenhouse gas emissions because they require higher temperatures to decompose. Even the biodegradable versions don't disintegrate as planned when thrown into the anaerobic environment of a landfill. The lack of oxygen causes the bags to release methane, which is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

They also tend to screw up recycling operations by contaminating the waste stream and making regular recycled plastics unsaleable. Recycling companies would need to invest in extremely expensive equipment to extract bioplastic packaging from regular waste.

Not to mention, bioplastics also compete for land with food and biofuel. The industry, which is growing by 20 to 30% a year, may take over several million more acres of farmland within the next half decade. With rising food prices set to push another 100 million people into poverty, maybe it's time everyone just ditched plastics all together. [Guardian via Treehugger]

[Thanks Brad!]

Ippon Zuri, which means pole-and-line fishing, is available to DoCoMo subscribers in the town of Fukuoka, and was created by local system development company FIT, who teamed up with a local fish wholesaler. Gamers pay 1,000¥ (a little under 10 bucks) for three games, in which they cast to all kinds of seafood, from crab to sea bream in the hope of hooking them.

If successful, the player then has an encounter with a slot machine and, should he get lucky with three matching numbers, then the fish is reeled in, the seafood supplier contacted and, ta-daa, it's fish for supper. [Pink Tentacle]

Adam's vivisection of the Col-Pop shows that the material between the pops and the pop is a thin membrane, but he doesn't comment on the effectiveness of keeping the two separate. I mean, the obvious problem with this triumph of science over nature is that piping-hot chicken nuggets will water your Dr. Pepper down to Diet Coke-like consistency, while cold soda will turn your steaming nuggets into tough, lukewarm chunks of breaded styrofoam. The chain offering this plastic marvel, BBQ Chicken, has locations in NY, NJ and NC—can any Giz readers offer a review?

Update: Adam goes diving a little deeper for us, revealing that pokey eaters will indeed be dealing with some soggy chicken, especially on a hot day. Check it: That said, I sooo hope Chik-fil-A is on this thing, pronto. [Serious Eats via BBG]

As for the look and smell, the reviewer had this to say: "It really looks tasty and it doesn't smell like dog food!" Alright, so far, so good. But what about the taste? As you may have gathered from the image above, you will not be having any Harold and Kumar burgergasms when you bite into it. Again, the reviewer chimes in: "It tastes... not so good. Very bland, kind of like pre-made tomato sauce and a bitter aftertaste." Plus, the lower bun was soggy which "lowered the overall experience."

The bottom line: The reviewer would eat "this thing again if it weren't so expensive." And he didn't die or even get sick—which is always a plus. He also felt that the overall quality was similar to a McDonalds cheeseburger, which is really saying something. That having been said, it would probably be like fine caviar if you are out in the wild with little to eat. [Something Awful Forums]

I honestly can't figure out how I feel about this: is it the greatest achievement of mankind thus far, or is it an abomination of foodstuffs that deserves to be hucked back into the gaping maw of whatever food processing plant it was spewed from? I just don't know what to think anymore. Would you eat a cheeseburger in a can? Keep in mind that it'll look nowhere near as delicious as the example above when you pull it out of the can. [Product Page via Spulch]

The $200 million project would be funded by the casinos (who else?), so the food would be going right to them rather than to, say, poor people who are hungry. It'll make food costs lower for them and their awesome, awesome buffets. It could potentially make $25 million a year in addition to $15 million a year of potential tourist revenue. If it gets built and is successful look for vertical farms to pop up in less sleazy towns with the food going to people who actually need it, rather than tracksuit-wearing, fannypack-accessorizing, overweight Midwestern tourists. [Nextenergynews via Slashfood]

The Ie Soba costs $139, but beware, as it only comes with Japanese instructions. [Kilian-Nakamura]

[Make]

You select your meal from touchscreens that are installed on every table, and it arrives via a spiral slide a few minutes later. Is it more convenient? Perhaps. But it's only a matter of time before we just arrive at a restaurant and have a drip installed, or pop a food pill. I'll stick with tradition here, I think, and fight the growing trend for ever faster food. However, if bipedal robots were to swagger around a restaurant, wearing little bow-ties and talking in ludicrously stereotyped French accents, that would be another matter. [Sci Fi Tech]

The key to the patented Grovac bacteria-killing process is some kind of "all-natural" antimicrobial "neutralizer" solution invented by a pharmacist named Bill Groves who wanted to remove the "muddy" taste from his catfish. I hope it's not lemon juice, because I can get that without spending $400.

The other element to the process is a plastic food tumbler, essentially a fancy version of the $150 vacuum-sealed marinade machine you may have seen last time you grabbed a SkyMall catalog.

Together, the $400 combo supposedly spells out culinary peace-of-mind:

The process and technology reduce the level of pathogenic and spoilage bacteria found on meat and produce by up to 99.5% - making it safer to eat and extending its shelf-life.

The only time I had food poisoning, it came from a restaurant meal. On the flipside, I do not own one of these systems now, and have never given anyone salmonella, listeria or e. coli, at least not accidentally. The science may be solid, but that doesn't mean it's worth paying for. Now if they called it a chicken sashimi maker, you bet your ass I'd buy it! [CulinaryPrep]

Good theory, but the floors of each compartment are open, so it'll spill its coolness every time you crack the fridge. Another efficiency factor here: Smaller compartments mean isolated exposure to warm air when you're digging for an ice cream sandwich in one place and leaving the rest of the compartments closed. But micro containers could be a tough call when, say, storing a 15-pound turkey. Neat, but maybe just too weird to install at home. [Norcool via Treehugger]