A few times a year you’re gripped by the same fear – everyone who sits around you in the office knows your wardrobe intimately. So intimately that they talk about individual garments as if they were their own.

Comments like, “Remember when we had that meeting? It was a Wednesday, you were wearing that brown shirt”, or, “This is an important client, I think you should wear those dark gray pants”, etc. You feel unimaginative, boring, cheap and out-of-touch. Well, at least you should.

The incorrect thing to do is go home, open up your wardrobe and go postal on every piece of clothing you own. Dragging everything down to a charity bin and starting again, only to fall into the same pit of despair six months later.

The correct thing to do, according to the team at Ask Men, is to inject a handful of fresh pieces every season to compliment your staple collection. 2007, luckily for you, is apparently a great year to do it, and their suggestions – tartan scarves, tweed jackets, the colour gray, to name a few – seem just weird enough to make sense.

No one will notice you’re wearing the same shirt as last Tuesday if you’re wearing a gaudy new scarf. It’s a stroke of fashion genius.

2007 Work Wear [Ask Men]

The thought disgusts us, but there are people out there who like to exercise. And not the kind of lazy activity that we like to claim as exercise (walking to work, anyone?).

Not happy simply with being able to run for an extended period of time without the aid of an inhaler or the risk of cardiac arrest, athletes looking for a bit more frustration in their routine can get a hold of the Power Chute.

Although the workout benefits seem fairly obvious, the official website cites adrenaline as the chute’s key ‘motivation’:

Athletes love that “shot out of a cannon” feeling immediately after releasing the Power Chute™.

That all sounds like fun, but we think the coolest possible use of these is being overlooked. Imagine, for a second, Asafa Powell deploying one of these babies as he crosses the finishing line of the 100 meters. Like he was a top fuel drag racer or something.

Power Chute [via Crunch Gear]

Never mind the potential distraction possible with recent technology including DVD players and game consoles in cars, VW have decided that you now also have time to shred while driving, on a custom-made guitar.

From now until the end of the year, purchasers of certain models from the German manufacturer will receive a First Act electric guitar capable of being played through the car’s stereo system.

Finally, sitting behind the wheel at the lights, singing something really naff at the top of your voice is going to be eclipsed by something even lamer.

Buy A Car And Get A Guitar, You’re Gonna Go Far: VW To Offer Special Axe With Select Models [Jalopnik]

In what can only be described as an absolute tragedy, it’s been reported that a warehouse blaze in the US Northwest has claimed 4% of America’s hops harvest.

As of yet, the cause of the fire in Washington’s Yakima Valley is unknown (although the fact it’s happened in Washington’s premier wine region must make some of us suspicious, no?), but local reports note the “pungent” aroma the fire released. Pungent? Again, these ‘reports’ must’ve come from wine types.

The effect on US beer supply, or world beer prices, is likely to be negligible, especially for stout drinkers (many have commented that the cascade hops grown in the region are used more for microbrewery pale ales).

And it surely means that this weekend’s Yakima Fresh Hop Ale Festival is going to see quite a few ‘comfort ales’.

Now the Terrorists Have Won [NPR via Boing Boing]