I know it's advisable to talk to plants when growing them, but isn't Sega Toys overdoing it just a bit by actually manufacturing toy plants people can talk to? Yeah sure, it's a bit cute at first, but five minutes into the "conversation" and I'll probably opt not to speak at all. Pekoppa is a toy plant with a built-in IC chip which identifies intonations and rhythms of human speech. Whenever someone starts talking near it, the plant bends to mimic the very human action of nodding; creating an illusion that someone's actually listening to your woes. In fact, Pekoppa's marketing tag line is: "Heal yourself with this plant, which is a good listener!"

Sega Toys will start selling Pekoppa by September 30 for $22, and hopes to sell a total of 200,000 toy plants this year. I don't get it, if there are 200,000 lonely people willing to buy the plant, wouldn't it be much better if some of them got together instead? Better yet, they should grow real plants to help prevent climate change even the tiniest bit. But to each his own, and if Pekoppa helps make some lives a lot better, then I'm all for it.