Have you heard of Life Pager? Or worse, are you one of those folks who are proudly walking around with such a device? For those who are saying, “Eh, what?!”, let me explain. Life Pager is actually a pepper spray which is of course used as a self-defense item.

What's wrong with a normal pepper-spray, you ask? I honestly don't know. The sales pitch for this wacky item revolves around these key factors. First, it hooks onto your pocket or bag strap and thus, is easy to grab. Therefore, you don't waste anytime fumbling in your bag. Wait, can't I just hit the attacker with a bag? Or scream and run? Or finally get to use some of the cool techniques I learnt in my judo class?

And it gets better. Apparently it spews out a fresh stream of pepper mist upto 10 feet from you. And it's more potent than other sprays too. Well, regarding the spray itself, I was about to debate the whole 'it's potent' vs 'but it's non-lethal' points brought up by this ad. Then I noticed how they casually slipped in this little tidbit – it's legal in almost every state ... except California. So, it's not legal in one of the busiest areas, incidentally one of the only areas where I might be sending off my grownup daughter because of her stubborn insistence on being an actress?

Finally, there's the name. At first glance, I throught it was an instant smsing service that picks up a voice recognition code from you. You know, you are attacked and you scream “3P-O-2” and your handy device sends an alert to the nearest police station. Or family member or even possibly tweet an SOS along with a google latitude location tag. But no, it's nothing too fancy. It's just a glorified pepper spray. So why don't I just use the normal ones?