These days you can’t turn on the news without hearing about someone’s identity being stolen. There are a number of ways to try to keep your identity safe, and the first one starts at home. If you don’t already own a shredder, stop reading this and go pick one up. Shredders are great for destroying your utility bills, credit card statements, and just about anything else that might have some of your personal information on it. Unfortunately, they tend to not be too portable. That’s where the Ziszor comes in.

The Ziszor is a handheld, portable shredding machine that measures just 10 inches long and runs on four AA batteries. It’s designed to be portable and weighs less than two pounds. It’s also pretty easy on the eyes, coming in a combo of glossy-silver and red.

The claim of the Ziszor is that it can shred up to five sheets of paper at a time, thanks to its 28 hardened steel cutting blades. We couldn’t wait to put it to the test.

Testing
For our test we tried to shred some of the most common junkmail. This included credit card applications and giveaways. We also tried to shred ATM receipts, some utility bills, and even some coupons, just to test different paper textures.

We first inserted a credit card application. While the Ziszor claims to be able to shred five sheets at a time, it only has a 4.5 inch opening to accept paper. This proved to be a bit challenging for standard envelopes because the plastic windows that come on most of them got a bit caught up in the shredder. Thankfully, pressing the rocker button backwards reversed the envelope out of the shredder. Other items we tried to shred worked great, including receipts of pretty much any size.

The Ziszor also comes with a couple of bags that slide perfectly over it, catching whatever has been shredded. If you want more than the ones provided, you can buy a pack of 30 for $3.29 at Ziszor.com.

My only complaint about the Ziszor is that it doesn’t do a cross-cut, which allows for even better protection from identity theft. Instead, it slices your paper into thin strips, which could technically be pieced back together. That said, the manual does recommend that you fold the paper so the cut is perpendicular to the writing, for extra security.

Overall, I love having the Ziszor around. Because of its size I can use it in my walk-in closet, which is where most of my credit card receipts end up. The convenience of having the attached bag makes it effortless to shred whenever I want.

You can read more about the Ziszor or purchase one for $39.95 at Ziszor.com.

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The new Motorola Z9 might not be announced on an official basis just yet, but it has already appeared at CTIA wireless, and we do know that it will be carried by AT&T. The Z9, just like the RAZR2, looks to be running the archaic Synergy operating system while touting an Opera Web browser and a 2-megapixel camera. The main attraction would be the “AT&T Navigation” icon, which is AT&T’s GPS product. Guess the inclusion of that gives the Z9 the honor of being the first consumer GPS phone for AT&T.

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The Placenta 10000 drink from Nihon Sofuken is a popular new drink in Japan. It’s supposed to taste like tender peaches. Yet, despite the fact that I’ve never tried it, my imagination and previous experience with Placenta products has already made it revolting.

Fellow Gadget Labber Rob Beschizza agrees: "One does not think "What a delicious, refreshing drink that would make," when one Googles "placenta.’"

According to myth, placenta has regenerative properties and is usually placed in dedicated areas. For example, if you suffer from a depigmentation ailment, you’re supposed to dab a little bit of it on the skin and the color will fill in after a few weeks. I once saw this experiment in person and the placenta-based alcohol mix on the skin was so strong that it burned the patient at first. After two weeks, the white splotch was gone.

However, using the uterine lining of human beings (or other beings) is usually regulated and considered illegal in some areas. Hard to believe, right? 

We attempted to read the Google-translated Nihon Sofuken page to find out how they get their placenta, but it only caused us more worry. Here are two machine-translated/bungled sentences:

"Fully managed their health. However, not their domestic dolphinラCenter at who and the raw materials and do me.”

"Foul whom soon corruption and the reasons for their blood who you will completely removed."

Let’s hope there is no whaling and dolphin-whacking going on with this product.

Here’s Rob again, speculating wildly on what the product page really says:

Once the offspring is removed and disposed of, our highly-trained specialists harvest the placenta before it comes into contact with air. This high-tech eviscerative process ensures the freshest and most delicious placenta.

People will do anything to look youthful.

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