New Little Lotus baby blankets, which are getting a Kickstarter campaign today, are advertised as a phase-change material designed by NASA contractors to constantly absorb and release heat.

If it is good enough for an astronaut in the cold reaches of the cosmos - okay, they are only 220 miles up, but that is still technically outer space - it will surely keep your infant at the optimal temperature. But is there a great need for this? The promotional materials talk about infant mortality yet the main causes of infant mortality are not kids who lack the ideal temperature at all times, nor is it related to parents having enough money to buy a space-age blanket. Instead, this is a product for First World parents who can already afford to do plenty to curb infant mortality in their families and can pay extra for their blanket so the company can give one away. 

The press release about their Kickstarter campaign lists Christy Turlington and Heidi Klum (are they still having babies?) and even the Dalai Lama (is he having babies??) and it boasts designers are from Timbuk2 and Nike and Maclaren, so the big question is...why Kickstarter, given all that marketing firepower? They'd sell blankets more getting on "Shark Tank" for four minutes than they will on Kickstarter in a month, and if the product is viable, venture capitalists who are not jerks on television will also happily jump in, especially with a 'global artwork project raising awareness about infant mortality', which is the sort of thing people purchasing a space-age blanket like. I don't think there is much lack of awareness about infant mortality at this point.

This isn't the first Little Lotus on the Kickstarter block. A few years ago a project by the same name sent 12 artists to the Thai/Burma border to help refugee children do art. The 'little lotus' name made some sense then, since the artists were heading to Asia to teach Asian kids but the reason is less clear now.

In California, if you drive west of Highway 5 it is hard to find a town that does not have a white woman teaching some kind of class that has 'yoga' or 'lotus' somewhere in the company name so it could be just smart marketing. I bet Heidi Klum would not have signed up if I created something called a "Li'l Astronaut" blanket.

Chen's friends are having babies and that seems to be a big reason to make this. “Recently, all of my friends have been having babies. I continually hear the same concern over and over again: how do I know if my baby is at the right temperature? Babies can’t tell us when they’re too hot or too cold. They can’t take blankets off or add extra layers. I wanted to create something to address this concern, and help make sure babies are always cozy and comfortable.”

If only 100,000,000,000 women hadn't paved the way before you!