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Staph infections are one of the most pervasive and annoying bacterial infections faced by hospitals every year. It infects half a million people in the US every year, with symptoms ranging from skin infections to heart problems — and worse, some strains (commonly known as MRSA) have evolved to resist common antibiotics. As it turns…
The normal tire has been adapted over the course of a century to be pretty damn good at carrying people places. But from time to time they still break, Ackeem Ngwenya is a Royal College of Arts graduate who has been working on his expanding wheel concept for a few years now.I met him two…
Buying a Samsung Galaxy S6? You might want to wait: LG just invited us to an event on April 28th, where it’ll likely introduce the G4, another new Android flagship. Oh, and did we mention we haven’t reviewed the Samsung GS6 yet? Look for that later this week.
The UK has a problem: thanks to bad plumbing and a groaning sewer system, ‘grey water’ — the stuff that comes out of your dishwashers and washing machines — is ending up in rivers, bringing all sorts of contaminants with it. Hi-tech solutions exist to monitor the problem, but a much cheaper (and more amusing)…
Few of us have the mental bandwidth to care about the latest hot new social thing. When Foursquare split its app, I never downloaded Swarm in protest. I never signed up for Ello. Do I sound too get-off-my-lawn when I say screw Snapchat? The never-ending influx of new platforms makes me wonder: If I had…
As Windows 10 inches ever closer to its summer release, Microsoft’s been adding new features piecemeal to the preview version of its next-generation operating system, and this may be the biggest update yet. Microsoft’s brand-new browser, Spartan, is about to get its first taste of open internet. We got a brief tour of Spartan at…
It’s 180,000 carats and weighs 840 pounds. Its value is estimated somewhere in the $370 million range, but really, the Bahia Emerald is so rare it’s virtually priceless. No wonder the raw gem, which was found in 2001, is such a hot property — and has been at the center of a legal saga that’s…
Ethan Jones is back with another interesting visual breakdown of movie logos, this time focusing on DreamWorks. You know that intro sequence, where a fishing line gets dropped into the water from a boy on the moon. Here are all the variations that have popped up in DreamWorks movies since they first started using the…
Some might say New Yorkers had more money than sense in the Roaring Twenties. Somewhat profoundly, John K. Hencken’s idea to build highways on top of skyscrapers in Manhattan required both. Bummer about that stock market crash—otherwise these elevated boulevards might have been built! Emphasis on the might have. The plans to build a 16-mile-long…
Ripley figures are apparently like buses — you wait ages for one, and then a bunch come along at once. Now Ellen’s daughter Amanda is joining the Ripley figure party as well. Rejoice! For those unfamiliar, Amanda was the protagonist of last year’s Alien Isolation, a video game set 15 years after the first Alien…
Two former federal agents have been charged with fraud and money laundering while they were working on a task force devoted to bringing down infamous online drug bazaar Silk Road, and the charges paint a picture of a 15-year DEA veteran going rogue in such an over-the-top fashion that it’s hard to believe this isn’t…
Mission Chinese Food and Black Seed Bagels teamed up to create the wildest breakfast sandwich in New York: an all black, squid ink bagel with white poppy seeds that has been schmeared with whipped kefir-anchovy butter and made irresistible with Jamón Ibérico. The black bagel bun looks jarring but I’m sure this tastes fantastic. You…
Earlier today, we found a device that might be the very pinnacle of human garbage: theiPad Selfie Stick. But as we all know, things can always get worse. And that, dear readers, is where you come in. A few of you have already graced us with your wretched creations,seen here: And here: But let’s not…
Federal agents want Reddit to turn over the personal data of five prominent Redditors active in the Darknet Markets subreddit. IP addresses, names, and other data about five Reddit users active in Darknet Market discussions have been requested. Earlier this month, the popular drug-and-weapon peddling darknet market Evolution vanished in an apparent scam by its…
Our favorite TV show characters and movie stars and cartoons are often remembered for how they look. The outfits they wear, the cars they drive, the weapons they use, the swagger they carry and the hairstyle they have. Here’s an infographic showing 65 different famous hairstyles. Some can be recognized instantly, others I’m not so…
The only thing that sucks worse than doing taxes is a hacker stealing your identity, doing your taxes for you, and then depositing your return in a random bank account, where it can later be transferred to Nigeria. Sound impossible? It’s not, according to the story of an unlucky man named Michael Kasper. Long story…
The latest episode of Super-Fan Builds just hit the internet and this time the lucky recipient is a member of the 501st, a group of Star Wars fans who build their own replica costumes and visit hospitals and other charitable events while dressed in character. If anyone deserves an amazing ‘Han Solo frozen in carbonite’-themed…
In the 1970s, two inhuman creatures—one hairy and tall, another with orange eyes—were spotted in New England. The mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts, blamed these monsters not on unreliable testimonies, but recombinant DNA technology, then a new and promising laboratory technique. This outrageous claim was leveled by one Alfred Vellucci, a Cambridge mayor who reserved a…
Gmail just got a lot better on Android devices. Finally, after years of gripes, you can finally look at all of your email accounts at once with a new unified inbox. It even looks prettier, too! The Official Gmail Blog just announced the new “All Inboxes” feature. The post explains that even non-Gmail accounts will…
Netflix teamed up with David Gelb, the creator of Jiro Dreams of Sushi, to tell the story of six world class chefs and showcase their kitchens and, drool, their food. The trailer plays up the series as something epic (all that music!) but looks like it’s going to reveal an interesting story of see the…
