Yummy molasses cookies

Cheap hearing aids

http://www.mdhearingaid.com/

$300-$600

"if we made a one-size-fits-most, pretty good hearing aid that's user-adjustable, we could actually do it, and do it at a cost-effective price point" - https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/blue-sky/ct-sreekant-cherukuri-mdhearingaid-bsi-20150914-story.html

- reviews on Amazon
http://www.mdhearingaid.com/reviews/amazon/

sold by Amazon and also in Canada

Cool infographics

It's hard to make reams of data engaging or interesting; each of these artists were inventive. 

A graphical representation of which part of a city people send social media photos from, with each color indicating a different social activity, from food to music to nightlife. 

http://stadt-bilder.com/#Berlin

Tweets (photos tweeted) during hurricane Sandy in New York, with a diagonal line indicating when the power went out. 

http://phototrails.net/radial_sandy_hue_created/

An animated globe with current weather patterns like wind or heat:

Misery index of how harsh conditions are currently:

http://earth.nullschool.net/#2014/11/18/1200Z/wind/surface/level/overlay=misery_index/winkel3=-54.00,45.47,190

Beautiful map of current wind:

http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-167.07,1.63,441

https://m.facebook.com/EarthWindMap?refsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fearth.nullschool.net%2Fabout.html&_rdr

The color of the sky as an indicator of air pollution in China, with an entire year represented by one ring of the circle:

http://xiaoji-chen.com/blog/2011/sky-color-of-10-chinese-cities/

Earth's population as spikes on a page with no map underneath; because populations are concentrated along the coasts, you can recognize the geography easily. 

http://spatial.ly/2014/08/population-lines/

The author, who collected all of these does a great job in Popular Science. Katie Peek, http://www.katiepeek.com/ has a good webpage with links to her work. 

And here's a list of her recent contributions to Popular Science:

http://www.popsci.com/popsci-authors/katie-peek

T

Saline injection instead of lidocaine for inserting an intravenous line

Comparison of bacteriostatic normal saline and lidocaine used as intradermal anesthesia for the placement of intravenous lines.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/16935736/

Iberico ham flavor comes from acorns

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jam%C3%B3n_ib%C3%A9rico
a type of cured ham produced mostly in Spain...made from black Iberian pigs fattened on barley and maize for several weeks...then allowed to roam in pasture and oak groves to feed naturally on grass, herbs, acorns....the diet may be strictly limited to olives or acorns for the best quality jamón ibérico …some producers cure their jamones ibéricos for up to 48 months...is very expensive and not widely available abroad

Dagmar bumpers

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagmar_bumpers

How long did it take to sell a billion dollars worth in China?

The answer will surprise you.
Alibaba, the Chinese equivalent of Amazon, continues to do very well. This statement astounded me - a billion in sales in a quarter-hour. China clearly is a massive marketplace.
"Alibaba recorded its first $1 billion in sales this "Singles' Day"* in only 17 minutes—it took about an hour last year"
*"Singles' Day—so named because the date Nov. 11 has four singles (11/11)—was started as an in-joke between university students, but has morphed into China's equivalent of Cyber Monday...When Chinese netizens celebrate not having anyone special in their lives by buying billions of dollars worth of products online"

NYTimes: Hard Lesson in Sleep for Teenagers

Uh-oh. Lots of increased risk in kids (poor grades, risk-taking, sadness) who don't get enough sleep. And sleeping in on weekends doesn't help.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/sleep-for-teenagers/?smid=nytcore-iphone-share&smprod=nytcore-iphone

Adolescents who do not receive adequate rest have trouble keeping up in the classroom and are more vulnerable to other health problems. And catching up on sleep on the weekend won't help.


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Ebola virus survivability and aerosol spread

Scary!

Ebola virus can be transmitted with just a single aerosolized organism, and can last several hours in the dark even when dried out on a countertop. 

http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/lab-bio/res/psds-ftss/ebola-eng.php

Here are some excerpts:

INFECTIOUS DOSE: Viral hemorrhagic fevers have an infectious dose of 1 - 10 organisms by aerosol in non-human primates.

...however, airborne transmission has not been demonstrated between non-human primates 

INCUBATION PERIOD: Two to 21 days 

 STABILITY AND VIABILITY

All information available on stability and viability comes from peer-reviewed literature sources depicting experimental findings and is intended to support local risk assessments in a laboratory setting.

DRUG SUSCEPTIBILITY: Unknown...Although clinical trials have been completed, no vaccine has been approved for treatment of ebolavirus. Similarly, no post-exposure measures have been reported as effective...There are no known antiviral treatments available for human infections.

SUSCEPTIBILITY TO DISINFECTANTS: Ebolavirus is susceptible to 3% acetic acid, 1% glutaraldehyde, alcohol-based products, and dilutions (1:10-1:100 for ≥10 minutes) of 5.25% household bleach (sodium hypochlorite), and calcium hypochlorite (bleach powder), 

PHYSICAL INACTIVATION: Ebola are moderately thermolabile and can be inactivated by heating for 30 minutes to 60 minutes at 60°C, boiling for 5 minutes, or gamma irradiation (1.2 x106 rads to 1.27 x106 rads) combined with 1% glutaraldehyde. Ebolavirus has also been determined to be moderately sensitive to UVC radiation.

SURVIVAL OUTSIDE HOST: Filoviruses have been reported capable to survive for weeks in blood and can also survive on contaminated surfaces, particularly at low temperatures (4°C). One study could not recover any Ebolavirus from experimentally contaminated surfaces (plastic, metal or glass) at room temperature.  In another study, Ebolavirus dried onto glass, polymeric silicone rubber, or painted aluminum alloy is able to survive in the dark for several hours under ambient conditions (between 20 and 250C and 30-40% relative humidity) (amount of virus reduced to 37% after 15.4 hours), but is less stable than some other viral hemorrhagic fevers (Lassa). When dried in tissue culture media onto glass and stored at 4 °C, Zaire ebolavirus survived for over 50 days. This information is based on experimental findings only and not based on observations in nature. This information is intended to be used to support local risk assessments in a laboratory setting. 

Power shades and blinds

I thought these were a good idea: motorized blinds that are solar-powered so you don't have to rig up an electric cord to them. 

http://www.somfysystems.com/en-us/index.html

Elephants Able To Detect Rainstorms 150 Miles Away from Popular Science

"in 2011 alone, poachers killed one out of every 12 African elephants. Yikes!":

  Elephants Able To Detect Rainstorms 150 Miles Away

Massive Claw

This massive claw is designed to assemble under-sea platforms for oil and gas production, I think. The story is told in time lapse because it's so huge.

http://youtu.be/7gU2ieExfqA

Buick fender portholes

Rival cheap smart phone gets good review

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/09/technology/personaltech/oneplus-one-review-high-hopes-for-low-price-phone.html?smid=nytcore-iphone-share&smprod=nytcore-iphone

If OnePlus can navigate the perils of the cutthroat smartphone business, it may be giving us a peek of the glorious future of great, cheap phones.


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Instant home security system $250

Canary home security all in one system:

Plugs into an outlet, connects to Wi-Fi, monitors for earthquakes, loud noises, humidity, motion sensor, night vision. Cool!

http://canary.is/

http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/07/canary-app/

http://www.popsci.com/article/gadgets/defend-your-home-artificial-intelligence