A Pew Research Center report released this week shows that 30% of adult American Facebook users get some of their news from Facebook. That’s about 20% of the adult population of the US. But most of those people don’t see Facebook as the primary or most important way they get news. Rather, news consumption on […]
There’s just something incredibly wrong about eating while you’re in the bathroom, especially when you’re taking a dump. Toilet-related activities and eating just don’t mix, but that’s exactly what the Magic Restroom Cafe wants to change your mind about, because that’s the theme the unusual restaurant is going with.
Inspired by the Modern Toilet restaurant in Taipei, this one offers equally crappy food. Not crappy as in “not delicious,” but crappy as in “poop-themed.” Diners are seated on non-functioning toilet seats that they have to sit on opened if they want a backrest. For those who prefer more comfort when they’re dining, there are regular plush seats on the opposite end of the table.
Eater LA also reports that a lot of the food (which has gross names like ‘black poop’ (chocolate sundae), ‘smells-like-poop’ (braised pork over rice), ‘constipation’ (zha jiang mian),” and ‘bloody number two’ (vanilla-strawberry sundae) is served in little ceramic toilet bowls.
Honestly, the food doesn’t sound appetizing. While the presentation is fun, I have a feeling the thought of eating out of a miniature toilet is enough to make some people queasy.
What do you think?
[via Eater via Geekologie]
An Illinois man named Howard Leventhal persuaded a company to help finance “Heltheo’s McCoy Home Health Tablet”. Yes it sounds as bad as it is. This is a fake health device that’s based loosely on the medical Tricorder that McCoy used on Star Trek. Leventhal was arrested for fraud on Oct. 22, not surprisingly he did not have the tech to beam himself out of dodge.
Last year, Leventhal told executives at Paragon Financial Group, Inc. that Health Canada was backing his “home health tablet” and that it was based on the Star Trek tricorder. The company gave him $800,000 in funding. Apparently no one bothered to check this guy or his story out. So then Leventhal forged contracts between his fake company Neovision USA and the Canadian government to secure even more funding. He even forged Deputy Health Minister Glenda Yeates’ signature. The contract was made to look like it promised him $8.2 million in funding directly from Canadian government.
This guy had big brass cojones, I’ll give him that. However, this whole thing was very stupid. He had to know he would get caught. And he did. After he tried to get $2.5 million more in funding, he gave the fake contracts to an undercover agent. Right now, he is out on a $100,000 bond, with a hearing on Oct.30. What a maroon. Seriously, they need to study this guy and see what makes him tick. Maybe they can learn some things and head off this sort of thing in the future.
On the other hand, I suppose the investors deserve what they got if they were that bad at their due diligence. All they had to do was investigate his story in the first place before coughing up their dough.
[via Gizmodo via Nerd Approved]
There’s always some excitement when a tech company finally makes its IPO. The most notable, at least recently, was Facebook’s. Now, Twitter is set to have their own IPO, right around Thanksgiving.
The Twitter IPO is supposed to be unveiled soon. They will sell about 70 million shares, priced at $17 to $20. This will raise nearly $1.4 billion dollars, and will become the second biggest tech IPO since Facebook. Twitter hasn’t revealed if the shares will be listed for open market trading, but it will be listed on the NYSE, under the symbol TWTR.
The biggest issue with Twitter is how they can convince investors that they will be able to generate revenue – and profit – from its more than 200 million users.
[via Bloomberg]
So you know how you’re cooking, and then you realize that you’ve got way too much (or way too little) of the ingredients you need to prepare the number of servings you had in mind? It’s annoying, not to mention potentially disastrous, if you happen to be cooking for some important people (like your in-laws, perhaps.)
There to save the day is Sharp’s Chop-Syc interactive digital cutting board.
It was the winning design submitted by Siobhán Andrews to Sharp Labs’ #GetItDownOnPaper competition. As the winner, Andrews got the rare opportunity to see her design turn into a reality after her two-month internship at Sharp.
Chop-Syc lets users check out recipes on the board itself as they cut and prepare ingredients. It has measurement tools and diagrams that will guide the user on how much of an uncooked ingredient is needed for a particular portion. Aside from that, Chop-Syc also has a built-in scale that can be used to weigh ingredients, so it’s basically an all-around multi-purpose device.
Chop-Syc remains a prototype for now, but who knows? You might be able to actually buy it one day.
The BBC will become the first news agency to create content for Twitter’s Amplify service, reported Ad Age. The content will be in the form of short news clips based on trending topics, each clip preceded by a short ad. The videos will be embedded directly into the BBC’s tweets with the hashtag #BBCTrending. The […]
Over the last few days, Nintendo announced that the Nintendo Wii game console would be going out of production in Japan. With the console ending production, it would be easy to assume the console no longer be available to purchase once existing stocks run out. The announcement left people in the U.S. wondering if availability in the States would be affected.
A spokesperson for Nintendo of America has now stepped forward and said that the announcement that the Wii has been discontinued in Japan will not affect availability in the U.S. It’s unclear if they are continuing a lesser volume of production just for North America, or if they’ll just be selling through existing stock though. The Nintendo Wii itself isn’t exactly incredibly popular these days, but it is one of the cheapest game systems available.
Nintendo will offer the Wii in a bundle starting at around $130(USD) during the holiday shopping season. Odds are we’ll see the Nintendo Wii even cheaper than that for Black Friday sales.
[via Gamespot]
Seeing a doctor can be a pain sometimes. It’s painful and inconvenient enough to be sick as it is. What’s even worse is having to sit at a doctor’s office for hours on end and wait for the receptionist to call your name.
Well, there’s another way to see a doctor and it’s being advertised as being the “faster” and “easier” way: you do it online.
Behind this new service is American Well. Telemedicine isn’t actually a completely new idea, but this is just one of the applications that’s making the technology more accessible for more people.
Potential patients can check in with a U.S. trained, Board-certified doctor through their iOS or Android devices. Each ten-minute video chat consultation will cost $49(USD). If the appointment takes longer that, then additional charges will apply.
Dr. Teresa Myers, who practices telemedicine, explains: “I guarantee that not a single person who practices telemedicine would say this is a replacement of traditional medicine. This is an extension of traditional model care. With telemedicine, we can appropriately triage patients to higher levels of care needed to avoid preventable negative outcomes, which includes direct and indirect costs.”
Wile this technology definitely adds convenience and immediacy, it can’t be used as a substitute for in-person examinations and testing.
[via C|NET]
Monday morning it appears Facebook is having a relatively widespread issue with status updates. If you ran into it this morning, apparently you are not the only one. Reports across the country have been posted online stating the issue. We encountered a message this morning when trying to update a status and received the message: “There was a problem updating your status. Please try again in a few minutes.” Others have reported the updates with no error message, but the updates ultimately do not happen.
No message from Facebook officials as of yet as to when it will be resolved or how widespread the problem is.
If you think that viruses and malware only affect PCs or laptops, then think again. A lot of them are already making the rounds on mobile devices, such as your smartphones and tablets.
The unfortunate thing is that most people don’t think about getting an anti-virus app for their device because they never even considered the idea and danger of mobile malware in the first place.
If you’re one of those people, then it’s high time for you to learn a thing or two about mobile security and take the necessary steps to safeguard your data and device–before it’s too late. The good news is that a number of anti-virus providers have released mobile anti-virus programs that can be downloaded through various app stores, depending on your operating system.
Taking things one step further is Kaprica Security. They’ve worked with Belkin to come up with a phone charger called Skorpion that scans your device for the presence of any virus, malware, or malicious rootkits. Some of these malware work by stealing your personal information (which could lead to identity theft) and by accessing your phone remotely (which could lead to atrocious charges from your telco provider), which could result in bigger problems down the line.
All you have to do is plug in your phone and Skorpion will get to work. It will take all of two minutes to detect the presence of malware on your device. A comprehensive scan of the OS will also be done and you’ll be alerted to any potential problems or threats that have been found afterward.
Kaprica Security only works with Android devices. Belkin will be manufacturing the Skorpion, although a release date has yet to be announced. As for pricing, the Skorpion charger unit will cost $65(USD) and you’ll have to pay a monthly subscription fee of $3-$4 for continued protection.
[via Technology Review via Gizmodo]
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