Hands-Free Faucets Actually Grosser Without You Having to Touch Them

Talk about irony. According to a study conducted at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, hands-free faucets have a significantly higher chance of playing home to bacteria like Legionella spp., which causes Legionnaire's Disease.

The reason is hands-free faucets have more components than traditional ones, and bacteria was found to thrive in these parts in particular.

The findings fly in the face of why hands-free faucets are popular, and in one isolated case they've actually caused the esteemed Johns Hopkins University to remove them from their clinical areas.

As far as everyday use in public restrooms countrywide is concerned, everyone can keep waving their hands under these magical faucets without worry. The Johns Hopkins officials have assured everyone that we have little to worry about—it's the clinics and other sterile environments that need to take notice.

 

 

Sony CEO Mentions He's Supplying Cameras To Apple

Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer reported that his company is producing cameras for the next batch of iPhones and iPads during a public interview with the Wall Street Journal. Traditionally, Apple's sourced its sensors from OmniVision, including the delightfully backside-illuminated 5 megapixel CMOS unit you'll find in the iPhone 4, but since Sony too has BSI tech and OmniVision has reportedly encountered delays, your next portable Apple product might house a Sony Exmor R sensor. Mind you, that may not end up actually happening, because of the context in which Sir Howard revealed the news -- according to 9 to 5 Mac, he said that the factory producing sensors for Apple was affected by the Japanese tsunami. Oh well.

Apple Facing Possible iPod Battery Shortages After Japan Quake

While electronics companies have seemingly avoided major issues with component shortages in the wake of the Japan earthquake, Apple may have to deal with a threat from an unexpected source: Kureha Corp., a niche producer of polymers for lithium-ion batteries.

Apple isn't the only company facing potential issues either. Kureha has a 70% market share for this particular polymer, and market researchers expect other companies to face shortages as well.

 

 

Nanogenerators Produce Electricity While You Dance

Dr. Zhong Lin Wang of theGeorgia Institute of Technology has reported that he and his team of Einsteins constructed nanogenerators with enough energy to potentially power LCDs, LEDs and laser diodes by moving your various limbs. These micro-powerhouses -- strands of piezoelectric zinc oxide, 1 / 500 the width of a single hair strand -- can generate electrical charges when flexed or strained. 

Wang and his team of researchers shoved a collection of their nanogenerators into a chip 1 / 4 the size of a stamp, stacked five of them on top of one another and can pinch the stack between their fingers to generate the output of two standard AA batteries -- around 3 volts. Imagine how convenient to charge your phone in your pocket sans the bulky battery add-ons. And that's only one application of this technology. 

Wrex Titanium Pocket Wrench

If you fear landing in an emergency situation requiring you to loosen nuts and bolts on the go, consider the Wrex Titanium Pocket Wrench.

Not only is the gadget conveniently sized, it packs an ultra sharp blade attached to the wrench's jaw, a wire stripping hole, a double-ended driver bit, a 1/4-inch hex bit driver with o-ring, and a bottle opener. Expect to pay $179 when it hits stores in early May.

 

 

Arctic Ozone Levels Dropped By As Much As Half In The Past Year

Check out the stark difference between these two satellite images, taken on March 19, 2010 and March 19, 2011. The left image shows much more ozone (in red) over the Arctic than the right image. What's happened?

These maps come from NASA's Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), aboard theAura satellite. The two images tell a stark tale of rapid ozone depletion. OMI uses a spectrometer that measures the amount of sunlight scattered by Earth's atmosphere and surface, which gives a sense of how much ozone exists at different levels, including the stratosphere.

In mid-March, scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute reported that Arctic ozone levels had been cut in half towards the end of winter, based on data from 30 ozone-sounding stations around the region.

The good news is, Arctic ozone levels fluctuate from year to year, and ozone "holes" don't form as consistently as they do in the Antarctic. It remains to be seen whether this ozone depletion will actually lead to increases in the intensity of ultraviolet radiation in the Arctic.

But still, the question of why ozone levels dropped so starkly this year remains, and nobody has a good answer. There are still a lot of ozone-depleting chemicals like CFCs in the atmosphere, despite their regulation by the Montreal Protocol. It'll take a long time for the concentration of these chlorines to decline, because these chemicals have a long lifespan. And the process of ozone depletion is intensified when the stratosphere is especially cold, which has been the case in recent weeks.

 

 

Netflix Beefing Up Service Center In Preparation For Global Launch

It's no secret that Netflix has grand plans to expand its global footprint that now feeds media to some 20 million North American subscribers. Hell, the company was boasting of the "significant dollars" allocated to its 2011 international expansion plans just four months ago. Notably, Netflix's customer service call center in Hillsboro Oregon is gearing up to expand its scope of operations beyond North America.

Two new job postings for a Training Supervisor and Quality Assurance Analyst both mention the need to prepare for "rapid" international expansion and "will support a specific country / region outside of North America." The Training Supervisor is being hired specifically to educate customer service reps in preparation for that future international growth. Neflix is looking for fluency in English in addition to Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian and European), and Spanish (Latin American and European), leaving things pretty wide open with regard to the countries targeted for initial launch.

This Year's Hottest Pocket Mirror is Also a USB 3.0 Multi-Format Card Reader

We always knew that the worlds of technology and popular culture were on a collision course of epic proportions, and if this isn't proof... well, you might say that proof simply doesn't exist. Brando has an identity crisis that Charlie Sheen would simply salivate over, but if we had to guess, we'd surmise that a USB 3.0 SuperSpeed card reader -- complete with support for CompactFlash, SDXC and M2 cards -- does a lot more #winning with a mirror slapped onto the side. Pre-order yours today for the tidy sum of $25.

The World’s Largest Wooden Structure Now Open For Business

The Metropol Parasol, located in Seville, Spain, just opened its doors to the public and is the world's largest wooden structure. Some pragmatically-minded city planners originally wanted to build a parking garage on the site, then they discovered some artifacts of archaeological significance and opted to build a museum/shopping center instead.

From the looks of it, the roof is the best part—you can actually go up there and check out views of the entire city.

Motorola Xoom Officially Landing in UK Next Week

Moto that its Xoom tablet will be arriving in the UK next week. The important thing is that the world's first Honeycomb tablet will be on sale in some form just as soon as the next British fiscal year gets started.

Fake Toilet Paper Roll Prank For April Fools Day

Have you ever been without toilet paper? It's a horrible sinking feeling. Disgusting scenarios run through your head: should I squabble to safety, should I use what's in the trash, maybe my underwear? It's scary! Which is is why I'm going to pull this prank come April Fools.

It's pretty easy to make too: there's one sheet of toilet paper on the exterior and a hollow cardboard clone that maintains the typical shape of toilet paper. It doesn't actually take much supplies or hard work, just some scissors, glue, cardboard and a roll and maybe an hour of time. Just make sure the person you prank can deal with the crustiness though. 

 

 

Accidental Inventor of Super Glue Dead at 94

Most people don't live to be 94. Most people don't receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Most people also don't invent, by accident, an extremely useful and widespread super-substance. Harry Coover, who died Saturday, did all these things.

In what must have been a very messy moment of discovery in 1942, Dr. Harry Coover of Eastman-Kodak Laboratories found that a substance he created-cyanoacrylate-was a miserable failure. It was not, to his dismay, at all suited for a new precision gun sight as he had hoped-it infuriatingly stuck to everything it touched. So it was forgotten. Six years later, while overseeing an experimental new design for airplane canopies, Coover found himself stuck in the same gooey mess with a familiar foe-cyanacrylate was proving useless as ever. But this time, Coover observed that the stuff formed an incredibly strong bond without needing heat. Coover and his team tinkered with sticking various objects in their lab together, and realized they had finally stumbled upon a use for the maddening goop. Coover slapped a patent on his discovery, and in 1958, a full 16 years after he first got stuck, cyanoacrylate was being sold on shelves.

Coover died over the weekend, according to his grandson—but not before racking up a PhD, 460 patents, and a spot in the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Not bad for a guy who stumbled upon his greatest creation. So, the next time you stick together a broken plate (and not your fingers), pause and thank Dr. Coover's serendipity.

LG's 3D-shooting Optimus Pad

Japan's NTT DOCOMO just announced a March 31st retail offering of LG's Optimus Pad. The Honeycomb tablet listed as model L-06C is the same 8.9-inch 1280 x 768 pixel slab known as the G-Slate around T-Mobile subscribers. Besides its 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor and internationally compatible 3G data and GPS, the Optimus Pad's most noteworthy features are the stereoscopic rear-facing video cameras capable of 1080p 3D capture which can viewed directly on the L-06C with a pair of passive glasses. 

 

 

World’s Lightest Bike

A new road bike will probably cost you a grand or so. It'll also probably weight almost 30 pounds. But this featherweight specimen, made entirely out of carbon fiber, skimps on nothing—and weighs only six. Worth $45,000?

Crafted by Tucson's Fairwheel Bikes—really is a beautiful piece of engineering: titanium spokes, ten-speed rear gear, and a tough, gorgeous carbon frame you could haul around with one hand. 

 

 

Alarm Clock With Balls

It's basically an alarm clock which flings a ball at your face before going off. In order to make the noise stop, you have to find the ball and put it back where it belongs. Of course, there's no mention of an emergency snooze button so I guess you'll have to yank out the batteries if the ball is thrown out an open window or otherwise lost.

 

 

Sprint’s HTC Evo View Tablet Is a Big Aluminum 4G Phone

SPECIFICATIONS

•1.5GHz Qualcomm® Snapdragon® Processor
•Dimensions: 7.7 inches (195.4 mm) x 4.4 inches (112.5 mm) x 0.5 inches (13.2 mm)
•Weight: 14.88 ounces (421.84 grams)
•Display: 7-inch (177.8 mm), 1024 x 600 touchscreen display with pinch-to-zoom
•32GB internal memory, 1GB RAM; microSD slot (supports up to 32GB memory card)

It'll hit this summer, but no word on pricing. If it's stuck to a contract, it better be under $400.

 

 

Earth Hour 2011

In what has become an annual tradition now, the WWF's Earth Hour is presently sweeping across the globe, getting people to switch off non-essential lights and appliances for a sixty-minute kindness to Ma Earth and her finite energy resources. All you'll need to do to participate is power down the old World of Warcraft questing station, turn the TV off, and maybe take a walk outside so your lights don't have to be on, starting at 8.30PM tonight. Half the world's already done it.

 

 

Disaster Alert for Android Gives You Real-Time Updates on the World’s Active Hazards

If there's anything the Japan quake has taught us, it's that disaster can strike at any moment. PDC's Disaster Alert app for Android can help you cope with this scary fact by giving you real-time alerts on the world's active hazards, including earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, storms and more.

 

 

ASUS Lamborghini External HDD

Hot on the heels of ASUS' underwhelming Lamborghini VX6 netbook comes the equally over-hyped Lamborghini external HDD. Underneath that logo you've got either 500GB or 700GB of storage spinning at 5400RPM in the USB 2.0 model and 7200RPM in the USB 3.0 edition. The only sign of luxury in sight, however, is the price tag -- at $120 for the 500GB and $140 for the 700GB, the USB 2.0 versions are nearly twice as pricey as the non-Lambo competition.

 

 

The iPhone 4 Fits Exactly Inside the MacBook Air’s Lid Dent

A Swedish designer by the name of Mattias Östergren has a very keen eye, noticing that the iPhone 4 locks exactly with the shape of the MacBook air. Coincidence? Feature? Conspiracy? Cool? Hot? Pretty? Neat!