A Magnetic Case Keeps Your Knives Safe and Sharp

Knifes: they will cut you. Not out of hostility or resentment, but because they're knives, dummy. Magmate's Magnetic Blade Guards will protect your precious fingers and keep your knives sharp at the same time.

The PVC sheaths won't save you from cuts you might sustain during some clumsy chopping, but you sure won't reach into the drawer and get a hand full of blade. The guards come in two sizes, a smaller one for $20 and a larger for $25. They're brightly colored and happy, and when you're done with your mincing, you snap them securely over your knives. More here.

Animal Snout Cups Let You Pick Your Nose

These animal shnaz cups are a great idea for your next party. They're also the only acceptable way to pick your nose.

They come from Fred & Friends, makers of all-around fun things. Eight, nine-ounce cups come in each $8 pack. You get a toucan, a zebra, a shark, and an iguana for your one creepy friend, among other exotic beasts. Surprise your guests who were probably expecting boring Solo cups. More here.

Does Anyone Actually Want a Transparent Phone?

There are a couple of rumored features that "phones of the future!" always seem to have, and up there with flexibility is transparency. See-through phones have been a futuristic what-if for ages now, but now a company called Polytron is promising that the future is here! Or at least close. Within the year, perhaps.

Sure, it'd be impressive, but it just raises the question: why? Is there any really good application for a transparent phone? Even if there is, would it ever be useful for the average Joe, expect maybe if he wants to keep tabs on the palm of his dominant hand?

This Is Where Apple Sources All Its Components

This map, put together by China File, plots all of the publicly available suppliers who fuel Apple's production lines. While the majority are found in Asia, it's interesting to see that the rest of world represents, too.

Each point on the interactive map represents an individual supplier, provided with complete context—from Analog Devices in Limerick, Ireland, to Arvato Digital in Smithfield, Australia. Explore the zoomable, clickable version of the map here.

There are, as you can see, plenty of suppliers based in the US, the most important—or at least, prolific—of which produce glass and processors for iOS devices. More here.

Google Will Open Retail Stores

Google is expanding out of its Mountain View haven and into the hangouts of America. According to an “extremely reliable source,” the search giant will roll out a retail initiative by opening up multiple flagship Google Stores in time for the holidays. Instead of relying on Google Play to get your Nexus 4, all you’ll need to do is drive on down to your favorite Google hangout.

“The mission of the stores is to get new Google Nexus, Chrome and especially upcoming products into the hands of prospective constumers,” 9to5Google said. The source added that Google has plenty of potential customers on the market, but they don’t have the opportunity to try the company’s stuff out—a try-before-you-buy situation. Stores will be Google’s solution, and potentially lead to increased sales.

Google currently offers smaller store-within-a-store options inside Best Buy locations in the U.S., but those only focus on Chromebooks. The source claims an actual Google retail store would have a much broader approach since the company pretty much offers an entire lineup of products now. We have to agree.

“The decision to open stores, I’m told, came when drawing up plans to take the google Glass to the public,” 9to5Google said. The only way consumers would be comfortable with purchasing such a (potentially) futuristic tech is if they could try it out first. The store idea was born around that, and it only makes sense to sell everything Google offers.

Apple has absolutely perfected the retail experience, and it’s a huge part of the company’s success. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently admitted that Apple Stores are much more than just a place to hock gadgets, but a wonderful advantage in community mind share.

Google wants a piece of that. More here.

The Multitasking Toss-And-Chop Is Your Salad Making Secret Weapon

This little scissor cyborg tool is a multitasker. Throw all the ingredients from your leafy green mix in the bowl—lettuce, tomatoes, carrots—go nuts. Everything will get sliced and mixed together without having to make a stop at a cutting board first. Sure, it's basically just a knife and scissors and tongs all in one, for $25. More here.

What’s the Difference Between an Asteroid and a Meteor?

The 2012 DA14 asteroid zipped passed Earth today and a meteor exploded over Russia. What the heck is the difference between an asteroid and a meteor? And a meteorite? And a meteoroid? Not too much, apparently!

An asteroid is a rocky object in space that's not as big as a planet and isn't a moon. There are millions of them, think the asteroid belt in space. A meteor is an asteroid that burns up as it enters the Earth's atmosphere, think shooting stars. A meteorite is a meteor that actually lands on the surface of Earth, think about Russia today.

As for a meteoroid? No one really knows. They're just kind of like smaller asteroids. More here.

Video of Asteroid as It Approaches Earth at Five Miles Per Second

Here it is: video of asteroid 2012 DA14 as seen at 12:59UTC from Samford Valley Observatory, Brisbane, Australia. It is moving towards us at "a closing speed of five miles per second."

You can watch live video here.

Lego iPhone Cases Re-Define Brick Phone

The best part is they're buildable. That definitely gives a new meaning to the concept of a brick phone. Lego iPhones are way cooler than a Zack Morris monstrosity. You'll start to see these awesome cases this spring. Belkin and Lego have a multi-year deal, which will give us more Lego gadgets in the future. More here.

Get Pregnant Today, Get a Free Ikea Crib in 9 Months

Cheap people of Australia: run! Don't walk! To the nearest location where you can get pregnant. Ikea is doling out free cribs to babies born nine months from today.

The baby must come into the world on November 14, 2013. If that's your due date or if you get knocked up today or sometime in the next month, hold onto this coupon! Or convince your doctor to induce you on the 14th of November. Or eat a lot of spicy food that day. Whatever it takes. Unfortunately for Americans who are planning on a baby, this deal is only good in Australia. And unfortunately for any parent, Ikea cribs are only as secure as your assembling skills allow, which is to say they could be pretty hazardous. But hey, free crib! More here.

This Mug Would Let Tea Drinkers Say Goodbye to Spoons For Good

Spoons? You don't need no spoons. Or at least, you wouldn't if the SlingsHOT mug became a reality, because the shape of its handle is designed especially to let you deal with teabags using just your bare hands.

There's a groove running up and around the handle of the SlingsHOT mug, which both keeps the bag from falling into the cup, and also allows the user to pull the string back, slingshot-style, to squeeze water from the bag. That means no more squeezing with spoons or scalded fingers. Simple, but terribly effective.

Sadly, the cup is currently just a design concept by Samir Sufi—but it may yet make it into production. More here.

A Bean Bag Chair Fit For an Evil Dorm Room Dictator

Designed for impoverished students and those who couldn't care less about posture, the bean bag chair is rarely regarded as a stylish addition to a well-appointed room. That is, until designer Antoinette Bader managed to turn the lowly specimen into a throne fit for a criminal mastermind, an evil dictator, or your average CEO.

The Marie bean bag chair has been completely classed-up thanks to a top section of triangular padded segments that can be reconfigured into a variety of different sitting options. But it's still a bean bag chair at heart, and is filled with a sea of polystyrene beads so if you really just want to slump down it will happily accomodate your sloth. More here.

How To Get 50GB of Free Cloud Storage Right Now

Need a place to squirrel away your digital stash? Box is giving 50GB of online storage free to new users.

Box will let you sync across both Mac and PC, and it has apps for Android, iOS, Outlook, BlackBerry PlayBook, and a bunch of other platforms listed here. To get yours, just head over to Box here, sign up for an account, and enjoy.

This is basically free space for any system you could conceivably use. The only disadvantage is Box has an upload size limit of 250MB. But 50GB is a ton of space for zero money, and most competitors like Dropbox, for example, only gives you 2GB gratis. And who doesn't like free stuff? More here.

A Jailbreak for iOS 6.1.1 Is Already Here

iOS 6.1.1 was released yesterday, and there's already a jailbreak available for it. The Evasi0n jailbreak tool which hit the internet last week has been updated to v1.3, and it will now liberate everything.

As Redmond Pie notes, the 6.1.1 update wasn't really about patching up the new iPhone 5 jailbreak—it was about fixing cellular issues experienced by iPhone 4S users of iOS 6.1. The Evasi0n tool update fixes several bugs present in the last version, and will work for folks on 6.1.1. More here.

The Nexus 4’s Charging Orb Is Now On Sale in Google Play

The Nexus 4 has been around for a few months now, but the Android phone's pretty wireless orb charger is just now available in the Google Play store.

The accessory costs $60 and is supposed to ship in less than a week. And while $60 seems like a lot to spend on a charger, the unexpected monster demand for the Nexus 4 probably means it'll sell out soon. So if you want one, don't dawdle. More here.

This Foldable Scooter Could Almost Be Your Carry On

Most folding scooters are missing something. You know, like a seat or actual portability. But the MOVEO from Turkish nonprofit Antro has a true mounted seat and folds to the size of a wheely suitcase. Intriguing.

The MOVEO has a carbon-composite body and weighs about 55 pounds, heavy as luggage goes, but pretty light for a scooter. It tops out at 28 miles per hour. The battery is only good for about 22 miles, though, and takes an hour to charge from empty.

The MOVEO has been in development for five years, and Antro has only recently been able to produce a prototype. Actual production is supposed to start in early 2014 with a run of either 4,000 or 15,000 units depending on funding. A MOVEO is projected to cost between $3,100 and $4,600 depending on how things play out, but at this rate it may be awhile. More here.

Microsoft Sells out of 128GB Surface Pro Models Online and in Some Stores

If you were wondering how well the public would take to a Microsoft-made tablet costing $899 or more... quite well, at least from initial impressions. The 128GB Surface Pro has sold out at Microsoft's US online store, and checks suggest a lack of stock at both the company's retail stores as well as Best Buy and Staples. Canada is facing similar shortages at Best Buy and Future Shop. 

Not surprisingly, storage worries (since partly alleviated) have left the 64GB tablet as the only one in consistent supply, and we suspect that the 128GB model in Microsoft's Canadian store won't last for much longer. There's no word on how many units each store had, and Microsoft has refrained from reporting Surface sale numbers to date. Still, the early uptake is good news for Microsoft's first foray into designing an x86 PC, and it shows that many early adopters aren't hung up on the price. More here.

How Many Heartbeats Does Each Species Get in a Lifetime?

Have you ever wondered how many heartbeats an average person has in their lifetime? What about for cats or dogs or other animals? Turns out because of metabolic rates and size of different species, each animal gets around a billion beats.

Around being the operative word, of course. Humans and chickens are outliers in that we get 2.21 billion and chicken gets 2.17 billiion beats. But a lot of other animals teeter the 1 billion line: horses, pigs, rabbits, elephants, cats, whales, etc. Animals big or small, fat or strong, fast or slow—it seems like there is a magic number for us all. Other than small dogs. They got the short end of the stick. More here.

This Single Molecule Drives Cancer Cells to Suicide

A team of researchers has identified a single molecule, called TIC10, that kick-starts the body's tumor-destroying systems—causing a chain reaction that can kill cancer dead.

In a series of experiments in mice the researchers, from Pennsylvania State University, found that TIC10 activities the gene for a protein called TRAIL—that's short for tumour-necrosis-factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand—which causes cancerous cells to commit suicide. Wafik El-Deiry, one of the researchers explains:

"TRAIL is a part of our immune system: all of us with functional immune systems use this molecule to keep tumours from forming or spreading, so boosting this will not be as toxic as chemotherapy."

A series of experiments provided evidence that TIC10 works on a wide range of tumors, including breast, lymphatic, colon and lung cancer. While the TRAIL protein has been targeted in the past, it's never been exploited as successfully—something the researchers put down to the small size of the molecule TIC10. There's a hidden benefit, too, because TIC10 seems to cause healthy cells to join in the fight, too. Nature explains:

[I]t seems that TIC10 activates the TRAIL gene not only in cancerous cells, but also in healthy ones. This gives it enormous potential to create a 'bystander effect', in which apoptosis - or cell death - is induced in cancer cells immediately next to healthy ones. Healthy cells are also stimulated to increase the amount of TRAIL receptors on their cell surface. These receptors can then bind to the adjacent cancerous cells, triggering their demise. "It's almost like TRAIL-plus - it does so much more," says El-Deiry.

Of course, this initial testing has all been done in mice—and it remains to be seen if it will work as well as in other creature. That's why the next step is to test the molecule in humans. Keep those fingers crossed. More here.

New Ancient Evidence Confirms That An Asteroid Killed All the Dinosaurs

For most of us laypeople, it's an accepted truth the dinosaurs were wiped out by a big ol' asteroid that smashed into the Earth, easy as that. For scientists, however, there's always been some question as to whether or not that was actually the case. But some new revelations have proven that we dummies were right in our gross over-simplification all along.

It's been known for a while that there was a catastrophic asteroid collision millions of years ago while dinosaurs roamed the Earth. It was definitely about 9-miles wide, and definitely hurtled into Chicxulub, Mexico, leaving a 110-mile crater. Likewise, it definitely caused an explosion two million times bigger than the biggest thermonuclear device ever, launching an epic dust cloud that blocked out the sun. But—but but but—according to previous evidence, all that could have happened as early as 300,000 years before the actual extinction of dinosaurs, meaning there might have been different/additional cause.

Turns out probably not. Go figure, but that catastrophic impact was enough to do the trick, according to a new paper published in Science. Scientists from Europe and the US have been able to look at the crater's dust and narrow the impact down to a mere 11,000 year window, which is incredibly small in geological terms. As it happens, the impact was practically simultaneous with the mass extinction. Sure, Earth hadn't been at its strongest immediately before impact, but it was definitely the asteroid that kicked off all the dying.

So that's that. Mystery (re)solved, and lucky for us, the story hasn't changed. Good thing too; it's such a good one. More here.