As a newly discovered corona virus spreads through an increasingly anxious world, advice is being offered—and sometimes mocked—about the mundane-seeming question of facial hair. The basic safety question was investigated more than fifty years ago—and that investigation was honored ten years ago with an Ig Nobel Prize. Also: Today the Trump administration took a new […]
Tag: virus
“Overtaken by curiosity” Users Really Do Plug in USB Drives (which) They Find
“We investigate the anecdotal belief that end users will pick up and plug in USB flash drives they find by completing a controlled experiment in which we drop 297 flash drives on a large university campus. We find that the attack is effective with an estimated success rate of 45–98% and expeditious with the first […]
Sneeze catcher (new patent)
It’s a given that all manner of unwelcome microbial and viral particles can be exhaled by a person during a sneeze or a cough. Prompting inventor Joseph Apisa of Colts Neck, NJ, US, to create a ‘Sneeze catching method and apparatus’ It’s just received a US patent (Dec. 16, 2014). It can be, and indeed […]
Water recreation illnesses
Now that Summer’s (kind of) on the way (for approx. half the globe) what better time to think about mucking around in an interactive fountain? Before you do, however, you could read Issue 1, Vol. 2 of The Wave, published by the US Govt. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “There is no standing water […]