Month: January 2017

Attention, coffee control freaks: you’re going to want to see this. The folks at Fellow have invented a smart and elegant electric kettle to give you total power over every element of your pour-over.

The Stagg EKG is the latest iteration of the Fellow team’s award-winning kettles. Fans of the original stovetop Stagg praised its design, but pour-over coffee is a science, and they wanted more precision in their instruments.

Enter the all-electric Stagg EKG. The EKG marries the shape and efficiency of its predecessor with fine-tuned heat controls to allow aficionados to set the temperature of their medium—that is, hot water—at the optimal level for their chosen blend, roast, or tea leaves. A small LCD screen displays both the set temperature of the water and its current temperature.

Those of you who want even more control might be interested in the EKG+, a smart version of the kettle that can be operated from a mobile phone and interact with other kitchen appliances.

All three of the Stagg kettles were introduced via Kickstarter. The EKG campaign set a goal of $100,000. At the time of this writing, backers have pledged nearly three times that much.

For more on the kettle’s design and talents, check out the (delightfully goofy) product video below from Fellow founder Jake Miller.

For decades, physicians have cautioned against using cotton swabs like Q-Tips to clean out the ears (“nothing smaller than an elbow” is a popular refrain). For one thing, they simply don’t do a very good job, often pushing the cerumen (ear wax) deeper into the ear. For another, the tiny tufts of cotton can sometimes break off and become lodged in the canal and damage the very delicate tissues inside. Q-Tips even have a box label warning: “Do not use inside ear canal.”

The medical field has now made it official: Stop sticking swabs in your ears. This month, the American Academy of Otolaryngology issued a revised set of ear wax care guidelines that specifically warns against the use of the swabs to try and unclog your head.

“The product label of one of the leading manufacturers of cotton-tipped swabs specifically notes that the product should not be placed into the ear canal,” the AAO wrote. “The cotton buds at the end of cotton-tipped applicators may separate, requiring removal as a foreign body. One case report did report fatal otogenic meningitis and brain abscess due to retained cotton swabs.”

That’s a bit extreme, as most of us are unlikely to die from probing our ears. Still, absolutely nothing good can come of using the swabs for wax removal. If build-up is bothering you, see a physician about having it removed the right way: with suction, or with tiny forceps wielded by a professional.

[h/t STAT]

When an Aedes aegypti mosquito bites someone infected with the deadly dengue virus, the virus in turn infects the mosquito. After completing its life cycle in the insect’s gut, the virus makes its way into its saliva, where it can spread infection the next time the mosquito bites. But new research from Johns Hopkins University points toward a way to stop dengue from ever making it to that stage by protecting the mosquito from being infected itself.

As they described in a study in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, the researchers genetically engineered Ae. aegypti to alter the production of two proteins that the mosquito naturally makes to fight off the infection. When the mosquitos were engineered to produce more of these proteins—known as Dome and Hop—in the mosquito’s version of the liver, they had fewer copies of the dengue virus in their guts once they were infected, and fewer copies in their salivary glands. They also produced fewer eggs than non-engineered mosquitos.

“If you can replace a natural population of dengue-transmitting mosquitoes with genetically modified ones that are resistant to virus, you can stop disease transmission,” lead author George Dimopoulos explains in a press release. To make the plan viable, though, the mosquitos would have to compete with their wild brethren to become the dominant mosquito type, converting the population to the disease-resistance kind of mosquito.

Unfortunately, the technique is only relevant to the transmission of dengue, so it can’t protect people from other deadly mosquito-born viruses like Zika. However, stopping dengue’s spread could prevent some 400 million deaths a year. The CDC lists dengue as a leading cause of death in tropical and subtropical regions.

The world is teeming with life, and we’re always discovering new species—including some that stretch the limits of how we view and classify biological life forms. Here are a few that clearly don’t play by the rules.

1. BDELLOID ROTIFERS

 
Bdelloid rotifers are microscopic superstars inside a drop of water. These tiny transparent animals—which can be found all over the world (even Antarctica!)—are masters of survival and reproduction. When water becomes scarce, they dry up like brine shrimp, surviving for years completely desiccated. When water returns, they rehydrate themselves and continue on as good as new. Rotifers are all female and reproduce asexually, laying eggs that don’t need to be fertilized and are essentially clones of themselves. While they’re not the only animal that doesn’t need a member of the opposite sex to reproduce, they’re more successful than others: Bdelloid rotifers have evolved into 450 species. How can a creature evolve if it’s only producing clones? Random mutations would produce changes, but cannot explain the rotifers’ 80-million-year survival and successful speciation.

The secret to rotifers’ evolution is that they steal genes from other living things. DNA analysis of bdelloid rotifers shows that about 10 percent of their genes come from bacteria, fungi, and plants. How does that happen? It turns out that bdelloid rotifers are also masters at surviving ionizing radiation, which damages DNA. The creatures are able to repair their own DNA, but can incorporate new genes (from the surrounding environment or something they ate) in the repair process. Over time, the new genes are used to adapt to the environment, leading to the evolution of new rotifer species as well as incorporating the necessary genetic material to protect against parasites.

2. EUGLENA

 
Euglena is a genus that contains hundreds of species of single-cell organisms that are not plant nor animal nor bacteria, but have features of all three. Most species of Euglena are mixotrophs that power themselves based on environmental conditions. When sunlight is present, for example, Euglena will use it to make food by photosynthesis using chloroplasts, the genes for which may have been taken from engulfed alga sometime in Euglena‘s evolutionary history. When there is no sunlight, Euglena ingests surrounding substances like an animal to get energy. But what’s really amazing about Euglena is that its behavior can be useful to humans. A company in Japan is looking into using some species of Euglena for food and biofuel, and other species might be used to clean the environment as they eat pollutants.

3. TRICHOPLAX ADHAERENS

 
Among multicellular animals, the microscopic Trichoplax adhaerens is the master of minimalism. It’s so simple, in fact, that for decades it was assumed that it was only a larval stage of another animal. T. adhaerens is comprised of just four types of cells, and is basically two sheets of cells with some more cells in between. It has no organs and no discernible front or back, though it does have a distinct upper and lower side—the organism uses that lower side both to eat and to adhere to surfaces. It can move either by changing shape or by using tiny cilia on its outer layers. It’s perhaps not surprising T. adhaerens has an extremely simple genome, too, with 98 million base pairs, compared to over 3 billion for humans. They reproduce by splitting, by budding, or by sexual reproduction. Scientists don’t know exactly how they manage the sexual reproduction; organisms have been observed degenerating into eggs, but fertilization is still a mystery.

4. TARDIGRADES

Tardigrades, also called water bears or moss piglets, resemble eight-legged faceless bears, except they’re generally a half-millimeter long. Hundreds of species of these tiny animals are found in every kind of environment on earth, but they prefer to be among moss, algae, and lichen. While ocean-based tardigrades are pretty normal, land and fresh water tardigrades are famously hard to kill. If the environment is dry, they dry up too, and go into a dormant state that they emerge from when wet conditions return, even years later. They can survive boiling or freezing temperatures. They can survive in the vacuum of space and in high pressure conditions. They can survive radiation that would kill lesser animals.

In case you want a tardigrade of your own, the International Society of Tardigrade Hunters has instructions for collecting them. A low-power microscope should suffice for observation.

5. GEOGEMMA BAROSSII

 
A microbe of the Archaea domain, Geogemma barossii is a microbe that likes it hot. This hyperthermophile, sometimes referred to as Strain 121, grows optimally at 220°F, but does just fine at 250°F (or 121°C, hence the name). It doesn’t die until temperatures go over 266°F—one of the highest-known temperature tolerances of any living thing. The discovery of G. barossi’s heat tolerance in 2003 gave pause to medical specialists when they realized that their sterilization procedures would not kill this microbe. However, Strain 121 cannot grow in the range of a human’s body temperature, so it isn’t considered infectious. Its normal home is thermal vents in the ocean floor.

BONUS: GROMIA SPHAERICA

The size of a grape, Gromia sphaerica is too big to be a microbe—but this single-celled organism is too cool not to include. This ancient relative of the amoeba lives at the bottom of the ocean, and was first discovered in the Arabian Sea in 2000. Adult specimens can grow to be 1.5 inches in diameter, or as small .019 inches. While a single cell that big is pretty strange, the most remarkable thing about G. sphaerica is the trails they leave behind on the sea floor. They weren’t created by the organisms rolling downhill (they can actually move uphill), and they weren’t created by ocean currents. Somehow, these big cells moved on their own and are heavy enough to leave a trail behind them. That raises questions about fossil trails from the Precambrian that scientists assumed were left by multicellular animals, but may have been left before multicellular life arose.

In January 1976, film producer Kevin McClory took out a full-page ad in Variety that made an audacious claim. A new James Bond movie, James Bond of the Secret Service, was about to enter production under the supervision of Paradise Films.

It was not to star Roger Moore, the current Bond who had appeared in two films and was due for several more; nowhere did the ad mention EON, the longstanding production company of all the Bond films. It was as though someone were daring the Bond caretakers to take notice of a bootleg 007 project.

The ad was a calculated move taken by McClory, who had no involvement with EON but believed he had the legal right to make a Bond film as a result of events that had happened well over a decade prior. McClory’s aim was to write his own chapter in Bond history, with his secret weapon being the man who had originated the role onscreen and whose presence still loomed large over the franchise.

Although the ad didn’t mention it, McClory’s plan was to restore Sean Connery behind the wheel of the Aston Martin, an ambition that would eventually decide once and for all which Bond moviegoers preferred.

Against the wishes of Bond creator Ian Fleming, Connery had been cast as the secret agent in 1962’s Dr. No. Projecting an air of charming menace, Connery’s performance was an immediate hit, winning over the author and kicking off one of the most durable Hollywood film franchises in history.

There would be four more films—From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), and You Only Live Twice (1967)—before the actor, bored with taking second place to the series’ increasing fetish for gadgets, left. EON recast with George Lazenby for one film, 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, before enticing Connery back for one last appearance in 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever. Earning $1.2 million, Connery felt Diamonds helped excise the character from his career while adding to the funds of his charitable efforts.

That film was, as far as Connery was concerned, the end. But in 1975, McClory approached Connery with an intriguing story: In the early 1960s, McClory and Fleming had sat down to hash out potential story ideas for the burgeoning Bond film franchise. Fleming eventually used some of those ideas for the novel Thunderball, which was adapted into a 1965 Connery vehicle.

McClory argued in court that certain rights to Thunderball were owed to him; in an effort to get that film made, EON agreed, but mandated that McClory not attempt to use any of the elements of the story he helped conceive for a 10-year period. Thunderball was produced, and McClory was silent—for exactly 10 years.

When he was legally able, he began to pursue his rogue Bond project. Legally, it could only be a loose remake of Thunderball, but that was of little consequence. McClory knew the plot was secondary to a return by Connery to the role that had made him famous.

Connery was surprisingly open to the idea. For one, he understood his name above a Bond marquee meant at least as much as Moore was earning: a reported $4 million per picture. For another, he wouldn’t have to deal with Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, the producer of the Bond films and a man with whom he had had numerous business disagreements during his first tenure as the spy.

Still, Connery didn’t fully commit to a return. Instead, he worked with McClory and writer Len Deighton on a script under titles like Warhead and James Bond of the Secret Service. When pressed for details, McClory told press his revamped version of Thunderball would feature mechanical sharks and an assault on Wall Street via the New York sewer system, with Orson Welles as the villain. His Bond, he said, would be like “Star Wars underwater.”

When EON got wind of their efforts, the latitude they had displayed 10 years prior had evaporated. Bond was now firmly a pop culture cash machine, and they took to the courts to resist McClory’s efforts. In joint action with distributor United Artists and the Fleming estate, EON successfully scared off Paramount, which was collaborating with McClory on the project.

As the 1970s came to a close, Connery was showing signs of becoming frustrated by the legal wrangling.

McClory’s salvation came in the form of Jack Schwartzman, a onetime tax attorney who wasn’t cowed by the litigation surrounding the project. So long as they colored inside the lines, sticking to the elements found in the Thunderball narrative, Schwartzman didn’t see any problem. He obtained the film rights from McClory, who was tired of the fighting and remained only loosely involved with the project; Connery was signed for a robust $5 million, with profit participation adding to his reward later on. Broccoli dropped most of his legal assault after Schwartzman promised him a share of the movie’s grosses and to delay release by several months in order to avoid competing head-to-head with EON’s Octopussy.

Never Say Never Again—a title suggested by Connery’s amused wife—began shooting in the fall of 1982 at London’s Elstree Studios, just a few miles down the road from where Roger Moore was shooting his Bond entry, Octopussy. The two reportedly had dinner together and compared shooting schedules; Moore would later say he never had a chance to catch Connery’s return onscreen.

Despite Connery’s early enthusiasm, script troubles and philosophical disagreements with director Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back) made for a stressful production. While promoting its release, Connery told press, “There was so much incompetence, ineptitude, and dissention” during the making of the film that “it could have disintegrated.”

While it wasn’t everything Connery had hoped for, Never Say Never Again performed very admirably when it opened in theaters October 7, 1983. The film grossed $55.4 million domestically, making it the 14^th most successful film of the year. But the inevitable comparison to Moore’s Octopussy, which opened four months earlier, colored perception: Moore’s entry made $67.9 million, putting it in sixth place for the year.

Moore would play Bond just once more before retiring from the role in 1985. Connery made an unlikely return in 2005, lending his voice to a Bond video game. It would be as far as he was willing to go. Producers of 2012’s Skyfall didn’t even bother asking him about their idea to have him play a supporting role in the film as the Bond family’s onetime groundskeeper.

Schwartzman wouldn’t give up so easily. Insisting he somehow had the right to deliver another bootleg Bond in the 1980s, he tried to coerce Connery into a follow-up.

Connery was unmoved. “I’d be too old,” he told press in 1984.

But at 53, a reporter observed, he was three years younger than Moore. “He’s also too old,” Connery said.

Additional Sources:
Sean Connery, by Michael Feeney Callan

Muggles no longer have to travel to Orlando’s Wizarding World to get a taste of the magical Potter story. A Harry Potter-themed restaurant just opened in Brooklyn, offering pasta plates worthy of a wizard, Entertainment Weekly reports.

Pasta Wiz serves dishes like Magical Meatballs and a Dragon’s Blood smoothie in a hall designed to mimic the Hogwarts castle. Owner Alex Dimitrov told Gothamist that the most magical part of the restaurant is that it will serve up a hot plate of pasta just three to five minutes after you order. Because this is the Brooklyn version of Hogwarts, the menu is all organic and features vegan options like non-dairy parmesan cheese.

New York City is no stranger to movie-themed bars and pop-ups, like the Tim Burton bar that opened in 2015. But the Big Apple is only the latest of several different cities around the world to embrace Harry Potter-themed dining. Toronto has a bar called The Lockheart; Islamabad, Pakistan has a Harry Potter Café that opened in 2015; and Singapore has another outpost of the latter restaurant called Platform 1094.

[h/t Entertainment Weekly]

All images courtesy Pasta Wiz via Facebook

Anthropologie is having one of its coveted sales, which means amazingly priced clothing—if you can find your size. Today the Bohemian chic store added new styles to their sale section, and as an added bonus, they’re knocking an extra 40 percent off their sales section with the code TAGTIME. That means affordable clothing, accessories, furniture, and even floral pajamas. 

Sale items tend to go fast on Anthro’s website, so if you’re looking for some quirky footwear or fluffy arm chairs, you should head over there before the whole section is cleared out. Here are some of the highlights: 

Billy Ella Embossed Velvet Loafers | $77.97 (list price $178.00)

Velvet Tunic Dress | $71.97 (list price $138.00)

Taven Open-Shoulder Top | $23.97 ( list price $68.00)

Quilted Chambray Bomber | $59.97 ( list price $188.00)

Lacquered Haverhill Occasional Chair | $299.97 ( list price $798.00)

Miista Imelda Lace-Up Booties | $131.97 (list price $298.00)

Fleurs du Nuit Tulle Skirt | $59.97 (list price $148.00)

Formoria Dessert Plate | $8.97 (list price $20.00)

Lacquered Wellington Desk | $539.97 (list price $1,198.00)

Eloise Stripe & Petal Sleep Shirt | $23.97 (list price $68.00)