Here's What's Awesome: Weird Safety Signs, Medical Magnets

By Brady Carlson on Sunday, June 28, 2009.

As you know, Here's What's Awesome has several teams working in the field at all times to collect awesome links, sometimes in the most unlikely of places. This week's links were found in a 6,000 year old archaeological burial site, buried in a false tomb near the center of a Peruvian leader's tomb. The links were carefully extracted, flown to the US, beechwood aged, given the Colonel's secret blend of herbs and spices, certified as cruelty-free, fed a macrobiotic diet, introduced to guest celebrity Robert Wagner and put into a 75 foot long display that took 85 people and $1.6 million to display.

Then we heard about Michael Jackson and couldn't concentrate, so we picked the first three links we came across and posted those.

Warning sign with a question mark on it

Warning: exploding pants!
Few sites have names as wonderful, or as self-explanatory, as Safety Graphic Fun, a compendium of signs that warn you against hazards like having a dog chew on your pants, causing the pants to explode. My favorite is a space for an evacuation plan that says "run as fast as you can." Thanks for the tip! [Safety Graphic Fun]

Just don't put the pathogens on your fridge
Filtering diseases out of the bloodstream is tricky, especially if you don't have the ability to shrink to microscopic size to fight the germs in person. But Donald Ingber, a biologist at Harvard, has something every bit as useful: miniature magnetic beads that bind with pathogens and pull them out of the blood. Hopefully, Ingber says, techniques like these will pull out enough of the bad bacteria or fungi to give the body a chance to heal itself, and/or to avoid using dangerous anti-fungal medication. [Scientific American]

At20minutesbeforethehouryourelisteningtothedianerehmshow
Podcasts have some pretty cool information - there's this show called Word of Mouth, for example, that's one of my favorites. (I think it's produced in Canada or somewhere, I forget.) But podcasts require time, and time, as we know, is money. Looking to squeeze more podcast into less time? Try Podshifter, which lets you play your podcasts back at faster speeds, assuming you can still follow the course of the conversation, and assuming you don't mind every voice sounding like Alvin, Simon and Theodore. [Lifehacker]

Now it's your turn: share the links your own globe-trotting teams have found in the comments.

Photo:

Add new comment


Just wanted to say thanks for the shout out! I'm so glad my site brings a smile to your day!

Stay Safe!

Julia

Word of Mouth is all about what's new. Online and on-air, the show looks at our fascinating and ever-changing world, and puts the latest ideas under a microscope. Word of Mouth investigates everything from science and technology, to health and the environment, to new trends in popular culture. The show airs Monday through Thursday at noon and is hosted by Virginia Prescott.

Say what you want to say. How you want to say it. We want to hear from you.

Word of Mouth is on the move! Sign up for our podcast and take the show wherever you go.

Past Shows
Mar 18, 2010 | Link
Mar 17, 2010 | Link
Mar 16, 2010 | Link
Mar 15, 2010 | Link

Support From

Corporation for Public Broadcasting

The TD Charitable Foundation

The Next Green Thing

is supported by

Public Service of New Hampshire
committed to clean energy solutions
New Hampshire Electric Co-op
Here's What's Awesome

Cool projects, great gadgets and awesomellany from Internet Sherpa Brady Carlson