Yeah, the new transformers 2 trailer we showed you guys yesterday kind of sucked quality-wise, so here it is again, but this time, in HD. Enjoy!
Surgical Masks Now an Accessory?
By Jimmy Rogers (@me)
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
So you’ve been wandering around town all day in your plain, boring surgical mask. Don’t you wish it matched your swanky clothes? Would you prefer it if it frightened nearby children? Well never fear, the internet can once again solve all your problems!
Gizmodo has reported on these awesome surgical masks being worn on the streets of Mexico:
Pretend to be French – Pretend to be Dead – Pretend to be a Shark – A mask for every occasion!
Even better are these fantastic art masks designed by Yoriko Yashida. He has designed almost 50 masks that each have a different theme or represent something in Japan.
Let’s hope that the mask requirement doesn’t come to the states, but if it does, we’ll all be set.
Swine Flu Crisis: What can we learn from the 1918 flu pandemic?
In 2007, as everyone worried about a possible avian flu epidemic, science journalist Laurie Garrett gave this interesting presentation to a small TED university audience. Now, 2 years later, with the current swine flu crisis invading media worldwide, her insights from past pandemics are now more relevant than ever.
Twitter aflitter with quicker quitters
Most people who use Twitter will be gone within a month according to newly published figures. Number-crunchers say the trend means Twitter’s past growth rate will be unsustainable.
The figures from web research firm Nielsen Media say that only 40% of people using the site during a month will still be using Twitter the following month. The firm’s David Martin says this retention rate is too low to allow Twitter to continue to grow significantly: “There simply aren’t enough new users to make up for defecting ones after a certain point.” He says that, based on the experience of other membership websites, Twitter will struggle to pass the point where 10% of internet users are members of the site.
Nielsen also noted that the retention rates for rival social networking sites Facebook and MySpace were constantly higher as they developed; when each had an audience the same size Twitter has now, 70% of users were sticking around from month to month (see Nielsen Media image below).
Perhaps the most surprising note from the figures is that for the 12 months leading up to Oprah Winfrey’s publicizing of the site, the retention rate for Twitter was just 30%. Logic would suggest an influx of users who have only just heard about the site through such a mainstream source would be less likely to stick around, not more likely. It could be that those who came in the Oprah bandwagon, reportedly in the hundreds of the thousands, haven’t had enough time to become bored with the site yet.
It’s worth noting that the retention rate covers all users, not just new members. So while the most likely explanation for Twitter’s low rate is new users joining up, taking a look around and getting bored, it’s also possible that established users may be quitting because they feel the site is losing its exclusivity.
There have been some questions about how the figures were put together. If, as some suspect, the figures simply come from visits to the Twitter website, they could be misleading: many users, particular established ones, use standalone applications to post and read Twitter messages.
Macbook Airs Suck
Ok, this guy is obviously taking things a little too far, but still, we get the message. I’ve always been a big fan of the X300 myself. For portability in the corporate world, there’s no better option.
Oh and one thing Haurum, the X300 is a Lenovo machine, not IBM. IBM has stopped manufacturing laptops a long time ago.
Real-Life Twittering
Can you imagine this kind of thing happening for real on a large scale? If people would start doing this, I’d probably move as far away from civilization as I can, in a middle of a wood somewhere in the great Canadian north possibly.
[Via TechEblog]
New Transformers 2 trailer leaked online
Yep folks, another Transformers 2 trailer has been leaked on the web. This one lets us glimpse at a few new scenes and reveals a little more of the movie’s storyline. Enjoy!
Star Trek: The Lost Generation
Fear of Needles? Not to Worry, FluGen is Here!
By Jimmy Rogers
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
It seems that there is a really neat technology out there that could make vaccination a whole lot easier. Designed to reduce the pain and fear associated with needle injections, FluGen‘s novel immunization patch delivers the medication just below the skin in a convenient, one-time-use dispenser.
This reminds me of the “hypospray” devices seen in the Star Trek series. Unlike the nanomolecule spray gun on TV, this new delivery method works more conventionally, embedding micro needles that you can barely feel into the upper layer of your skin. The drug is then pushed out and the patch can be discarded. It is currently in the pre-clinical stage of research.
[Designboom via Dvice]
Swine Flu Update: Disease Source Identified!
By Jimmy Rogers
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
Since the danger of swine flu has not yet abated, here’s some additional links and updates. First, if you would like to follow the latest official updates from the CDC, they’re on Twitter. In fact they just started using the #swineflu hashtag, how hip is that?
If you missed our big article from Monday, What is Swine Flu?, be sure and check it out. The comments have been very active too so don’t forget to read over those! I’ve been trying to field any questions raised by readers, so if you ask any now I’ll still try to catch them!
Also, I decided against a “doomsday scenario” type of post because there is already a ton of that in the media right now, but if you think that’s what YOU need at the moment, io9 has put together a good compilation of ways the world could end ala Hollywood.
Lastly, the cause for swine flu has been identified. We should have known all along:
[Picture source: growabrain]
