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Hacked in 60 Seconds: Thieves Could Steal Cars via Text Messages

Forget your car keys? Soon it won’t make a difference, as long as you have your laptop

Read more at Scientific American Blog Network.

Video: How ‘gesture technology’ like Microsoft Kinect will change the way we live | Need to Know

Here’s a term you may not have heard yet — but we can just about guarantee that you will. It’s called “gesture technology” — using our body movements to control a computer. No keyboard, no mouse. It may represent a major leap in how we will communicate in the digital world. It might sound like just another way to sell gaming devices, but this story is about how gaming technology is being used to change the way we live.

Read more at Need to Know

Bulletproof human skin made from spider silk and goat milk developed by scientists | Mail Online

It might look like a poorly drawn picture of an alien, but this is actually one of the most advanced types of skin ever made – that can even stop bullets.Researchers genetically engineered goats to produce milk which is packed with the same protein as silk spiders.

via Mail Online.

Toxoplasma Infected Rats Love Their Enemies: Scientific American

When a healthy rat smells a cat, it flees. But rats infected with the Toxoplasma brain parasite actually follow cat odors, often presumably to their doom, red in tooth and claw.

via Scientific American Podcast.

Giant South American rodent spotted in California | Reuters

A giant South American rodent weighing at least 100 pounds (45 kgs) was spotted at a waste-water treatment facility in California recently before disappearing in the brush, according to a wildlife official.

Read more at Reuters

Vampire arrest sparks discussion on pop culture | Reuters

ound growling and hissing in a parking lot and wearing only boxer shorts, the pierced and tattooed Bensley claimed he was a 500-year-old vampire who needed to “feed,” Galveston Police Capt. Jeff Heyse said.

Read more at Reuters

‘Brain-eating amoeba’ claims second victim this month | The Lookout

“Sadly, we have had a Naegleria infection in Virginia this summer,” Dr. Keri Hall of the Virginia Department of Health, told The Richmond Times-Dispatch. “It’s important that people be aware of . . . safe swimming messages.”

Read more at  Yahoo! News.

Why Cleaned Wastewater Stays Dirty In Our Minds : NPR

“It is quite difficult to get the cognitive sewage out of the water, even after the real sewage is gone,” Nemeroff says. Around 60 percent of people are unwilling to drink water that has had direct contact with sewage, according to their research.

Read more at NPR.

Spoilers don’t ruin stories or films?

If you are angry that someone spoiled the plot of a movie or revealed the ending of a book, don’t be.

A new study by researchers from the University of California at San Diego shows spoilers may enhance enjoyment, even for suspense-driven story lines and film plots.

Read more at Reuters

Riots, wild markets: Did space storms drive us mad? | Reuters

Rollercoaster financial markets and the worst riots Britain has seen in decades have made it quite a week for a time of year that is usually so dead the newspapers are filled with “silly season” tales of amusing pet antics.

Read more at Reuters.