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Why do our fingers get all wrinkly when they get wet? Do you really need to know what else
I’m talking about today? I think that’s enough. I have the answer. I’m Cali Lewis,
welcome to Geek Beat TV.
This episode of Geek Beat TV is brought to you by NetFlix.
So by now, we’ve seen plenty of 3D printers, and how useful they can be. And you might
be getting tired of them but I have two words for you. Instant. Bacon. Well almost. We’ve
seen this food printing technology before with schools such as MIT but now, researchers
at Cornell University have made some pretty awesome advancement using fab, at home fabricators
to print out food. I don’t know about you but 3D printed cookies sound amazing. The
technology requires liquid food inks, so things like cookie dough, icing and juiced meat,
but the goal about the fab at home is simple… fabricate anything. So when I mentioned instant
bacon earlier, oh yeah… how about cakes with secret message written inside? Or even
a rocket shaped scallop nugget? And, they say this can save people up to 150 hours per
year in food preparation, which sounds good to me. But now, I’m hungry.
Dyson got a ton of attention when they released their bladeless fan called the Air Multiplier.
When we were in Berlin, they were all over the place being used to cool attendees while
we roamed the floors at IFA. Now, Dyson has done it again, this time it’s a heater.
It uses a ceramic coal heating element, you set the temperature and it will work to keep
it at that temperature until turned off. It has an IR sensor so you can control it from
afar and if it gets knocked over, it will shut itself off. Magic Heating will cost you
$400 and it is available now. It will actually be perfect for me as I sit down on the couch
to curl up to watch a movie, and I don’t really watch movies any way any more than
Net Flix. I’m super excited. America, the Story of Us recently became available for
streaming to pretty much any device I want, IOS, my computer, certain Android phones,
or the TV whether it is a ??? or a boxy box. I caught a documentary on TV awhile ago and
added it to my cue, even though it wasn’t quite available to watch, how awesome is that,
that you can do that with some movies. Now it is ready and I’m going to sit down this
weekend and watch. You can too and you can get a free trial. It is a limited time offer,
go to Netflix.com/geekbeat.
You remember Watson don’t you? The computer who beat out a bunch of humans at Jeopardy.
The only time I’ve ever gotten flustered on camera when I was interviewing the head
scientist behind Watson. Now, I’m happy to report that Watson got his first job…
gosh, he’s growing up so fast.
IBM is teaming up with Well Point, their health insurer if you’re not familiar with them.
They’ll use Watson to actually suggestion diagnosis and treatment options for patients.
I can just imagine the doctors having a conversation with Watson. Congrats to the entire team behind
him.
Have you lived your whole life wondering why the heck your fingers and toes get wrinkly
when soaking in water for awhile? Why your legs and stomach don’t get wrinkly? I certainly
have and I don’t think I’m alone. In fact, I know I’m not alone because some scientist
decided to take a look at the issue. They published a paper in Brain Behavior and Evolution
explaining their theory, and until someone tells me otherwise, I’m going to accept
it as fact. Our fingers and toes are the parts of our bodies that grip things, they need
traction. Think about how tires grip the road. Our scientist friends say they discovered
that the wrinkles are more like channels for the water to run down, to get away from the
tips where we have to grab a hold of something. They also pointed out that the channels get
further apart the further away they are from the tip. Because of all of this, we can have
firmer better grips on objects, or the floor when you are getting out of that bathtub you
sat in for an hour. That’s probably a little too long, by the way. Anyway, enjoy a nice
relaxing bath this weekend and you’ll have a little bit more knowledge about those fingers.
Thanks so much for joining me, I love hanging out with you guys. Don’t forget, you can
hang out right from you own home or office when we do our weekly show Geek Beat Live,
Fridays at 4pm Eastern. Just go to live.geekbeat.tv. I’m Cali Lewis, seen ya then. Bye Bye.