UV

Sometimes we need to see to believe. I remember understanding on an intellectual level, from a young age, that smoking was bad, but I didn't really get it on a visceral level until I saw a smoker's blackened lungs. The effect was so profound that, to this day, I go so far as to hold my breath when walking past people smoking.

Unfortunately, it's not easy to peer inside our own bodies and check out the health of our lungs. It's also difficult to see the effects sun exposure is having on our skin, especially when … Read more

Full disclosure: I just finished a cup of black coffee, and it was damn fine. (And yes, I make Twin Peaks references wherever possible.)

So it is with vigorous jumping up-and-down motions, aided surely by the caffeine, that I write about a team's findings from the University of Washington and Rutgers University that caffeine can help lower one's chances of UV-associated skin cancer by inhibiting a DNA repair pathway, essentially helping cells die after exposure to sunlight.

The team reports on this "protective effect of caffeinated beverage intake" in the August 15 issue of the Proceedings … Read more

Kitchens aren't the cleanliest of places. Oh, sure, we like to pretend they are, but in reality they are populated with more than the eye can see. However, just because kitchens are breeding grounds for harmful germs, it doesn't mean we all must go running into the night. All it takes to make those kitchen surfaces we use every day to be as cleanly as we need them to be is a little common sense and precaution. Oh, and a bright UV light doesn't hurt, either.

The Germ Killing Ultra Violet Cutting Board System, which will run … Read more

In recent years, you may have seen a story or two about how toilet seats are cleaner than your cell phone. Well, there may not be an app for eliminating those teeming germs from your mobile, but Violight, a company that specializes in UV toothbrush sanitizers, has developed something called the Cell Phone Sanitizer to execute microbes.

Violight says it's the first UV sanitizing device designed to "eliminate up to 99.9% of germs and bacteria on your cell phone," as well other small electronic devices, including earbuds and Bluetooth headsets.

According to the company, the germicidal … Read more

At one point having running water in the house was a novelty, even a luxury. Thankfully, indoor plumbing became commonplace, and we all moved along. At some point, simply getting a glass of drinking water from the tap became a reality of the past, as people discovered that filtering water at home usually improved the taste by removing chlorine while at the same time reducing heavy metals and some pollutants. Running water through a carbon filter in turn became commonplace, and as it stands today, many people use or at least know someone who uses a filtered pitcher from which … Read more

We spend most of today's show covering holiday gifts you won't want to stuff in the stocking of someone you care about... and a few that you might.

ThinkGeek 8-bit tie

Necktie for music-loving commuters

Blacksocks — the Sockscription ™

The Cushy Tushy

Passive aggressive gifts for tardy geeks

The H1N1 Destroying UV Wand

My DNA Fragrance lets you smell like a celebrity… Read more

If there's one thing I dislike more than folding laundry, it's doing the dishes. But they've got to get done somehow, because I hate having a dirty kitchen more than either of those things.

Electrolux is always coming up with creative ways to keep your kitchen clean. Here at Appliances and Kitchen Gadgets, it's best-known for its sponsorship of the Electrolux Design Lab, which gives industrial design students an opportunity to strut their stuff each year in designing innovative home appliances. In keeping with its reputation, the company has come up with a unique concept for … Read more

If you've ever wanted to run a bunch of video widgets on your desktop, there's a new service for you called uvLayer. It's a tiny Adobe AIR application that lets you search, view, and organize Web video clips on your desktop and share them with others. The videos come courtesy of YouTube and Truveo--the AOL-owned video search tool.

What sets uvLayer appart from basic Web video browsing are its sharing features which are robust. The application lets you cobble together a instant-messanger-like friends list and drag and drop any video you think they would enjoy. If they're using the application, your shared video will simply show up on their desktop like a new e-mail would in your in-box. Likewise, you can simply hop over to see what they're watching if they're online.

For bookmarking addicts, uvLayer also lets you share entire sets full of Web videos via URL. If your recipient has the application installed, their screen will simply fill up with your video picks, complete with your original groupings. You can then syndicate these Webtops to both your uvLayer buddies, and your Facebook friends who will be able to view it right in the Facebook application.

The entire uvLayer experience is very reminiscent of OS X's Dashboard for widgets, as you can flip each item around and get access to some of the metadata like the rating and any user comments. It's very flashy. In fact, if you're running the latest version of OS X, then uvLayer might not be that interesting considering you can rip out nearly any Web video and put it on your Dashboard using Safari's Web clips feature.

I'm not sold on the value of watching videos in a virtual desktop environment. While convenient, I think there's a ton of added value to the community of users where the video's hosted. Admittedly when a video hits the front page of Digg or Fark, the user comments from those sites are usually much more entertaining, but the same can't be said when you're passing it along to a just handful of people.

I've embedded a live version of uvLayer after the break (taken from Ryan Stewart's first look over at his blog on ZDNet). Be sure to check out its stacking feature, which lets you group together several videos at once by drawing a box around them with your mouse.… Read more

My wife, Amy, has done a fairly good job of convincing our daughter to wear sunscreen, at least when the sun is shining and the temperatures are soaring.

Amy also does a fairly good job of convincing her to wear sunscreen on cloudy summer days, arguing that just because you can't see the sun directly doesn't mean the rays cannot reach you. … Read more