The good news: Fecal transplants work well enough as a treatment for patients with Clostridium difficile infections that the Food and Drug Administration has decided to take them out of the grey area of legality in which they were previously being performed. Poop transplants for C. difficile will be legal, and the doctors doing the transplants will have to be approved by the FDA, to make sure they're getting the donor poop through safe means and not prescribing poop transplants for things that poop transplants don't help. The bad news: The approval process turns out to be ridiculously arcane and time-consuming — featuring a 30-day waiting period and requirements that are apparently secret.
Poop transplants meet FDA bureaucracy
The Arecibo radio telescope will be demolished
The National Science Foundation announced that it will decommission and demolish the iconic Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. This comes after two cables suspending the telescope's 900-ton receiver platform above its massive dish broke while others are weakening. Completed in 1963, the Arecibo Observatory has been a key instrument in the development of radio… READ THE REST
Playing video games makes you happy, say scientists working with EA and Nintendo
A paper out of Oxford University, "Video game play is positively correlated with well-being", reports that playing video games makes you happy. The study tracked 518 players of Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville and 2,756 players of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Key findings include: • Actual amount of time spent playing was a small… READ THE REST
Germany's new COVID-19 spot is very clever and funny, stay-at-home couch potatoes are national heroes
"Our couch was the front line and our patience was our weapon." Absolutely amazing coronavirus 'stay at home' spot from the German government, above. You might not think of humor as an effective way to drive home the message that staying at home helps slow the spread of COVID-19. But that's what's most amazing about… READ THE REST
Stay cyber-secure with this internet privacy package for under $100
The web is a lot like outer space. For all its amazement and transcendent wonder, it's ultimately cold, dark, and endless. While that may seem harsh, consider the consequences of your identity or other critical information about you or your family is stolen and used by dark forces hiding all over the Internet. The impact… READ THE REST
Become a student of any language with a lifetime of Babbel language training at 50% off
Learning a new language is almost like doing a trust fall. You have to have confidence that you've chosen a sound, respected, effective system for acquiring the knowledge you seek. Babbel Language Learning has the stats and testimonials to help put that concern at ease. Earlier this year, the service announced it had reached the… READ THE REST
Here's your path to AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner status
In most of the top technical fields, certifications are like currency. A seal of approval from a key body can serve as the ultimate gatekeeper to helping you get into a new career like the cloud computing sector. If you want to work on cloud-based systems, it certainly helps to know the industry leader intimately,… READ THE REST