For many years, we've been following the research on phages, viruses that kill bacteria, once a staple of Soviet medicine and now touted as a possible answer to the worrying rise of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.

Before there was Sandman Slim, there was Richard Kadrey's classic, groundbreaking cyberpunk debut novel Metrophage, a Terry Carr Ace Special (the same line that gave us Neuromancer) — now it's back in print.

Interesting piece from this month's Wired, about bacteriophages: microorganisms that attack bacteria and kill them in your bloodstream. Bacteriophages are being held out as an alternative to antibiotics (in the age of antibiotic-resistant superbugs that are only made stronger by the application of stronger antibiotics, an alternative is sorely needed), ironically, since they were set aside as ineffective when compared to the newly discovered penicillin in the forties. — Read the rest

Mairlyn Smith, a cookbook author and self-proclaimed Queen of Fibre, recently took to TikTok to explain her and her husband's nightly ritual of fartwalking. Yes, fartwalking. "You fart when you walk," she explains. "That's why I named it that."

The purpose of a 10-minute fartwalk an hour after you eat, according to Smith, is to help reduce the risk of diabetes by getting all that gas out of your system. — Read the rest

Sorry, folks, I've got some real shitty news for you. Turns out that closing your toilet lids when flushing isn't all that effective for cutting down viral contamination. At least, that's what a team of researchers reported in a recently published study in the American Journal of Infection Control, entitled, "Impacts of lid closure during toilet flushing and of toilet bowl cleaning on viral contamination of surfaces in United States restrooms."  — Read the rest

Last year, if you asked most people what their feelings on the Barney franchise were, they'd probably shrug and spout a perfectly even-tempered, "S'alright, I guess." Now that the new Barney docuseries, I Love You, You Hate Me, has revealed the untold history of the children's show, people are arguably more invested in the lovable Purple dinosaur than ever before.  — Read the rest

After receiving a DCMA takedown request, Twitter suspended a bot account that had a link to an MS-DOS version of Acrobat Reader from 1994. — Read the rest

Judith Hope is a UK-based puppeteer who has created maneuverable art for theatre, festivals, parades, and more.

Rest in peace, Mr. Money.

People:

Eighties hitmaker Eddie Money died on Friday following complications from stage 4 esophageal cancer. He was 70 years old.

"The Money family regrets to announce that Eddie passed away peacefully early this morning," his family said in a statement to PEOPLE.

BeauHD, a Slashdot moderator, has Crohn's Disease, and he lives in an age of modern miracles, which means that he can have his small intestine surveyed by swallowing a tiny pill-sized camera, rather than having a scope threaded up his rectum or down his throat, or having his gut sliced open.

Jonathan Demme, the talented director of Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, Something Wild, Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense, and numerous other great films, has died at 73. His death was caused by esophageal cancer. From the New York Times:

A personable man with the curiosity gene and the what-comes-next instinct of someone who likes to both hear and tell stories, Mr.

I took Ghent University's vocabulary test, and according to the results, I know 83% of the English words.

The Minnesotan took the test and got a 94%. He said:

The test does not require you to define or spell words.

Richard Kadrey's got more writing identities than anyone has any business having: cyberpunk pioneer (Metrophage); master of hardboiled supernatural fantasy (Sandman Slim); young adult author (Dead Set). Now, with The Everything Box, Kadrey delves into supernatural comedy and shows that he's funny as Hell, and can make Hell funnier than you'd believe.

There's still time to run down to the supermarket and buy this cake for the coprophages joining you for Thanksgiving dinner.

Check out more unusual Thanksgiving treats in the gallery here.

The UK's NHS's National Institute for Health Research announced it will embark on a 12-year study involving 11,000 patients to study the effects of aspirin on different types of cancer.

From Motherboard:

It's not the first time scientists have looked into whether aspirin could help stave off cancer.

"Aerosolized vomit-pudding sprays out of its mouth," writes Wired's Sarah Zhang, but this isn't a nasty toy or practical joke. It's part of a research project into how Norovirus spreads, and it'll help save lives.

The NC State researchers spent two years building and then testing a miniature version of the upper digestive track—essentially a tube (esophagus) connected to a pressurized chamber (stomach).

The strange menu of Bompas & Parr—séances, cooking with lava, and flaming fish murder—reminds us that food is fashion in the age of Instagram

This podcast is entertaining and awesome, but the episode featuring Darin Morgan is especially so. Don't miss, X-Files fans.

Lee Marshall, who was the voice of Tony the Tiger since 1999, died at 64 of esophageal cancer. He was the second voice of Tony, taking over from the late Thurl Ravenscroft, the cereal's pitchman from 1952 until he was in his 80s. — Read the rest

A paper in the British Medical Journal reviewed the literature on harms arising from laughter and produced a wide-ranging list of laughing-related dangers, from asthma attacks to cerebral tumors. The authors concluded "Laughter is not purely beneficial. The harms it can cause are immediate and dose related, the risks being highest for Homeric (uncontrollable) laughter."