In 1910, the National Pharmaceutical Society gave a thumbs up to the Osculatory Screen, a piece of silk in an elegant handle meant to prevent the spread of germs. The device was described as a "disinfected silk gauze through which the kiss is accomplished, the gauze being held in an ivory frame and placed between the two pairs of lips before they meet."

Besides just not working, I think the Osculatory Screen would take quite a bit of the romance of accomplishing a kiss.

Kissing Screen (Weird Universe) Read the rest

Blowing out birthday cake candles the traditional way spreads germs, according to the gentleman in this video. He offers a more sanitary way to extinguishing those candles: by waving your hand over them in a big swoop.

That video was from 2016. Since then, this germophobe sexagenarian has upped his game. In this 2017 video, he demonstrates how to use his method to snuff out a blazing 61 cake candles. Spoiler: It took more than one swoop.

Watch and learn:

photo by Jon Phillips

(reddit) Read the rest

People are 113 times more likely to catch a cold when they're on an airplane, according to a 2004 study in the Journal of Environmental Health Research. Why? Because the inside of a plane is a cesspool of germs, that's why. Read the rest