New Website Offers Solo Travelers A Chance To Sleep With Strangers

by Dave Seminara on

Would you be willing to shack up with a complete stranger to save a few bucks on accommodation? If you’re the adventurous sort, you can do just that on a new website called Easynest, which matches up single travelers who don’t mind sharing a hotel room. Users set up a profile or use their Facebook profile and can post a hotel room they have booked and want to share or browse to see what other users are offering.

For example, a young Greek woman named Antigone wants to share a $200 room at the Milford Plaza Hotel in New York in December, someone named JC James wants to share a $60 room at the Hilton Garden Inn in Overland Park, Kansas, and a child who appears to be approximately 18 months old would like to share a $400 hotel room in Jakarta in July.

I’m a risk taker and I’ve spent plenty of nights at hostels around the world, but I don’t think I’d try my luck on a site like this one. Anyone can set up an innocuous looking profile online and then turn into a bloodthirsty Jeffrey Dahmer-esque cannibal once you turn the lights out. Would you be willing to give this site a try?

Speedos Are Now Globally Approved?

by Libby Zay on

That’s right. The majority of the world — including Americans — believes it’s completely acceptable to wear Speedos to the beach. The skimpy swimsuit stat comes from Expedia.com, who surveyed more than 8,000 people across the globe. Here’s what the online travel agency has to say:

Much to our surprise (and some peoples’ disgust), it revealed that wearing a Speedo gets two thumbs up from most of the world. That’s right, Speedos are now globally-approved. 65% of beachgoers worldwide reported finding that Speedo-style bathing suits are “acceptable.” This percentage was highest in France, where 9 out of 10 respondents (91%) were A-Ok with Speedos. U.S. beachgoers, however, were split at 52%.

Other — ahem — revealing findings in the survey include the statistic that one quarter of beach-going respondents are comfortable with topless beaches (in France, that number skyrocketed to 73 percent of respondents) and 54 percent of Americans cited “having wallet/possessions stolen” as their biggest concern at the beach (even over shark attacks). For more findings, check out Expedia’s Flip Flop Report.

Campers Could Soon Charge Cell Phones With Pee

by Libby Zay on
Stuck in the woods with no way to charge your cell phone? Soon, you might be able to solve the quandary with your own urine. Researchers in the United Kingdom have figured out how to use waste-eating bacteria to produce enough electricity to send a few text messages and make a call, with the output steadily improving.

Here’s what Dr. Ioannis Ieropoulos of the University of the West of England, part of the team who worked on the project, explained to the Independent:

“The beauty of this fuel source is that we are not relying on the erratic nature of the wind or the sun; we are actually reusing waste to create energy. One product that we can be sure of an unending supply is our own urine.”

As of right now, the urine-to-electricity device is about the size of a car battery, but it’s expected to get smaller and more portable. Besides charging mobile phones, they could also be installed in bathrooms, allowing us to harness our urine power day and night year-round. In a few years, it might be normal to see pee-powered charging stations at National Parks — or, visitors could just plug in at a luxury hotel nearby.

New Dinosaur Unearthed (And On Display) In Utah

by Libby Zay on

Dinosaur lovers will be flocking to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City to check out a new discovery, a big-nosed, horned-faced dinosaur found in what is now Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Here’s some stats about this new species, now named Nasutoceratops titusi:

  • It grew 15 feet long and weighed 2 1/2 tons.
  • Its skull alone is approximately 4.9 feet in length.
  • It roamed what is now Utah approximately 76 million years ago.
  • It had long, curved and forward-pointing horns over the eyes.
  • It lived in a swampy and subtropical environment.
  • It was part of the same family as the Triceratops.

The dinosaur’s bones will be permanently housed and displayed at the university. But if you are a budding paleontologist looking to see other collections of dinosaur bones and fossils, consider scoping out Dinosaur National Park in Utah and Colorado, Dinosaur State Park in Connecticut or the Wyoming Dinosaur Center.

Video: Dorset, England Now Has A Dragon Skull On The Beach

by Elizabeth Seward on

If you happen to be in the area of Dorset, England, in the near future, you might want to check out the giant dragon skull that is currently sitting on its Jurassic Coast. Blinkbox oversaw the skull-building project, which is, at its core, a celebration of the release of “Games of Thrones” season three through the service. But more important than “Game of Thrones” is that there is a giant dragon skull sitting on the beach. If that’s not enough to lure you to the coast this summer, I don’t know what is.

[Thanks, Laughing Squid]