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Egg whites could be key to removing microplastics from seawater
It could soon be possible to clear the oceans of microplastics thanks to a gel made from egg whites.
After Math: Watch out now!
You'd think that the week after CES would bring at least a brief lull in the firehose that is tech news, but you'd be wrong. Google's paying $40 million for Fossil's smartwatch tech; LG's holding a huge sale for last year's most expensive sets ahead of the Super Bowl; and for some reason, Aaron Sorkin doesn't think we've had enough onscreen Zuckerberg (he too is wrong).
Scientists get closer to replicating human sperm
Scientists have taken an important step forward in recreating the way the human body makes sperm, which could one day mean creating artificial sperm and eggs for infertility treatment. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge's Gurdon Institute, are thought to be the first team to have reached the "halfway point" -- a significant milestone -- on the path between stem cells and immature sperm.
World of Warcraft kicks off Noblegarden
Maybe you're a little burnt out after eight months of raiding World of Warcraft's last content patch. Do you know what you need? You need to cuddle some bunny rabbits. It's time for Noblegarden once again, and that means hunting for eggs, putting on bunny ears, getting a seasonal mount, and generally traipsing around in the woods for colorful treats. And if you've already gotten the rewards in previous years, well... the treats are still nice, yes? The official event page serves as a good top-level overview of player activities during the event. In short, players will be collecting eggs, doing daily quests directly related to collecting eggs, and giving chocolate (found in eggs) to vendors for egg-related prizes. Players have a week to collect their eggs, as the event runs from today until April 28th, more than enough time for all the Azerothian egg-hunting you could want. (Hopefully.)
Bad Piggies gets a ... cookbook
As if our recent exploration of the Angry Birds universe didn't convey the franchise's might, here's another sign. A Bad Piggies cookbook is available. Actually, the hardcover, real-life version of Angry Birds: Bad Piggies' Egg Recipes was out for the holiday season last year, long before the Bad Piggies game was ever announced. But now that the game itself is out, Rovio has decided to take the book digital, and so you can now buy the cookbook on the iPad as an interactive app. For a limited time, the book is debuting at a price of just 99 cents, so grab it quick if you like. Rovio has reached out its Angry Birds claws into yet another merchandising realm -- where to next?
Minecraft 1.1 update adds languages, eggs and regenerative sheep
While Minecraft Pocket Edition players are still waiting for their very first update, the gravy train of newness for Minecraft classic players continues to plow mercilessly into the future. Version 1.1, which should already be live by the time you're reading this, includes bug fixes, new language options and eggs that allow you to grow pigs (and presumably other creatures). In addition, sheep now have the ability to regrow their wool by eating grass, greatly decreasing the amount of sheep you'll need to grow in those eggs. Man, that's a sentence I never thought I'd have to write again. You can see everything in action in the video above, produced by H.A.T. Films.
TUAW wishes you a happy Easter
To our readers across the world celebrating the holiday, TUAW wishes you a very happy Easter. Photo by jmurawski | flickr cc
TUAW's Daily App: Bunny the Zombie Slayer
Hothead Games, the developer behind DeathSpank, Swarm and the Penny Arcade series of PC and console games, just released Bunny the Zombie Slayer, its first title on iOS. Just in time for Easter, the game has you playing as a bunny fighting zombies by lobbing Easter eggs at them, taking them down by lining up your shots and using special eggs with various functions. The game's reminiscent of Pro Zombie Soccer as you take down shambling hordes with a very arcade-style weapon. It's fun, and Hothead's great art direction and design keep things fresh every time you load it up. The game's low on features, with no Game Center integration or multiplayer, but it's still a nice deal at US$0.99 for a universal version on iPhone or iPad. Bunny the Zombie Slayer is a nice debut for the iPhone from the increasingly impressive Hothead, and hopefully we'll see more from them on iOS in the future.
Final Fantasy XI's annual egg hunt returning for another year
Having returned from its temporary shutdown, Final Fantasy XI is ready to herald the spring with a time-honored event. The newest incarnation of the Egg Hunt Egg-stravaganza is due to hit the live servers on April 12th, and as always the announcement comes fresh with a bit of fictional flavor. If you haven't been sufficiently creeped out by the ubiquitous and somewhat domineering moogles yet... well, the story of what it's like preparing eggs for the event will probably push you over the edge, even though it's meant to just be amusing. As always, the celebration allows players to collect letter-emblazoned eggs, with the overarching goal to assemble a number of meaningful letter combinations. Each player must start by assembling the first three letters of his or her character's name... but there are many more combinations that can be unlocked, forcing enterprising players to trade in new eggs to the festival moogle in hopes of more letter-branded eggs. Final Fantasy XI players are likely quite familiar with the mechanics by this time, but who can resist alphabetic egg hunts?
Super Scribblenauts-branded eggs coming soon to the UK
Thanks to Super Scribblenauts, we've learned all about this delightful little caste of words known as "adjectives," which can be used to describe things. With this knowledge, we now have the ability to talk about Warner Bros. bizarre, inscrutable, unprecedented and delicious new promotion for the wordy puzzle title: A partnership with UK's Stonegate Eggs, to include Scribblenauts branding on cartons of the company's "Intelligent Eating Eggs." The promotion will have an accompanying website, where egg consumers can solve puzzles for a chance to win a DSi and a copy of the vocabulary-expanding sequel. We guess we can see the correlation, but we still wish the game had a more direct impact on the foodstuff. Imagine if you will: Super Scramblenauts, a foil pouch with pre-made scrambled eggs inside, for on-the-go oh man that would be disgusting.
Reminder: Noblegarden ends tonight
Noblegarden ends just before midnight server time tonight. So if you don't have your Noble title yet, you still have time to fight over egg spawns with your fellow procrastinators. See our guide to Noblegarden for help with the holiday achievements, how to get them and egg-collecting strategies. Warning: don't wait until the last minute. Holidays have been known to close up shop a little earlier than the time on the calendar. Have fun and good egg hunting!
Bunny hop through our Easter holiday roundup
As Massively readers everywhere recover from the second-greatest candy holiday of the year, many MMOs have also enticed players with virtual sweetness. Easter may not be the most popular of in-game holidays, but there's something very MMO-ish with "collecting" eggs and hunting down giant, man-eating rabbits wherever they trod. Even future MMOs like TERA are eager to get their own virtual bunny event up and running. Take a gander through our Easter holiday roundup, and let us know what your favorite in-game event is! Final Fantasy XI: An Egg-hunter Is Hatched "Initial eggs" are eggs of avian persuasion that have been inscribed with a single letter of the alphabet. During the Egg Hunt, adventurers can receive a random initial egg from the festival moogles once every Vana'dielian day. Collecting and forming certain combinations of initial eggs will garner you event egg-sclusive prizes. World of Warcraft: Noblegarden 2010 Noblegarden will run this year from Sunday, April 4 (this Sunday) through Sunday, April 11. If you've never done Noblegarden before or only done its fairly low-key, pre-2009 version, it helps to know that Noble Gardener (the holiday's meta) is part of the year-long What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been achievement that rewards the 310% speed Violet Proto-Drake.
Florensia invites players to Hanami like there's no tomorrow
Do you Hanami? If not -- all the cool kids are doing it, why aren't you? For those of you in the audience going "Han-whadda?", Hanami is a Japanese custom of cherry blossom viewing. Every year, during a very brief period, cherry blossom trees bloom across the nation, and people turn out in scads to look at them and go "ooh" and "aah." In the sea-themed MMO Florensia, the devs are inviting everyone to participate in Hanami and Easter with their special in-game event. As players enjoy the cherry blossom trees, they're encouraged to collect as many Cherry Blossoms as possible, along with rare Dodo Eggs from these odd birds. These items can be traded in for a bevy of outfits and pets, including fluffy Rabbit Ears, Cherry Blossom Coronets, Mini-Dodos and fuzzy Fox Hats. Another perk of this special holiday is an impressive 50% bump to party XP until the event ends. The Easter and Hanami event in Florensia is going on now through April 6, so snag all of the blossoms and eggs that you can before time runs out! You can check this maritime MMO out here.
The long wait for a Green Proto-drake
The WoW CMs continue their polling of rare and hard-to-find items: first, we got queried on Mr. Pinchy, and now the forums have a poll about that more recent bounty, the Reins of the Green Proto-drake. As you probably already know, you have to first get revered with the Murloc faction of the Oracles, and then you have to buy a "Mysterious Egg" once every seven days from their quartermaster... that probably hasn't yet given you the mount you want. Personally, I've gotten plenty of Aged Yolks and quite a few noncombat pets, but not my Proto-drake.And my experience is hardly singular -- according to the poll, a full 55% of respondents have not yet opened up their Cracked Eggs to find the mount. 4% found it on their first try (bastards -- that number seems incredibly high), and almost 14% went for the joke "Oracles?" answer, or maybe just have no idea what the question is about. Obviously this is hardly a scientific poll, so we can't calculate drop rates or anything like that (most database sites put the drop at around 2%, which means on average 50 eggs to a drake, or almost a year of farming), but it's pretty clear that the Proto-drake is a supremely rare commodity.
The Daily Quest: There is nothing Nobel about Noblegarden
We here at WoW Insider are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.Everyone has something to say about this lovely little world event going on, and we've selected some of the best blog entries from around the net for you to enjoy today: Mend Pet has some good egg spots for Horde. BlizzPlanet has a nice Noblegarden guide. Be sure to check out ours too. Wobin writes over at WoW LJ about a great add-on to get your attention when finding an egg. Biker Bunny. And for the non-noblegarden related post today, Matticus knows why you're Frustrated by Ulduar. Click here to submit a link to TDQ
Revamped Noblegarden revealed
The seasonal revamped extravaganza that is Noblegarden is due to start tomorrow and the Blues have revealed a little more about the new week-long festival. Yesterday night Zarhym posted on the official forums, revealing some new details as well as linking to a revamped festival page on the official site.The new Noblegarden (which starts tomorrow) has its origins in a druidic festival, but the modern peoples of Azeroth seem more interested in egg-hunting and scoffing chocolates. Focusing on the starter towns like Brill and Goldshire, it's one of those great festivals which is aimed at newer players as well as die-hard level 80s.Zarhym promises egg hunts and new daily quests as well the chance to find cool items within brightly coloured chocolate eggs. There's also a stack of new achievements (you know you want that Violet Proto-Drake) and if you get sick of eating chocolate you can also use them as currency to buy awesome Noblegarden swag.WoW Insider will have guides and galleries up tomorrow. Noblegarden runs through next Saturday.
Happy Easter from TUAW
Today is Easter for those of you celebrating around the world, and what better way to celebrate than with Peeps? Specifically Peeps attending an Apple event -- these guys were made by Sarah Kohari and Erin Mastrangelo of Washington, and are part of the Washington Post's yearly Peeps diorama contest. This one is number 38, and they also made number 39 as well.We like it, obviously, especially the little Steve Jobs peep, as well as the iPeep nanos (in, apparently, all of the different colors Peeps come in). Happy Easter to everyone -- may you have candy and chocolate of all kinds (if that's what you're looking for today), and may all of your egg finding go well.
The best kind of celebration
After all the holiday-foo was complete, we're willing to bet many of you relaxed with video games. It's just a feeling we have (probably because many of us did the same thing!). You know what that means? It means we have an excuse to round up a few things that celebrate both Easter and gaming. Holidays are fun!
Noblegarden in Pictures
After having the chance to actually get out there and start my Egg Hunting, I can confirm that no, there really isn't anything new for the Noblegarden event this year. That's alright though, it entertained me for awhile, and I know for a fact that the Midsummer Fire Festival has a lot more in store.On the bright side, I did get my Elegant Dress this year! An entire day dedicated to finding this dress last year got me nothing but cruddy candy. Within twenty minutes this year, I got my dress! Of course, it doesn't look very good so I'll probably never put it on my character again, but I have it. That's good enough for me.If you're not able to participate in the event, or you're reading this after it has ended, do not fear! You didn't miss out on any leet items, and I did my best to capture the fun of the event in the gallery below. Go on, take a look! You know you want to. %Gallery-19015%
Happy Noblegarden!
"The great feast of Noblegarden has long been celebrated by the races of the Alliance and recently adopted by those of the Horde. On this joyous day, it is customary for the nobles and lords from each race to hide coins, candy, and the occasional treasures within special eggs painted to look like wildflowers. These eggs are then scattered around the major cities for the citizenry to find. From heroes to commoners, and everyone in between - the feast of Noblegarden is meant to bring communities together to share the joy of life and friendship." -The Official Event Calendar Good morning readers and Happy Noblegarden! If you didn't know yet, today is a pretty neat(if mundane) holiday in the World of Warcraft, which coincides with the real life holiday of Easter. And just like Easter, you're in for a lot of eggs. Most of the actual rewards are just toss away items like candy, but you can also get your hands on neat fashion items like an Elegant Dress or a Tuxedo.This'll be my third year plucking eggs now, and I haven't gotten a dress for my priest yet. Wish me luck, and I hope your luck is better than mine has been!
