– Never get poisoned again: Baidu, a large Chinese company, has developed “smart chopsticks.”

Chinese internet giant Baidu has unveiled a pair of ‘smart chopsticks’ that can detect contaminants in food and report back to smartphone and desktop apps.

The compapny (often known as ‘China’s Google’) says the prototype device is currently designed to detect temperature and whether food was produced using ‘gutter oil’ – reused cooking oil that’s potentially toxic – but that future models could also flag up contaminated water and measure salt levels.

I had not heard of “gutter oil” before, and now I really wish I hadn’t. You might have thought that I selected this story for “WTF” treatment because of the “smart chopsticks,” but you would be wrong. It was because such an invention appears to be very, very, very, very, very, very, very necessary.

– I don’t get it, but I don’t need to: Some new mothers want to eat their placentas (placentae?), but hospitals won’t let them because of medical waste laws.

No further commentary offered.