Sunday, September 30, 2012

Harrow-Broomfield-Harrow, 29/30-09-12

Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman) - Joe Tex
The Promise You Made - Cock Robin
(I Hate) Everything about you - Ugly Kid Joe
I Feel Lucky - Mary Chapin Carpenter
SIHAC - Boots - Humphrey Littleton
Stuck In The Middle With You - Stealers Wheel
God Save the Queen - Sex Pistols
She's So High - Tal Bachman
Harder Than You Think (Radio Edit) - Public Enemy
Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better - Bing Crosby & Doris Day & Andrew Sisters
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm - Crash Test Dummies
Take a Look Around - Limp Bizkit
This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us - Sparks
Tropical-Iceland - The Fiery Furnaces
December 1963 (Oh What A Night) - Frankie Valli And The Four Seasons
Hey Ya - Booker T.
I Can't Let Maggie Go - Honeybus
Why Does The Sun Shine? (The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas) - They Might Be Giants (TMBG)
It's In His Kiss - Linda Lewis
Born To Be Wild - Ozzy Osbourne & Miss Piggy
Whoo! Alright - Yeah... Uh Huh. - The Rapture
Book of James - We Are Augustines
The Reeling (Calvin Harris Remix) - Passion Pit
We Will (Radio Mix) - Gilbert O'Sullivan
A Girl Like You - Edwyn Collins
Hey Ya - Outkast
Bang Bang - B.A. Robertson
Dragostea din tei (Mai Ai Hii) - O-Zone
You and Me Song - Wannadies
Cinnamon - The Long Winters
german-words - Edinburgh Fringe 2006
My Leather, My Fur, My Nails - Stepdad
Take the Skinheads Bowling - Camper Van Beethoven
You Could Get Hit By a Bus Tomorrow - The Lancashire Hotpots
Little Red Corvette (single) - Prince
Skinny (Radio Edit) - Lo Rider
Danger! High Voltage - Electric Six
Waiting For A Star To Fall - Boy Meets Girl
Ladies of the Harem of the Court of King Caractucus - Rolf Harris
Chain Gang (prod. by JCW & Siegel Stoner) - Mod Sun
West Side Story - LFO
Hotel Yorba - The White Stripes
I'm Outta Love - Anastacia
i!! - Nadastrom
Sedated - Shonen Knife
Rock n Roll Psychosis - The Jim Jones Revue
Build Me Up Buttercup - Foundations
One More Time - Daft Punk
Windy - The Association
All the Eastern Girls - Chapel Club
Two Tribes (Hibakusha Mix) - Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Hey Mickey - Toni Basil
Sweet Talkin' Guy - The Chiffons
Poison Ivy - The Lambrettas
I Won't Let You Down - PhD
Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye) - Bananarama
Jerk It Out - Caesars
Mulder And Scully - Catatonia
Beautiful Ones - Suede
Say You Don't Mind - Colin Blunstone
You're History - Shakespear's Sister
My Psychiatrist - Julie Miller
Happy Together - Simple Plan
Fashion - David Bowie
Ariel - Dean Friedman
Working for the Weekend - Loverboy
Always True To You In My Fashion - Ella Fitzgerald
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - Daft Punk
Master And Servant - Depeche Mode
No More Heroes - Night Trains
Daydream Believer - The Monkees
Excerpt From A Teenage Opera - Keith West
Love Your Money - Daisy Chainsaw
Backfire At the Disco - The Wombats
New Word Definitions #1 - Sorry I Haven't a Clue
Alisha Rules The World - Alisha's Attic
Cheater - Nikkiya
Vampire Smile - Kyla La Grange
Zambesi - Bert Kaempfert
That's Alright - Kindness
Oblivion - Grimes
Back of The Van - Ladyhawke
Do You Remember The First Time? - Pulp
For America - '87 - Red Box
Bad Man Goin Cry - Lady Saw
Sweet Caroline (live) - Neil Diamond
Radar Detector - Darwin Deez
Start Wearing Purple - Gogol Bordello
The Only Place - Best Coast
I Could Easily Fall (In Love With You) - Cliff Richard & The Shadows
The Ketchup Song (Asereje) - Las Ketchup
Never Leave You (Single Version) - Tinchy Stryder & Amelle
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Friday, September 28, 2012

Barnes & Noble Nook HD and HD+

Register Hardware has published a review of Barnes & Noble's latest tablets.

Excerpts follow:

"The specs tell part of the story: the 7in Nook HD sports a screen resolution of 1440 x 900 - the same as my 15in MacBook Pro, for example. That, says B&N, is the highest resolution yet found on a 7in tablet."

"It's certainly knocks the socks off my Nexus 7's 1280 x 800 display. Text is crisper, obscuring the pixellation I can see on the Nexus, especially on italics. It's also brighter and colours are much more vivid. It's a gorgeous display – the best I've seen on a seven-incher."

"The 9in Nook HD+ has a more standard 1920 x 1080 pixel array, close enough B&N claimed, to the iPad's 2048 x 1536 to make no odds. I'm not sure I agree, but I have to say the HD+ display is a worthy alternative to it."

"The HD will come with a choice of 8GB or 16GB of on-board storage. The HD+ will have 16GB or 32GB. Users wanting more space can slot in a Micro SD card. The 8GB and 16GB HDs will retail for £159 and £189, respectively, both very competitive prices, matching the Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7, both of which present lesser screens."

"The HD+ will come in a £229 for the 16GB model and £269 for the 32GB version. That's £170 and £210 less than the equivalent iPad 3 for a tablet with a retina-level display that's only eight per cent smaller in the diagonal. As a comic buff, reading digital comics on the Nook was no less a joy than it is on the iPad's slightly larger screen. It's the first large-format tablet other than Apple's I'd consider buying."
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Thursday, September 27, 2012

Box - 10GB of free online storage

TUAW reports: [edited]

The Box app has just been updated for compatibility with the iPhone 5 and to celebrate, Box is offering some excellent cloud storage deals for new users. When you download and sign in to the free app, you will get the 10 GB + Sync Box service for free. If you are a new user, that's yours for free, and if you're an existing user with a 5 GB account, you'll get another 5 GB for free as well.

Box not only allows you to save you files on its cloud service, but also lets you make use of the Box API, with lots of different services for various document types and apps. And Box Sync allows you to connect all your documents up together to your desktop computers, so you can access and use them from anywhere.

This offer is available until 31 October 2012.
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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Autographer

Digital Photography Review reports: [edited]

British newcomer OMG Life [*sigh* Ed.] has created Autographer, an 'intelligent' wearable camera that uses an array of built-in sensors to take pictures automatically triggered by changes in its environment.

It uses a semi-fisheye lens with a 136° angle of view in front of a 5MP backlit-CMOS sensor, and the shutter is triggered at key moments based on input from GPS, acceleration, direction, temperature, proximity and light sensors.

Images are stored in internal memory, and can be transferred to a smartphone using Bluetooth for viewing; alternatively they can be compiled into movies using the supplied software.

It'll go on sale in November from the company's website for £399.
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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Tesla S 4-day test

Wired reports: [edited]

The quoted zero to 60 mph time of 4.4 seconds is almost irrelevant. It’s the point-and-squirt acceleration at nearly any speed that shocks and delights while devouring the road ahead. Nail the throttle at 40 mph and you’re up to 60, then 70 then 90 in less time than it takes to read this sentence. I don’t care how fast you read.

That level of performance wouldn’t be uncharacteristic for something twice as costly, with half as many doors and weighing far less than the Telsa’s claimed curb weight of over 4,600 pounds. It is — for all intents and purposes — pure energy being laid to the ground with a rapidity that’s more roller-coaster freefall than four-wheeled family transport. And it’s more exhilarating than anything I’ve driven out of Sant’Agata, Stuttgart or even Maranello.

More impressive than the sheer speed of a sedan this size is its level of grip and handling. This is largely attributable to the fact that the massive, four-inch-tall, 85-kWh battery pack is housed mere inches from the ground — it makes the Tesla not just a competent handler, but an architectural marvel that’s sure to cause furrowed brows and OCD-level head-scratching among German engineers.

If you’re looking for on-road presence, the Model S has it in spades, particularly here in the Bay Area, where a Tesla draws a crowd like someone waving an iPhone 5 outside an Apple Store on launch day. The exterior is elegant, demure and aggressive all at once.

The interior is more of a mixed bag. The cockpit is spartan, but fitting of the Tesla ethos, with supple, supportive seats, ample legroom fore and aft, and two trunks (over 30 cubic feet in total).

Can the Model S hit its EPA-certified 265-mile range? Based on my time behind the wheel, there’s no doubt. But if you want to satiate that atavistic thirst for pavement-pummeling torque on a regular basis, be prepared to top off the cells with frequency.

Tesla hasn’t just created a fully functional EV. It’s made a vehicle that’s both incredibly engaging and fully practical. As with any car, compromises were made, but as a whole, the Model S feels and drives like the future. It’s a rolling testament to the potential of automotive innovation, and a massive leap forward for an industry struggling to stake a claim in the 21st century.
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Monday, September 24, 2012

Colourised iconic monochrome images

catherinehall.net reports: [edited]

Ever wonder what images of Abraham Lincoln would look like in color? What about iconic captures like The Burning Monk or the VJ Day, The Kiss? Swedish artist Sanna Dullaway has put her creativity to the test to restore and re-colorize iconic black and white images of the past.

What are your thoughts on bringing colour to these historic black and white images? Does it give life to the scenarios and people within them or take away from their nostalgic quality?
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Friday, September 21, 2012

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH3

Digital Photography Review reports: [edited]

The GH3 is the company's largest Micro Four Thirds camera yet, with dimensions that match those of the APS-C Sony SLT-A65.

It gains a weather sealed (dust/splash proof) magnesium alloy body. Additional highlights include 6 fps shooting (or 4fps with live view) and five customizable function buttons. While the camera's still image resolution remains at 16MP, the GH3 has a new Live MOS sensor, three-core Venus 7 FHD processing engine and a new low pass filter. Panasonic claims improvements in high ISO shadow detail, color reproduction and white balance over its predecessor.

The GH3 also offers in-camera HDR and multiple exposure image modes, as well as Wi-Fi connectivity that Panasonic hopes to leverage with its own (as yet unreleased) remote triggering and image transfer apps for iOS and Android phones.

The GH3's new EVF is a 1.7 million dot OLED panel with a 16:9 ratio of 873 x 500 pixels. Panasonic lists a robust 1.34x magnification (equivalent to 0.67x on a full frame SLR) ,and says that because information is transmitted to the panel 8x faster than the GH2

The rear display panel is a 3" 614k dot resolution OLED unit that, like that of its predecessor, is touch-sensitive. For both stills and video shooters looking to extend the camera's abilities, the GH3 offers a 3.5mm mic input (GH2 users had to resort to a 2.5 - 3.5mm adapter), headphone jack, PC sync socket and a new optional battery grip that attaches to base plate providing the option for additional power.
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Thursday, September 20, 2012

LIFX Light Bulb

TechCrunch reports: [edited]

The LIFX is a $69 lightbulb controlled via smartphone.

You can change the brightness and colour of the bulb from your phone. You can also set it to go on and off at a certain time and come on when you get home.

Because it’s a self-contained unit you don’t need to change your wiring. Just twist it in and fire up the app.
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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

iPhone 5 Reviews

For a good summary of the first reviews, visit MacRumors.

If you're interested in the look, feel and design philosophy behind the iPhone, give John Gruber's opinion piece a read.
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Tuesday, September 18, 2012

The rise of autonomous cars

Wired reports: [edited]

GM’s Cadillac division expects to produce partially autonomous cars at a large scale by 2015, and the automaker also predicts it will have fully autonomous cars available by the end of the decade.

Audi and BMW have also shown self-driving car concepts, with the former working with Stanford to pilot a modified TT up Pikes Peak. Meanwhile, Google is ripping along at its own rapid pace with a fleet of fully autonomous Toyota Prius hybrids that have logged over 300,000 miles.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) recently released predictions that autonomous cars will account for up to 75 percent of vehicles on the road by the year 2040. The organisation went even further, forecasting how infrastructure, society and attitudes could change when self-driving cars become the norm around the middle of the century.

IEEE envisions an absence of traffic signs and lights since highly evolved, self-driving cars won’t need them, and it believes that full deployment could even eliminate the need for driver’s licenses.
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Monday, September 17, 2012

Fujifilm XF1

Digital Photography Review reports: [edited]

The enthusiast compact sector has undergone a distinct revival in recent years, with every major manufacturer now producing a model or two that offers full manual control and RAW format recording, aimed as a second camera for enthusiasts who usually carry an SLR.

The XF1 is the latest model in Fujifilm's premium X-series, that originated with the FinePix X100 and has since expanded upwards to the interchangeable lens XF system (including the recently-announced X-E1), and downwards to the X-S1 superzoom and fast-lensed X10 compact. The XF1 shares much of its innards with these last two models, including the larger-than-average 2/3" EXR-CMOS sensor and EXR processor. To these it adds an optically-stabilized 25-100mm equivalent lens with an impressively fast F1.8 maximum aperture at wideangle, but a more pedestrian F4.9 at telephoto.

The Canon S100 and Sony RX100 are both functionally-styled black-bodied cameras for photographers who wish to stay discreet; the XF1, in contrast, is designed to be noticed. With its two-tone body it's a very attractive camera. There's a choice of three colours - the deep red shown, alongside light tan and a relatively-sober black - each of which gets a matching slide-in leather case as an optional accessory for fashionistas.

The second stand-out feature of the XF1 is its lens mechanism - the zoom ring is mechanical, and like on the X10 doubles as the power switch. But there's a a further twist - it also collapses into the body in a fashion somewhat reminiscent of the iconic Rollei 35 film compact. This gives the XF1 the distinction of being the smallest camera to offer a mechanical zoom ring around the lens.
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Saturday, September 15, 2012

Harrow-Nottingham-Harrow 15-09-12

Harrow to Nottingham
Playlist = kidz journey

Sleep Alone - Two Door Cinema Club
Hands Up - Ottawan
Nashville Cats - The Lovin' Spoonful
It's My Life - Talk Talk
Portions For Foxes - Rilo Kiley
It's Only Life - The Shins
It's My Life - Gwen Stefani/No Doubt
Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover - Sophie B. Hawkins
Always Loved a Film - Underworld
Right Down The Line - Gerry Rafferty
Stayin' Alive - Bee Gees
Teenage Icon - The Vaccines
Moi Lolita (Single Version) - Alizee
No One Knows - Queens of the Stone Age
88 Lines About 44 Women - Nails
The Model - Overproof Sound System
Wolf - First Aid Kit
Perfume - Sparks
Bruises - Chairlift
Hell Raiser - Sweet
Bohemian Like You - The Dandy Warhols
Price Tag (feat. B.o.B) - Jessie J
Screamager - Therapy?
No You Girls - Franz Ferdinand
Lay Your Cards Out - Poliça
Spectacular Views - Rilo Kiley
Walking On Sunshine - Rocker's Revenge
Quit This Town - Eddie & The Hot Rods
Planet Rock - Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force
When I Grow Up - Garbage
You're Moving Out Today - Carole Bayer Sager
No More Heroes - Night Trains
The Rubettes - The Auteurs
Hold On - Biters
Romeo Had Juliette - Lou Reed
I'm Shakin' - Jack White
Do Anything You Wanna Do - Eddie & The Hot Rods
Love Is The Law (single) - The Seahorses
Beware of The Flowers - John Otway
Paranoid - Black Sabbath
Listen To What The Man Said - Paul McCartney & Wings
Killer - Adamski
Chapel Song - We Are Augustines

Nottingham to Harrow
Playlist = essential artists - not played in last 60 months

Two Hearts - Ryan Adams
Reel Around The Fountain - The Smiths
Atonement (live) - Lucinda Williams
Lowdown - Wire
Once in a Blue Moon - Van Morrison
Ripples - Genesis
The Boston Monkey - Otis Redding
A Man Can't Lose (What He Don't Have) - Paul Young & The Q-Tips
Man Out Of Time [Demo] - Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Happy Birthday - Ramones
Crocodile Rock - Elton John
Sweet Talkin' Woman - Electric Light Orchestra
Strawberry Fields Forever (Love version) - The Beatles
Bright Eyes Darkened - Slobberbone
Hit The Road Jack (instrumental) - Ray Charles
Circle Back - John Hiatt
Sun On The Water - Kirsty MacColl
American Without Tears - Elvis Costello
New French Girlfriend - The Auteurs
The Laziest Girl In Town - Nina Simone
The Blonde Waltz - The Charlatans
Wild Honey - U2
Hard Luck Story - Whiskeytown
Hard To Handle - Otis Redding
Truth In Your Words - They Might Be Giants (TMBG)
Odious - Vigilantes Of Love
Sioux City - The Jayhawks
Girl Why Don't You - Madness
Dinosaur Act - Matthew Sweet
Wedding Song - Bob Dylan/The Band
Reggae Music - UB40
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Friday, September 14, 2012

New iPhone, iPod touch and iPod nano

iPhone 5: bigger screen, slimmer, lighter, faster, better headphones

iPod touch: ditto

iPod nano: touch screen, credit card size, better headphones

for everything you need to know, click here
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Thursday, September 13, 2012

$9 Cardboard Bicycle

Fast Company reports: [edited]

The Alfa weighs 20lbs, yet supports riders up to 24 times its weight. It’s mostly cardboard and 100% recycled materials, yet uses a belt-driven pedal system that makes it maintenance free. And, maybe best of all, it’s project designed to be manufactured at about $9 to $12 per unit (and just $5 for a kids version.

The development to what you see today took three years. Two were spent just figuring out the cardboard complications - leading to several patents - and the last was spent converting a cardboard box on wheels to a relatively normal looking bike.

via kottke
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Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Lit Motors C-1

TechCrunch reports: [edited]

Imagine a vehicle that’s smaller than a Smart Car, nearly a third of the price of a Nissan Leaf, safer than a motorcycle with a range capacity that just lets you drive and won’t ever tip over?

What you get is Lit Motors’ C-1, the world’s first gyroscopically stabilized, two-wheeled all-electric vehicle, which launched at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco. Oh, and it will talk to your smartphone and the Cloud.

It is expected to top out at over 100 MPH and has an estimated range of up to 200 miles per charge and will go from 0-60 in roughly six seconds.
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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Nanocrystalline Cellulose

New Scientist reports: [edited]

Nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC), which is produced by processing wood pulp, is being hailed as the latest wonder material. Japan-based Pioneer Electronics is applying it to the next generation of flexible electronic displays. IBM is using it to create components for computers. Even the US army is getting in on the act, using it to make lightweight body armour and ballistic glass.

To ramp up production, the US opened its first NCC factory in Madison, Wisconsin, on 26 July, marking the rise of what the US National Science Foundation predicts will become a $600 billion industry by 2020.

So why all the fuss? Well, not only is NCC transparent but it is made from a tightly packed array of needle-like crystals which have a strength-to-weight ratio that is eight times better than stainless steel. Even better, it's incredibly cheap.

"It is the natural, renewable version of a carbon nanotube at a fraction of the price," says Jeff Youngblood of Purdue University's NanoForestry Institute in West Lafayette, Indiana.
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Sunday, September 09, 2012

Ammanford to Harrow Playlist, 09-09-12


Oranges On Appletrees - a-ha
What If - Lucinda Williams
Housebreaker - The Auteurs
No Victims - Kirsty MacColl
Toledo - Elvis Costello With Burt Bacharach
All Around The World - The Jam
Twenty Four Hours - Joy Division
Wild Children (live) - Van Morrison
Shelter From The Storm - Bob Dylan
You Part The Waters - Cake
Queen Of The World - The Jayhawks
Greenshirt - Elvis Costello & The Attractions
My Old Faded Rose - Johnny Cash
The Chain - Fleetwood Mac
Where Were You? - Jonatha Brooke & The Story
Love Hurts - Paul Young & The Q Tips
The Great Speckled Bird - Johnny Cash
Goodbye Civilian - The Skids
Moondance - Van Morrison
All The Critics Love U In New York - Prince
Dead Souls - Joy Division
They'll Never Take Her Love From Me - Elvis Costello
Pipes Of Peace - Paul McCartney & Wings
Junk Shop Clothes - The Auteurs
Whatever Happened To PJ Proby? - Van Morrison
World In My Eyes (Daniel Miller Mix) - Depeche Mode
The Tracks Of My Tears - Paul Young & The Q-Tips
Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile) - Van Morrison
Charade - The Skids
Children Of The Revolution - Kirsty MacColl
All Natural - Jimi Hendrix
I Lost It - Lucinda Williams
Somewhere In Ohio - The Jayhawks
Women & Men - They Might Be Giants (TMBG)
I Palindrome I - They Might Be Giants (TMBG)
I Need Your Kind Of Loving - Van Morrison
The Levee's Gonna Break - Bob Dylan
Stay On These Roads - a-ha
Masters Of War - Bob Dylan
That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day) - Johnny Cash
Stranger in a Strange Land - U2
Angie - The Rolling Stones
I Still Miss Someone - Johnny Cash
With a Shout - U2
Floater (Too Much To Ask) - Bob Dylan
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Friday, September 07, 2012

Magic Cooling Glove

Kottke reports: [edited]

Leveraging the high number of specialized heat-transfer veins in the palm of the human hand, researchers at Stanford have developed a thermal exchange glove that is able to cool a person's core temperature in a matter of minutes. Turns out this is helpful for athletes.

The glove's effects on athletic performance didn't become apparent until the researchers began using the glove to cool a member of the lab between sets of pull-ups. The glove seemed to nearly erase his muscle fatigue; after multiple rounds, cooling allowed him to do just as many pull-ups as he did the first time around. So the researchers started cooling him after every other set of pull-ups.

"Then in the next six weeks he went from doing 180 pull-ups total to over 620," said Heller. "That was a rate of physical performance improvement that was just unprecedented."

The researchers applied the cooling method to other types of exercise - bench press, running, cycling. In every case, rates of gain in recovery were dramatic, without any evidence of the body being damaged by overwork.

Full article available here.
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Thursday, September 06, 2012

Lyfe Kitchen - fast food with a difference

Wired has published an article looking at a new fast food venture co-founded by Mike Roberts, McDonald's former president and chief operating officer.

Excerpts follow:

"At Lyfe Kitchen (the name is an acronym for Love Your Food Everyday), all the cookies shall be dairy-free, all the beef from grass-fed, humanely raised cows. At Lyfe Kitchen there shall be no butter, no cream, no white sugar, no white flour, no high-fructose corn syrup, no GMOs, no trans fats, no additives, and no need for alarm: There will still be plenty of burgers, not to mention manifold kegs of organic beer and carafes of biodynamic wine."

"Lyfe’s ambition is to open hundreds of restaurants around the US, in the span of just five years."

"The former Golden Archers hope to transform the way the world produces organic ingredients, doing for responsibly grown meat and veggies what McDonald’s did for factory-farmed beef."

"Yesterday’s supply-chain infrastructure, the one that Roberts and his colleagues helped to perfect, was based on boxed patties and buns that had been treated with preservatives and designer enzymes. But new flash-freezing and high-pressure-pasteurization methods have enabled retailers like Lyfe to deliver dishes free of magnesium lactate, triammonium citrate, and other preservatives."
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Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Nokia Asha 311

Register Hardware has published a review of Nokia's £100 smartphone.

Excerpts follow:

"For your £100 you get a handset with a 3in 240 x 400 capacitive touchscreen, quad-band HSDPA, 802.11n Wi-Fi, a 1GHz CPU and a 1,110mAh battery. You also get one that’s impressively small (106x52x13mm), light (95g) and well made."

"At the top it sports a 3.5mm audio socket along with microUSB and 2mm power connectors – you can charge through either. Over on the right are the volume and on/off buttons. Below the screen sit solid physical call answer/end buttons while the Sim and microSD cards are buried under the battery."

"The 3in 155dpi screen is clearly no match for the new 720p Android or Apple retina displays but it’s a higher density figure than the iPad2 or any current 1280 x 800 10in Android tablet. It proved crisp, bright and colourful."

"With its Gorilla Glass screen and an interface that’s been thoughtfully redesigned to mimic Symbian Belle – is a very smooth and pleasant handset to use. The UI reaction speed and fluidity of the kinetic scrolling is up with all but the very best handsets."

"With 40 free EA games to download, Angry Birds preloaded and basic little video and music players plus a microSD card slot (a 2GB card is included in the retail package), the 311 makes a good little media player."

"The 311’s killer feature is its battery life. The maximum 3G talk time of 6hrs may not be that special, but 744hrs on 3G standby and 40hrs of music playback is impressive. In everyday use, you can expect to get around four days from a charge."
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Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Stem cells bring back feeling for paralysed patients


New Scientist reports: [edited]

For the first time, people with broken spines have recovered feeling in previously paralysed areas after receiving injections of neural stem cells.

Three people with paralysis received injections of 20 million neural stem cells directly into the injured region of their spinal cord. The cells, acquired from donated fetal brain tissue, were injected between four and eight months after the injuries happened. The patients also received a temporary course of immunosuppressive drugs to limit rejection of the cells.

None of the three felt any sensation below their nipples before the treatment. Six months after therapy, two of them had sensations of touch and heat between their chest and belly button. The third patient has not seen any change.

The data are preliminary, but "these sensory changes suggest that the cells may be positively impacting recovery", says Curt, who presented the results today in London at the annual meeting of the International Spinal Cord Society.
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Monday, September 03, 2012

Free Font - Vezus Light

Typedia reports: [edited]

Serbian foundry Tour de Force has released a tidy, semi-flared serif by Slobodan Jelesijević. The four weight Vezus features sharp, angular joinery and a number of interlocking discretionary ligatures.

Feel like giving it a test drive? You can download the light weight for free.
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