Just RS

BLOGGER BLUES! MOVED TO OPERA!

2006-05-03T14:16:00.000+08:00

Click here to check out the latest posts: http://my.opera.com/stratstrangler/blog/

The man who fought Suharto with a pen

2006-05-01T21:36:00.000+08:00

'In recent years, the Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who died yesterday at age 81, came to be known as a chain-smoking curmudgeon and consistent critic of the corrupt legacies of the Suharto regime and western-style consumerism. But if anyone ever deserved the right to be the grumpy contrarian — a south-east Asian Günter Grass, the German author known for his pointed social criticism — then Pramoedya was it...' More

Did she borrow or did she steal?

2006-05-01T10:07:00.000+08:00

'Kaavya's this girl with awesome grades and parents who were obsessed about her getting into Harvard. They even hired a college admissions consultant, which lots of parents do these days. This consultant reads some of Kaavya's writing, which happened to be about a girl whose parents want her to get into Harvard so badly that she never has any fun. The consultant sends it to a big agent, who sells it to a book packager, who makes a deal with a big publisher. The book is called 'How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life'. And Kaavya, just 17 at the time, got close to US$500,000 for a two-book contract. She also got a movie deal with DreamWorks. Oh, and she got into Harvard, too...' More / Book pulled off shelves

How pizza became the American pie

2006-04-29T21:51:00.000+08:00

'Almost every American food—from egg foo yung to empanadas — is covered in the phone book under the generic heading "Restaurants". Only pizza stands alone. Pizza, a Johnny-come-lately compared with such long-standing national favourites as the hamburger and hot dog, has secured a special place on the American table. Everybody likes pizza. Even those who claim to be immune to its charms must deign to have the occasional slice; a staggering 93 percent of Americans eat pizza at least once a month. According to one study, each man, woman, and child consumes an average of 23 pounds of pie every year.'

And we thought politics was all bullshit!

2006-04-29T20:12:00.000+08:00

'I have lived through and suffered the worst abuse imaginable. Not many other politicians have weathered the beating that I have taken in such a short period of time. I have been the subject of speculation, innuendo and plain lies on a scale unseen by most politicians in their entire careers. So, although I have no pearls to offer, my lack of wisdom is compensated by some pointers that I have earned the right to give to aspiring politicians. Politics is not about power, position or personal wealth. Politics is a process in which we can make a difference to others. Politics is that fire in your belly that makes you want to change the world...' More

Diabolus in Musica.: The Devil's music

2006-04-29T17:26:00.000+08:00

'On the surface there might appear to be no link between Black Sabbath, Wagner's Gotterdammerung, West Side Story and the theme tune to the Simpsons. But all of them rely heavily on tritones, a musical interval that spans three whole tones, like the diminished fifth or augmented fourth. This interval, the gap between two notes played in succession or simultaneously, was branded Diabolus in Musica or the Devil's Interval by medieval musicians... More

Hammer & tickle: The comedy of communism

2006-04-29T16:43:00.000+08:00

'Communism is the only political system to have created its own international brand of comedy. The standard interpretation is that communist jokes were a form of resistance. But they were also a safety valve for the regimes and jokes were told by the rulers as well as the ruled — even Stalin told some good ones...' More

Bruce Lee is a hero in Bosnia

2006-04-29T16:19:00.000+08:00

'It may seem odd that a city trying to overcome its reputation for violence would choose as a symbol a man famous for artfully snapping vertebrae. But violence is relative, nowhere more so than Bosnia. Lee never used a weapon designed after the Han dynasty. His preference, famously, was the nunchaku, a weapon of wood and rope with origins in the tools of Asian subsistence agriculture. Nobody ever massacred a village with nunchucks...' More

The million-dollar news babe

2006-04-28T16:07:00.000+08:00

'Katie Couric was appointed by CBS as the first solo female anchor of a network evening news show in the USA... Couric, who will earn in the region of £8.5m per year, is an astounding and, to the British, largely incomprehensible confection... (a) tough chick with the face of America’s sweetheart and a plausible, caring manner makes a lot of money in television... (But) Couric is not some breakfast-show bimbette, but the best television journalist in the world...' More

MGG Pillai RIP

2006-04-28T12:43:00.000+08:00

Sledgehammer journalist MGG Pillai, one of the first freelancers to take to Cyberspace to rant on politics and other controversial issues, died this morning at Universiti Hospital due to heart complications. He was 67. A battle-hardened veteran (he covered the Vietnam War), Pillai wielded a highly provocative, fearless and entertaining loose-cannon style to attack the clowns running the Malaysian government, as well as their rapacious cronies and fatuous minions, on his Web site (MGGPillai.com). His sensational tales of machinations in the corridors of power will be sorely missed. More / Farewell, MGG / Tributes

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons

2006-04-28T10:17:00.000+08:00

(Click on image.)

'Banana-jawed' mammal linked to sound skill

2006-04-27T19:24:00.000+08:00

'Paleontologists at the Duke Lemur Center have assembled a new picture of a 35-million-year-old fossil mammal — and they even have added a hint of sound. By painstakingly measuring hundreds of specimens of a fossil mammal called Thyrohyrax, recovered from the famous fossil beds of Egypt's Fayum Province, the researchers determined that males of this now-extinct species — and only males — had oversized, swollen lower jaws shaped much like a banana... More

MIT chemist cracks secret of Nature's cures

2006-04-27T19:21:00.000+08:00

'MIT scientists have just learned another lesson from nature. After years of wondering how organisms managed to create self-medications, such as anti-fungal agents, chemists have discovered the simple secret. Scientists already knew that a particular enzyme was able to coax a reaction out of stubborn chemical concoctions to generate a large family of medically valuable compounds called halogenated natural products. The question was, how do they do it?...' More

Seagate's new 750G drive whirrs to the top

2006-04-27T19:13:00.000+08:00

'Seagate's Barracuda 7200.10 750GB drive, the largest hard drive to date, sets new high-water marks for capacity, price, and performance. Its speed was especially notable on the PC World Test Center's write tests, where it came within a hair's breadth of matching Western Digital's swift 10,000-rpm Raptor X...' More / Expanding universe of drive capacity

Happy sweet sixteen, Hubble Space Telescope!

2006-04-26T10:24:00.000+08:00

'To celebrate the NASA-ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s 16 years of success, the two space agencies are releasing a mosaic image of the magnificent starburst galaxy, Messier 82 (M82). It is the sharpest wide-angle view ever obtained of M82, a galaxy remarkable for its webs of shredded clouds and flame-like plumes of glowing hydrogen blasting out from its central regions...' More

Malaysia considers Islam in space

2006-04-26T10:21:00.000+08:00

'Malaysia is due to send an astronaut into space with the Russians next year. The country's first spaceman is almost certain to be a Muslim, which raises a number of practical issues. For instance, Muslims wash before they pray but not only is water a precious commodity in space, but it is also impractical in weightlessness...' More

Why Mailer still matters

2006-04-25T18:18:00.000+08:00

'"If the world is destroyed in the course of this century, I think it will be because of religious wars," says Norman Mailer... He goes on to sketch "the absolute waste of huge spiritual imbroglios between different nations..." More

The Harvard girl who stole for her novel

2006-04-25T16:23:00.000+08:00

'A Harvard University sophomore with a highly publicized first novel acknowledged Monday that she had borrowed material, accidentally, from another author's work and promised to change her book for future editions. Kaavya Viswanathan's "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life," published in March by Little, Brown and Company, was the first of a two-book deal reportedly worth six figures. But on Sunday, the Harvard Crimson cited seven passages in Viswanathan's book that closely resemble the style and language of the novels of Megan McCafferty...' More

Iraqi 9/11 film actor denied US visa

2006-04-24T16:49:00.000+08:00

'An Iraqi actor who plays the lead hijacker in a new film about 9/11 has been refused a visa to attend the premiere in the US. Lewis Alsamari was told by the US embassy in London that he is unlikely to be allowed to enter the country for the first public screening of United 93 in New York, where it is due to open the Tribeca Film Festival. The film tells of the events surrounding United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, when passengers revolted against four hijackers...' More

O, the power we waste!

2006-04-24T02:43:00.000+08:00

'All around the house we bleed power. The modern home is permanently on standby, full of equipment that sits "half on", waiting to spring immediately to life when we ask it to. Figures from the Energy Saving Trust on standby power use in the UK home are astonishing:

* Stereos on standby cost £290m and produce 1.6 million tonnes of CO2
* VCRs and DVD cost £263m and produce 1.06 million tonnes of CO2
* TVs on standby cost £88m and produce 480,000 tonnes of CO2

But there is a bigger culprit out there: the personal computer, as power supply manufacturer Scott Richards explains. "The PC is a special case because if you don't turn it off completely, in other words pull the switch on the back, it's always drawing some kind of power..."' More

Nuclear Nightmare: 20 years since Chernobyl

2006-04-23T05:28:00.000+08:00

'Chernobyl was just one of the devastating nuclear debacles that have taken place in the last 45 years in the former Soviet Union... These photographs by Robert Knoth, from the regions of Mayak, Semipalatinsk, Chernobyl and Tomsk-7, are testimony to the continuing medical, economic and social consequences of the thriving nuclear industry in Eastern Europe...' More

Global warming: A load of hot air?

2006-04-22T20:29:00.000+08:00

'Hardly a day goes by without a new dire warning about climate change. But some claims are more extreme than others, giving rise to fears that the problem is being oversold and damaging the issue. How much has the planet warmed up over the past century? Most people reckon between two and three degrees. They are not even close. The real figure, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is 0.6C...' More

A short history of steam-powered aircraft

2006-04-22T20:20:00.000+08:00

'"Well, how does she look?" Bill Besler asked observers at the Oakland Airport one morning in 1933. That he could be heard distinctly, though he spoke from the cockpit of an experimental biplane speeding 200 feet above their heads, spooked the crowd: "Dead stick," the whispers circulated. Besler then throttled up over San Francisco Bay, leaving a wisp of water vapor condensing in the sun--and a throng of squinting witnesses to the first documented flight of a controllable airplane powered by steam...' More

A question of time in Sri Lanka

2006-04-22T20:14:00.000+08:00

'What's in half an hour? A lot more than only 30 minutes or 1,800 seconds — as Sri Lankans discovered last week. On 14 April, the government adjusted Sri Lanka's standard time to GMT+5:30 from GMT+6, which had been used since 1996. In doing so, the government completely ignored expert views of scientists and intellectuals. It listened instead to a vocal minority of nationalists, astrologers and Buddhist monks who had lobbied the newly elected president Mahinda Rajapaksa to 'restore the clock to original Sri Lankan time'. Not for the first time, science and reason lost out to nationalism and political expediency...' More

CSI: Sherlock Holmes?

2006-04-22T20:11:00.000+08:00

'Most people have heard of the world's greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes. But many may not know that Holmes, a fictional character, engaged in activities that were quite real. How so? The detective's creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, had an intense interest in the budding field of forensics. Doyle was inspired by Dr. Joseph Bell, a forensics expert, to study all aspects of an individual, and use science and deductive reasoning as intellectual tools. This in turn helped shape Holmes's character, and made the sleuth appear more lifelike than any fictional character before him... Holmes only scratches the surface. E.J. Wagner, a well-known crime historian and lecturer, has taken it one step further...' More

Young Mars most likely to support life

2006-04-22T20:08:00.000+08:00

'Mars started out relatively wet and temperate, underwent a major climate shift, and evolved into a cold, drThis is the finding of an international team of scientists who have created the most comprehensive mineral history of Mars, a history closely linked to the presence of liquid water on the planet.y place strewn with acidic rock – less than ideal conditions for supporting life...' More

Malaysian rainforest being stripped by loggers

2006-04-22T13:28:00.000+08:00

'A 130 million-year-old tropical rainforest in Malaysia is under threat from logging, environmental activists warned Thursday, as they launched a campaign calling for greater efforts to protect the national heritage. Intensive logging, by both legal timber operators and illegal loggers, is damaging the ecological system in the 741,300-acre Belum-Temengor Forest complex in northern Perak state, the Malaysian Nature Society said...' More

The lady knows her sound

2006-04-20T19:45:00.000+08:00

'For over a decade, Nainita Desai has earned her living designing sounds and composing for film and television. She speaks about her experiences in the industry, and explains what opportunities there are for newcomers who want to get their foot in the door...' More

Yamaha's AW1600 and AW2400 DAWs

2006-04-20T19:25:00.000+08:00

'The AW1600 (MSRP $1,495) has been created for the home studio musician, adding many features to the AW16G while maintaining the same affordability. New features include eight combo inputs (all with Phantom power), USB 2.0 drag-and-drop capabilities for moving files onto you computer, 24-bit recording and a new Pitch Fix algorithm for correcting the pitch of vocal tracks.'

'The AW2400 (MSRP $2,499) is a complete portable studio solution for anyone who is serious about recording and production. And, just like the AW4416, users can record, edit, mix and master without the need for external equipment. This new flagship of the AW line includes 24 simultaneous tracks of playback, motorized 100mm faders and the same expansion slot found on Yamahga digital mixng consoles for connecting the AW to professional studio gear.' More / AW1600 video demo

Death By Audio's Octave Clang

2006-04-20T19:01:00.000+08:00

'Explore the galaxy of Octavia, octave fuzz, clang, ring modulation, and sitar drone sounds. The Octave Clang is an octave up effect which uses a special selected transformer and matched Germanium Diodes to create rich and pure analog octave up sound. The gain control on the Octave Clang is ballistic and can make your guitar the most evil weapon known to man. The gain ranges from nice harmonically rich clang sounds to an onslaught of abrasive fuzz. Playing chords with the gain turned down brings out bizarre discordant drones and complex overtones...' More

In praise of the wet shave

2006-04-20T18:55:00.000+08:00

'The Merkur razor, forged of implacable stainless steel, will last several lifetimes. There is simply nothing in it to wear out. The shaving brush will last a decade or more. Replacement double-edge blades range from inexpensive (Merkur's fearsomely thin and sharp blades are 45 cents each) to dirt cheap (at Wal-Mart, which sells perfectly serviceable blades). A year's supply of Proraso is roughly three tubes — $27. So in the first year of wet shaving, a frugal wet shaver might spend $120 or so...' More

Sofa made from Goodyear tyres

2006-04-20T18:45:00.000+08:00

On display at the Milan Auto show recently... sofa made by Italian designer Zak using Goodyear RunOnFlat tyres.

Cool new gadgets

2006-04-19T21:07:00.000+08:00

'Twelve of the month's hottest gadgets, from the world's smallest HD camcorder to the world's smartest golf bag caddy...' More

Hot new electric rides

2006-04-19T21:04:00.000+08:00

'The press previews at the New York International Auto Show ran the gamut from glitzy to downright dirty, as in the mud-soaked reveal of the four-door Jeep Wrangler. Either way, there was plenty of technology on view, as automakers continue to tread the fine line between high performance and high efficiency...' More

The spotless mind: Drug to erase bad memories?

2006-04-19T20:59:00.000+08:00

'Clinical psychologist Alain Brunet of McGill University in Montreal doesn’t usually torture his patients. But lately he has been pressing those with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, to relive emotionally scarring incidents. For some it’s rape, others battlefield trauma. When his patients get particularly upset — crying, shaking, blood pressure rising — he gives them a 25-year-old hypertension drug called propranolol. The idea, though, is not to lower their blood pressure. Brunet’s goal is much more profound: to wipe away the trauma of bad memories...' More

Damn DRM!

2006-04-19T20:54:00.000+08:00

Middle-aged still enjoying sex

2006-04-19T20:42:00.000+08:00

'Contrary to popular belief, middle-aged and older people enjoy sex, and will do so into their 80s, research suggests. A study of 300,000 people aged 40 to 80 in 29 countries also found couples with greater equality in western Europe were more likely to enjoy their sex lives. Highest satisfaction levels were reported in Austria and Spain and the lowest in the more male-dominated societies of the Middle East and Asia...' More

Next-generation DVD battle begins

2006-04-19T20:40:00.000+08:00

'The first HD DVD players and discs have gone on sale in the US. The release marks the start of the format wars between the Toshiba-led HD DVD and the Sony-led Blu-ray systems. The first Blu-ray discs are expected in late May, while the first players will be available in June...' More

New blow for Microsoft in EU row

2006-04-19T02:59:00.000+08:00

'Microsoft has lost the latest round of its battle against sanctions in Europe. A US judge quashed the firm's demands that rival Novell hand over documents it presented to the European Commission for use in an anti-trust case. The judge in the case said he had turned down the request as Microsoft was trying to "circumvent and undermine" European law...' More

Unused PC power to aid medical research

2006-04-18T19:15:00.000+08:00

'Just because you don't know much about biology or medicine won't stop you from helping to someday cure diseases like malaria, HIV, or cancer. In fact, all you need is a computer and an Internet connection and you can play a pivotal role in the search for treatments and cures for some of the world's biggest killers. For many people, their computers can sit idle for hours every day. Through a project called Rosetta@home, people can donate that idle time to biomedical research...' More

'Tenth planet' slightly larger than Pluto

2006-04-18T19:13:00.000+08:00

'NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has resolved the "tenth planet," nicknamed "Xena" for the first time, and has found that it is only just a little larger than Pluto. Though previous ground-based observations suggested that Xena was about 30 percent greater in diameter than Pluto, Hubble observations taken on Dec. 9 and 10, 2005, yield a diameter of 1,490 miles (with an uncertainty of 60 miles) for Xena. Pluto's diameter, as measured by Hubble, is 1,422 miles...' More

White Stripes sued by co-producer

2006-04-18T18:59:00.000+08:00

'A producer who worked on the first two White Stripes albums claims he deserves a share of the royalties, saying he played a pivotal role in creating the band's signature sound. Jim Diamond, who is listed as co-producer on the band's self-titled first album, released in 1999, has sued the White Stripes in U.S. District Court. He is listed as sound mixer on "De Stijl," released in 2000...' More

Buddy Holly watch fetches US$155,350

2006-04-18T18:54:00.000+08:00

'The diamond-studded watch Buddy Holly was wearing when he was killed in a plane crash has been sold at auction for $155,350. The buyer was a woman near San Francisco who wanted to remain anonymous, said Heritage Auction Galleries spokesman Doug Norwine. He said she was a "tremendous" fan of the rock 'n' roll pioneer and had even flown to London and New York to see a musical based on his life... Holly received the diamond-and-white gold Omega wristwatch as a gift from his wife, Maria Elena Holly. He wore it "the day the music died" on Feb. 3, 1959, when he and singers Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson were killed in a plane crash in Iowa. Holly was 22...' More

Opus Dei seeks 'Da Vinci' disclaimer

2006-04-18T18:51:00.000+08:00

'A number of Catholic groups are stepping up objections to "The Da Vinci Code" as the premiere of the Hollywood film approaches. Ron Howard's adaptation of Dan Brown's bestseller based on theories Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a child will have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival May 17 and be released worldwide May 19. The novel and film centre on a plot by the Vatican and the conservative Catholic lay organization, Opus Dei, to hide the truth. An Opus Dei spokesman on Good Friday made public a letter the group sent to Sony Pictures Entertainment seeking a disclaimer, saying, "This is a work of fiction, and ... any resemblance to reality is pure coincidence..."' More

Jack London's 1906 quake journey

2006-04-18T10:00:00.000+08:00

'Almost 100 years ago, on 18 April 1906, San Francisco was wrecked by a massive quake. Hundreds died. Many are familiar with images of the world's first widely photographed disaster. But few have seen these pictures taken by US adventurer and author Jack London...' More

San Francisco faces big shaker

2006-04-18T09:55:00.000+08:00

'Another magnitude 7.9 earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area would probably produce much stronger shaking than the catastrophic 1906 event of the same size. The wider region should also expect thousands of fatalities and economic losses in the billions. These conclusions are contained in two reports released to coincide with the 18 April centennial of the great quake that destroyed the city and killed 3,000 people...' More / A city in ruins

Indians want hi-tech products

2006-04-17T18:39:00.000+08:00

'Technology companies in the West should stop thinking about India as a place to dump cut-price, low-tech versions of their products, a senior Indian researcher has said. Ajay Gupta, who heads the Indian labs of Hewlett Packard, said it was a myth that Indians wanted cheap goods...' More

The Malaysian malaise

2006-04-17T12:58:00.000+08:00

'With its wealth of resources and the attractions of its infrastructure and labor force for foreign investors Malaysia should continue to succeed. But if its other great asset, its multi- ethnic society, is to flourish in a highly competitive, highly secular East Asia, the religious obscurantism and racial privileges will have to go...' More

Kakutani a boring book critic?

2006-04-17T05:07:00.000+08:00

'Michiko Kakutani recently embarked on her 25th year as a New York Times book critic, and it's gotten to the point that when her name is mentioned in print, you can see the smoke rising from the page. The late Susan Sontag complained, "Her criticisms of my books are stupid and shallow and not to the point." Salman Rushdie referred to her as "a weird woman who seems to feel the need to alternately praise and spank." Most notoriously, last year Norman Mailer called Kakutani, who is of Japanese descent, a "one-woman kamikaze" and a "token" minority hire"...' More

Author Muriel Spark dies aged 88

2006-04-17T01:54:00.000+08:00

'Novelist Dame Muriel Spark, who wrote the classic "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie", has died in Tuscany where she had made her home. The Scottish-born writer, who was 88, wrote more than 20 books, winning numerous literary awards. As well as writing fiction, Dame Muriel also wrote critical studies of Emily Bronte and Mary Shelley...' More / Obituary / Impossible to imagine Scotland without her

Vegan diets healthier for planet

2006-04-16T06:40:00.000+08:00

'The food that people eat is just as important as what kind of cars they drive when it comes to creating the greenhouse-gas emissions that many scientists have linked to global warming. Both the burning of fossil fuels during food production and non-carbon dioxide emissions associated with livestock and animal waste contribute to the problem, the University of Chicago's Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin wrote in the report...' More

TV's irresistible appeal

2006-04-15T14:46:00.000+08:00

'Even after you concede the worst about broadcast TV, there’s a case to be made that, on many evenings, an intelligent adult is better off spending an hour or two in front of a TV set than in a movie theater. That’s all the more true if you’re foolish enough to reach the theater by the announced starting time of the movie...' More

Did Cobain die because he misread a poem?

2006-04-15T14:43:00.000+08:00

'Cobain didn’t read with an open mind. He sought what resonated with his fiercely puritanical disenchantment, and with his plan to get rich and famous "and kill myself like Jimi Hendrix", which he announced to at least seven friends in junior high school...' More

Pointer sister dies of cancer at 52

2006-04-13T05:10:00.000+08:00

'June Pointer, the youngest singer in the Pointer Sisters, whose '80s hits included "Jump (For My Love)," "He's So Shy" and "I'm So Excited," died Tuesday of cancer. She was 52...' More

How did Britney's baby fracture skull?

2006-04-13T05:06:00.000+08:00

'Britney Spears has been quizzed by social services officials after her baby son suffered a fractured skull. The singer and husband Kevin Federline were questioned after doctors reported six-month-old Sean Preston was taken to the UCLA Medical Centre in Los Angeles with head injuries. The baby - who is believed to have been in the care of a nanny - had banged his head after falling from his highchair days before. Days later Britney - who sparked outrage when she was photographed driving with Sean on her knee earlier this year - noticed her son was sleepier than usual and took him to the clinic, where doctors told her his skull was fractured...' More / She's under scrutiny!

Free'70s live music downloads at Big O

2006-04-12T12:02:00.000+08:00

The folks at Singapore's Big O magazine are offering loads of free concert recordings from the '70s (Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Brain Eno and Robert Fripp...) at their site. Go there now!

Yoga, American style!

2006-04-11T19:31:00.000+08:00

Trust Americans to turn a Hindu spiritual discipline into a profitable fad and still feel good about it! Morning Glory, here's the story: 'Yoga, the ancient practice of postures, breathing and meditation, is gaining a lot of attention from the material world that its serious practitioners are trying to escape. And no wonder. Americans who practise yoga are often well-educated, have higher-than-average household income, and are willing to spend a bit more on so-called "green" purchases seen as benefitting the environment or society...' More

Giant black holes on collision course

2006-04-11T10:29:00.000+08:00

'Two distant “supermassive” black holes are spiraling into each other, astronomers say. This dance will end in a violent merger, they add, that will spawn an even bigger “super-supermassive black hole” capable of swallowing billions of stars...' More

New approach to curbing appetite of the obese

2006-04-11T10:24:00.000+08:00

'Hot fudge sundaes and french fries aside, new research suggests obesity is due at least in part to an attraction between leptin, the hormone that signals the brain when to stop eating, and a protein more recently associated with heart disease. Reporting in Nature Medicine, University of Pittsburgh researchers provide evidence that C-reactive protein (CRP) not only binds to leptin but its hold impairs leptin's role in controlling appetite...' More

Cheaper way to sequence DNA

2006-04-11T10:23:00.000+08:00

'A team led by physicists at the University of California, San Diego has shown the feasibility of a fast, inexpensive technique to sequence DNA as it passes through tiny pores. The advance brings personalized, genome-based medicine closer to reality...'More

Satellite instrument probes ozone-eating clouds

2006-04-11T10:22:00.000+08:00

'Polar stratospheric clouds have become the focus of many research projects in recent years due to the discovery of their role in ozone depletion, but essential aspects of these clouds remain a mystery. MIPAS, an instrument onboard ESA’s Envisat, is allowing scientists to gain information about these clouds necessary for modelling ozone loss...' More

Thomas Dolby knocks K-Fed for sample theft

2006-04-10T21:12:00.000+08:00

Thomas Dolby is miffed. He claims on his blog that Britney Spears's husband Kevin Federline has sampled his hit 'She Blinded Me With Science' without permission. This is what Dolby says:

"Britney Spears’ husband Kevin Federline, whom I’d never heard of until a few days ago, appears to have illegally sampled one of my compositions. On his MySpace site you can download an MP3 which uses a looped sample from Mobb Deep’s 'Get It Twisted', which in turn copped the string line from my own song 'She Blinded Me With Science'. Now, Mobb Deep did it the right way and had his label BMG come and ask for a license. They paid me a fee and a royalty on the sales of Mobb Deep’s record. However K-Fed, as his fans affectionately refer to him, did NOT ask permission, he just went ahead and did it. He is therefore blatantly violating the copyright law. And laws aside, he owed it to me as an artist to ask if I minded that he recorded a vitriolic rap over the top of my music. It starts off 'This is for the HATERS...' and goes on to blast the media, paparrazzi and all his other critics, sparing no expletives along the way. BMG Records have also had their copyright violated, as they own the master to Mobb Deep’s record. But BMG don’t want to rock the Britney boat so they are turning a blind eye. It’s pathetic! Turns out K-Fed has no management, label or lawyer, so it’s going to be hard getting hold of him. So K-Fed, if you’re reading this, I’m asking you nicely to take the track down ASAP. Or maybe you’d prefer me to come after some of your wife’s ill-gotten gains?" Dolby's official site

Akai's new USB/MIDI pad controller

2006-04-10T14:10:00.000+08:00

Unwilling to eat the dust kicked up by their ferocious competitors, Akai have come up with a DJ-friendly controller that looks cool enough to be a winner. The MPD24 USB/MIDI Pad Control Unit comes with 16 MPC-style velocity- and pressure-sensitive pads, transport controls for interfacing with DAW/sequencing applications, numerous assignable knobs and faders, and more.

Designed with DJs as well as drummers in mind, the controller apparently has an interface that's considerably superior to that of conventional MIDI keyboards used to trigger drum and other sampled sounds. More

Prayers found ineffective in speeding recovery

2006-04-10T11:57:00.000+08:00

'Praying for someone might give you hope, but it won't help them recover from heart surgery. It may even harm them. That's the surprising result from a multi-year clinical trial on the therapeutic effects of prayer. Herbert Benson and Jeffery Dusek of the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, and their colleagues followed the fates of 1802 patients undergoing coronary bypass operations. Several Christian prayer groups prayed for one set of patients, while another did not receive any prayers. Although all these patients knew they were in the trial, neither they nor their doctors knew which of the groups they were in...' More

ESA's Venus Express to reach final destination

2006-04-10T11:51:00.000+08:00

'It was on 9 November last year that ESA's Venus Express spacecraft lifted off from the desert of Kazakhstan onboard a Soyuz-Fregat rocket. Now, after having travelled 400 million kilometres in only about five months, the spacecraft is about to reach its final destination. The rendezvous is due to take place on 11 April...' More

Blue ring discovered around Uranus

2006-04-08T11:44:00.000+08:00

'The outermost ring of Uranus, discovered just last year, is bright blue, making it only the second known blue ring in the solar system, according to a report this week in the journal Science. Perhaps not coincidentally, both blue rings are associated with small moons...' More

Mars' atmosphere altered by solar flares

2006-04-08T11:42:00.000+08:00

'Boston University astronomers announced today the first clear evidence that solar flares change the upper atmosphere of Mars. In an article published in the February 24th issue of the journal Science, the researchers describe how X-ray bursts from the Sun in April 2001 recorded by satellites near Earth reached Mars and caused dramatic enhancements to the planet's ionosphere -- the region of a planet's atmosphere where the Sun's ultraviolet and X-rays are absorbed by atoms and molecules. The measurements were made by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft at the Red Planet as it transmitted signals back to NASA's antenna sites back on Earth...' More

Ancient ants arose 140-168 million years ago

2006-04-08T11:39:00.000+08:00

'Ants are considerably older than previously believed, having originated 140 to 168 million years ago, according to new research on the cover of this week's issue of the journal Science. But these resilient insects, now found in terrestrial ecosystems the world over, apparently began to diversify only about 100 million years ago in concert with the flowering plants, the scientists say...' More

The predators of press freedom

2006-04-07T20:49:00.000+08:00

'There are instigators and powerful people behind press freedom violations whose responsibility is not always apparent. Whether presidents, ministers, chiefs of staff, religious leaders or the heads of armed groups, these predators of press freedom have the power to censor, imprison, kidnap, torture and, in the worst cases, murder journalists. To better expose them, Reporters Without Borders has produced these portraits...' More

Ride The Wave... in any colour!

2006-04-07T20:11:00.000+08:00

You gotta love these guys! They're offering custom options for their new guitar, The Wave, such as do-it-yourself painting, different woods, a spectrum of vibrant colours and graphic applications, and the ability to change "an aggressive stage design like the RKS Boomerang to a more traditional hollow or solid body". Eh???

The RKS electric is being billed as "an ultra-resonant, supermodel-sleek, composite-body beauty... the first guitar ever to offer user-friendly, fully interchangeable body shells and pick guards".

US MSRP is $899... Not bad for something akin to your own signature model. Shred away, dudes!

More

Behringer's USB Guitar is no joke, dudes!

2006-04-07T19:41:00.000+08:00

Behringer's new iAXE393 USB Guitar for Mac and PC is said to offer great amp sounds with bundled software. The faux-Strat has a white finish and features a 22-fret maple neck, chrome machine heads, 3 single-coil pickups with 5-way switching and a vintage vibrato bridge.

It comes with a stereo headphone output with dedicated level control, and the included software allows jamming with guitar amps and stomp boxes. The software also plays MP3, WAV and AAC audio files, and allows variable-speed playback for learning songs and practising. No power supply (oh, what joy!) is required for the USB buss-powered guitar. It can be plugged directly into the computer (Mac or PC) for instant access to popular recording software like GarageBand, Logic or Cubase or to guitar amp/effects programs.

The package comes complete with a USB cable, adjustable guitar strap, three picks and padded gig bag, and WDM and ASIO drivers. Free audio recording/editing software can be downloaded at www.behringer.com once it's set up. MSRP is expected to be under US$200.

Neumann's new TLM 49 not quite killer value

2006-04-07T19:18:00.000+08:00

Neumann USA has finally introduced the new 49 large-diaphragm cardioid studio microphone modelled on the classic Neumann M 49 and M 50 microphones of the '50s. The TLM 49 is being claimed to combine "Neumann's esteemed engineering and precision manufacturing to produce an innovative transformerless microphone that is optimised for that very special, warm, Neumann vocal sound".

The retro look, Neumann's proven transformerless circuitry technology, claimed low self-noise, high-gain levels, and promise of a great sound are expected to make the TLM 49 yet another hit, though with an MSRP of US$1,699.99, it's gonna have many home recordists weeping in dismay! More

A new tube beauty from Genz Benz

2006-04-07T19:11:00.000+08:00

The Black Pearl 30 is a new classic all-tube amp with a EL84 Class A design. Inside are "beautifully crafted BLACK Military Spec PCB's with robust, precision routed Direct-to-Point, gold flashed signal traces, neatly dressed wiring and our custom tube sockets and retainers". Features include single channel w/Boost, 5-position preamp voicing circuit, passive 3 band EQ, Tube Driven Accutronics™ reverb, Tube Rectifier, Pentode/Triode output and Power Selector switch for 30W/15W/8W output options and 12" Alnico Red Fang™ Eminence speakers. The cabinetry is solid 13-ply Birch plywood with classic styling and detail. More

Firefox breaks barrier

2006-04-07T19:04:00.000+08:00

'Advocates of competition are smiling over the latest browser market share numbers from audience measurement firm Net Applications: Firefox, the free open-source Web browser from Mozilla.org, quietly gained enough users in March to finally grab 10% of the Web browser market. Microsoft's IE held nearly 85%...' More

World's fastest network highlights IPv6

2006-04-07T18:56:00.000+08:00

'Internet2 Wednesday said international teams led by the University of Tokyo have broken the records for highest-bandwidth, end-to-end IP network. One upshot of the effort is that IPv6 is catching up to IPv4 in terms of its ability to handle high-performance applications...' More

Singapore attacked over blog gag

2006-04-07T18:31:00.000+08:00

'The Singapore government has been condemned for gagging political discussion on the web in the run up to the country's parliamentary elections. The government has extended censorship laws to ban podcasts and videocasts that carry political content. Websites and blogs are already under strict control and must be registered with the government. Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said the ban would prevent democratic debate on the Net...' More / RWB statement

Sewage spill devastates Hawaii beaches

2006-04-07T01:45:00.000+08:00

'Oahu's largest sewage spill on record has impacted more than just environmental standards and tourism dollars—it's severely curtailing the surf culture of the island as well. A 42-inch sewer main broke last Friday in Honolulu, dumping millions of gallons of bacteria-infected sewage into the Ala Wai Canal—which forms the inland border of the Waikiki hotel district—and out to sea. On Wednesday, city officials were able to repair the break and stop the flow of sewage, but only after an estimated 48 million gallons of raw wastewater had been released over the previous six days...' More

Miracle in the Andes

2006-04-07T01:41:00.000+08:00

'It's one of the greatest epics of all time: When a plane carrying a young Uruguayan rugby squad crashed in the Andes in 1972, the survivors were stranded for 72 grueling days and forced to subsist on the bodies of their friends. Now, 34 years later, the hero of the saga finally tells his own tale...' More

Science confirms the obvious

2006-04-06T10:24:00.000+08:00

'News flash! Scientists prove that swallowing magnets is bad for you. Stop the presses! Smoking hurts wealth as well as health. Eureka! Faraway objects can be hard to see. Every year, serious scientists undertake detailed, rigorous studies to prove things that seem—well, painfully obvious. Why bother?...' More

Ethanol: Fuel's paradise?

2006-04-06T10:21:00.000+08:00

'As a social lubricant, ethanol’s place in American history is secure. As a motor-vehicle fuel, however, the ethanol story reads like a barstool tale of woe. Mistrusted and misunderstood, ethanol has time and again enjoyed surges of popularity, only to stumble and fall before hitting the big time...' More

The most advanced flight deck

2006-04-06T10:16:00.000+08:00

'The world’s biggest airliner also has the smartest cockpit (click on photo), with screens that show more and make it easier to fly...' More

Gene Pitney found dead in hotel

2006-04-06T09:59:00.000+08:00

'American superstar Gene Pitney was found dead in his bed in a Cardiff hotel. Pitney, 65, who found fame with the hit 'Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa', was pronounced dead at the Hilton hotel at 1000 BST. He was on a UK tour and had shown no signs of illness. The cause of death is not yet known but is not suspicious...' More / A rock legend is dead / Memories of Gene

Isn't anyone man enough to be manly anymore?

2006-04-04T17:15:00.000+08:00

'Every human being possesses thumos. But those who are manly possess it in abundance, and sometimes in excess. The manly man is not satisfied to let things be as they are, and he makes sure everyone knows it. He invests his perception of injustice with cosmic importance...' More

Smart glasses switch focus in an instant

2006-04-04T10:35:00.000+08:00

'Glasses that change from "long distance" to "reading" mode at the flick of a switch could prove a revelation for many wearers. Researchers have developed a prototype that uses liquid crystals to change focus in an instant, thus preventing the eye strain induced by wearing conventional bifocal glasses. Focusing through specific portions of a bifocal lens causes many users to become dizzy or disoriented, while others report increased eye fatigue...' More

The 'dudette' who married Rushdie

2006-04-04T10:27:00.000+08:00

'It might have been the way she slumped into her seat like an overgrown teenager, or the second time she said "dude". Whenever it was, at some point I began to ask myself the same question that bitchy members of the London literati did two years ago: why on earth did Salman Rushdie marry her? She may be beautiful, have an arts degree from Clark, the American liberal college, and speak five languages (Hindi, Tamil, Italian, Spanish and English), but something about Padma Lakshmi makes it hard to take her seriously...' More

Naipaul on Austen, James, India and art

2006-04-04T10:17:00.000+08:00

'What trouble I have with Jane Austen! Jane Austen is for those people who wish to be educated in English manners. If that isn't part of your mission, you don't know what to do with this material. There was a conference at Bath a few years ago and I was invited. I was a very bad conference guest - I didn't say a word. But they gave me a copy of Jane Austen's novel set in Bath - Northanger Abbey. In my recent illness I've been looking at books I haven't read before so I picked it up. I thought halfway through the book, Here am I, a grown man reading about this terrible vapid woman and her so-called love life - she calls it 'love', having seen this fellow once. I said to myself, What am I doing with this material? This is for somebody else, really. It's for someone down the road, not for me...' More

Embryos tell story of earth's earliest animals

2006-04-04T10:15:00.000+08:00

'Much of what scientists learn about the evolution of Earth's first animals will have to be gleaned from spherical embryos fossilized under very specific conditions, according to a new study by Indiana University Bloomington and University of Bristol researchers in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...' More

Asteroids: Past treasures, future threat

2006-04-04T10:12:00.000+08:00

'If a large asteroid such as the recently identified 2004 VD17 – about 500 m in diameter with a mass of nearly 1000 million tonnes – collides with the Earth it could spell disaster for much of our planet. As part of ESA’s Near-Earth Object deflecting mission Don Quijote, three teams of European industries are now carrying out studies on how to prevent this...' More

Sneakers no good for crime

2006-04-03T01:35:00.000+08:00

'It seems trainer designers inadvertently help detectives out by giving almost every new design a distinctive pattern of shapes and logos on the sole. Allinson's computer program examines the size and shape of a shoe print, as well as the arrangement of treads on its underside. Shoes with a plain sole, such as brogues just don't give enough for the programme to work with...' More

Threat to Microsoft from online software

2006-04-01T17:02:00.000+08:00

'Recent advertisements for Microsoft show office workers as dinosaurs, stuck in a bygone era. Aptly, it is an accusation that some are now making about the software company itself. Microsoft earns more than half its $40 billion or so of annual revenue—and the vast majority of its profits—on just two products: the Windows operating-system and Office, a collection of personal-computer applications including word-processing and spreadsheet programs. Both, however, are coming under threat from new technologies...' More

Divas Gone Wild

2006-04-01T16:59:00.000+08:00

'A desperate neediness underlies the performances of Liza Minnelli, and that thirst for adulation turns Liza With a "Z" into a concert film at once boring—Liza With a Zzz—and bizarre. It's a curiosity piece that isn't especially interesting unless you're manic for camp or dying for a portrait of the artist as a young woman, which probably amount to the same thing...' More

Moog's Little Phatty™ now available online

2006-03-31T15:42:00.000+08:00

'Introducing the Little Phatty Analog Synthesizer. Hand-built quality and that unmatched Moog sound, at a price every musician can afford, Little Phatty was designed with portability, expressive and intuitive playability, and the timeless quality only found in a Moog. The Little Phatty boasts a 100 percent analog signal path, 100 user editable presets and a 37-note keyboard with +/-2 Octave Transpose. Additional features include:
- 2 Ultra-stable Oscillators
- 1 Low Pass Filter (Patented Moog Ladder Filter)
- 4-Stage Analog Envelope Generators
- RACT Real Analog Control is a proprietary technology enabling the performer to directly interface with the analog circuitry via the knobs on the control panel, without any digital processing...' Price: $1,375.
Link / More on the new moog

John Peel tapes and stuff

2006-03-31T15:10:00.000+08:00

There's loads of stuff here to download: The John Peel Tape & File Project

Cambodia cool again with backpackers

2006-03-30T21:06:00.000+08:00

'Enjoy your stay, the natives are really nice, but don't ask too many hard questions...' More

Study fails to link navy sonar with whale strandings

2006-03-30T21:00:00.000+08:00

'A year-long study has failed to explain why 36 whales stranded themselves along the North Carolina coast in January 2005. At the time the mass stranding attracted much media attention because of possible links to military sonar...' More

When it comes to intelligence, size isn't everything

2006-03-30T20:52:00.000+08:00

'Intelligence has more to do with when and how the brain grows rather than its overall size, suggests a new study...' More

Asleep or awake, we retain memory

2006-03-30T20:47:00.000+08:00

'Sleeping helps to reinforce what we've learned. And brain scans have revealed that cerebral activity associated with learning new information is replayed during sleep. But, in a study published in the open access journal PLoS Biology, Philippe Peigneux and colleagues at the University of Liege demonstrate for the first time that the brain doesn't wait until night to structure information. Day and night, the brain doesn't stop (re)working what we learn...' More

Soft Machine - Land of Cockayne (1981)

2006-03-30T11:43:00.000+08:00

Interesting if somewhat bland jazz-inflected prog-rock. Not quite in the league of their classic '70s albums.

Line-up:
* Jack Bruce - bass
* Stu Calver - backing vocals
* Allan Holdsworth - lead guitar
* Karl Jenkins - keyboards, synths
* John Marshall - drums, percussion
* Dick Morrissey - tenor sax
* Alan Parker - rhythm guitar
* John Perry - backing vocals
* Tony Rivers - backing vocals
* John Taylor - electric piano
* Ray Warleigh - alto sax, bass flute

I / II

Absence makes the heart grow weaker

2006-03-29T19:18:00.000+08:00

'Loneliness is bad for the heart, suggests a new study. It shows that loneliness increases the blood pressure of those nearing retirement age to the same degree as smoking or a sedentary lifestyle. Chronic feelings of social isolation are associated with as much as a 30 mmHg rise in a person’s systolic blood pressure by the age of 65, which could easily push their systolic blood pressure over 150 mmHg, the medical definition of hypertension. The study showed that this is independent of other confounding variables such as smoking, drinking, socioeconomic status and body mass index...' More

Another Google goof: Official blog deleted!

2006-03-29T19:08:00.000+08:00

'Google has pie on its face after staffers accidentally deleted the company's main official blog Monday night and a user unaffiliated with Google temporarily took possession of the Web address. This is just the latest in a recent string of embarrassing mistakes made by Google employees while handling company data...' More