lets start the day by noticing that the LA times misspelled my name:
King Kong's Monkey Love
Joshua Bearman wrote a great essay for the LA Weekly on the relationship between man and ape and how our perception of gorillas as being "monstrous, savage, wildly sexual" persists despite all evidence to the contrary. It's called "Monkey Love: Intimacy on the Primate Family Tree."
Maybe Japan will become their big market.....
Koizumi rides Segway to work Japan's media-friendly Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi turned up to work on Friday on a new motorised Segway scooter. It was the first time Mr Koizumi had been seen on the scooter since he was given it as a present by US President George W Bush. Mr Koizumi said he got to grips with the machine at his home on Thursday.
He steered around his courtyard and reversed easily. "It's pretty comfortable," he told reporters. Mr Bush has appeared less at ease, falling off his Segway in 2003. Mr Koizumi, with his trademark flowing hair, is not averse to a photo opportunity. In June, in a bid to promote less air conditioning in offices, he appeared in an open-necked Okinawan shirt.
Start-up merges cell phone and PC into a handheld It's a cell phone. It's a computer. It's the two invaluable companions of the modern executive in one. DualCor Technologies next month will unveil the cPC, a full-fledged handheld Windows XP computer that also comes with a built-in smart phone that runs Windows Mobile 5.0. The cPC is 6.5 inches long, 3.3 inches wide, 1.2 inches thick and has a 5-inch diagonal screen. It will be aimed at sales representatives and executives who travel extensively, said CEO Steven Hanley, who joined the company seven months ago. A small but growing number of white-collar workers have begun to trade in their notebooks for BlackBerrys and other handhelds. Sony and start-up OQO have already introduced full-fledged handheld Windows computers. Customers, however, have not snapped up these devices, in part because of short battery life and limited performance.
http://tinyurl.com/axfg4
Top theaters on path to digital films A group of major theater owners, representing more than a third of the screens in the United States, said Thursday that they will join forces to upgrade their theaters to new digital projection technology. While the plan is still short on details or a specific timeline, it is one of the biggest steps yet in the film industry's slow move to replace film reels and whirring projectors with arrays of satellite receivers, servers and digital files.
http://tinyurl.com/9xl87
49% of Israelis back Jerusalem division Surprising results: Yedioth Ahronoth poll shows half of Israeli public willing to cede parts of Jerusalem in the framework of peace deal with Palestinians; meanwhile, Kadima drops to 38 seats in survey, Labor up to 23, Likud still at 11 Ynet Compromise on Jerusalem in the cards? A surprising survey published by Israel’s leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth shows almost half of the Israeli public supports a compromise on Jerusalem in the framework of a peace agreement with the Palestinians. According to the Yedioth Ahronoth and Mina Tzemach poll, released Friday, 49 percent of Israelis back a compromise that would see Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods and Arab areas adjacent to the capital handed over to the Palestinians, with Jewish neighborhoods and the Western Wall remaining in Israeli hands.
Chris Morris sez: Revolution rocks for FPS action Chris Morris over at CNN Money got his hands on the Nintendo’s Revolution controller and took it for a spin. Even though it was a near final prototype, he seemed to like, especially noting that it gave him a whole new edge in console FPS action, which was never a strong point of his. That experience is shared by Nintendo’s own president, Satoru Iwata, stating: “I’ve never been able to control a first-person shooter, but as soon as I used the Revolution controller, I found it very easy to control the game.” The truth comes out! Iwata expects the controller to become the standard for video games, and that it could bridge the gap between gamers and non gamers. The article goes on to predict a next year launch that mirrors that of Sony’s PS3, but all will be divulged in May before E3. Luckily Nintendo promises to keep information flowing on the Revolution leading up to the launch — whenever that might be.
Citizen’s flexible e-ink wall clock nears release Seiko Spectrum wristwatch not got enough e-ink for your tastes? Well why not try out Citizen’s upcoming flexible digital wall clock, which measures 21-inches high by 52-inches wide and can wrap around corners, so you’ll always know either the hour or the minute depending on where you sit. Citizen claims the battery life is 20 times longer than traditional digital clocks, which is a good thing, because you’ll need the money you save on batteries to afford the $4000+ pricetag. Seems like only a Japanese release to start with, but we’re sure it’ll soon find a home in our country of supersized, overpriced objets d’art.
Stretchable silicon
Researchers have developed a form of single-crystal silicon that can be stretched so that electronic circuits could be fabricated on rubber. To prove the concept, professor John Rogers, a materials scientist at at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Chamapign, and his colleagues made diodes and transistors that matched the performance or rigid devices, but "could be repeatedly stretched and compressed without damage."
Stretchable silicon could be next wave in electronics The next wave in electronics could be wavy electronics. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a fully stretchable form of single-crystal silicon with micron-sized, wave-like geometries that can be used to build high-performance electronic devices on rubber substrates. "Stretchable silicon offers different capabilities than can be achieved with standard silicon chips," said John Rogers, a professor of materials science and engineering and co-author of a paper to appear in the journal Science, as part of the Science Express Web site, on Dec 15. Functional, stretchable and bendable electronics could be used in applications such as sensors and drive electronics for integration into artificial muscles or biological tissues, structural monitors wrapped around aircraft wings, and conformable skins for integrated robotic sensors, said Rogers, who is also a Founder Professor of Engineering, a researcher at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and a member of the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory. To create their stretchable silicon, the researchers begin by fabricating devices in the geometry of ultrathin ribbons on a silicon wafer using procedures similar to those used in conventional electronics. Then they use specialized etching techniques to undercut the devices. The resulting ribbons of silicon are about 100 nanometers thick -- 1,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. In the next step, a flat rubber substrate is stretched and placed on top of the ribbons. Peeling the rubber away lifts the ribbons off the wafer and leaves them adhered to the rubber surface. Releasing the stress in the rubber causes the silicon ribbons and the rubber to buckle into a series of well-defined waves that resemble an accordion. "The resulting system of wavy integrated device elements on rubber represents a new form of stretchable, high-performance electronics," said Young Huang, the Shao Lee Soo Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. "The amplitude and frequency of the waves change, in a physical mechanism similar to an accordion bellows, as the system is stretched or compressed." As a proof of concept, the researchers fabricated wavy diodes and transistors and compared their performance with traditional devices. Not only did the wavy devices perform as well as the rigid devices, they could be repeatedly stretched and compressed without damage, and without significantly altering their electrical properties. "These stretchable silicon diodes and transistors represent only two of the many classes of wavy electronic devices that can be formed," Rogers said. "In addition to individual devices, complete circuit sheets can also be structured into wavy geometries to enable stretchability." Besides the unique mechanical characteristics of wavy devices, the coupling of strain to electronic and optical properties might provide opportunities to design device structures that exploit mechanically tunable, periodic variations in strain to achieve unusual responses. In addition to Rogers and Huang, co-authors of the paper were postdoctoral researcher Dahl-Young Khang and research scientist Hanqing Jiang. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy funded the work.
In Search of the Healing Power of Chocolate At a Mars factory in Elizabethtown, Pa., an assembly line moves millions of pieces of Dove dark chocolate. The factory's secret -- and it's a proprietary secret -- is a method of processing chocolate that maintains something called flavanols, a class of chemicals found in raw cocoa beans, red wine and green tea. It's all about roasting the beans for the right amount of time, and at the right temperature. "It's a much gentler process," says plant manager Bob Harvey. "You can destroy the flavanols if you don't know what you're doing."
COOKING BLOF SUGGESTIONS FOR GIFTS While I know that a number of magazines and other fabulous food bloggers have already printed and posted their own holiday gift guides, I thought I’d share my own ideas for what you could buy a loved one, or yourself, this year for Christmas. And in the spirit of Christmas, I’ve chosen 12 items, one for each day (although admittedly, one of the items below is a range of 7 different things). I’ve also imposed two criteria while putting together this list. The first is that S and I had to have it already. Which means the products showcased here are all tried and tested. I’d never want to recommend something we didn’t have and therefore only knew about second-hand. Everything here is something either I or S loves. Secondly, these holiday picks had to be current. Everything I’ve selected was either first produced this past year (especially the books) or else S and I had acquired it in the last 7 months, meaning it should still be readily available in stores near you.
Fred Ferguson: Interview with the Inventor of the Magenn Air Rotor After writing about the Magenn Air Rotor we asked the inventor if he would subject himself to an interview and he graciously accepted. Fred Ferguson has an amazing history as the developer of a series of lighter-than-air crafts that should be dominating our skies. They do not, but we hope that the development of the Magenn generator will change this and thank him for granting us this interview. It is obvious that treehuggers all over are excited about your invention- it is just so logical to get up high where the wind is stronger and to use a balloon to get you there. However can you explain the underlying Magnus lift, where the process of rotation actually creates lift? In laypersons terms? The magnus effect was discovered in the mid 1800s when a scuffed up cricket ball flew further than a smooth one. Today we see the magnus effect in the flight of golf balls and baseball "curve" balls. Basically when a back spin is imparted to any object, cylinder or ball, moving through a medium (wind as example) the spinning object takes on the aerodynamic characteristics of a wing or air foil. The back spin due to the blades and position of our wind rotor creates a lift similar to a kite of the same size. In fact if you look on the web for Hawaiian rotor kites, you'll see the magnus effect kites.
How to Capture an Expert’s Value: 12 Tips
Angel Investors - more than just money I am an angel investor and belong to several angel investor groups in the greater Boston area. Last night the eCoast Angels of seacoast New Hampshire had a dinner meeting to celebrate their 5th anniversary as a group. The group has 15 to 20 members, all serial entrepreneurs, all have made money building and selling businesses. They are active investors and active participants in the businesses they fund. This is what sets them, and most angel investors, apart from VCs or institutional investors. They commit significant personal time to building these companies, usually with no compensation. I am also a member of Keiretsu Forum which is an angel investor group with local chapters in Boston, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Chicago, and several other cities. Other angel groups in the Boston area include; Launchpad, Common Angels, The Breakfast Club, Walnut Ventures, and several other smaller groups.
http://tinyurl.com/dzlyo
Leadership I watch "The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2004)" during the week end. It's not only an interesting reflection on the past 50 years (2 WW, cuban crisis, vietnam war) but also a great source of insight on leadership. In a unexpected way, it was also a nice complement of the two Jim Stockdale book (Thoughts of a philosophical fighter pilot and A Vietnam experience) which i felt compled to read after finishing Collins "Good to Great".
http://tinyurl.com/btulz
THINKGEEK CLEARANCE SALE:
http://tinyurl.com/7w28t
"Hospital at Home" Offers Quality Care, Less Cost BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Being hospitalized can be a traumatic experience, especially for older persons. Hospitals are noisy, disorienting, full of strangers and infections often spread among patients. Now a new study has shown that for older persons with certain acute conditions, hospital-level care can be provided at home for less money and with fewer clinical complications than in-hospital care. In addition, patients recovered sooner when "hospitalized" at home, the study found, and they and their families were more satisfied with the whole experience. The program, called Hospital at Home, was carried out by the University at Buffalo, Yale University and Oregon Health and Science University. Bruce Leff, M.D., from The Johns Hopkins University, oversaw the project.
http://tinyurl.com/de2jt
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