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29 February 2012
"In The Lab" with Tony C part 2
The second and final part of Ian Cameron's unparallelled look into the working of not only the Drink Factory Lab and it's day to day running but also what has driven Tony C to persue a path which was imagined as far back as 1999 and many neysayers have described as madness on the way.
In part 2 Tony gives insights into scaling the mountain because it is there, how drinks will change in dynamic and rival food experiences, and always making sure that the fun and humour of junior school is never to far away.
"What will the drinks of the future look like? A few years ago, the work of Eben Freeman in New York and his world of Solid Cuba Libres and Absinthe Gummi Bears briefly inspired a generation of imitators. While at Shochu Lounge Tony himself also played with caviars, jellies and the like - since then foams and emulsions have since become par for the course at many bars, though Tony has not played with texture in such a way since."
""I think that sort of 'molecular' style is beyond passé. We've never had anything like that on the menu at 69. I realised a long time ago it's more important what you do with flavour than texture. A drink is majority flavour, not texture, unless you know what you are doing. It can go wrong, terribly wrong.""
To read the full article follow THIS LINK
Matt Pyke Digital Art
The film below is a glimpse into the mind of Matt Pyke from his digital fantasy land installed at Super Computer Romantics which was the first major exhibition at Paris' La Gaite Kyrique. Based in a log cabin studio he is an a digital artist, curator, designer, painter and animator.
"I'm interested in bringing life and empathy into digital art rather than keeping its cold, abstract, machine sensibility," Pyke says.
The English mastermind is behind design studio Universal Everything, a collective of designers, programmers, musicians and artists known for their boundary-pushing commissions for clients including Chanel, MTV and London's 2012 Olympics.
Woodland Martini and Wood Bitters
The bitter were developed with layering in mind. Similar to a perfume the bitters needed to have a base, middle and top notes to complete a rounded flavour. Straying from the normal path though, the emphasis has been placed on the base note being the most dominant while the top and middle notes are more subtle and tasted solely at the beginning of the cocktail. Beyond adding a framework for the cocktail the bitters were also laced with umami to create a mouth feel and a delicious sensation which is separate but inclusive of all the flavours and adds to the overall experience of the drink.
The bitters have been a Drink Factory project for the past 12 months and have undergone many variations in ratio and recipe. The woods used range from a lighter to darker more heavy woods. Maple, Cedar and Sequoia were finally settled upon.
Maple Tree - Predominantly native to Asia, with a few varieties found in Euopre the latin name Acer is derived from the latin word for "sharp" describing the leaves of the tree. Maple syrup is by far the most well known product of the Sugar Maple Tree, which is produced from the sap of the tree and boiled down before being turned into maple syrup or sugar. It adds a slightly sweeter woody note to the bitters.
Cedar Tree - Can refer to several different kinds of tree from all over the world. There are 3 main families of Cedar, the Pinaceae family, the Cupressaceae family and the Meliaceae family. The flavour is slightly smokey buy still light.
Sequoia Ree (Redwood) - A much more oaky, smoked and musty scent the sequoia is a genus of the Redwood family and are the largest living things on earth. The bark can be up to 4ft in thickness and some of the largest trees measure 35 feeds in diameter
The most common method for creating home bitters is a fairly simple process of steeping your ingredients in alcohol for several weeks or months then straining and adding any other desired notes to make the flavour your own. The pitfalls of this method are numerous, maybe most amongst them is the time consumption and difficulty in keeping a consistent flavour throughout batches.
To address this problem a Gastrovac was employed. Used for cooking and impregnating under vacuum, it creates an artificial, low pressure, oxygen free atmosphere which means the cooking temperature is a lot lower. This often results in texture, colour, and delicate nutrients being maintained.
Similar to a generic vacum machine the Gastrovac can be used to create the "sponge effect". This happens when the atmospheric pressure is restored and the food absorbs the liquid surrounding it meaning an infinite possibility of food and flavour combinations.
When translating the "sponge effect" to bar use this can mean a number of things. Maybe the simplest and most fun is infusing fruits or garnishes with another fruits flavour. Chery pineapple for instance.
Similar to a Rotavapor, the Gastrovac allows you to heat and cook very delicate flavours and products that would normally have their volatiles destroyed at normal boiling temperature. A rose or jasmine flower are examples of this.
The principle is basically vacuum cooking rather than vacuum distillation. We are heating to cook rather than boiling to produce vaporise.
We will offer a more detailed breakdown of a gastrovac in the coming weeks.
The result is a product of a scene from which the drink took its original inspiration. A starkly accurate image that describes the cocktail journey and flavour profile perfectly. Imagine entering a wood still moist from the morning dew with sunlight breaking through the thin foliage that grows on the edge of the forest. As the walk takes you deeper into the trees, the mood and scene becomes denser and thickets. The light darkens and the moisture and scents grow heavy.
As the drink begins, the lighter more subtle top and middle notes from the bitters are noticeable but brief. As the drink continues it is the base notes that you begin to ride and the umami that carries the deliciousness around your palate and keeps the tastes dynamic.
Barrel Aged Salts & Sauces
A small company has recently come up with a new use for re-purposed bourbon barrels. The barrels are used to infuse distinct notes to small batch sauces and spices rather than other spirits.
Based out of Louisville Kentucky Matt Jamie is using a novel method to re-purpose his borboun barrels. Named Bourboun Barrel Foods. They have started producing micro-brewed and barrel aged soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, marinades and forghum salad dressing as well as barrel smoked salt, sugar pepper and paprika.
Typically the barrels would be used once to make bourbon after which they would be exported to be used in making scotch, irish whiskey, rum or tequila.
Process differs for each product. For instance each batch of soy is aged for 12 months in whiskey casks, which infuse a smokey flavour not usually found in the original Japanese product.
The reason I mention this apart from it being quite interesting, is the current trend in "Bar Aged" products. Bars are striving more and more to create a product available in one place and one place only. This in itself is an immediate draw, a point of conversation and intriguing angle for any customer to be wrapped up in.
This maybe well be the next step in the trend. Though we are still in the relative early days or the "Bar Aged" movement when compared to the rich history or barrel aging in Louisville, you would imagine there are already a few barrels sitting by the wayside waiting to be pointed toward their next purpose,
This has potential to go in a few directions. If you are lucky enough to have a kitchen as part of your establishment, why not bump heads with the chef and get him working on home made barrel aged sauces and infusions.
The idea could be embraced on a simpler and more local level by creating barrel infused sea salt or peppercorn to add to some bar snacks or if you are feeling adventurous create a cocktail with a bourbon salt rim.
However they might be used, we seem to be at a point where this kind of bespoke and original creativity can start to become the norm and what may seem to be leftover waste can be re-purposed and used to build an even more unique personality of a bar.
Flavour of the Week - Sage
Sage is known in Latin as Salvia Officinallis and is a naturally going shrub found throughout mediterranean regions.
Highly famed, throughout many cultures for its extensive healing abilities, it is one of the few herbs which has been proven to actually act in this way by modern science. Within a monastery an "officina" was a storeroom where herbs and ointments would be kept and "salvia" refers to the Latin term "to save".
Medieval Europeans believed sage strengthened both their memory and promoted wisdom. It was also widely used during times of plague by thieves who would rub sage and rosemary infused water over themselves to protect against infection, before riffling and looting the dead in the streets.
In a recent double blind, randomised and placebo controlled study sage was found to be effective in the management of mild to moderate Alzheimers disease.
Sage has a slightly peppery sharp flavour that is traditionally used in cooking fatty meats. The herb often lends itself well to heavier, smokey meats, which would potentially translate into a good pairing with darker spirits.
Flavour: Sour, peppery, sharp, hint of camphor, herbacious.
22 February 2012
Harold McGee Interview
Harold is an American author who writes on chemistry food and cooking. His first book was published in 1984. It was a 680 page compendium titled "On Food and Cooking: The Science * Lore of the Kitchen". The book struck a chord with the industry at the time as both the US and Britain were awakening to the pleasures of good food and to the diversity of world cuisines. in 2004 a completely revised edition of "The Curious Cook" was published. The book was significantly expanded and went on to win several awards.
Harold contributes to the scientific journal Nature, and has written articles for The New York Times, The Wold Book Encyclopedia, The Art of Eating, Food and Wine and Physics Today.
Harold is currently working on a book about flavour, and contributing a columnn on science and food, titled "The Curious Cook" to the New York Times.
1.What is the first cocktail you ever tasted?
It was probably a gin and tonic when I was very young, maybe 10, and my parents were having one during the hot Chicago summer. But I don't remember for sure.
2.What was the first flavour you really fell in love with and why?
I'd say coffee ice cream--I guess because it was milky but different. That goes way back, maybe 3-4 years old.
3. Tell us about a new flavor you have discovered recently?
When I went to Brazil for the first time last summer I tasted cupuaçu, the fruit pulp of a relative of the cacao tree. Powerfully fruity and flowery, but like nothing I'd tasted before. I also tasted an experimental "chocolate" made from cupuaçu seeds, and that special aroma somehow came through again.
4. If you could pass just one thing, on to someone looking to enter your side of the industry what would it be?
Take everything in the scientific literature with a grain of salt, and always listen to what cooks and bartenders tell you. They're the ones with the most hands-on experience of foods and drinks in all their complexity, and science is always trying to simplify. There's always something new to learn from both sides.
5. What does the future hold for yourself and what do you see happening in the future in the food and drink industry?
I'm writing a book about taste and smell and flavor. The future of the industry . . . I would never have predicted that we'd be where we are now, so I have no clue!
6. What has been your biggest satisfaction from working with food and chefs/bartenders?
Tasting such a tremendous range of different foods and drinks all over the world, and learning how to appreciate them more fully from the people who make them.
7. If you were to have a conversation with a cocktail or dish, (and presuming it could talk back to you and tell you its past). Which would it be and why?
Boy that's a wacky one! I guess I would ask a slow-cooked braise to tell me what's happening inside it as it slowly relaxes and develops flavor, or any shaken spirit whether it really feels beaten up.
8. What, outside of the industry, inspires you to continue experimenting and working with food and drink?
It's my own personal curiosity about how things work, and the pleasure I take in good food and drink.
9. If you where to break a kitchen golden rule what would it be?
The one I break all the time is Be careful with knives. I'm a lazy cook and always try to minimize cleanup, so instead of cutting properly on a cutting board I'll often slice things while holding them. Lots of nicks to show for that.
10. Outside of flavor and the craft of the cuisine what in your opinion effects the appreciation of taste the most?
Personal experience--the flavors that you've encountered in the past, and the circumstances of those encounters that make them memorable or not, pleasant or not.
11. If you where to champion a dish which would it be?
Good tinned sardines, raw tomatoes, and grilled or toasted bread. My default supper in summer, 10 minutes to put on a plate (quarter the tomatoes in your hand), and delicious.
"In The Lab" With Tony C
In the first of a two-part feature, Tony Conigliaro gives us a guided tour of his lab and explains the origin of many of his cocktails.
If there was one particular moment which turned Tony Conigliaro on to the path he now follows - one which blurs the line between bars, gastronomy and science - it was a day in 1999, when he was working at Isola restaurant in Knightsbridge.
"I had a sort of realisation," he recalls. "I wanted to make a pear and cinnamon purée for a Bellini, but couldn't find any pear purées that I liked or that worked with Prosecco. I started talking to the pastry chef about purées I could source, and that turned into talking about how I could make a purée from scratch........
You can read the rest of the article HERE
Layered Screwdriver Video
As with any service the key to incorporating something like this into a busy shift is prep. In this case you would need to have the drink pre-made and ready to serve, however you could easily incorporate one of the layers as a pre-made mix meaning you wouldn't need to refrigerate and could serve immediately.
1 tablespoon of caster sugar
1 sachet of gelatin
250 ml of vodka
mix the two using a blender or whisk and leave for 5 minutes
1 tbl spoon caster sugar
300 ml orange juice
Dunhuang Letter of Regret
Flavour of the Week - Patchouli
15 February 2012
Challenging Beliefs About Flavours
The preeminent expert in the field lays the foundation for a new brain-based understanding of how we experience food.
When Modernist Cuisine, the Art and Science of Cooking finally came out in early 2011, food geeks around the world rushed to buy it (assuming they had saved up the requisite small fortune). But that enthusiasm soon turned to dismay, even fear, for many of them. It seemed that Modernist Cuisine had succeeded in pondering, unequivocally answering, and even gorgeously photographing every imaginable food and science question in existence. The curious masses had no more need for experiments, hacking consumer goods, or scouring obscure food forums. They needed simply to turn to page 2^25, and lo, their questions would be answered. Was there nothing else in the food world worth exploring?
Enter "neurogastronomy."
Author Dr. Gordon Shepherd, a neurobiologist by trade, answers few questions in this book. Rather, he elucidates the framework for a whole new set of food questions for his fellow geeks to explore. His language often slips into difficult-to-decipher academic terms and references to specific experiments with only vaguely promising results. But in its own way, Dr. Shepherd's style can be surprisingly refreshing. Neurogastronomy is not Malcolm Gladwell's clever and witty if somewhat exaggerated simplification of other people's work. Both Shepherd's name and legacy appear on the majority of the research he cites; his expertise is unquestionable. His takeaways are not always easy to find or understand quickly, but they are important enough to merit an extra moment or two of consideration.
The book opens with a staggering claim: whereas the tongue can only sense 5 (maybe 6, max) different tastes, the nose knows literally thousands of different scents. As a result, the majority of what we know as "flavor" actually comes from the nose. Of course, most people think flavor comes from the mouth, but this actually results from a nervous system property known as "referred sensation"
Taste and smell are perceived by completely different parts of the brain. Most people have a rough understanding that the nose plays an important part in flavor perception. But Gordon Shepherd knows a lot more about the topic than most people. For example, our perception of smell is processed by the prefrontal cortex (PFC) portion of the brain – the newest and most complex part of the brain, responsible for language and rational thought. Tastes from the tongue, on the other hand, are processed by the thalamus and the insula, more primitive brain areas that respond more quickly to inputs. These differing pathways help to explain why even babies understand that sweet deserves a smile while bitter begets "icky face," but a sommelier might spend years training her nose.
I personally keyed in on the fact that the tongue can sense over 100 different shades of bitter. While the tongue experiences the other four tastes only in terms of intensity, it had to evolve a keener perception of bitter agents because bitterness in nature often implies poison. For the modern gastronomic homo sapiens, however, this means that bitterness can add a complexity to foods other basic tastes cannot. Also see my post on bitterness and cocktails.
The section of the book explaining smell receptors sheds some light on the developing field of "flavor pairing." Flavor compounds are all organic compounds varying in length and constituent parts. Smaller, lighter molecules more easily escape into the air when food is chewed, so they are more likely to be sensed by the nose as we breatheout (this is called retronasal smell). Our noses are lined with thousands of olfactory receptors that each respond to a broad spectrum of scents. Every imaginable scent triggers a different subset of these receptors; a sort of "smell image" is created in the brain as a result. Most interestingly, our smell images can be amplified or even transformed when certain flavors are experienced together – when they are paired.
A recent academic investigation of flavor pairing revealed that western palettes prefer flavor compounds that match each other, while Asian cultures tended to avoid consonant tastes. But are these preferences learned? Are the genes responsible for olfactory receptors somehow different between races? Is there a certain type of flavor contrast Asians prefer that creates particularly sharp smell images?
Shepherd himself uses the latter fourth of Neurogastronomy to pose his own questions about food and the brain. Is an overload of pleasurable flavor compounds in modern foods responsible for widespread obesity? How much of flavor perception is conscious versus unconscious? Eating ties directly into the reward and punishment centers of the brain, areas that handle much of our decision-making. How does flavor affect the food we choose? What about other decisions? Like the trained scientist he is, Shepherd declines to conclusively answer any of these questions outright. Instead, he conservatively asserts that ongoing research holds promise.
The book Neurogastronomy might not be able to answer any of these questions outright, but the field it precedes will likely get to them in due course. In the meantime, serious food geeks (like you, I hope) should definitely get this book to foster curiosity and experimentation. Everyone else can wait for Gladwell's summary.
Written by @Kevin Liu
Only Orson Welles.....
Rose Sugar Cubes Now On Sale
New Beefeater Cocktails
What is the Best Utensil To Stir Your Martini?
Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award Nominations Now Open
"The final 3 nominees for each category will be invited to the Spirited Awards® Ceremony to be held in New Orleans, Louisiana on Saturday, July 28, 2012"
You can nominate your favourites HERE
World's Best Cocktail Bar
World's Best Cocktail Menu
World's Best Drinks Selection
World's Best Hotel Bar
World's Best New Cocktail Bar
Best Cocktail Writing
Best International Brand Ambassador
Best New Cocktail/Bartending Book
Best New Product
Best Restaurant Bar
American Bartender of the Year
Best American Brand Ambassador
Best American Cocktail Bar
Flavour of the Week - Peppermint
It seems peppermint is often overlooked, amongst the mint and herb family. It may have something to do with some pretty awful liqeurs of questionable colour that have found their way into various shots and onto backbars, or it may not, who knows.
08 February 2012
Dave Wondrich Cuban Cocktail Recipes
New Beefeater Drinks at 69 Colebrooke Row
The first to be added is called the Barbershop Fizz. We will have more recipes and photos in the coming weeks however In the meantime be sure to sample the drinks for yourself.
(Image on the way)
Beefeater 24 Science Of Love Masterclass
Social Media is MORE Addictive than Alcohol
The latest booze-news- study wasn't directly setting out to find out anything about booze. It just so happens that the results have offered an interesting comparison for the general public to speculate on.
The study was led by Wilhelm Hofmann and Chicagos University Booth Business School. They looked at 205 people between the ages of 18 and 85 in Germany who were asked seven times a day over a week to describe which desires they were experiencing and the strength of said desire.
Now, reassuringly, and slightly boringly, the study found that we are not all slaves to our dark and hedonistic selves fuelled by alcohol drugs and parties, as sleep and leisure topped the list of desires. Slightly more interestingly though next in line of "self control failure rates" was checking in with social media, email and work which came in way ahead of the first drink of the day.
Obviously checking in with social media is a little bit simpler and more sociably acceptable than having a shot on the train at 9am, so the comparison is not completely airtight. Dr Hofmann explains further in the quotes for the Guardian below.
"Desires for media may be comparatively harder to resist because of their high availability and also because it feels like it does not 'cost much' to engage in these activities, even though one wants to resist," Hofmann
"With cigarettes and alcohol there are more costs -- long-term as well as monetary -- and the opportunity may not always be the right one," Hofmann added. "So, even though giving in to media desires is certainly less consequential, the frequent use may still 'steal' a lot of people's time." Hofmann
If somehow we did get a buzz out of social media and it cost us the same as a pint we may see very different results. However it does lead to another point that I'm glad to bring up which is why we are seeing more and more bars using social media to their advantage.
How does the old saying go, "if you have a good experience you tell 6 people, if you have a bad experience you will tell 20" Factor that into modern culture. "If you have a good experience you post it on your Facebook page, tag six people, it gets shared by 6 more which then gets seen by their friends who share it once more and tweet it too their 100 followers, one of whom RT's to another 100 followers……….. and so on, you can see where I'm going with this.
If nothing else this is a brilliant incentive for establishments to create a social persona, something personal which customers can interact with. Whether it be venting frustrations, which can quickly be suppressed with the promise of a free drink or an invite to come back and try again. Even encouraging customers to message the bar directly with a quick review including any staff grievances they might have had.
By sharing photos and talking directly with customers you can create both an approachable and rich profile that can be viewed online. It gives people a chance to see what the personality of the bar is really like, before even entering. To encourage the word being spread it is a simple task to run offers and exclusive content through social networks keeping people engaged and encouraging them to share with friends without having to use the old fashioned method of words and sounds.
Flavour of the Week - Red/White Currants
4-5 lbs ripe whitecurrants
2½ lbs granulated sugar
6½ pts water
1 crushed Campden tablet
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 pkg Burgundy wine yeast
Put the fruit in primary and crush. Add 1 quart water, crushed Campden tablet and yeast nutrient and stir. Meanwhile, add half the sugar to 1 quart water and bring to boil while stirring to dissolve. Add to primary and stir. Cover and allow to cool overnight. Add activated yeast, recover, and stir daily for 5-6 days. Strain through nylon sieve and transfer juice to sanitized secondary and fit airlock. Bring another quart of water to boil and stir in remainder of sugar until dissolved. When cool, add to secondary and refit airlock. After 3 additional days, top up with water, refit airlock and set aside until fermentation stops. Rack, top up and refit airlock. After 60 days, rack again, top up and refit airlock. After additional 60 days, rack into bottles and age 6 months before tasting.
01 February 2012
Beefeater Creative Competition Results & Recipe
The Beefeater Creative Cocktail Competition has drawn to a close. Based in Sweden the competition, was made up of two parts. The first was a creative design, where entrants were asked to design a special edition Beefeater bottle which was an interpretation of how London looks.
The second aspect was a cocktail competition where contestants were asked to create a signature drink for Beefeater London Dry Gin based around their version of how creative London tastes.The winning drink would be served in various bars around Stockholm.
The winner of the design round was Emma Hoglund, with her Beefeater guarf inspired bottle, which you can see at the top of the post.
Our personal favourite Trader Magnus made it to the top ten cocktail section, but sadly missed out in the no.1 spot, which went to Svante Garsten Schon who won the cocktail section with a his recipe London Calling.
1 bar spoon Noilly Prat
1 bar spoon orange cordial reduction
1 dash orange bitter
orange zest
Stir & double strain
Orange Cordial Reduction Recipe
1 part water
1 part fresh orange juice
2 parts sugar
heat until thick
Announcing The Young British Foodies Awards
A new awards is on a nationwide search to unearth the next generation of talented bartenders with Tony Conigliaro leading the judging mixology category, alongside Nick Strangeway and James Chase.
As the YBF awards 2012 comes to an end in late February, this is a chance for drinks-creatives to make a name for themselves. All they need to do is enter their 150 word winning recipe or idea asap; the winner gets £1000 to go towards their bibulous enterprise amongst other prizes.
Enter at www.the-ybfs.com or email email@example.com until the end of February
Why bother entering? It's a chance to show off your capabilities. It's a chance to get publicity for any project you're working on – the YBFs has been covered in the FT, Independent, Olive mag to name a few. Even better, you'll get the chance to be mentored by Tony Conigliaro, working for two days at his acclaimed Drink factory. Then there's the £1000 cash prize. There will also be a chance to perform your art at Rob Da Bank's Bestival and Camp Bestival at the YBFs tent.
What's the ethos of the awards? As the British food and drink scene's been galloping pace, it rivals any over the pond. The awards is to celebrate everything new in our burgeoning scene and to bring together a movement.
Explaining it, Co-founder and Metro's food and drink editor, Chloe Scott, says: 'In the 1990s, the emerging artists of Britain were celebrated and touted the YBAs. Now it's time we found the YBFs in Britain and celebrated the UK's creativity in food and drink - food and drink is the new art. We're looking for really bold and creative recipes and people.'
Both professionals and amateurs are welcome. All you need to do is email your 150 word drink idea. If you get through to the second round, Tony C, Nick Strangeway and James Chase will judge your concept by sampling and viewing your technique, followed by a short interview.
How old do I have to be? It's a lawless affair – you can be 108 years-old if you've got a delectable cocktail up your sleeve. It's 'young' in spirit, not in physicality.
The judges and categories are:
For the alcohol - Tony C, Nick Strangeway and James Chase
For Cheffing - Nuno Mendes , Bompas and Parr
For experimentation - Bompas and Parr
For baking- Lily Vanilli
For charcuturie - Meatliquor's Yianni Papoutis
The eight categories are: Mixology, Street-food, Coffee, Baking, Meat, Cheffing and Experimental. The final one is Honorary YBF, which is for ANYONE with a passion for food and drink.
For news, follow on twitter @TheYBFs
Dave Arnold opens Booker and Dax
Our friend Mr Dave Arnold has finally branched out and set up his own cocktail bar, Booker and Dax. Situated at the rear of David Changs Momofuku Ssam Bar, this could spell the beginning of a new generation of progressive cocktail bar, built from scratch, with the sole purpose of catering for "scientific'y" cocktails. More importantly, though, it's the idea that the cocktails are prepped hours or days in advance so the evenings service is just as quick and fluid as a normal bar's would be.
The bar is home to such gadgetry as liquid nitrogen, centrifuge a downstairs laboratory and a homemade red hot poker, that sits at a comfortable 1500F in it's holster behind the bar.
Most impressively, the bar has resisted the urge of technique and show for the sake of "ooh and ahh" factor. The methods are used with the sole intention of making the drink more delicious and more efficient. It is rare to, and only on occasion will you see head high flames or wisps of smoke and fog rising from behind the bar to offer entertainment to the waiting customer. Interestingly the drinks list is broken down by way of technique. For instance there is a section titles "Hot Poker" and "Carbonated".
Dave offered an insight into two of the techniques, to magazine Popsci, which are being used behind the bar. The first is a clarification and carbonation of a simple Gin and Juice. Grapefruit juice is freshly squeezed and then clarified using pectinase enzyme and a pair of clearing agents chitosan and kleselsol, often used in the wine industry. The mixture is then spun in a centrifuge resulting in a pasty texture separating from the juice and leaving by a slightly tinted liquid that can be filtered through a super bag to seperate from any remaining pulp.
To this they add water, sugar and alcohol which is then bottled, carbonated and chilled. When served, the glass is cooled to below zero using a splash of liquid nitrogen that is swirled around the glass and left to evaporate.
The hot poker technique has been around for hundreds of years, although it was very crude and often left an undesirable after taste. Today we most often turn to hot water, which has the unwanted side effects of diluting and not adding any flavour to the drink to create Hot Toddy's or Irish Coffee's.
Dave has built his own "holster" to house his poker and keep it safe behind the bar. As well as heating, the poker also caramelizes sugars, ignites the alcohol vapours adding to and augmenting the flavour of the drink to stimulate your sense of smell as well as taste.
Turning Water into Whisky
The Whisky Water Trick from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.This is a very very simple but very very fun video. It's something we've all pondered on occasion. Staring at a bottle of water and trying desperately to concentrate so hard that upon opening our eyes the liquid will be thick, dark and woody. Despite my best efforts I have gotten nowhere.
The video plays on the simple fact that alcohol is lighter than water. This means it will do one of two things. Either sit on the top or sink to the bottom. It may do both, however it is impossible that it will do neither.
Thanks to film maker Casey Chan for creating the video.
Valentine Scent Seduction with The Cocktail Lovers
As we inch ever close to one of the most wonderful or awfully lonely and depressing days of the year, Valentines Day, it's time to start planning. What better way then to take your partner to an evening fuelled with scents, seductions, naughtiness and alcohol.
"It doesn't get more romantic than cocktails and fragrances. That's why we've teamed up with specialist perfumery Les Senteurs to host the second in our specially themed cocktail clubs - Valentine Scent Seduction."
"Celebrating Valentine's Day we'll be exploring sensuality and the senses with delicious, specially created cocktails to echo the mood of the world's most sensuous scents.
The evening is a celebration of the tastes and perfumes that effect the brain to produce physical stimulation and guests will be seduced by some of the most delicious ingredients ever to intoxicate the senses - ranging from flirty to downright naughty. And to get you in the spirit, we'll be serving sexy mini cocktails based on the fragrances highlighted throughout the evening.
So come join the party, have a few drinks and pick up some tips along the way. And don't forget to indulge in a little bit of romantic shopping while you're at it. With classic and contemporary scents from top names including Creed, Caron, Annick Goutal, Frederic Malle and Juliette Has A Gun, there's something here for everyone."
Valentine Scent Seduction takes place at the brand new, super-chic Les Senteurs Boutique on 14 February, from 6.30pm-8.30pm. Tickets cost £25 per person; £45 for two people booking together and includes Champagne on arrival, nibbles, cocktails and goody bag.
Flavour of the Week - Dried Apricot
We could expand this easily to include apricots, however the dried apricot has a very specific sweetness that you do not have with the run of the mill fruit. After drying the water is removed from the fruit, meaning, you find the flavours are sweeter and more concentrated. Essentially you are un-diluting the fruit.
The apricots origin is slightly confused and some have theorized that it may have began life in Armenia. However this is based on their high number of exports and production rather than any proof. The fruit thrives in continental climates and embraces cold winters.
There is a great old recipe that featured dried apricots being flash fried in brandy which created a brilliant warm sweet tangy flavour. It will also infuse under sous vide or over time very easily and offer a sweet tangy addition to a neutral spirit like vodka or a darker more flavoursome spirit such as rum or whisky.
Flavour - Sweet, tangy.


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Bruce Springsteen to headline free NCAA March Madness Music Festival next month in Dallas
NEW YORK – Bruce Springsteen will headline the NCAA March Madness Music Festival next month in Dallas.
Springsteen and the E Street Band will close the free, three-day festival April 6 at Reunion Park, the downtown lot where the NCAA Final Four was played in 1986. Pop-rock trio fun. will perform ahead of the Boss.
Jason Aldean will kick off the event on April 4. Fellow country star Tim McGraw and the Killers take the stage April 5.
Tickets for the festival are on a first-come, first-serve basis each day.
Additional performers will be announced at a later date.
College basketball's semifinal and championship games will be played at the Dallas Cowboys' massive stadium in Arlington.

subset: commoncrawl


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Mama Woon Sen Tom Yum from mama is another way to enjoy Tom Yum, hot and sour soup. Mama woon sen tom yum is hot and spicy. Mama woon sen tom yum takes 3 minutes to prepare. For more nutrition, add shrimp or choice of meat. Ingredients: Bean Vermicelli, sugar, iodized salt, palm oil, garlic powder, msg, disodium. Weight 40 grams (each). Product of Thailand.
Copyright © 2004 - 2019 GroceryThai.com


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SK2168 : Detail of Baby, Manners memorial, All Saints', Bakewell
taken 8 years ago, near to Bakewell, Derbyshire, Great Britain
Manners & Vernon Memorials, All Saints', Bakewell
Sir John Manners (1534 - 1611) was son of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland. See SK8039 : Tomb of 1st Earl of Rutland, St Mary's church, Bottesford
He married Dorothy Vernon (1545-1584) daughter of Sir George "King of the Peak" Vernon. They had four children, George, Grace, John and Roger. John died aged 14. These are shown on the tomb, although some are now missing.
The marriage was at first opposed by her father, who finally allowed it, but only if they moved away from Haddon. They were married happily, without great ceremony. Sir George King of the peak Vernon is also buried in Bakewell church with his two wives.
Sir George Manners 1573 - 1623 married Grace Pierrepoint and later Frances Cavendish. They had nine children: John, Henry, Roger, Elizabeth, Eleanor, Frances, Dorothy and Mary. Henry and Roger appear to have died young. One child died in infancy.
John Manners was to become the eighth Earl of Rutland and he is buried in Bottesford church. SK8039 : Memorial to 8th Earl of Rutland, St Mary's Bottesford
Sir George "King of the peak" Vernon was born about 1503 and died August 1565. He married Margaret Talboys, then secondly Matilda Longford . He died without male heirs, so the estates were divided between his two daughters.
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- Date Taken
- Sunday, 13 May, 2012 (more nearby)
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- Tuesday, 15 May, 2012
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[https://math.webwork.rochester.edu/webwork2// First semester calculus at University of Rochester] Choose the guest login.
[http://.webwork../webwork2/maa101/ WeBWorK demo class] Professor's view of WeBWorK. --- Use profa for username and profa for password. You can see the student view using practice1 for username and practice1 for password.
With the professor's view you can browse the '''NationalProblemLibrary'''.
With the professor's view you can browse the '''NationalProblemLibrary'''.
Revision as of 00:52, 1 March 2012
WeBWorK enhances the educational process in several ways. By providing students with immediate feedback as to the correctness of their answers, students are encouraged to make multiple attempts until they succeed. By individualizing problems, cheating is discouraged. By providing instructors with real-time statistics, lesson plans can be customized to better serve students.
The major way in which WeBWorK differs from other web-based homework systems is in the way problems are written. The PG ("problem generation") language allows the inclusion of both Perl and LaTeX code, allowing problem authors to take advantage of the syntactic efficiency of Perl and the typographical flexibility of LaTeX (which is pretty much necessary for rendering mathematics expressions).
The process of defining a problem is highly modular, with various pluggable display macros, answer evaluators, and graders. This allows for a high degree of freedom in defining how problems behave.
A library of canned problems is provided, with over 23,000 problems contributed to the National Problem Library (or NPL) at last count. A large collection of macro files which simplify writing new problems is also available. (Use the MathObjects macros provided by Davide Cervone wherever possible to simplify the writing of the problem and to make it easier to maintain.)
WeBWorK uses Apache with mod_perl, MySQL, LaTeX, dvipng, the GD graphics library, and several CPAN modules. WeBWorK is being used on Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris, and will run on any UNIX-like system that supports its dependencies.
First semester calculus at University of Rochester Choose the guest login.
WeBWorK demo class Professor's view of WeBWorK. --- Use
profa for username and
profa for password. You can see the student view using
practice1 for username and
practice1 for password.
With the professor's view you can browse the NationalProblemLibrary.
More introductory materials
- Streaming video: Introduction to WeBWorK lecture by Mike Gage at MSRI (2004)
- Presentation: WeBWorK 2: An Internet-based system for generating and delivering homework, MAA Minicourse #6, AMS/MAA Annual Meeting, New Orleans, January 2007


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State Rep. Christina Ayala charged in domestic fight
BRIDGEPORT -- Newly elected state Rep. Christina Ayala tried to talk police out of arresting her on domestic violence charges Monday night after she slapped her boyfriend for cheating on her.
"She said that she did not want us involved because of who she was," the police report states. Ayala and her boyfriend, Pedro Rodriguez-Ortiz, were charged with breach of peace.
The arrest also raised questions about whether Ayala, a Democrat who was overwhelmingly elected to the 128th District seat, actually lives in her district. The 49 Hillside Avenue address where the incident occurred is not located in the 128th House district, but in the 129th district.
When they arrived at Hillside Ave. about 11:45 p.m., police said they found Pedro Rodriguez-Ortiz, 37, standing on the front porch in an intoxicated state. When they asked him who was inside, he responded: "My girlfriend, state representative Ayala."
Ayala told them everything was fine and that she did not call police.
She told the officers her boyfriend had been out drinking and cheating on her and that they had an argument and were yelling at each other. During the argument Rodriguez-Ortiz called 911, but no one had hit each other, she told officers.
More InformationRead more: http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/State-Rep-Christina-Ayala-charged-in-domestic-4089811.php#ixzz2E87jZcMt
Rodriguez-Ortiz then began yelling at officers: "You're a politician and you aren't going to do (expletive)," according to the report.
They said Rodriguez-Ortiz told them he was sleeping on a couch when Ayala came over and slapped him on the left side of the face. But as officers continued questioning him, they said Rodriguez-Ortiz became argumentative, yelling and swearing and they ended up arresting him.
In the meantime, officers continued to question Ayala. They said she first denied slapping Rodriguez-Ortiz, and then admitted she had.
During the campaign, Ayala said she lived on Noble Avenue in the city's East Side. She is registered to vote under that address; but public records show the utilities at the Hillside Avenue address were connected under Ayala's name in October 2011. She also has a cellphone registered using that address.
She doesn't seem to have any bills listed under the Noble Avenue address. State law dictates that any candidate who wins an election must move into the district within three months.
On Tuesday afternoon, Ayala arrived at the Golden Hill Street courthouse with her mother, Democratic registrar of voters Sandi Ayala.
State Rep. Ayala is no stranger to the courthouse. Just two weeks ago she was there to face charges of evading responsibility, failure to obey a traffic signal and failure to renew her vehicle's registration in connection with a hit-and-run crash in August.
When she appeared before Superior Court Judge Earl Richards on the most recent charge, she stood chewing gum as the judge reviewed the litany of things she can no longer do under a protective order he was imposing on her.
Ayala momentarily stopped her gum chewing to answer "yes" when Richards asked her if she understood his order.
Under the order, Ayala can no longer reside at 49 Hillside Ave., where police said she has been living with Rodriguez-Ortiz.
Ayala tried to ignore a question about whether she now intends to resign her House seat as she and her mother hurried from the courthouse. Pressed, she finally stated: "No comment, sir."
Democratic Mayor Bill Finch, the titular head of the Democratic Party in Bridgeport, found out about Ayala's arrest from a reporter after his visit to Bridgeport Elderly Housing at 2400 North Avenue.
"She was arrested again? For what?" Finch said.
Finch's administration has been particularly sensitive about Bridgeport's image. Asked if Ayala's recent run-ins with the law compromise her ability to effectively represent the city in Hartford, Finch said: "What I'll say about that is domestic violence is a very serious problem in the city. Obviously we're at the early stages of an incident. It's going to have to be investigated. I would urge the police to investigate it thoroughly and bring guilty parties to justice."
Finch said it was premature to say whether he or other Democratic leaders should meet with Ayala to discuss her conduct because her two cases have not been resolved.
"We created a judicial system for a reason," he said. "So let's see what they say."
Ayala's cousin and her predecessor representing the 128th District -- Senator Elect Andres Ayala -- could not be reached for comment.
But state Rep. Jack Hennessy, another member of the city's legislative delegation, said he is uncomfortable with Christina's arrests.
"The delegation is always trying to be cohesive and we have, I think, done a pretty good job of doing that," Hennessy said. "This is an embarrassment and I really do question her judgment."
But Hennessy questioned whether the city Democratic leaders will respond, referring to comments city chairman Mario Testa made following Ayala's hit-and-run incident about any potential impact on her legislative campaign.
"It just seems that the bar is very low to have a chairman who basically says, `Hey, if you haven't killed anybody, what's the big deal?' and sweeps everything under the rug," Hennessy said.
At the time Testa said, "There was no fatality involved. If there was a fatality involved then I would say yes, it would have an impact on her. I'd be the first one to request her resignation."
Reached at his restaurant, Testo's, Tuesday evening, Testa, like Finch, said he was unaware of Ayala's second arrest. He said it is concerning and he plans to schedule time to talk with Ayala.
He said using her position to apparently try to avoid the arrest is "totally wrong."
"I find it even myself, being involved in politics, I never use my position to get away from something," Testa said.
Testa also said when she was nominated that she lived in the 128th District.
"Definitely, I have to make some type of appointment and talk to her and get all the details and see what's involved and come to some kind of conclusion," Testa said.
City Councilwoman Susan Brannelly, D-130, said although Ayala has yet to be convicted, "it just seems to me she doesn't make good choices" and should be encouraged to resign. "If, before she's sworn in, she hasn't made good choices, what is the likelihood she's going to represent us well and make good choices for the city?"
In his telephone interview, Testa said that "nobody can force her to resign."
Ayala was released on a promise to appear in court at a later date, while Rodriguez-Ortiz, was released after posting a $2,500 bond.


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The new NAFTA is another corporate handout. It won't stem the outsourcing of good jobs or protect the rights of working people. Tell Congress the new NAFTA isn't good enough.
Recently introduced legislation would provide needed protections for health care and social services workers from violence on the job. Tell Congress to support an OSHA workplace violence standard.


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Will Hurricane Sandy be a climate Pearl Harbor?
The Gunther Report
Will Hurricane Sandy be a climate Pearl Harbor?
Only after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor did the US mobilize to enter World War II.
Might Hurricane Sandy mobilize the US to tackle global warming?
This isn't my metaphor. People have been talking about "climate Pearl Harbors" for years. (Here's a Joe Romm post from 2008.) The theory is that, because global warming is a slow-moving threat that for a variety of peculiar reasons is incredibly difficult to resolve politically — for more on that, read my climate ebook, Suck It Up — a dramatic event, involving death and destruction, will be required to awaken a citizenry that is largely indifferent, confused or otherwise occupied.
Of course we've had plenty of extreme weather in recent years. Hurricane Katrina. A Russian heat wave that killed 700 in 2010. Floods in Australia in 2011. Disasters in places like Pakistan and Mali that barely made headlines.
But those involved black people, poor people, faraway people or, in the case of the wildfires and droughts that plagued the US this year, trees and crops.
Hurricane Sandy is affecting New Yorkers. New York, along with Washington, is the power center of the US. Wall Street. The news business. Media, fashion, advertising, PR.
These are sandbags outside the office of Goldman Sachs.
The rain had barely stopped when New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo, had this to say:
It's a longer conversation, but I think part of learning from this is the recognition that climate change is a reality, extreme weather is a reality, it is a reality that we are vulnerable.
Well, uh, gee, yeah.
This hurricane might even turn New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie into a climate hawk.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a demonstrated passion for the climate issue. He could make global warming a focus of his considerable energies, not to mention his fortune, after leaving office.
[To be sure, those of us who have been paying attention understand that no single weather event can be definitively tied to climate change blah blah blah blah -- but come on, people. As Grist's David Roberts wrote today, no single Barry Bonds home run can be attributed to steroids but the performance enhancing drugs sure put some extra pop in his bat.]
By chance, I visited this week with the leader of one of the world's biggest environmental groups. He sounded chipper, and expressed the hope that Sandy might be a game-changer.
"New Yorkers are not shy," he told me. "The most powerful people in the country have been pretty damn inconvenienced."
No one wants to see suffering. But if Hurricane Sandy does turn into a wake-up call on climate, maybe a few days or weeks of inconvenience will be a price worth paying.
Photo of flooded Brooklyn area after Hurricane Sandy provided by Anton Oparin via Shutterstock.com.


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Django Unchained
- Starring: Jamie Foxx (The Soloist), Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), Leonardo DiCaprio (Gangs of New York) and more.
- Directed by: Quentin Tarantino (Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill)
- Synopsis: "Set in the South two years before the Civil War, "Django Unchained" stars Academy Award®-winner Jamie Foxx as Django, a slave whose brutal history with his former owners lands him face-to-face with German-born bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Academy Award®-winner Christoph Waltz). Schultz is on the trail of the murderous Brittle brothers, and only Django can lead him to his bounty. The unorthodox Schultz acquires Django with a promise to free him upon the capture of the Brittles – dead or alive. Success leads Schultz to free Django, though the two men choose not to go their separate ways. Instead, Schultz seeks out the South's most wanted criminals with Django by his side. Honing vital hunting skills, Django remains focused on one goal: finding and rescuing Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), the wife he lost to the slave trade long ago. Django and Schultz's search ultimately leads them to Calvin Candie (Academy Award®-nominee Leonardo DiCaprio), the proprietor of "Candyland," an infamous plantation where slaves are groomed by trainer Ace Woody (Kurt Russell) to battle each other for sport. Exploring the compound under false pretenses, Django and Schultz arouse the suspicion of Stephen (Academy Award®-nominee Samuel L. Jackson), Candie's trusted house slave. Their moves are marked, and a treacherous organization closes in on them. If Django and Schultz are to escape with Broomhilda, they must choose between independence and solidarity, between sacrifice and survival…"
- Must-Watch Trailer:
- Review:
Only Quentin Tarantino can get away with creating a movie that combines slave traders and abolitionists from 1858 with 2 Pac music from the 1990's (along with music from Rick Ross and James Brown) [listen to the entire soundtrack with commentary from Tarantino HERE], with cinematography from the 1970's, and with the spaghetti western style of 1960's film with blood, guts, bullets and whips and "steal" a film in entertaining fashion.
(In a 1994 interview with Empire magazine, Quentin Tarantino once stated, "I steal from everything. Great artists steal, they don't do homages." Django Unchained is no exception as it is derived from a 1966 Italian-made Western named Django, starring Franco Nero, who actually makes a cameo appearance in Django Unchained.)
Tarantino himself refers to his version as the "ripoff one" in the soundtrack commentary actually, which I think is interesting. I like that he…through "not paying homage"…pays homage to the "original" as it were.
The following is my review of director Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained in the form of an open letter to the acclaimed director of cult-classic fame and following.
Dear director Quentin Tarantino,
Admittedly, I've never been a big fan of your films, and, as an avid movie-lover who never quite has been able to completely grasp the attraction to the films that list your name in the "director" column of cast and crew I gingerly ventured to my local theater recently to watch your latest cinematic story entitled Django Unchained, starring Jamie Foxx as a recently freed slave named Django who partners with his abolitionist compadre Dr. King Schultz (a bounty hunter who embodies the phrase "method to the madness"), played exquisitely by Christoph Waltz, on a quest to free his wife and take down her oppressors.
After finishing the film, I wrote this letter to share with you my thoughts. First of all, congratulations on Django Unchained maintaining a high audience and critic approval rating despite the notes of controversy and criticism from the likes of filmmakers such as the outspoken Spike Lee. I will address that a little more in a moment, but first, I had a couple other suggestions in regards to this movie.
1. Correct the time period statement at the beginning of the movie. You place us in the year 1858 followed by a caption that reads "Two years before the Civil War." Mr. Tarantino, the U.S. Civil War began THREE years after that on April 12, 1861. So, unless your movie takes place around the 131st day of December in 1858, you made a grievous error at the very beginning. (A small thing and a small fix. History aficionados are going to notice stuff like that in a time-period placed film. A small fix.)
2. At 2 hours and roughly 45 minutes the film is a bit long. Though it packs on the action and doesn't seem as long as that most of the time, I found myself wishing that it ended a little bit sooner than it did. So did several others as I saw glances at brightly lit phones and watches numerous times after the 120-minute marker passed. It seems that movie makers nowadays can't get their point across in under 2 hours and 3-hr movies are becoming the norm. 5-hr movies will be what 3-hr movies once were.
(Now on to the controversial.)
3. I must take the time to applaud you in not shying away from some of the gruesome reality of the slavery period. One of my largest complaints with films such as Gone With The Wind is that it romanticizes the South and slavery during the Civil War and grossly downplays reality. I often tell people to watch films like Cold Mountain instead if they want a truer sense of the depravity of the South during that time. Films like Amistad and Roots make people uncomfortable with scenes of brutality towards slaves and that is no different here. While I am not a fan of seeing it onscreen, one can appreciate you not "romanticizing" it or candycoating the historical fiction you present.
4. Though some of it might be a bit much. The brief, yet full, nudity I expected to a degree. You made me cringe in several spots. But you also made me cringe in the 100+ uses of the "N-word." Yes, I did keep count but stopped counting towards the end after the tally reached 110. Believe it or not, I actually would be willing to watch your movie again, if it weren't for the flippant or gratuitous usage of the term. I know that the term was used regularly in the South during that time period. And while no one alive can attest to witnessing the amount of actual usage in conversation during that time, I would have appreciated it being used a lot less. (I mean, I am told that Jackie Brown only uses the word about 37 times. Why over 100 in Django Unchained? You surprised me by keeping the use of the F-word down to a whole lot less in this movie…though, I'm not complaining about that mind you.)
I read your interview from "The Root" about this subject (here) but am still not convinced, nor will I ever be, that the excessive use of the word is justified. I don't stand with Spike Lee and his argument of your film being "disrespectful to my ancestors." He hasn't even seen the movie. I found it not disrespectful to my ancestors. (actually the exact opposite as Django unleashes his fury on his oppressors). But I did find it disrespectful to the audience. Even several fans of your films that I know who expect "shock and awe" from you found it to be a tad bit too much. And let me just say that using Samuel L. Jackson to say it in a fashion that makes people laugh and lighten the mood doesn't make the use of the word any better.
All that being said, I still remain uncertain as to my own personal feelings about Django Unchained. Was it uncomfortable to watch? during several scenes, yes…yes it was. However, I wouldn't categorize the violence and brutality as being worse than scenes in Roots or Amistad (which both left me feeling somewhat upset). You actually mixed it up with several bits of comedy and action that kept the story moving. I liked the story, the way you told it and the cast you assembled to do so. Speaking of the cast, while Jamie Foxx acts his role out flawlessly, along with great additionally impressive performances from Kerry Washington, Leonardo DiCaprio (outperformed himself and made the role of "Candie" real and deplorable), Samuel L. Jackson (Who made me hate his character. Uncanny acting.), Jonah Hill and others, the one person who deserves the most laud and attention in this film is Christoph Waltz. Thank you for giving him this role. He played it perfectly.
The nice mix of current/new music along with music and cinematography from times past really kept things interesting along with a few cameo appearances. I can honestly say I enjoyed a lot more of this movie than I expected to. No, it won't be joining Kill Bill vol. 1 and 2 in my movie collection (the only 2 movies of yours that I own), but I didn't hate the movie either. Not really sure how one could, truth be told. Action (GREAT action! …and bloody at that, as is your style), flair for the dramatic, great music, fun character shots, tense moments, intriguing story…all of it, pretty well done. I think Django's redemption, revenge and retribution helps soothe over plenty of the objectionable content in the end and thus ties the film nicely together.
Overall, nice work. I am willing to check out another movie from you in the future, which is kind of a big deal for me given that I did not enjoy so many other of your fan-favorited films. Just, please, tone it down a little on the "N-word." As a matter of fact, I'm totally good if you don't include it anymore. The violence, the blood, the action: keep it. It's all you: Quentin "Shock and Awe" Tarantino.
T. Faulkner, a.k.a. The Focused Filmographer
Score: 4 out of 5 stars for Django Unchained
Thanks for reading! Happy Watching!
–T, The Focused Filmographer


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The Japanese government unveiled a plan Tuesday to keep radioactive water at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant from contaminating ground water that flows into the sea, in large part by surrounding the plant with an underground wall of frozen soil.
By some accounts, the $470 million plan's reliance on frozen soil represents a use of the technology on an unprecedented scale.
At the same time, some nuclear-energy analysts suggest, the ad-hoc effort to deal with contaminated water highlights a shortcoming in the industry more broadly.
Much attention had been focused on making sure plenty of water reaches a reactor to keep it cool during an accident, they say, but relatively little thought has been given to how to manage that contaminated water.
The plan for Fukushima was unveiled following the Tokyo Electric Power Company's admission on Aug. 20 that some 300 tons of radioactive water had leaked from storage tanks built to hold the water, which has been used to cool the plant's reactors and highly radioactive spent fuel since March 2011. This followed an admission a month earlier that contaminated water from the plant was leaking into the sea.
At the same time, some 400 tons of groundwater are said to be flowing into the plant's environs each day, where it seeps into the damaged buildings and mixes with contaminated water before making its way to the sea.
The sea-side power plant, located at Okuma on the east coast of Japan's largest island, Honshu, was devastated by a series of safety-system failures following a magnitude 9 earthquake offshore that sent a 45-foot tsunami sweeping across the nuclear plant as it moved inland. Follow-up investigations showed that the utility underestimated the tsunami hazard the plant faced, leading to design flaws that left it more vulnerable to tsunamis than it might otherwise have been.
The plant was built above sea-level, but the tsunami still covered the site with up to 16 feet of water as it moved inland. All of the main and back-up systems designed to provide power to the plant's cooling systems failed. Hydrogen gas built up in three of the plant's six reactor buildings, triggering explosions that also damaged a fourth reactor building.
The explosions and subsequent fires released a radioactive plume that within three weeks of the accident was detected over southern Spain. The plant's owner, Tepco, has been pouring water over the damaged reactors and the spent-fuel pools ever since to keep heat from doing further damage to the reactors and spent-fuel assemblies.
The plan the government announced Tuesday would spend $150 million on equipment to remove virtually all of the contaminants from the water. But the bulk of the $470 million would pay for the construction of a frozen, subterranean wall around the plant stretching for some 1.4 miles. Japanese officials say they expect the wall to be finished by March 2015.
For more than 100 years, engineers have frozen soil as a way to prevent cave-ins at mines or excavation sites, or to prevent water from seeping into excavations. In the Arctic, artificially frozen soil have been used to shore up foundations affected by melting permafrost. More recently it has been used to curb the flow of pollutants.
The technique has been used at least once on a much smaller scale to isolate water in a contaminated pond at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, starting in the late 1990s. The pond cooling water for a prototype reactor built in the early 1950s as the Atomic Energy Commission was sorting among the designs it would license for civilian use.
The pond was leaking water contaminated with tritium, contaminating area streams, recalls Dirk Van Hoesen, a former environmental clean-up manager at the lab who retired last year. The lab hired a company out of Alaska to set up a frozen barrier around the pond.
"As I recall, it was pretty effective at hanging on to the tritium, which is pretty tough stuff to hang on to," he says. "It worked."
The wall remained in place until the mid '00s, when the lab cleaned up the pond, Mr. Van Hoesen says.
The approach involves sinking pipes into the ground at closely space intervals, then pumping coolant into them, explains Larry Applegate, president of SoilFreeze, a Seattle-based company that sets up and maintains frozen underground walls of soil. Typically, the pipes are driven into rock or clay layers impervious to flowing water. At Fukushima, that means driving the pipes roughly 100 feet deep.
Once coolant begins circulating, the soil freezes in an expanding circle around a pipe until it joins with the expanding frozen circle generated by it neighbors. The result is a continuous wall of artificial permafrost. While the initial freeze-up is energy intensive, requiring a large number of chillers, once the wall is established, only about half of the original number of chillers is needed to keep the wall intact, Mr. Applegate says.
The walls are fairly immune from power failures at the surface because is takes a long time to thaw frozen soil deep underground. If an earthquake strikes, any crack in the wall can be patched fairly quickly, sometimes automatically by liquid trying to flow through the crack, which can freeze as it encounters the frozen soil.
Applegate notes that if the Fukushima project sounds large, the technique also is being considered for corralling effluent from tar-sands oil extraction in Canada.
At Fukushima, the wall would hold any water leaking from the plant or storage tanks on site for remediation. It also would force flowing groundwater around the plant area, rather than through it.
While the technique has potential, however, it's unclear if the Japanese government or Tepco have a sufficiently accurate picture of the groundwater flows at the plant to put the wall in the right place, cautions Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist who focuses on nuclear issues at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington.
"Fukushima itself is an unprecedented event," he says. "There's never been a situation where you've had this great a volume of radioactively contaminated water that doesn't seem to be controlled. They are in uncharted territory," he says.
The on-going crisis at Fukushima underscores what he sees as an insufficiently addressed element in dealing with a nuclear accident: keeping contaminated water from reaching a wider environment.
Local hydrology comes up when a potential site for a nuclear plant is considered, Dr. Lyman says. But he adds that despite the nuclear industry's assertions that it's adequately addressed the safety issues Fukushima raised, no one is thinking about preparations for long-term water management in case an accident occurs.
With a severe accident, "the strategy is still: get as much water as you can into the reactors for a long period of time," he says. And reactor designers have been striving to develop designs that deliver the water more reliably without much need for human intervention.
"They're strengthening their ability to get water in, but they're not thinking about what they're going to do with the overflow and the effluent," he notes. "There needs to be more-serious attention given to post-accident water management, not just focusing on getting water into the reactors."


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RICHMOND, Va. – Seniors Courtney Hurt and Andrea Barbour contributed a game-high 22 points apiece, and VCU rode a lopsided first half on its way to a 79-59 victory against Norfolk State Wednesday afternoon at the Verizon Wireless Arena at the Stuart C. Siegel Center.
The Rams (7-3) raced out to a 28-point halftime lead and never looked back, picking up their fourth straight victory and seventh in their last nine games. VCU would go up by as many as 35 points in the second half but Norfolk State would get no closer than 20 the rest of the game.
"It's a nice way to head into the Christmas break, to get a win here before we head off," said VCU Head Coach Beth Cunningham. "I thought we had really good efforts from all of our kids today. Our defensive pressure caused Norfolk State some problems, especially in the first half. That intensity kept them from doing some things they wanted to do."
Hurt, who has posted 20 points in six of her last seven contests, registered game-highs with eight rebounds, four blocks and three steals. Barbour and junior Carleeda Green dished out a game-high four assists apiece.
Norfolk State (5-5) knotted the score at 9-9 on a jumper by Whitney Long at the 14-minute mark before VCU erupted, reeling off 17-straight points spanning five minutes and went up by 17 on a traditional 3-point play by McRae with 8:28 showing.
A triple from the left wing by Long on Norfolk State's next possession gave the Spartans their first field goal in more than six minutes and halted VCU's spurt. However, Barbour took a feed from Hurt (pictured) to make it 28-12 with 7:45 to go and the Rams continued their scoring spree, reeling off 20 of the final 26 points of the half. Barbour scored five in the final 30 seconds on a pair of fast break layups to give VCU a comfortable 46-18 advantage at the break.
The 28-point halftime lead was the largest for the Rams all season and was also the most first-half points VCU has posted thus far. The Black & Gold forced 14 turnovers in the opening stanza, while limiting Norfolk State to just 28-percent shooting (7 of 25).
Back-to-back 3-pointers from junior Robyn Hobson gave VCU a 60-27 lead with 14:22 remaining before Hurt scored four straight to give the Rams a 35-point advantage, their largest lead of the day, less than a minute later.
Trailing by 34 with 6:39 to go, Norfolk State climbed back, using a 13-0 spurt and pulled within 77-56 on a pair of free throws from Carlon Chambers with 3:02 left. The Spartans, who held VCU to just two points over the final 6:22 of the game, scored 16 of the final 18 points.
VCU won the rebounding battle for the sixth straight game, holding a 44-35 margin against Norfolk State. The Rams have outrebounded their last four opponents by more than 10 boards per game.
Long paced the Spartans with 19 points. Rachel Gordon added 12 and a team-best six rebounds.
VCU also posted a season-high attendance with the help of the Greater Richmond YMCA.
"I was really pleased with the fan support we had today," Cunningham said. "I'm really excited the kids from the YMCA got to come out and see us play. Our players really appreciate the support and it certainly helped them get fired up for an early afternoon tip."
VCU heads to Coral Gables, Fla., to participate in the annual University of Miami Holiday Classic Dec. 28-29. The Rams will face Morgan State on Dec. 28 at 5 p.m., before facing either Holy Cross or No. 7 Miami on Dec. 29.


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#KnowledgeFirst - How to track corporate news for your benefit?
Know more: http://ow.ly/ptSl50veIpn?#marketknowledge #KnowledgeFirst #marketknowledge
#CurrencyBuzz with Gaurang Somaiya; 29 Jul - 2 Aug 2019
A weekly Currency market review to give you a better perspective on the week ahead. #CurrencyBuzz
MOFSL in association with Stock Edge conducted a seminar on 'How to make Money from Stock Markets' in Mumbai. More than 200 participants attended the event.
#ResearchReport - AUTOMOBILES: Recovery still elusive; Inventory correction a priority; Volume base for PVs normalizes, but over 20% decline still expected.
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#ResultUpdate: HAVELLS INDIA: Lloyd facing stiff competition; Strategy in place but proving time consuming
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#ResultUpdate: JSW STEEL: Export orders, long-term contracts protect margins; Strong project pipeline to drive growth.
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Beautiful Antique Frames
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Text by Doris Athineos
Produced by Leigh Keno and Leslie Keno
Not many art lovers would be thrilled contemplating an empty frame. But when Leslie and Leigh Keno go antiquing, they keep their blue eyes peeled for the art around the art. The two favor handsome 17th-century Dutch ebonized frames like the one Leigh landed at a New Hampshire country auction for a three-digit figure. The missing portrait was replaced by silvered glass. "The frame is 400 years old, but it looks modern around a mirror," says Leigh. "It adds color and depth to a room."
High-profile Dutch ripple frames are impressive, but century-old American frames echo popular motifs prized by furniture fans (acanthus leaves, wheat stalks, rosettes) and are among the most undervalued antiques. "Dig around, and you can find 19th-century gilded wood frames for $200," says Leigh. They may be hand-carved or "composition" (a type of plaster over a wood base). "To buy that gilding today would cost a couple of thousand," he adds. Folksy, grain-painted frames also grab them. "The frames are painted dark red and decorated with black lines and swirls to look like mahogany," notes Leslie.
Of course, if a period frame still cradles its original painting, the Kenos and other art lovers prefer they stay together, especially when the artist himself designed the frame for a particular painting. "American Impressionist Childe Hassam designed his own frames and so did other artists," points out Leigh one sunny afternoon while gazing at an artful display of blank frames lining the walls at Gill & Lagodich, a downtown Manhattan period frame shop that feels like an artist's salon despite the missing pictures.
Founded by frame scholar Tracy Gill and restorer Simeon Lagodich, the shop contains some 3,000 frames, most a few centuries old. "Van Gogh, Degas, and Eakins all made their own frames," says Lagodicch, who is also a landscape painter. James McNeil Whistler called his own fluted-reed frames "as important a part as any of the rest of the work." Whistler even signed his frames (with a signature butterfly), hoping the two would never part. Even without the painting, a vintage Whistler-style frame can sell for more than $10,000.
American frame styles changed with the times and reflected regional differences. For instance, New Mexico's Taos School of painters favored frames with a Southwest patina (Roman gilding) and Native-American pottery designs. "The major American art movements, including the Hudson River School, American Impressionism, Social Realism, and Modernism, all influenced frame design," explains Gill, who has a soft spot for Aesthetic-style frames from the 1870s and '80s. "Aesthetic frames are eclectic, truly design overload," she says with a laugh. "They often look gold, but they're really burnished bronze. Some think they're too dark and Victorian, but I personally adore them." She recommends Aesthetic frames (on eBay or auctionzip.com for less than $100) for family photographs rather than paintings, where the wild patterns might compete.
Some of the earliest American frames "resemble plain window and door molding," adds Gill, a dog lover who once named a beloved Samoyed Sully, after American portrait painter Thomas Sull (1783-1872), who constructed his own bare-boned frames.
Like those early Yankees, mid-20th-century modernists shied away from curlicues and gilding. They preferred simple designs such as striations combed into gesso or wormy chestnut wood with a pale gray finish, Gill notes.
"Modernist frames from the 1940s and '50s are becoming popular," she says. The most prized were created by the Manhattan firm House of Heydenryk, founded in 1935 by framer Henry Heydenryk, who often collaborated with artists.
Many artists have designed, painted, or made their own frames. Stuyvesant High School Construction and World Trade Center is by artist Simeon Lagodich, who also made the frame.
This 17th-century Dutch baroque ebonized frame now fitted as a mirror sold for $3,000 at Sotheby's in 2008. Other ways to use old frames: as medicine-cabinet doors, serving trays, message boards, and room dividers as well as for children's drawings.
A notable framer of the early 20th century was Carrig-Rohane (Gaelic for "red cliff"). Founded by artists Hermann Murphy and Charles Prendergast (brother of artist Maurice) in Boston in 1903. (In 1911, the frame shop became Thulin-Murphy, then Vose Galleries in 1915.) Signature style? Hand-carved frames that harmonize with the painting. "The backs are painted terra-cotta color and are inscribed with the year and frame number," notes frames scholar Tracy Gill.
Another Boston framer was Foster Brothers, founded in 1875. Foster Brothers was known for ripple molding, elaborate hand-carving, and gilding.
Chicago-based framer Newcomb-Macklin was founded by John Newcomb and Charles Macklin in 1894. The firm was noted for its gilding and copies of frames made by Stanford White.
Aesthetic movement frames have super-stylized natural motifs that later morph into the whiplash lines of Art Nouveau. The design mashup appeals to romantics like Tracy Gill, a former senior editor at Victoria magazine.
Arts and Crafts frames are notable for their artisanal quality, with hand-carved and hand-rubbed patina. Favored by American Impressionists.
Modern frames exhibit subtle sophistication. Mid-century wormy chestnut frames (the frame shown here with ruffled edges) enhance without overpowering. Collectors prize Mod frames by the House of Heydenryk.
. Gold leaf. American Impressionists and architect Stanford White were gold bugs. Never tarnishes.
. Metal leaf. A mix of copper, tin, and zinc. Less formal; often used for Western scenes.
. Roman gilding. Bronze finish goes with grittier subjects. (Think Ash Can as well as Aesthetic and Taos schools.)
. Silver leaf. Cool look. "Good for snow and nocturnal scenes," says Gill. Tarnishes beautifully.
Framed (left to right): Leslie Keno, Tracy Gill, Simeon Lagodich, Leigh Keno.


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Arts & Culture
Gulag TunesBy Sophie Pinkham
One afternoon in 1943, just before a lunch date with Picasso, Dina Vierny was arrested in Paris. Three months later Picasso received her note, smuggled out with the prison laundry, saying she wouldn't be able to make it.
Vierny, the well-rounded young muse of Maillol's twilight years, had spent several months in 1940 leading refugees through the mountains from France to Spain. She met her charges at the train station, in her red dress, and they followed her, in silence, all the way to the Spanish border. She was arrested in 1940 and soon released, but by 1943 the Gestapo had the idea that she was some kind of Mata Hari, or perhaps a gold smuggler. During repeated interrogations, over the course of six months, she insisted that she loved hiking (which was true) and that she had been in the mountains buying cooking oil (which was false).
Born in Chisinau, Vierny was raised in a family that was both musical and politically radical. Her father, an Odessa Jew, was a pianist who lost his virginity to an anarchist during exile in Siberia, and her aunts were what Vierny calls "demoiselles nihilistes." Vierny had sung in the radical performance group Octobre, under the leadership of Jacques Prévert, and with the famous Dimitrieviches, émigré Roma cabaret singers. In prison, she sang for those about to be executed, every Saturday. She had a large repertoire, and she took requests: in her memoirs she says that one young Communist waiting to be shot asked her to sing Edith Piaf through the cell window. She never saw his face.


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Thursday, 11 October 2012
The Subways, O2 Academy, Newcastle
Thursday, 11 October 2012
Posted by Mammy P at 21:16 1 people had something to say about this... Links to this post
Labels: Concert Review, Music, The Subways
Friday, 6 July 2012
Faith No More - If I Can't Go, I'll Just Make It Up In My Head
Friday, 6 July 2012
You probably already know that there's more than one version of me – I've made no bones about it before. For example, in my professional life, I'm a meticulous planner and my Captain-von-Trappian organisational tendencies are unparalleled. But Weekend Nick? She is a pretty laid back kind of gal. You'll find her with hardly any makeup, and so non-committal flying by the seat of her ripped jeans she's nary a care in the world. Making long term weekend plans is not her thing. "We'll see," she'll say.
Except today, when someone asked me what my plans for the weekend were, my answer was out there without having missed a beat. "On Sunday I will mostly be moping, because Faith No More are playing two dates in London starting the day after tomorrow and I can't go." The tickets, dear readers, went on sale when I wasn't working, so buying them as well as booking a hotel and train tickets was kind of out of the question. But now, the time has come and I'm proper doomed about it.
I'll have a bit of a mope, and I'll get over it. I'll turn down my mouth and pout out my lip and puppy dog my eyes and do a bit of exasperated sighing and mooning. In preparation for this one-woman-pity-party, I spent a large part of today thinking about what kind of a setlist the band – who (unbelievably!) have so far eluded me for the duration of my gig-going tenure – might put together for the two London shows. And then I started dreaming up what kind of day I would have if I actually COULD get to the gig. And THEN, I started dreaming up exactly what kind of day I would have if I actually could get to the gig in a perfect world.
The last time I went to London was pretty hard to top, but I'll give it a whirl.
Okay. So if it's okay with you, I think I'll set off on Saturday on the train. First Class, do you think? Obviously. Not because I'm a snob or anything, but because don't you just love those seats that aren't next to anyone else's and you can get proper stretched out and comfy?
Mmm, yeah. Me, too. I'd have one of those, for sure.
As far as digs are concerned, if you have no wild objections, this suite at Claridges with the gorgeous piano will do nicely – is that okay?
|Not too shabby for me. No sir. Allll good here.
First I'll go for a pint of Moosehead at the Maple Leaf in Covent Garden. Then I'll rock up to Camden Market where I will buy a couple of new pairs of boots. And some trainers, probably.
I'd sashay contentedly back to my hotel, pad around in my bare feet and play that piano for a bit before going to bed, where I would sleep in an obnoxious diagonal, for at least nine hours. None of that would prove overly offensive, to be sure. What say you?
I'll fill Sunday in much of the same way, but not so as to wear myself out before the gig. I might go up to Rough Trade for a proper nosey around. I'll need a good hour in there, minimum. I might head to Trafalgar Square to see the lions. Maybe go to the Tate Modern and listen to the inside of my head for a while.
And then -- the reason I'd be down there in the first place – Faith No More.
And, notwithstanding of course – this guy:
|Mike Patton, Fantasy Husband
The setlist would include a good mix stretching the full length of their back catalogue and I'm not fussed exactly how they populate it as long as they include the following non-negotiables:
Remembering that this is a day constructed completely from fantasy, I'd throw in a couple of wacky covers as well – like the theme to the Muppet Show or some Kinks or Hollies or something. Still with me?
Continuing through the Faith No More gig of my perfect-world imagining, Patton would notice me in the throng trying not to wet myself half way through Stripsearch and pluck me out of the crowd with one arm (in this world I weigh only very slightly more than a Russian gymnast) and let me lie flat on my back in the middle of the stage to watch and listen.
Ah, feck it - we had better bring Jim Martin back while we're at it.
The whole thing would be mind-blowing and skin-crawling and legs-crossing and boobs-squirming and all the things that I'm certain the real gig is going to wind up being.
Ah, feck it - we had better bring Jim Martin back while we're at it.
The whole thing would be mind-blowing and skin-crawling and legs-crossing and boobs-squirming and all the things that I'm certain the real gig is going to wind up being.
And then after? I'd float two feet off the pavement, body buzzing, ears ringing, feet killing, throat bleeding, lungs stinging, head swirling back to the hotel. Too wired to sleep, I'd go down to the bar and have a quiet drink or two; that post-concert rapture making my bone marrow fizz.
And in the ultimate perfect world? At the exact same moment the barman pours me my second, Mike Patton, too wired to sleep and wondering where that enchanting green-eyed blonde wound up, descends from his Claridges hotel room looking for a drink.
Posted by Mammy P at 22:24 0 people had something to say about this... Links to this post
Labels: Concert Review, Faith No More, Fantasy Husband, Music
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Downed wires delay Metro-North trains
Damage to overhead catenary wires caused delays of up to 90 minutes for thousands of Metro-North commuters Friday morning.
That followed a fire last Saturday that damaged a switching station in the Cos Cob section of Greenwich.
On Friday, there was another problem in Cos Cob when a contractor's crane pulled down wires that power the trains. At around 5:40 a.m., the crane operator was lifting ties there as part of a track maintenance project, spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said. She said that the crane operator was not injured.
The overhead lines carry 11,000 volts of electricity.
In order to make these repairs, the power feed between Cos Cob and Harrison had to be shut off. Train service was suspended in both directions between Stamford and Harrison, N.Y.
"Our guys did a tremendous job. We had everything back up within two hours," Anders said. "I know it was difficult (for riders), but it wasn't as bad as it could have been.''
The problem came a day after Metro-North announced a sweeping series of reforms designed to improve the safety and reliability of the railroad.
Hundreds of frustrated passengers crowded the Stamford train station and bunched on platforms waiting for service to resume. A train heading to Grand Central full of commuters sat for a half hour.
A man who would only give his name as Alan and had been sitting on a train for about 15 minutes, said, "It's a little frustrating when you pay for a monthly ticket and hope to get good service into the city." Alan, 55, works in the construction industry in New York City.
Optometrist Janine Albanese, 28, who had been waiting on a second Grand Central-bound train for 30 minutes said, "I'm not surprised. This has been a bad year for Metro-North."
"Things like this happen, and as commuters, we have to roll with the punches," said Myles Block, 37, a financial director.
"It was a fire yesterday, a different reason today -- it's normal," said Carl Livermore, who commutes regularly from Cos Cob to Grand Central. Looking at his timetable he said, "They should say these are suggested times." His wife told him, "They should add `ish' at the end of each time," he said.
Repairs of the Cos Cob switching station that burned could take 18 months, Anders said.
The railroad is currently operating on two tracks in each direction because the ability to switch trains to different tracks was lost due to the fire. Metro-North had been running inbound trains on three tracks for the morning commute and reversing that for the evening, she said.
An interim fix is expected to be implemented in a few weeks.


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Hubblo VR - Real-time reality - 3D360º videos of "happenings" and selfies.
I"m hot on what I call "Time Shifted Reality", but this device claims "Real Time" Reality in 3D360º splendour for those who can't be in the right place at the right time. So anyone who wants to expand their audience for immersive experiences beyond a physical location can simply do it with the push of a button. Hubblo VR leads a new era of personal broadcasting with an all-in-one, hardware-driven social VR platform that live-streams 3D360º videos of programming, "happenings" and even selfies.
More than just a camera, Hubblo offers a whole personal broadcasting service.
Keytree - Virtual Retail Experience
Vuzix M100 and potential for Consumer Smart Glasses
One of the first commercially available of the Smart Glasses is from Vuzix who is specifically targeting the professional, industrial and prosumer sectors with this product. Also seen from Vuzix at Showstoppers and on the CES exhibition floor was their next generation lens technology which could be the beginning of consumer appropriate see-through Smart Glasses. These enabling technologies will only take hold if a large number of valuable industrial and eventually consumer applications become available.
A wearable camera and near eye display coupled to context awareness enabling sensors, plus an open Android Applications platform able to store or connect to relevant information is a killer combination for enabling a wide range of valuable professional and industrial use cases. There is a ready market for this device. Desk-less, hands-free work environments are the killer sectors.
Making this unobtrusive, fashionable and even undetectable is the key to wide spread consumer use, simply because the value propositions already exist and are a high value subset of what smartphones are taken out and used for now, but will extend well beyond that when the consumer friendly, wearable technology becomes available.
Vuzix is breaking important new ground in both areas with their commercially available M100 monocular Smart Glass product and with thin, see through lens technology ready to deploy in normal looking consumer eyeglasses formats.
At CES 2014 they were showing Industrial Applications on the M100s developed by industrial partners and VAR's.
They were also showing patented Waveguide lenses which will be used in their consumer Smart Glasses. Hopefully we will see these as products at CES2015 :-)
Virtual Reality (VR) head gear - getting lighter and HD
Virtual Reality, 3D, head tracking and HD video are coming now in smaller packages which are much more wearable. Whether laying back just watching a movie or especially when jumping around playing an action packed video game this is good news. The latest from Vuzix builds on many years of experience and delivers a comfortable large screen experience (stated by them as 55° FoV) and has head tracking, 720HD, 3D and compatibility with a large portfolio of games as with earlier models. Existing products (1200 series) available now, but the V720 coming in second half.
I saw and tried the Avegant Glyph at the press only Pepcom event. Reasonably nice unit, comfortable and the screen experience was okay, but couldn't focus my left eye so couldn't get the binocular image together. They said this was a problem with the prototype, but can't give this high marks without seeing the optics working properly. At this point it appears to be video viewing eyewear and not a VR games platform. Didn't get a clear idea of availability and what their initial products will be, but definitely one to watch. They are having a Show 'n Tell session in London next month, so I might get a better idea at that.
Sony showed a new HMD and it seemed to have all the bells and whistles, and must be considered a contender for many reasons. Not always easy to tell if this is a serious business initiative or an attention getter. As an attention getter it was a success for them at CES!
The one that gets the prize for bulky is the Oculus Rift. Every time I try one of these on I am amazed by the quality, but soon start feeling strange and have to take it off. I have yet to see anyone using these that wasn't holding on for dear life with two hands! The latest prototype that they showed that apparently do head tracking better (with an external camera) is even bigger.
everyone is excited, but it all reminds me of the 1990's! They seem to have gotten enough funding to get this right though.
Basically, if there is really a huge market for these they are on the right track, but unless they can connect with smartphones and do immersive 3D VR games I'm just not sure. They can of course do this for the video, but the head tracking and control channels are not yet standardised for this to happen soon. Come on Apple, get your API's in shape!


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Okay, okay. So we all know it's actually a relative of the prairie dog that gets all the fame and glory right about now. Still we thought the holiday was a good reason to call Theodore Roosevelt National Park and check on the prairie dog colonies there and, more importantly, if they're paying attention to their shadows.
Rangers at TR National Park say the mild temperatures this winter have meant our prairie dogs have been very active, especially on sunny days. Unlike the groundhog, prairie dogs do not hibernate. They go into what's called a "winter sleep" allowing them to continue to burrow and eat during the winter and also scamper on those sunny days.
In the South Unit, the scenic drive loop passes through three large prairie dog towns. In the North Unit, no dog towns can be seen from the road but there is a one-mile hike from the Caprock-Coulee parking area toward a town. There are an abundance of wildlife viewing opportunities in the Park and information about prairie dogs and other watchable wildlife is shared online.
In addition to not hibernating, prairie dogs differ from their larger cousins in another way: groundhogs prefer to live on their own while prairie dogs connect their burrows to huge colonies. The colonies in Theodore Roosevelt National Park collectively span 11,000 acres!
Another great place to see the rare black-tailed prairie dog is at Fort Stevenson State Park, on the north shore of Lake Sakakawea. There is signage directing visitors to the prairie dog colony and explaining a bit about them. Sully Creek State Park near Medora, has a colony right outside the park. Colonies can also be found on private land, mostly in south central and western North Dakota.
So that one question remains – do prairie dogs pay attention to their shadows and predict the length of winter? We invite you to visit North Dakota and see for yourself!