Category Archives: Culture

Film Review: Petropolis

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Documentary filmmaker Peter Mettler takes an original and effective way to tell the story of the Alberta tar sands. This 45 minute documentary it told mostly visually. Shot entirely on a helicopter, it is aerial shots of oil projects that are shocking and beautiful.

The devastation looks different from above.

Canada’s tar sands are the second largest oil reserve in the world. Estimates at 174 billion barrels of oil. This area is the size of England. I recommend you see this film. Not just because it is original and visually stunning but because we must stop our dependency on the power of petroleum. The environmental devastation and damage to the health of any breathing thing in the vicinity is not worth the price. At the Q & A afterwards it was revealed that birds have to be scared of from landing near the tar sands as they get sick and die.

In light of the current problems with the BP oil spill this film is more relevant than ever. Well done to Greenpeace, ( who funded and produced the film in Canada ) Dogwoof and the Co-operative for funding such a brave and shocking film.

To find out more about the film go to www.petropolis-film.com.
To find out more about Tar Sands go to www.toxicfuels.com

Elephant Parade

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As an animal lover I can barely contain my glee at the 250 elephants that have sprouted up all around London. Far from just pretty artwork – no, not real elephants! – they are to raise awareness of the Asian Elephant that is threatened with extinction. In the past 100 years, the elephant population in Asia has shrunk by 90%. In another 30 years, it could easily vanish altogether.

It is a social enterprise founded by father and son Mike and Marc Spits. The benefits of the Elephant Parade are donated to the Elephant Family, the largest elephant charity in the world.

Mark Shands is the founding trustee of Elephant Family. The preferred charity of The Elephant Parade. It is the only charity just for the Asian Elephants.  The Elephant Family Patrons are Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, Goldie Hawn, Sir George Martin CBE, Duchess of York, Tanaz Dizadj, Priya, and Cyrus Vandrevala.

The Elephant Parade took pace in other capitals of Europe in previous years. Happily, it is not London’s turn.  All elephants will be auctioned to raise money for this charity.

These “objets d’art” will be enhancing the London scene between 22 April – 14 June. If you pop down Carnaby Street there is even a gallery.

To donate, volunteer or to find out more – go here: http://www.elephantfamily.org/

Theatre review: Marianne.

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Marianne. Wimbledon Studio. 15 May 2010.

This play about a couple who lose their only child may not sound like a good way to spend an evening. However, the play is both funny, meaningful and painfull in it’s truthfullness.

When Marianne dies in a freak accident, Cath and David lose a daughter. Allie loses a best friend and Ash gains a heart. They all deal with their grief in different ways. Cath ( Played by Lynn Howes. Who gives a stunning performance ) looks for some kind of meaning in the pointlessness of her daughters death. She longs to understand death and have some kind of closure. Taking her to London and the boy ( Ash. Played by Simon-Anthony Rhoden. ) who received her daughters heart. The clash in culture and in greif – in both life and death – is well written and really makes you think.

David is stoic. Trying to move on, tending to his flowers. All the while dealing with his wife’s, more obvious grief. She uses him as an emotional punching bag. He loves her so he doesn’t mind. David is played by Leighton Pugh. All the cast are amazing. The top of their field.

Allie, ( Natasha Campbell. ) who was Marianne’s best friend is a rebellious teenager who things she is grown up. She visits the couple to try and re-connect with her best friend. She feels they are the only people she can talk to. She is falling in love for the first time and everything is a big deal. Across generations, bonds are made and the healing begins.

The play is beautiful and poignant. The kind of play that makes you think and, more importantly, feel. Cath cannot come to terms with the death of her daughter. She is stuck in a limbo. Thinking her husband has healed while he dies inside. In the end, with help from Allie and Ash they both learn and move on. Their marriage is saved. Life begins again.

This play was written by Anna Jordan. I would keep an eye on her. She is definitely going places.

Leighton PuLeighton Puggh, Lynn Howes, Natasha Campbell and Simon-Anthony Rhoden

Researchers create the first synthetic self-replicating living cell

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Researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute published results yesterday describing the successful construction of the first self-replicating, synthetic bacterial cell. They’ve christened it Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 (I like to call it Mike). Working from that idea that “In essence, scientists are digitizing biology by converting the A, C, T, and G’s of the chemical makeup of DNA into 1’s and 0’s in a computer. But can one reverse the process and start with 1’s and 0’s in a computer to define the characteristics of a living cell?”; Venter calls it ‘the first self-replicating species we’ve had on the planet whose parent is a computer’.

The scientific team headed by Drs. Craig Venter, Hamilton Smith and Clyde Hutchison spent 15 years working on the first synthetic bacterial cell. Always conscious that the work they were doing was monumental; throughout the course of this work, the team contemplated, discussed, and engaged in outside review of the ethical and societal implications of their work. JCVI say “The ability to routinely write the software of life will usher in a new era in science, and with it, new products and applications such as advanced biofuels, clean water technology, and new vaccines and medicines.”

The genomes were designed on the computer, chemically made in the laboratory and transplanted into a recipient cell to produce a new self-replicating cell controlled only by the synthetic genome.The team have also designed and inserted what they’ve called watermarkes into the cell that don’t create any proteins but contain a hidden code. These are specifically designed segments of DNA that use the “alphabet” of genes and proteins that enable the researcher to spell out words and phrases. The watermarks are an essential means to prove that the genome is synthetic and not native, and to identify the laboratory of origin. Encoded in the watermarks is a new DNA code for writing words, sentences and numbers. In addition to the new code there is a web address to send emails to if you can successfully decode the new code, the names of 46 authors and other key contributors and three quotations: “TO LIVE, TO ERR, TO FALL, TO TRIUMPH, TO RECREATE LIFE OUT OF LIFE.” – JAMES JOYCE; “SEE THINGS NOT AS THEY ARE, BUT AS THEY MIGHT BE.”-A quote from the book, “American Prometheus”; “WHAT I CANNOT BUILD, I CANNOT UNDERSTAND.” – RICHARD FEYNMAN.

Scanning electron micrographs of M. mycoides JCVI-syn1

Incase you’re worrying that the new cell’s going to escape into the outside world JCVI say that “researchers will be able to engineer synthetic bacterial cells so they cannot live outside of the lab or other production environments. This is done by, for example, ensuring that these organisms have built in dependencies for certain nutrients without which they cannot survive. They can also be engineered with so called “suicide genes” that kick in to prevent the organism from living outside of the lab or environment in which they were grown. ”

The potential for this research and the next steps for JVCI’s researchers are exciting. “The team is now ready to build more complex organisms with useful properties.  For example, many, including scientists at SGI, are already using available sequencing information to engineer cells that can produce energy, pharmaceuticals, and industrial compounds, and sequester carbon dioxide.”

Venter maintains that it’s not a second genesis as they’ve not created life “from scratch” but as they’ve used an existing cell; they’ve created a new species. This new cell has around 1 million base pairs into a coherent genome.  By comparison, the human genome contains more than 3 billion pairs, so don’t don’t worry about synthetic mammals any time soon.

[JCVI]

Is it Snake Oil? – Interactive Infographic

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It’s hard to know what’s good and what’s guff, should you be taking vitamin supplements? Will my anti-oxident rosehip cranberry echinacia lavender infusion cure my indecision or should I plump for a green tea? Will that weight loss suppliment advertised on Facebook actually work? Afterall, it is on Facebook, so it must be true?! There’s so much confusing and conflicting information what we really need is someone to take all the evidence and put it into some sort of pretty picture.
If there’s one thing the people behind Information is Beatiful have proved that interactive graphics definately improve my attention span.
The creators have this to say about the image and information they used: “This image is a “balloon race”. The higher a bubble, the greater the evidence for its effectiveness. But the supplements are only effective for the conditions listed inside the bubble. We only considered large, human, randomized placebo-controlled trials in our data scrape – wherever possible. No animal trials. No cell studies..”
This visualisation generates itself from this Google Doc. So when new research comes out, they should be able to quickly update the data and regenerate the image. The spreadsheet also references the source of the research; if you’re interested in that sort of thing.
 

Time-Lapse video of Eyjafjallajökull's plume {Misc-uity}

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An incredible video by Sean Stiegemeier shot on a Canon 5D mkII. Describing his video he says “So I saw all of these mediocre pictures of that volcano in Iceland nobody can pronounce the name of, so I figured I should go and do better.”

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull – May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

As It Occurs To Me {Radio}

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Richard Herring returned to London’s Leicester Square theatre on Monday night to record the first in a new series of his stand-up and sketch show, As It Occurs To Me. Aided by comic actors Emma Kennedy and Dan Tetsell, with music from Christian Ryley, the show is, put simply, about whatever has occurred to Herring over the past week, whether they are things that have happened to him or his thoughts on things that have happened in the news. It shares a similar feel to his previous radio work, such as Fist of Fun and That Was Then, This Is Now, but because it is an Internet podcast, he can push the boundaries of comedy and decency as far as he’d like without having to worry about editorial interference or broadcasting guidelines.

For eight weeks, the show is recorded in front of a live theatre audience, who pay £10 each, which covers the costs of the production before the recording is released online, for free. It might seem a little odd to pay to see something which is then made available free of charge, but audience members get pretty good value for money. There’s a great atmosphere at the recordings which has seemed to be improving week by week, with final episode of the first series having a real party feel. But also, something new for this second series is that Herring opens with an exclusive 45 minute stand-up set, not available in the podcast, where he interacts with the audience, tells stories from some of his previous stand-up shows and mentions things that didn’t make it into the main show. This week, the audience was told of his experiences of being heckled by an octogenarian at the British Library and the time he wrote his “first book”, when he had a job inputting names and numbers into the BT phone book database, and changed his flatmate’s name in the listings to “Stewart Wee”.

The style of humour is very similar to the best of Lee and Herring’s work. On the surface, much of it is puerile, adolescent and often offensive, but always knowingly so. But it’s the anecdotal comedy that works best, like the story of meeting Scream actress Neve Campbell to discover that she “didn’t know how to pronounce her own name” or the discovery of an old notebook full of stories written by the a nine year old Richard Herring. Also, like Lee and Herring’s work, a lot of the humour comes from repetition, something which is regularly signposted. Favourites from the first series included the show’s only sound effect, a roulette wheel, which made it’s way into every episode, and “Tiny Andrew Collins”, Tetsell’s version of the broadcaster Herring shares his other podcast with, who isn’t a million miles away from Kevin Eldon’s Rod Hull character from Fist of Fun. The new series starts with Herring promising to drop all of the old catchphrases and running gags, but you can be sure that they’ll make a reappearance.

Herring writes the show within 48 hours of the performance. While it’s quite a feat to produce eight fully-formed comedy shows over such a short space of time, it’s just one sign of his prolificacy. As well as AIOTM and the Collings and Herrin podcast, he has been writing a daily blog for the last eight years, recently published a new book, been filling in for Adam and Joe’s BBC 6music show, just finished touring his excellent Hitler Moustache show, is about to bring a new version of his Christ on a Bike stand-up show to Edinburgh and is, occasionally, allowed on the telly.

The first episode of the new series is available now and is worth a listen if you’re not averse to very strong language. It includes the story of the cast’s night out at the Sony Radio Academy Awards, for which the podcast was nominated, which apparently turned out to be a moneymaking ruse by “Ian Sony”, plus a moving and not at all depraved tale of love between one man and one talking hotel lift. If you enjoy it, then it’s worth coming down to the Leicester Square Theatre and joining in the fun.

As it Occurs to Me is available on iTunes or to download from The British Comedy Guide

by Blake Connolly

London Unveils a New Bus Design

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The final design of the New Bus for London, based on the Routemaster, was today unveiled by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and London’s Transport Commissioner, Peter Hendy.

The bus will be 15 per cent more fuel efficient than existing hybrid buses, and 40 per cent more efficient than conventional diesel double decks and much quieter on the streets.

The pioneering design makes use of lightweight materials, with glass used liberally to make it feel less claustrophobic. An impressive glass ‘swoop’ at the rear and offside pick out the two staircases and provide a dramatic visual effect. An asymmetric design for the front-end completes the futuristic look.

The new design features an open platform; similar to the Routemaster of old; and allows the reinstatement of a hop-on, hop-off service. Three doors and two staircases will aid speedier and smoother boarding. There will be two conventional doors and an open rear platform, which has the option to be closed off at quiet times for example during the night.

Boris said: “This iconic new part of our transport system is not only beautiful, but also has a green heart beating beneath its stylish, ‘swooshing’ exterior. It will cut emissions, and give Londoners a bus they can be proud of, complete with cutting edge design, and the freedom of an open platform.

“I expect to eventually have hundreds of these on London’s roads, and for cities around the globe to be beside themselves with envy for our stunning red emblem of 21st century London.”

Wrightbus and Transport for London have been working with Heatherwick Studio as a collaborative design partner taking the lead on the styling of the bus to support Wrightbus in the design and development process.

Wrightbus engineers are working on a static mock up of the bus to be complete later this year with the first prototype to be delivered late next year, the new buses will enter service from early 2012.

See the design of London’s New Bus up-close in pictures and video

by Genevieve Sibayan