Alex Cox’s Repo Man sequel Repo Chick is finally going into production next month (January 2009). Production Weekly reports that David Lynch is producing the project.
The original 1984 film told the story of Otto, a newly hired repossession man who goes in search for a mysterious Malibu carrying a high value package which was taken from a government lab and has strange effects on anyone who views it.
Cox has previously said that the follow-up will “unfold against the background of the credit crunch and the subprime mortgage crisis in the US, where repossessions of homes, cars and other forms of property is at a new high. ‘The repo business has expanded to everything from boats, houses, aeroplanes, small nations…children”.
I have included the trailer for the original film below for your viewing pleasure.
Not a whole lot in terms of news here, but New Line/Platinum Dunes have put out a brand new full-length trailer and a sweet new poster for the upcoming horror remake of Friday the 13th.
The movie is directed by Marcus Nispel (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and stars Jared Padalecki, Amanda Righetti, and Derek Mears. It’s being released on Friday, February 13, 2009.
The trailer pretty much confirms what we’ve all wanted all along — yes, this movie will have a whole new, clean and modernized look, but this is by all means the Jason Voorhees we all know and love. The only detail that’s yet to be seen and clarified is that long, blond hair we saw on some leaked pictures a while ago, but so far, all looks pretty perfect. You even catch a glimpse at Jason in his burlap sack!
The poster is pretty damn simple, but certainly gets its point across. Click the image to see it big and beautiful.
A NEW Zealand pro-cannabis groups says it has scientific evidence that cannabis can stop the development of mad cow disease.
It was not clear whether the findings applied to both cows and humans.
The National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (Norml) said a French study showed cannabidiol might be effective in preventing bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), known as mad cow disease, the New Zealand Press Association reported tpday.
Scientists at the National Centre for Scientific Research in France found cannabidiol - a non-psychoactive ingredient - may prevent the development of prion diseases (progressive neurodegenerative disorders), the most well known of which is BSE, Norml said.
Researchers found cannabidiol inhibited the accumulation of prion proteins in infected mice and sheep.
Norml spokesman Chris Fowlie said the discovery added to the scientific evidence supporting a bill from a New Zealand Greens MP to legalise the medicinal use of cannabis.
"(It) should be supported by any MP with a clear head. Unfortunately most politicians act like mad cows whenever cannabis is mentioned," Mr Fowlie said.
LONDON, England (CNN) -- As Zimbabwe battles a cholera epidemic that has already killed hundreds, one company thinks it may have found a potential solution to the world water crisis.
A shortage of clean drinking water has unleashed a cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe.
Element Four, a small Canadian firm, has applied its water technology to create the WaterMill, a novel electricity-powered machine that draws moisture from the air and purifies it into clean drinkable water.
The compact WaterMill, which goes on sale in the spring, is designed for household use.
More crucially for countries such as Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Element Four is also working on another device, the WaterWall, which could potentially supply an entire village in the developing world.
The team at Element Four shares an ambitious goal: to quench the world's growing thirst for water. Now the 10-person company is taking on a challenge that global multinationals have struggled to meet.
Solution for the world water crisis? The WaterMill creates clean drinking water from air.
Rick Howard, the CEO of the company, says it was at a U.N. conference on water in New York last summer that he realized just how revolutionary Element Four's technology might be.
"There we were on the same stage as GE, Dow Chemical and Siemens, and it was a complete shock to us when we heard the solutions they were offering. We realized we had something that could effect change," Howard tells CNN.
The WaterMill draws in air through a filter and then cools it into water droplets. This water then passes through a special filter and is exposed to ultraviolet light, which rids it of bacteria.
Vital Signs
Each month CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta brings viewers health stories from around the world.
The product Element Four is designing for the developing world is called the WaterWall and is constructed by taking several of the water-making cells of the consumer appliance and hooking them up in series on a wall.
The U.N., which has declared 2005-2015 the International Decade for Water, expects 1.8 billion people to live in regions with absolute water scarcity by 2025.
It's no wonder then that Element Four is being closely watched by the tech world. The WaterMill is being displayed at the Wired Store in New York, a temporary store the magazine opens every holiday season that showcases the future of technology.
About one in five people in the world lack access to safe drinking water, and shortages pose serious health problems for much of the developing world.
Lack of clean water, coupled with poor sanitation practices, can lead to outbreaks of water-borne diseases, such as cholera and dysentery, which in turn, can cause life-threatening forms of diarrhea. More than 500 people have died in Zimbabwe. See more about Zimbabwe's cholera crisis »
Diarrheal disease is the third leading cause of death from infectious diseases, and the majority of those deaths are among children under the age of 5, according to the WHO and UNICEF. Most of those deaths could be prevented if improvements to sanitation and drinking water were made.
But can an invention like the WaterWall really help ease the world's water shortage and help prevent health disasters like the outbreak in Zimbabwe from occurring in the future?
"There are some brilliant inventions out there, but they are expensive and difficult to get hold of," says Paul Jawor, an emergency water and sanitation consultant with international aid organization Doctors Without Borders.
The WaterMill retails for about $1,300, but Howard estimates that a pared down version -- without the bells and whistle -- for use in places like Africa would cost about $300.
The biggest challenge of a product like the WaterWall, Howard says, is the power consumed by the water-making cells. To counter that, the product is designed to turn on in stages so it doesn't overload fragile power grids.
In comparison to solutions like desalination, which can cost billions of dollars to develop, that's cheap. "For about $300 we can start saving lives. Ours is a very scalable product," Howard says.
But there are skeptics. Frank Lawson, an engineering adviser at international charity WaterAid, said the solution Element Four is devising wouldn't be appropriate for the charity's projects.
For one, the technology doesn't work in very dry climates. The machine only functions at or above about 35 percent relative humidity levels.
Furthermore, it requires an energy source. "Our technologies have to be within the capacity of the benefiting community -- both technically and financially," Lawson says.
WaterAid uses a number of low-cost and sustainable solutions, such as rainwater harvesting and hand-dug wells, to help communities in more than 17 countries access water.
But those solutions depend upon the availability of water in the area, and fresh water supplies worldwide are feeling the squeeze from population growth, pollution and climate change.
Howard admits the company needs to focus on growing its business first, so it may be some time before the Element Four's products make their way to the developing world.
"We quickly came to realize that if we didn't first build a business to perfect the product and application, then we weren't going to be able to get to a point where we could have a significant humanitarian impact," he says.
But Howard and partner Jonathan Ritchey are in various stages of discussions with several humanitarian groups in the field. Howard declined to name the organizations.
It's early, but the company's core principle is "to do good as we do well," he says. "That's part of truly what drives us -- knowing that at some point we will be able to do some significant good."
Diffuse starlight and dark nebulae along the southern Milky Way arc over the horizon and sprawl diagonally through this gorgeous nightscape. The breath-taking mosaic spans a wide 100 degrees, with the rugged terrain of the Patagonia, Argentina region in the foreground.
Along with the insider's view of our own galaxy, the image features our outside perspective on two irregular satellite galaxies - the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Recorded on January 28, the scene also captures the broad tail and bright coma of Comet McNaught, The Great Comet of 2007.
Photo by Miloslav Druckmuller (Brno University of Technology)
We have always been warned that coughs and sneezes can spread diseases. But now the true scale of the risk has been revealed.
A single wayward sneeze from a rush-hour commuter can end up giving up to 150 fellow passengers a cold in just five minutes, researchers have found.
Unless they are contained in a tissue or handkerchief, the germs spread so quickly that within seconds they are being passed on via handrails on escalators or seats on trains, said their study.
The researchers surveyed 1,300 workers about their health and found almost all commuters suffered at least one cold last winter.
Atishoo! Each sneeze is said to contain 100,000 droplets
The results were analysed by cold and flu expert Dr Roger Henderson, who looked at the daily commute of the sneeze itself.
A single sneeze expels 100,000 droplets into the air at a speed of 90 mph. Individual droplets get transferred to handles, rails and other areas constantly held or touched.
Up to 10 per cent of all commuters will come into contact with an area infected by that one sneeze, Dr Henderson calculated.
In the busiest areas, such as escalators at stations, this amounts to around 150 people during rush hour, he said.
The research found that in contrast, only 58 per cent of those who work from home regularly caught a cold last winter.
This compares with 99 per cent who travel by Tube, 98 per cent who go by bus and 96 per cent of train passengers. But it falls to 88 per cent of those who walk to and from work, according to the survey.
A new survey says up to 10 per cent of all commuters will come into contact with sneeze-infected areas
Regular commuters are well aware of the symptoms of others even though they are not always sympathetic, the researchers added.
They found 20 per cent are annoyed by fellow travellers sneezing without using a tissue and 33 per cent are angered by those who cough without covering their mouths.
Men are more likely to be at fault - one in three do not carry a tissue compared with 81 per cent of women.
Relentless sniffing gets on the nerves of 12 per cent of travellers, although throat-clearing is only an issue for three per cent.
But most will either walk away or grin and bear it. Only eight per cent will actually say anything to an annoying sneezer or cougher sitting next to them.
Perhaps they realise they are just as guilty as two thirds (67 per cent) admit to travelling in to work even when they are feeling ill.
Hanna Nowak, of Lemsip Max All In One, which conducted the study, said yesterday: 'We can't totally avoid germs but we can do a lot to stop them spreading, especially when you're on a crowded commuter train.
'Think of others before you sneeze without a tissue, otherwise in just five minutes you may have infected other commuters and won't be the only one feeling poorly.'
The company is offering cold and flue advice which includes stocking up on tissues and not leaving old newspapers behind.
It also recommends having a laugh because the immune system is said to work better when we are happy, so reading jokes or funny books can help.
A netbook as we’ve come to know it is a small laptop that is cheap. That’s about it, although the term can be confusing, as larger notebooks are sometimes called netbooks, since that is currently the hot buzzword. So you want to get a small, cheap notebook (or netbook) if you will, what are the five things you should know before plunking down your cash? 1. How are you going to use your device?
This may be the most important thing to determine prior to a netbook purchase as it plays a role in the things covered in this article. The term netbook implies you will want to do web surfing and work with email, and all netbooks can do this well. However, netbooks are full laptops and can be used for a lot more than that, and many purchasers want to do a lot of the same things they do on other computers. Netbooks can be used for word processing, spreadsheet work and the like, and these can be factors in which operating system to select, as well as the size of the screen and keyboard. Many users want to use iTunes with their iPhone or iPod; that means you need a netbook that runs Windows XP.
2. How much screen do you need? Netbooks come with three different size screens, and it’s important to think about how big a screen you need. The smallest screen found on netbooks is 7 inches — that’s small! — and these display at a resolution of 800 x 480 which doesn’t show much on a single screen. The next size up is 8.9 inches and these often run at 1024 x 600, which is a big step up in screen real estate. The largest screen size — 10.2 inches — is rapidly becoming the standard for new netbooks, and these also run at 1024 x 600. A good rule of thumb is: Get the biggest screen you’re comfortable carrying around if you intend to be highly mobile.
3. How small of a keyboard will you tolerate? When you’ve purchased computers in the past, you probably didn’t give a lot of thought to keyboard size, but it can be a critical factor for many netbooks users. Netbooks small size means scaled-down keyboards that fit the width of the device. This can have a tremendous impact on your ability to comfortably type for extended periods. Netbooks with 7-inch screens are the narrowest, and these keyboards can be as small as 80 percent of a full-sized one. It is almost impossible to touch type on these tiny keyboards. The bigger netbook keyboards (ones with 10 inch screens) are usually 90 percent the size of a full one, and the key spacing of most of these is fine for normal typing. A lot of netbooks on the market are produced outside the U.S. and many have non-standard key placement, so be sure you take a good look at this, as it can negatively impact fast typists.
4.Do you need the (heavier) extended battery? Some people just want a netbook to surf the web in front of the TV at home; for those folks battery life is not that important. But if your needs are more mobile, then it’s worth considering the battery life of your options. Netbooks usually ship with either standard or extended batteries, which are usually 3-cell or 6-cell batteries respectively. Battery life can be as short as 2 hours or less with the standard batteries, so get the extended battery if at all possible. These can typically provide 4 hours of mobile juice which is a lot better than the 3-cells. Remember that the bigger the battery the heavier the netbook will be as you carry it around. An extra half pound of weight doesn’t seem like very much but when you add that to an already packed gear bag it can get awfully heavy by the end of a long day. Of course, your battery will last for more of that long day too.
5.Can you walk away from Windows? This was originally not a decision factor as early netbooks only shipped with the Linux operating system. This was fine with geeks, but everyday customers soon began to demand a more familiar OS. Some netbooks shipped with Windows Vista early on, but the performance on the hardware typically used in netbooks was not good enough. OEMs have since shifted to include Windows XP on most netbooks currently available, and this has become the de facto standard. If you want a standard environment or want to install any Windows software you already own, XP should be your choice of OS. There are many different variants of Linux in use on netbooks, and it can be daunting to get familiar with an operating system you haven’t used.
By MARK WILLIAMS, AP Energy Writer Mark Williams Ap Energy Writer – Fri Dec 5, 4:50 pm ET
AP – Regular unleaded gasoline sells for $1.32.9 per gallon at a Valero station Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008, in …
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Oil prices hit four-year lows Friday as employers cut the highest number of jobs in 34 years. The continuing decline in prices is so dramatic and so sudden that it is raising the prospect that gas prices could soon fall below $1 a gallon.
The worst jobs data in 34 years on Friday just added more fuel to the deepening global recession as U.S. employers slashed a far worse-than-expected 533,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate rose to a 15-year high of 6.7 percent.
A gallon of gasoline can be had for 50 cents less than it cost just last month, and people are starting to talk about $1 gas.
Granted, gas prices are a long way off from that magic number last seen in March 1999 when prices were at 97 cents a gallon, according to motor club AAA. Prices at the pump fell 1.6 cents overnight to $1.773 nationally, according to AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.
But consider what has happened since July 11 when a barrel of oil hit a record $147.27 and a gallon of gas was $4.117 on July 17. In less than five months, oil has fallen 72 percent.
Just this week, in which the National Bureau of Economic Research determined that the U.S. is in recession, oil has fallen 25 percent.
On Friday, light, sweet crude for January delivery settled at $40.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down by nearly $3 per barrel. Prices fell as low at $40.50, levels last seen in December 2004.
Gasoline futures for January delivery tumbled to 90 cents.
For gas prices to get close to a $1, oil prices probably would need to fall another $10 a barrel — something that would have been impossible to fathom during the first part of this year as oil prices soared near $150 per barrel.
"Just seeing that '1' up there is just hard to imagine," said Kevin Keating, 65, an attorney as he filled up his Volvo S60 at a station in Phoenix that advertised prices at $1.67. "Wasn't that long ago that we worried about the '4' being up there."
Prices in New York City are well above the national averages, but still well off their highs of nearly $5 this summer.
"When gas prices are OK, we make a little profit," said Mamady Kourouma, 36, a cab driver from Guinea who paid $2.41 a gallon at a station in Chelsea.
With wages stagnant, home prices plummeting and foreclosure rated soaring, dollar-a-gallon gas may help mom fill up in the family minivan and cab drivers in New York City, but prices that low also would truly speak to how rotten the economy has become.
"The economy at that point worldwide would be in a serious, serious deterioration," said Geoff Sundstrom, spokesman for AAA.
Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service, said Thursday on his blog that retail prices could fetch $1.25 a gallon soon in parts of the Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.
Already, some parts of the country are seeing prices around that level. The Web site gasbuddy.com, where motorists can post local gas prices, motorists can fill up for $1.29 in Neelyville, Mo., a village of about 500 people near the Arkansas state line.
The jobs number suggests that demand for gasoline, which has been running well below year-ago levels even with the cheaper prices in the last several weeks, will fall even more in early 2009 as work-related driving plummets, said Kloza.
"I believe that January 2009 will represent the most 'challenging' and ugly economic month of my lifetime, and my first memory is of Sputnik," Kloza said.
There is plenty of reason to suspect Kloza is right.
Since the start of the recession, the economy has lost 1.9 million jobs, the number of unemployed people has increased by 2.7 million and the jobless rate is up 1.7 percentage points. The meltdown in financial markets has crushed lending, the Detroit 3 are on the brink of bankruptcy without a big government bailout.
Friday's report was much deeper than the 320,000 job cuts economists were forecasting. If there is a plus side it is that the unemployment rate did not climb to the 6.8 percent level economists were expecting.
Kloza does not believe prices will make it to a $1. Gas prices neared a dollar last time on Dec. 18, 2001, three months after the terrorist attacks and the country in its last recession, when prices hit $1.08 a gallon.
Though the weak gasoline prices point how bad the economy is, they also could help it turnaround.
Kloza figures the U.S. gasoline bill at $1.75 per gallon average will be about $20.5 billion this month, down about $16 billion a year ago. Five years ago, the bill was $17.2 billion.
"That could be one important spur to some kind of economic recovery," Sundstrom said.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures tumbled 6.83 cents to settle at 90 cents. Heating oil slid 8.26 cents to $1.4265 a gallon while natural gas for January delivery shed 24.7 cents to sell at $5.77 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, January Brent crude slipped by $2.42 cents to $39.86 on the ICE Futures exchange.
___
AP Energy Writers Ernest Scheyder in New York and Chris Kahn in Phoenix contributed to this story along with Associated Press writers George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, and Alex Kennedy in Singapore.
In an announcement that no one likely saw coming, legendary actor Peter Fonda (Easy Rider, Ulee’s Gold) as well as Judd Nelson (The Breakfast Club, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) have both joined the cast of Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day.
This news, released by DCP Boondock II Productions, comes as filming has just about finished over in Toronto, so it seems as if director Troy Duffy has been saving some of the best for last.
Mr. Fonda will be playing a character who has quite the intriguing name, The Roman. No word as to who The Roman is or what he does, but it sounds nice and scary to me. Judd Nelson will be playing Concezio Yakavetta, whom I’d be silly not to assume is a member of the mafia family from the first film; likely seeking revenge for his fallen brother? Maybe cousin? Could be interesting.
As we know, the movie also stars Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus as the Saints and Billy Connolly as their father Il Duce. Also new to the party is Clifton Collins Jr. as Romeo and Julie Benz as Eunice.
This is all just another level of excitement added on to the pile that Boondock fans already share, so it should be a good time!
Regardless of whether you give gifts for Christmas, Chanukah, or Kwanzaa, you have just a couple of weeks left to get your shopping done. Or, if you're like us, you have only a couple more weeks to make sure those around you have fully absorbed your heavy hints about what you really want this year. In case your loved ones regard you as one of those guys who has everything (meaning there is nothing left to buy you), we've assembled a little list to remind them that you indeed do not have it all just yet.
Car Planet's line of enviro-friendly car-care products is "green" even without wrapping paper or bows. The company's founder, a successful car-wash business owner, kept running into environmental issues when trying to open new locations. As a result, he formulated a line of professional-quality cleaners that are biodegradable and non-toxic.
The lineup currently includes a car wash, wheel cleaner, glass cleaner, all-purpose cleaner, tire dressing, and rain repellant. Despite being easy on their surroundings, they are all extremely effective. Car Planet's Tire Shine (which really isn't shiny at all) is particularly impressive, leaving clean tires with a rich, natural finish. In the near future, the company plans to extend its line to include paint cleaners and waxes, as well as interior cleaners and conditioners.
They are kitschy, and more than a little tacky, but what else says "gearhead" more than drop-forged stainless flatware with open-end, box-end, or adjustable wrench ends for handles? How about a genuine piston-cup coffee mug? Perhaps a wine glass with an exhaust valve for a stem and a gear for a base?
Wrenchware is perfect for the guy who literally eats, drinks, and sleeps in the garage — no longer will the family serviceware end up out there. Now they just need to come up with butter knife that actually works as a screwdriver.
Be honest with yourself — you will never own a Ferrari Enzo. Don't worry, neither will we. But that doesn't mean you can't daydream at your desk once in a while. GMP Diecast has built a dead-accurate 1/6th-scale replica for your desktop. Available in either Corsa Rosso or Fly Yellow, the miniature dash is mounted on turned aluminum posts. With the flip of a switch, the instrument cluster lights up to show you a tachometer and speedometer that, sadly, will always rest at zero.
If your garage is your sanctuary, perhaps it's time to upgrade the scenery. Garage Scenes prints some of the coolest automotive imagery on seamless sheets of heavy-duty vinyl for you to mount on your garage walls. From iconic Route 66 locales to black-and-white shop scenes of the original Carroll Shelby garages, these murals will put a smile on your face every time you park your car.
FFor around $400, you get a piece of automotive art measuring nine and a half feet by more than six feet. Some pieces are even larger, measuring up to 11 by nine feet. The collection of photography, which includes gas stations, driving roads, drag racing, and vintage and modern racing scenery, is breathtaking. But perhaps not as awe-inspiring as the licensed Shelby Works photos, which show numerous Cobras and Daytona coupes in various states of hand construction. Hang one of these prints in your stall and you'll soon be the talk of the neighborhood.
If you can't swing four bills to dress up your garage, perhaps a few selective bits of "petro-mobilia" can give you a similar effect. Graphics Express manufactures high quality steel reproductions of vintage oil-company signage. Mobil, Polly, and Gilmore are all authentically represented on everything from 12-inch round to mammoth 30-inch signs.
The company also does Route 66 shields for each of the eight states the Mother Road once passed through. For a more authentic display, go for the distressed look with optional bullet holes and rust.
The Regional Touring Series ($12 each) includes 25 to 40 scenic drive routes for each region of the country (24 in total), and is a great way to discover new and interesting places when traveling. The Get Outta Town Series ($7 each) features five to seven scenic drives that take you away from the hustle and bustle of the nation's 25 largest metro areas — perfect for a last-minute weekend getaway.
The Regional Touring Series ($11.99 each) includes 25 to 40 scenic drive routes for each region of the country (24 regions total), and is a great way to discover new and interesting places when traveling. The Get Outta Town Series ($6.99 each) features five to seven scenic drives that take you away from the hustle and bustle of the 25 largest metro areas in the country — perfect for a last-minute weekend getaway.
Maybe you like the idea of a driving shoe you can wear to work, but you've always felt the brightly colored Pilotis of the past were just a bit too loud for your taste. The Prova CL is a more grown-up shoe that you can wear to the office, even when it's not Casual Friday.
A mid-top design, the Prova CL is made of butter-soft leather and looks particularly stunning in the vintage cuio (Italian for leather) finish. Naturally, it features Piloti's patented roll-control heel for comfortable footwork and the signature Piloti tire-tread sole for everyday comfort.
There are books about Porsches, and then there are books about Porsche. This limited edition hardcover (500 will be printed) is the definitive chronicle of Dr. Porsche's early engineering achievements, before he made history with the KdF-Wagen and his own sports cars.
In addition to more than 570 images and wonderfully illustrated cutaways of early Porsche cars, the 496-page book also shows original sketches created by Herr Doktor.
Randolph Engineering may not be the first name to come to mind when you think of aviator glasses — unless you're an Air Force pilot. Since 1977, Randolph has been supplying aviation crew glasses to the military, and they're now available to the public as well.
Less than a hundred bucks gets you a pair of green-tinted lenses in black, silver, or 24K gold-plated frames. For another $40, you can upgrade to gray polarized lenses, and there's no charge for choosing bayonet, skull, or cable temple styles. As you'd expect from a product built to military specs, the lightweight construction is top-notch, with double-hinged arms. They're perfect whether you consider yourself a Maverick or merely an Ice Man.
DETROIT — Medical marijuana became legal in Michigan on Thursday, but smoking a joint could still get patients arrested because the regulations needed to protect them won't be ready for months.
The law approved by voters in November allows patients with cancer, HIV, AIDS, glaucoma and other diseases to use marijuana to relieve their symptoms on a doctor's recommendation.
Qualifying patients can register with the state and receive ID cards allowing them to legally acquire, possess, grow, transport and use a limited amount _ no more than 2.5 ounces and 12 plants _ of marijuana. They also can designate a primary caregiver to receive similar protection.
But those cards won't be issued until the Department of Community Health introduces guidelines addressing how applications will be handled, what fees will be charged and other issues. The rules must be finalized by April 4.
Until then, anyone possessing marijuana _ even patients who could later qualify for the program _ can be arrested and prosecuted, though the law allows patients to use a medical-justification defense at trial.
"We have this void where this takes effect now, but there are no rules, regulations or guidance for the people who want to use it or the people who enforce the laws," said Jim Valentine, chief of police in Lowell and first vice president of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police.
Officers in Lowell will arrest marijuana users even if they claim to be patients awaiting cards, Valentine said. He said he'll let the prosecutor decide whether to pursue charges.
A medical-marijuana program nearly identical to Michigan's was implemented without major incident in Rhode Island in 2006, said Charles Alexandre, who oversees the program as chief of health professions regulation in Rhode Island's Department of Health. That state also had a period where the law went into effect before the regulations were in place, and patients simply had to wait until the rules were in order.
"It's been very quiet," Alexandre said.
Michigan is the 13th state to allow medicinal use of marijuana, though the state's law doesn't address how patients can obtain it. It's illegal to sell marijuana, even to registered patients. That's also the case in several other states.
Police in Michigan say they want guidance on the issue, and some experts said the Legislature may have to intervene if that or any other aspect of the program becomes a problem.
It's the All-Digital Future — $100 Netflix Box Streams 15,000 Films
At the start of 2008, the Web-streamed movie experience still felt like a half-baked preview of its potential. Digital delivery required expensive hardware, and you paid extra for each rental (cough, Apple TV ... cough, Vudu). It wasn't the future we'd hoped for. Then came Roku's Netflix Player, the $100 video box that could summon more than 15,000 titles at no charge for Netflix subscribers. It was a revelation, wherein we learned what streaming video was supposed to feel like: nothing. That nothing changed everything. So go ahead, tear through all four seasons of The Office on a whim (then the original British version for good measure). Watch Strays because there's nobody home to exercise a Vin Diesel veto. For movies you can't stream, you still get your little red envelopes. And the same Roku box you love now will support hi-def streams when Netflix offers them. This little treasure chest is the real thing, straight from the all-digital future. Full review of the Roku Netflix Player
Rob Spence looks you straight in the eye when he talks. So it's a little unnerving to imagine that soon one of his hazel-green eyes will have a tiny wireless video camera in it that records your every move.
The eye he's considering replacing is not a working one -- it's a prosthetic eye he's worn for several years. Spence, a 36-year-old Canadian filmmaker, is not content with having one blind eye. He wants a wireless video camera inside his prosthetic, giving him the ability to make movies wherever he is, all the time, just by looking around.
"If you lose your eye and have a hole in your head, then why not stick a camera in there?" he asks.
Spence, who calls himself the "eyeborg guy," will not be restoring his vision. The camera won't connect to his brain. What it will do is allow him to be a bionic man where technology fuses with the human body to become inseparable. In effect, he will become a "little brother," someone who's watching and recording every move of those in his field of vision.
If successful, Spence will become one of a growing number of lifecasters. From early webcam pioneer Jennifer Kaye Ringley, who created JenniCam, to Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell, to commercial lifecasting ventures Ustream.tv and Justin.tv, many people use video and internet technology to record and broadcast every moment of their waking lives. But Spence is taking lifecasting a step further, with a bionic eye camera that is actually embedded in his body.
"The eyes are like no other part of the body," says Spence. "It's what you look into when you fall in love with somebody and [influences] whether you trust someone or not. Now with a video camera in there, it will change how people see and perceive me."
It's an interesting and innovative idea, says Yonggang Huang, a professor in the departments of civil and mechanical engineering at Northwestern University. Huang, along with University of Illinois professor John Rogers has developed a web of micro-sensors to enable eye-shaped cameras. Huang is not involved in Spence's project.
"It's very clever," says Huang of Spence's quest. "It is not a true eye but it provides the way for people to record images in life as they see [them] and store [them]."
Spence lost his right eye at 13 while playing with his grandfather's gun on a visit to Ireland. "I wanted to shoot a pile of cowshit," he says. "I wasn't holding the gun properly and it backfired, causing a lot of trauma to the eye."
This short video by Rob Spence shows the operation in which surgeons removed his sightless eye. Warning: Graphic imagery may be unsettling to many viewers.
After the accident, he returned to Belleville, a small town two hours east of Toronto, where he grew up. Spence became technically blind in the eye, and over the years, his vision deteriorated completely. Three years ago he had his eye removed and a prosthetic one inserted. Ever the filmmaker, he even made a movie out of his surgery. But it wasn't an easy decision.
"When you completely lose an eye it is a difficult thing to let go of," he says. "The eye has an emotional attachment. It is a window to your soul."
Spence wore an eye patch for a while, which he says looked cool. But once he started thinking about having a camera in his eye, Spence got in touch with Steve Mann, a professor at the University of Toronto. Mann is one of the experts in the world of wearable computing and cyborgs -- organisms that blend natural and artificial systems.
"There are a lot of challenges in this," says Mann, "from actually building a camera system that works, to sending and receiving images, to getting the correct shape of the camera."
Even in the age of miniaturization, getting a wireless video camera into a prosthetic eye isn't easy. The shape of the prosthetic is the biggest limitation: In Spence's case, it's 9-mm thick, 30-mm long and 28-mm high.
While that might seem like plenty of room in an age when digital cameras are squeezed into unimaginably slim and compact phones, it actually isn't. The average area available inside a prosthetic eye for an imaging sensor is only about 8 square mm, explains Phil Bowen, an ocularist who is working with Spence. Also, a digital camera has many more components than the visible lens and the sensor behind it, including the power supply and image-processing circuitry. Getting a completely self-contained camera module to fit into the tiny hollow of a prosthetic eye is a significant engineering challenge.
That's where Professors Huang and Rogers' research could come in handy. Three months ago, the duo published a paper that showed how a new sensor built out of a flexible mesh of wire-connected pixels could replace the traditional flat imaging chip as the light sensor for a camera. The mesh is made from many of the same materials as a standard digital-camera sensor, but it has the ability to conform to convoluted, irregular surfaces -- like the back of a synthetic eyeball.
"Our cameras might more naturally integrate with a prosthetic eye, due to their hemispherical shapes," says Rogers. "One might also argue that they can provide a more human-like perception of the world."
Then there's the question of how the prosthetic eyeball (the outer shell for the camera) will be made. The eyeball chassis has to close shut and be watertight.
Traditional prosthetic eyes are single pieces made with polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA), a flexible polymer that is also used in dentures. To fit a camera in, Bowen redesigned the prosthetic eye into two pieces that could snap shut.
But with a camera inside there's something new to worry about. The modified prosthetic eye will be heavier than traditional ones and that could affect the eye socket, says Bowen. "The weight might stretch out the lower lid," he says, potentially disfiguring the face.
Assuming the size, weight and water-tightness issues can be solved, Spence has a vague idea of how he thinks it can work. A camera module will have to be connected to a transmitter inside the prosthetic eye that can broadcast the captured video footage. To boost the signal, he says he can wear another transmitter on his belt. A receiver attached to a hard drive in a backpack could capture that information and then send it to another device that uploads everything to a web site in real time.
If it sounds rather cumbersome and complicated, it is. Spence and his team are still working to find the right answers.
He hasn't been able to get the bigger camera companies to work with him. "Part of problem is if you cold call somebody it sounds like there is a maniac on the other end of the phone," he says. "This whole idea confuses and overwhelms most people."
"Right now I am begging, borrowing and stealing camera modules from different cameras to make a stage one prototype," says Spence.
Spence is not the only one attempting to implant a video camera in his eye socket -- artist Tanya Vlach is working on a similar project -- but if he's successful he will be more than just another cyborg. The documentary film he's making about his efforts, plus the experience of living with a video camera in his eye, could help build greater awareness about the culture of surveillance in our society today, he says.
"No one is going to ban surveillance cameras," says Spence. "It's more about being aware of it. It's about giving a shit in the first place."
Having a bionic eye doesn't mean Spence will be recording all the time, he says. Unlike lifecaster Justin Kan, Spence is not promising to broadcast all of his life's moments. (Even Kan reneged on his promise within a few short months, as soon as a romantic opportunity presented itself.)
Spence is willing to turn off his camera in spaces such as gyms, theaters or private events. But he will be making many of those decisions on the spur, every day. "I wouldn't behave that differently than someone with a cellphone today," he says.
Even though his project is still in its early stages, Spence says many people have already told him they wouldn't be comfortable being filmed.
"People are more scared of a center-left documentary maker with an eye than the 400 ways they are filmed every day at the school, the subway, the mall," he says.
He hopes he will help get people thinking about privacy, how surveillance cameras and the footage they record are being used and accessed.
"Sometimes I run a little experiment," he says. "I tell people around me, 'Did you know there are 11,000 new video cameras being installed in our country every day?' Then I will exaggerate and say there are 50,000 new video cameras going in everyday," says Spence. "Most of the times I get the same answer: 'That's interesting. Now what's for lunch?' or 'The weather is nice today.'
"I wonder what those people will say when they are staring back into the video camera in my eye?"
Saltwater-loving plants could open up half a million square miles of previously unusable territory for energy crops, helping settle the heated food-versus-fuel debate, which nearly derailed biofuel progress last year.
By increasing the world's irrigated acreage by 50 percent, saltwater crops could provide a no-guilt source of biomass for alt fuel makers and tone down the rhetoric of U.N. officials worried about food prices, one of whom called the conversion of arable land to biofuel crops "a crime against humanity."
While growing crops in saltwater has been on the fringes of horticulture for decades, the new demand for alternative energy has pushed the idea onto the pages of the nation's most prestigious scientific journal and drawn the attention of NASA scientists.
Citing the work of Robert Glenn, a plant biologist at the University of Arizona, two biologists argue in this week's Science that "the increasing demand for agricultural products and the spread of salinity now make this concept worth serious consideration and investment."
Glenn has been arguing for the value of all kinds of saltwater farming to a small but growing audience for nearly thirty years, but it is the demand for biomass to turn into fuel that brought NASA calling. His team's report for the agency estimates that salt-loving crops could be used to produce 1.5 billion barrels of ethanol annually on a swath of new agricultural land almost five times the size of Texas.
"I'm convinced that saltwater agriculture is going to open up a whole new expanse of land and water for crop production," Glenn said. "Maybe the world hasn't needed a 50 percent expansion in irrigated agricultural land because we've had enough food, but now that biofuels are in the mix, I think it's the way crop production should go."
The world's population has grown by five billion people since 1900 to an astounding 6.7 billion today. Despite the population explosion, food production — primarily animal feed and commodity cereals like wheat and rice — has been able to keep pace. But the food system has been severely stressed by a variety of factors, including the increasing use of arable land to grow energy crops to turn into biofuels.
Even if energy crops didn't cause all or even most of the precipitous rise in food prices in 2007, most social and environmental groups agree that the best location for bioenergy crops would be on currently unusable land. That would ensure that land used to grow food crops in poor countries wasn't converted to growing energy crops to power cars in developed nations.
A key question has remained, though: where exactly will humans find a whole bunch of unused land that is still good for growing crops?
Overly salty land could play a large and previously underappreciated role. That's because there's plenty of previously uncultivated territory in the world's coastal deserts, inland salty soils, and over-salinized agricultural land.
After taking into account environmental protections and other factors, Glenn's report estimates that 480,000 square miles of unused land around the world could be used to grow a special set of salt-tolerant plants — halophytes. Glenn's team calculated that this could produce 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent per year. That's 35 percent of the United States' liquid fuel needs.
Halophytes thrive in saltwater. While salt damages most plants, these salt-loving plants actually use the saltwater to draw in fresh water. In essence, they make themselves saltier than the surrounding water, which, through osmosis, drives fresh water into the plant.
These plants are attractive candidates for both food and fuel because they have very high biomass and oil seed yields. The Science authors note that one leading halophyte-candidate, Salicornia bigelovii, produces 1.7 times more oil per acre than sunflowers, a common source of vegetable oil.
"[Some halophytes] yield even more than things like switchgrass and they'll be grown on land that's just not used right now," said Glenn.
Of course, turning halophyte biomass into fuel will require further cost reductions in the production of biofuel from cellulose. Research into cellulosic ethanol continues around the world at a breathtaking pace and many industry observers expect the next five years to yield enough breakthroughs to make the technology economical.
Halophytes could also be part of the solution to another environmental problem: heavily-salinated wastewater from large farms. Right now, that water is dumped into manmade wetlands. For example, in California, the Imperial Valley authorities dump their salty water into the Salton Sea.
"That's a huge ecological problem waiting to happen," said Glenn.
After absorbing 80 years of agricultural runoff, the Salton Sea is 25 percent saltier than the ocean, and is facing serious ecological problems. Instead of pumping salinized water into these wetlands, the farms could capture that wastewater and use it to grow halophytes. Already, Sharon Benes, a plant scientist at Fresno State, has been planting test plots in the San Joaquin Valley.
But even if halophytes can help solve some of the world's environmental problems, Glenn is realistic about the difficulties of changing agricultural systems.
"I started in aquaculture back in the early 70s and we thought, golly, aquaculture is going to save the world. Looking back, it's been 35 years, but over half of the key fisheries products come from aquaculture, it just took longer than people thought," Glenn said. "I think it's the same thing with saline crop production."
Citation: "Crops for a Salinized World" by Jelte Rozema and Timothy Flowers. Science, doi 10.1126/science.1168572
Image: Salicornica bigelovii and Salicornica virginica growing in Galveston, Texas
MAASTRICHT, Netherlands, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- A Dutchman known as Europe's most committed sperm donor says he's fathered 46 children and is willing to keep at it.
"I do it because I know how hard it is for people who desperately want a child," said Ed Houben, a tourism guide from Maastricht.
One of the reasons Houben is so popular, he said, is because many men stopped donating sperm three years ago when the United Kingdom said donors no longer could remain anonymous, The Sun reported Monday.
As a result, British women are going to other countries to find a sperm donor or having sperm samples sent to them, said Houben, noting women find out about him through the Internet and through word of mouth.
Houben, who said he's never had sex with any of his children's mothers, recently held a party at his home for his children and their families.
"The kids had the chance to play with their half-brothers and sisters, which was nice, said Houben.
STARTING in 1965 with the DB5 in “Goldfinger,” Aston Martin has been linked at the tuxedoed hip with James Bond; gadget-packed Astons have been driven by Connery, Lazenby, Dalton, Brosnan and Craig.
But given the economy, anyone who can still afford a $270,000 Aston Martin DBS might inspire a real-world film, with enough supervillains and world domination to make 007 quiver. Call it “The Man with the Golden Parachute.”
Wafting above the crowd is certainly the point. With 510 burbling horsepower from the V-12 power plant, angry stockholders vanish in the mirror. Seething mobs of the unemployed are drowned out by the 1,000-watt Bang & Olufsen sound system.
The shift lever is placed a bit too far rearward on the console for ideal shifting, but the lever itself is easy and precise.
C.E.O.-envy aside, the roughly 300 Americans who will drive home a DBS this year need to know the score. First, ignore the self-appointed accountants who have questioned why the DBS costs $100,000 more than the Aston DB9. I mean, these people drive Hondas.
The DBS and DB9 share a lightweight aluminum chassis and the 5.9-liter engine block under their stretched hoods. But the DB9 has been around six years, a virtual eternity for people who want the latest and greatest. Second, the lovely DB9 — designed by Ian Callum before he cribbed from himself to create the Jaguar XK — looks even more Jaglike next to this muscled-up Adonis.
The DBS isn’t just one of the world’s prettiest cars. It pulls off the tricky feat of looking insanely fast and expensive without rubbing everyone’s nose in it. For all its power — a 4.2-second eruption gets you to 60 m.p.h.; top speed is 191 — the Aston is a classic GT, a proper Brit with a noblesse oblige you won’t find in a flaming yellow Lamborghini.
That Aston heritage dates to 1914, but it took Ford to revitalize the moribund company. After 13 years of full ownership, Ford sold out last year to a consortium backed by Kuwaiti oil investors and led by David Richards, a British motorsports entrepreneur.
I spent my first day with the DBS balancing euphoria with skepticism. I figured it would drive like any traditional Aston: a buttery high-speed cruiser with a concert-hall V-12, but too soft and gentlemanly to sully itself on twisty roads.
Instead, after a warm-up, the Aston sliced through the countryside like an English football hooligan, but with a better singing voice.
A dashboard switch maxes out the computer-controlled shocks for high-speed duty, keeping the Aston’s body pinned to the ground like a manhole cover. The standard ceramic composite brakes — which can cost up to $15,000 extra on other exotic cars — could stand a bit more initial bite, but were triple-espresso strong.
An honest-to-God manual shifter — increasingly rare in cars of this caliber — amplified the fun. The lever is placed a bit too far rearward for ideal shifting, and the clutch’s iffy take-up requires practice for smooth starts. But the lever itself is easy and precise, topped with a slab of cool metal. A paddle-shifted automatic is an option.
Then there’s that engine, which sounds like money being torn in two. A valve in the exhaust system cocks open under heavy throttle to release the battle cry of the V-12. On that note, the DBS got a dismal 12 m.p.g.
On this car, pretty much everything that isn’t lightweight aluminum is even more expensive carbon fiber, from the featherweight hood and interior door trim to the angry-looking aerodynamic diffuser at the rear. It adds up to a relatively svelte 3,737 pounds, about 100 fewer than the main competitor, the $310,000 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano.
Swan doors swing open on a slightly upward angle, clearing curbs that would gouge the typical low-slung sports car. High sills make for body-scrunching entry and exit, but it’s worth it once you’re inside. Semi-aniline leather and a suede headliner were a perfectly matched deep red, making the cabin look like a boutique bordello.
Gauges look as fine as a Swiss chronograph. But while I’ve gotten used to the strange tachometer that spins counter-clockwise, there’s still no red line to show peak engine speed. How much could it cost to paint a red stripe on that thing?
Other nitpicks, just to make clear that I’m not a total sucker for beauty: lumbar controls are buried between the seats and console in a “Where’s Waldo?” arrangement. A cheap-looking navigation screen rises from the dash like a ghoul from the crypt of Kia. And the key is called the Emotion Control Unit, which is appropriate since it forced me to keep my temper in check. This fiddly chunk of genuine sapphire and stainless steel must be inserted into a slot just right or the car won’t start.
There’s a small parcel shelf in the rear but owners can opt for a tiny back seat instead — for children who haven’t been sent to boarding school.
Buyers seeking unrivaled GT performance may choose the 612-horse Ferrari. The 599 GTB is decisively faster than the Aston and its handling is a bit purer. But in my view, the 599 GTB — which even zealots wouldn’t cite as an all-time great Ferrari design — can’t beat the Aston’s looks.
Such fantastical comparisons tend to embarrass me anyway; it’s like asking which superhero would make the best and fastest sushi chef. (My money’s on Aquaman.)
Still, most car fans, including auto writers, keep a fantasy list of cars we imagine we’d buy if we struck it rich. For what it’s worth, the DBS is the first Aston GT to make it onto my mental bedroom wall. Surely there’s no harm in wondering how much a used DBS will fetch in 10 years.
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All you art collectors out there. Here is a chance to get a Giclee copy of some of Ian M Sherwin work. Ian is planning on doing a whole series of Marblehead, Massachusetts paintings. His work is amazing.
Alex Cox’s Repo Man sequel Repo Chick is finally going into production next month (January 2009). Production Weekly reports that David Lynch is producing the project.
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