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Photos you can refocus: Lytro promises camera within a year
Startup company Lytro is claiming to be close to launching a camera that allows any point of focus to be specified after the shot is taken. The concept behind the device, called a light-field, or plenoptic camera has surfaced regularly over the past few years, but now Lytro, founded by Stanford PhD Ren Ng, says it will have a product ready within a year. The concept uses a series of microlenses to split the incoming light rays across multiple sensor pixels, depending on the angle from which it arrived. This additional information about the angle of the arriving light makes it possible to recalculate different focus points after the image has been shot, but at the cost of lower image resolution. The company hasn't, as yet, provided details such as its system's output resolution. (From the New York Times)
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What a beautiful technology. i am sure in very near future Canon can use it in it's photgraphy equipments.
I am unable to focus in the black square located at (75%,75%) of the frame from the top left. It either focuses at the square in (50%,80%), or at the square located at (80%,70%).
I think this picture just has 3 or 4 planes of focus. It's like 3 or 4 pictures stacked. So you cannot actually choose precisely where to focus...??
This has been done for years, but the marketing wasn't geared up and that company was aiming at quality not quantity.
They have 4 or 5 cameras on the market and they even retro-fit all DSLRs with the capture system - so the only thing new is Low-Res point and shoot!
- Steveclix
So revolutionary, that it will even change a lot of photography concepts.
Watched the interview with the CEO, been on their web - if this holds true, this is a true paradigmn shift for photography .
My Pentax K5 has focus bracketing - it should be easy to develop a software to construct something similar in result like the LYTRO technologie - something like HDR for focus.
Best regards
This reminds me of the "we, real photographers, ..." LiveView discussions and decades earlier ones in other media about autofocus. :-)
This allows you to achieve
* Single-shot stacked focus (everything in focus)
* Single-shot, single-lens 3D (actual 3D depth map - not stereoscopy)
* Adjusting the focus after the fact.
Page 25 of the company's CEO's Ph.D thesis makes it clear what they are doing: http://www.lytro.com/renng-thesis.pdf
Necessarily, this method of capture trades off resolution for ability to "play" with the 3rd dimension and how finely. I.e. if you take a 20MP conventional sensor and use it for this application, if the fidelity of depth control is to be similar to what is indicated on the demo pic above, the image resolution would be somewhere around 1 megapixel.
This sounds like a non-starter; however if one were to take the compact camera or cell phone pixel density and put it on a full-frame sensor, one could counter the resolution problem.
Investment scam, pure and simple. The guy is laughing all the way to the bank. Whether or not the camera/software combo has any real value is irrelevant to the business.
not necessarily. Some of the claims are hard to believe indeed, like capturing ALL the light ways in the vicinity even the ones not reach the camera's lens, or the infinitely adjustable focus. In reality, the amount of information recorded will likely be about the same as on conventional still cameras. The concept is interesting though.
I think one of the points Lytro was making is that if 10 megapixels can be squeezed into a compact camera sensor, then 250 megapixels can be squeezed onto the dimensions of a full frame sensor. No manufacturer does it because it makes little sense. Here's a case where it might.
Reading the comments below, it's obvious that most of you are completely misled.
Plenoptic imaging brings forth more than just "depth-of-field" control. It brings about the ability to change the perspective of the image after the fact, and opens the door to auto-stereoscopy. Changing the focus after the fact is a great feature, the purpose of which isn't to gain more DOF as most of you seem to be obsessed about: There is such a thing as creative use of limited DOF, and the ability to shift the focus in an image is also quite literally the ability to shift the point of attention — changing the character and subject of an image radically.
Where's the effect of Lytro here? This is just a DOF and Macro to any good lens?
They need to market this to other companies not come out with a one trick pony so-so no name camera.
The ability to "refocus" a photo on the fly is a nicety. The real value lies in an image completely in focus. Perfect for casual snaps of the family. Where can I find out more on the hardware? The site is very vague.
Ren Ng's camera has slightly less ability to achieve "everything in focus" DOF than you get from just stopping down a lens. His own analysis is about a stop less.
Things will get even more interesting when industry decides on a standard and couples light field photography to microlensed displays. Then there will be no need to process the images, the viewer's eyes and brain will do all the processing: refocusing, perspective correction, depth perception, etc.
The first steps have been taken for 3D TVs without the need for special glasses, the first steps have been taken for light field photography, now combine the two!
Wow!!! Very interesting!
So we won't have no more Front Focus or Back Focus problem to worry about...
So...can software process the image so that all planes are in focus? Infinite depth of field?
No. People keep asking this. There aren't really "planes", you gain the ability to select DOF in a range defined by the decimated or subsampled lens aperture. For example, Ren Ng's prototype decimated an f4 lens by a factor of 13.5, which made the DOF "range" that of an f54 lens. Except that by the time the math is done, you can't actually get the f54 sample, at best, you get about f28.
So, not only is the depth of field not "infinite", it's actually less than you'd get by just stopping down a lens on a conventional camera.
It's like an automatic transmission. For someone who enjoys the art of photography, it's blasphemy. For someone who wants the best pictures of a moment, it's a no brainer.
I notice that in the sample given, the place where I click to refocus really doesn't correlate at all well with where the focus ends up getting put.
I'm excited about this. It may not work perfectly,and it may not be for everyone, but developments of this sort are certainly good for photography. There are so many talented photographers on dpreview.com and elsewhere, I can't wait to see what everyone can achieve with this camera.
The sample seems only to have two planes of focus. There's also a rather obvious grid pattern in the distant plain areas.
Great if it could work and give well resolved images. It would be the first time I'd not regretted choosing a different focus point. I'll be interested to see if Dr Ng can make a success of it.
I can't get focus except front and back extremes. I.e., nothing in the middle range. Is this an intrinsic short-coming or is the image just a simulation?
it's the devil I tell you :))
Ultimately, most digital camera users are 'lazy' and want instant gratification.
This will likely mean that results will only ever be used to show what has just been taken, on the camera LCD, or posted on-line for others to play with.
Anything else and it turns every user into a RAW photographer, having to process all their pictures, and there is great resistance to that among the vast majority of users.
Indeed, to add choosing point of focus and perhaps depth of field to any adjustments of exposure, white balance and cropping makes the task of post-processing far too long-winded or intimidating for all but the keenest and I think the novelty might soon fade.
I'm certain it will have it's place, as with 3D cameras, but it won't be mainstream anytime soon.
What makes you think you'll have to wait for post-processing to see the results? I think that eventually (that is, not any time soon) there will be a consumer version of this with a touch screen, you take a photo, and then choose on the touch screen right then what you want in focus. Save, done. My idea, PM me in 2020 please, for details of where to send the royalties to.
This site shows how the images can be re-focussed, I must say I think it's impressive!
great idea and tech! But in my opinion, it's not practical and useless for prints. And this technology makes a photographer lazy and less skilled on photographing a subject.
What is the differences with Adobe Magic Lens?
Adobe cheats a bit.
Ren Ng. specified a microlens speed equal to the lens speed, so the plenoptic projections on the sensor are minimally overlapping circles. Adobe uses longer microlenses, which allows overlap. This limits the refocusing effect.
So, a Ren Ng setup, with an f4 main lens and f4 microlenses at 13.5x the pitch lets you refocus your f4 slice anywhere within the DOF of an f22 lens.
The Adobe setup, with the same number of microlenses, lets you refocus anywhere within a narrower DOF range, say an f4 slice of an f11 DOF. It lets you "tweak" focus, but doesn't allow for the insane examples that Dr. Ng shows off. On the other hand, that approach has less effect on resolution. But it's even more computationally intensive, and I'm not sure what the payback for the Adobe approach is. Aside from not having to breech the sensor to build one. ;)
Well , interesting development upon imaging side , but I am not seeing Nikon , Canon or anyone being threatened. It will still require a decent lens, a decent camera, and mostly this require a highly resolved sensor level capture to give us equivalent of todays.
The technology is useful, especially for many industrial / surveillance / scientific need. But its not going to replace good old photographic capture the old way.
Macro shooters will rejoice. Shooting stacks will be a thing of the past!
Not even close. Plenoptics only gives you the ability to decrease DOF from a maximum DOF set by the parameters of the microlens array. Dr. Ng's prototype could select DOF from f22 to f4, and to do that, he paid a terrible price in resolution, reducing a 16mp camera to 0.088mp.
If you can tolerate resolution that low, you can stop a lens down to f300 on FF, f200 on APS, and have 10-15 times the DOF of Dr. Ng's camera. That's how P&S cameras with tiny sensors get away with such huge DOF in their macros, by lowering resolution. Not to this silly an extreme, though.
Stacking goes in the other direction. A 100 shot stack at effective f11 (still critically sharp on APS) has the DOF of f*N/2 = f550, but the resolution of f11.
Maybe it won't be this exact camera or company, but this concept, once the necessary hardware horsepower has been developed, could put Canon, Phase One, Nikon, Leica, and all the others out of business. It will finally be possible for photographic artists to achieve their vision without the hassles of switching lenses, and bad focus, and lens aberrations and all the other baloney we have to put up with. Friction-free photography is almost here.
Hurry Dr. Ng, hurry.
No, it won't put anyone out of business. ;)
It doesn't let you get around switching lenses. In fact, since the plenoptic process dramatically decreases resolution, it reduces your ability to crop images to size, and increases the need to frame tight, so you zoom more and switch lenses more.
As far as lens aberrations, the only one of those that plenoptics addresses is curvature of field, and it addresses that incompletely.
Correction -- spatial resolution reduction in the example is by a factor of 64, from 256 megapixels to 4 megapixels. Much better.
From page 60 of the thesis (http://www.lytro.com/renng-thesis.pdf) I understand that if each microlens covers m x m pixels and the image was taken at f/N then the image can be refocused anywhere in the depth of field of f/(N x m). For example, the image taken at f/4 and each microlens covers 8x8 pixels then the image can be refocused anywhere in the depth of field of f/32. This also means that spatial resolution is reduced by a factor of 256, say from 256 megapixels to 1 megapixel.
The tradeoff is that for each factor of 2 of loss in spatial resolution the "potential" depth of field increase corresponds with one step of aperture.
N-1, actually. Elsewhere in his thesis, Ren Ng comments that it's not possible to get the last stop of DOF out of a real system.
So, the f4 lens, 8x8 pixel microlens system gives you DOF from f4 to f16, not f32.
What did Werner Heisenberg say, "What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning." There are other methods to getting multiple focus, like simple burst shots at multiple focus points, or aperatures. They all cost TIME. As one poster said, the amount of directional data you need to collect would necessitate a huge sensor and the large the sensor the slower the camera (to process the data).
For serious photographers, they'd rather make a quick judgement of focus shots and aperature than wait for a camera to get enough data to change later.
Heisenberg might point out that you can either get prepared to take another shot in 1 second, or wait for the previous shot to get all the focus points, but you can't do both.
It's not that everything is in focus, it's that the selective focus can be edited. Of course, isn't that what you can do with Photoshop's lens blur filter and a reasonably sharp photo (say a 28 to 35 mm shot @ f4 or f5.6)? Point is, with a reasonably wide angle lens stopped down a bit, everything is in reasonable focus and it's not too hard to blur is.... This seems more like a gimmick than an innovation. Now, is this could be adapted to generate something where everything in a snap shot really is in sharp focus, that would be remarkable.
Your latter part of you statement is exactly what plenoptic does. Think of it as a Fly's eye (bunch of circular lens) each having a slightly different focus. All these images are then processed in such a way that you can change the point of focus at will. It does require multiple sensors of course for each of the circular lenses, so right now, the image you get is relatively lo rez compared to modern current sensors. :)
Ratrix already makes a camera that does this; read about it in PopSci and posted the blog a few weeks ago. Will cost your $30K (not a mistake) though. lol
You can see more on their website.....including an article, video and some more images to play with.
Is this essentially a sort of "focus bracketing", but all within one set of image information, whereby a range of sharp focus points are all within that info set, and the user then is able to choose which of the various images within that set works best?
If so, then I wonder how wide the bracket is? It seems there would be a limit, if only to keep the files smaller.
This is one of those "Holy Shit!" Moments. This completely changes photography. I honestly don't know how someone can say "it's just a matter of finding the right algorithm". This is major major stuff, a radical change from what photography used to be, form what we used to think pictures needed to be. Amazing.
Alas, the photo here is a cheat, but this really IS cool. If the data -- i.e. the photons -- are there, then it's just a matter of finding the right algorithm to make them coherent. Of course it's extremely complex in application, and Mr. Ng is a genius -- a new Edwin Land.
Blurb on their Website: "Lytro will debut the first light field camera for everyone. OK – you're not everyone. You are a beautiful, unique snowflake. And you deserve an amazing camera...."
Love 'em already!
Really cool.
In the future we could change depth of field like white balance in camera RAW. I like the idea of clicking where you want the focus even if it is a Flash magic trick.
Although changing the point of focus is a nifty feature, this seems to have overshadowed something else - the camera lens can be fixed focus. This means the lens can be smaller and cheaper and also, importantly, there is no waiting for the camera to focus.
Digital over film---if you don't like the shot, take another one, or another 10.
with this tech, you don't even have to take another one, just re-focus. Really, it impossible for you to take a bad photo.
It has been suggested that similar techniques can help with motion blur of the camera and within the scene; as mentioned about around 2:20 in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EI75wPL0nU
Notice how the Flash widget is actually presenting a number of discreet layers, and using a visual effect to "refocus" between these layers depending on where in the image you click.
For example, try focusing on the back wall. You'll not get the focal point any further away than the rear flask. Also, try refocusing by clicking on various points along the right hand edge of the workbench, where the holes are. You'll find that focus always moves to the rear flask, regardless of how far forward you click.
This is certainly an intriguing concept, and the science behind it is perfectly sound. But I'm not getting my hopes up until I can hold one of these cameras in my hands and see the results for myself.
you can read up on the technology at
a down side is that the camera will have a fixed f number as the f number of the main lens and the micro lenses need to be the same (my guess is that the first model will be at f/4)
getting this to work with a zoom will require lots of tradeoffs
this is for the point and shoot market and not for the DSLR folks
seems that this could be adapted to cell phone type cameras as well
Interesting. Have been following this concept for several years. Seems very promisive from technical point of view. For me, the theory is a bit complex, but one can easily imagine it's usability in technics. Or, maybe, in the future, fully featured cameras will let us correct wrongly focused, precious images. AFAIK however, they use 144 pixels to calculate one effective picture pixel, so you need 1.440.000.000 pixel chip to produce 10Mpix refocusable image :)
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ROME, 22 October 2013 – On an official visit to Italy today, LI Yong, Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), was received by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emma Bonino.
During their discussions, the Director General expressed his appreciation for the strong support that UNIDO has traditionally received from Italy, and presented his vision of UNIDO in terms of inclusive and sustainable industrial development.
He also stressed his intention to strengthen UNIDO's partnerships with all relevant counterparts in the development community, including the multilateral development banks and the private sector, and informed the minister of the positive meetings he had held with representatives of Italian industry.
Minister Bonino assured the Director General that Italy's relationship with UNIDO was well-established and that she saw an important role for UNIDO in helping developing countries add value to their own resources and create local jobs, which would also generate opportunities for Italian companies. She welcomed the Director General's initiative to approach the private sector in Italy, and stressed the importance her government placed on UNIDO's cooperation with Italian companies. She also noted that the Italian economy's SME-based structure also presented a useful model for many developing countries with similar structures, and that many Italian companies had a strong background in clean production technologies. Bonino expressed her country's strong interest in a continued cooperation with UNIDO.
Director General Li also had meetings with representatives of the Confederation of Italian Industries (Confindustria), the Italian Banking Association (Associazione Bancaria Italiana – ABI), and major Italian companies, including the multinational oil and gas company, ENI (Ente Nazionale Idrocarbonico), the Barilla Group food company and the Fiat carmaker.

subset: commoncrawl


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text:
Choo day to day with left arm soreness
SURPRISE, Ariz. -- The Rangers may have just coined the latest baseball-related medical term -- "Spring Training arm."
Outfielder Shin-Soo Choo won't play against the White Sox on Sunday and is listed as day to day with general left arm soreness, the kind that often occurs after workouts early in camp. One day earlier, it was Elvis Andrus who was sidelined with similar symptoms, and he also wasn't in the lineup on Sunday.
"Choo is not playing today with what is being described as Spring Training arm," Rangers assistant general manager Thad Levine said. "He has just a little bit of soreness and is listed as day to day.
"His is more in his triceps, and Elvis' is more his flexor. It's more muscular than anything, but we're just going to give him a day or two to let it calm down."
In other injury-related news, left-hander Rafael Perez threw live batting practice on Sunday morning -- his first action since he sustained a right hamstring strain. Leonys Martin (back tightness) was cleared for baseball activity, but he wasn't in Sunday's lineup.
Meanwhile, second baseman Jurickson Profar has participated in live fielding drills on his own, meaning he has resumed throwing to first base. Profar has yet to play the field this spring because of a shoulder injury, and he's been used solely as a designated hitter.
AJ Cassavell is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @ajcassavell. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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Posts Tagged 'Eagles of Death Metal'
Alain Johannes: Spark (2010) Album Review
Master guitarist and don to the desert rock producing world, Alain Johannes takes to the skies with his debut record Spark.
Written by Willemijn Barker-Benfield
You might not know it, but you know Alain Johannes. Producer and artist extraordinaire, having previously produced and collaborated with the infamous Queens of the Stone Age; No Doubt, PJ Harvey, Eleven, and toured with the super group Them Crooked Vultures earlier this year, Johannes is renowned throughout many rock circles for his mesmerising guitar skills, which in March of this year had me caught in a spell during a musical intermission of the Crooked Vultures' intense set. Thinking Johannes was a brave man to compete with the likes of Grohl, Homme and Jones, I was left blown away by his talent and unequivocal sound.
read more


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In honor of National Pie Day, our Meatless Mondays recipe is a quiche. Quiche may not truly be a pie in the strictest sense of the word, but it usually comes in a pie crust and that's close enough for me. I almost gave you pizza today, but even I think that's stretching the term "pie" a little too far. I am deeply intrigued by this recipe, since my go-to quiche is a basic spinach quiche (sans bacon in my house). I love the idea of a teff crust and using Gouda as the cheese is almost drool-inducing.
If you can't come by teff flour, I am sure this quiche would do just fine in a conventional pie crust. Additionally, because teff flour is gluten free, you could substitute oat flour, sorghum flour or even brown rice flour in its place. That's a nice added bonus to this recipe- it's gluten free and you wouldn't know the difference!
Corn Quiche in Teff Crust
- 1/4 cup Water
- 1/4 cup Sesame Oil
- 1 cup Teff Flour
- 1/8 tsp Salt
- 2 cups Fresh Corn Kernels
- 1 cup Milk
- 4 large Eggs
- 1 few dashes Hot Pepper Sauce (Tabasco or your favorite)
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 4 oz Gouda Cheese
- 1 small Onion, chopped
- 1/2 medium Green Pepper, minced
- 2 Cherry Tomatoes, sliced thin
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Using wire whisk, mix water and oil until white and frothy. Add teff flour and salt. Mix, then press into oiled 9″ pie plate.
3. Place corn and milk in blender and blend until smooth. Add eggs, hot pepper sauce and salt, blend just to mix.
4. Sprinkle cheese in unbaked teff pie crust. Add corn mixture. Sprinkle onion and green pepper over surface of pie. Arrange tomato slices around edge of filling. Bake for 45 minutes, or until knife inserted into center comes out clean and center of pie is set.
Makes 8 servings – 1 slice each.


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As Aaron and Valerie Homolka advanced through their careers, they felt the time was right to return to school for their Master of Business Administration degrees.
The couple from Marshfield researched their options and felt drawn to Lakeland University. The flexibility of online classes, coupled with the convenience of sites in Central Wisconsin, were major factors, Aaron Homolka said.
"With having a family, it wasn't going to be convenient to have to travel to class," he said. "It's very easy for us to make night classes after work and still make that balance between family and school. Flexibility was critical."
It's that flexibility that has students like the Homolkas excited. Lakeland is taking its BlendEd feature within its adult education program to another level this spring with several new ways to take a class.
Lakeland launched BlendEd in 2005 with classes that allowed students to seamlessly transition from week to week between the traditional classroom and online. Now, the institution has developed three more ways for students to take classes.
We have yet to find a program that provides students with this much flexibility within a single class," said Zach Voelz, Lakeland's vice president for enrollment management. "Many colleges and universities around the country offer students different pieces of our program."
Learn more about the additional class options with the new BlendEd.
Voelz said the push to expand choices has come from students like the Homolkas who are shopping the higher education market for programs that don't require major lifestyle changes.
"Working adults want quality academic programs offered in flexible formats," Voelz said. "It is forcing higher education to be creative in the ways we make classes available to students."
Lakeland piloted the expanded BlendEd in the spring of 2013, and Voelz said feedback from students has been overwhelmingly positive.
"Many students really love the opportunity to attend a live class without having to leave home," Voelz said. "We heard from students who had time to have dinner with their family, then login to class without having to travel."
Voelz said he often shares two student stories when discussing BlendEd with prospective students:
- A Lakeland graduate student who travels regularly for his job (he is a pilot for a major manufacturer) loves the ability to log in to a live course from his hotel room.
- Another graduate student was admitted to the hospital unexpectedly during the middle of a term. He didn't want to miss class, however, so he logged in to a live class from his hospital bed.
Voelz said students also like getting live, online access to classes that, in the past, might have been only offered at a center in another part of the state. "Our new features are stripping away the geographic barrier for students," Voelz said. "Students have said the savings in time and money was much appreciated."
Count the Homolkas as being appreciative. Valerie attended one of her classes remotely and "still got the feel of being in a classroom and got that personal attention," Aaron Homolka said of his wife. "It was certainly a successful way of getting that education."
Lakeland's programming for working adults began in 1978 with the creation of its Lifelong Learning Program, the state's first evening degree-completion program for working adults. Lakeland created one of the nation's first complete online degree programs in 1998.
This fall, approximately 2,850 students were enrolled. Lakeland has centers in Chippewa Falls, Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee, Neenah, Sheboygan and Wisconsin Rapids.


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Take a look at what Bruno Hoffman has to say about the upcoming Red Bull Back to Berlin project that's dropping within the next two weeks–no doubt to be a killer edit from the duo. Take a look at some photos from the project below as well!
Street ace Bruno Hoffmann was born in Berlin on March 8, 1993. After spending a couple of months in the Capital of Germany, the family moved away from the big city. Fast forward to 2012 and Bruno gets to live in an apartment in the middle of Berlin for a few months thanks to the guys at Red Bull who supported him realizing the dream exploring the riding spots with his friends. It's Back to Berlin Streets for the Siegen local living on his own taking care of everything that entails. Plenty of awesome spots were found when Bruno and his visiting friends left the apartment for the daily street sessions, and Mayol was there to film it all. We caught up with Bruno to check his thoughts on the Back To Berlin Streets project.
How did you come up with the idea to go to Berlin for your project?
I never really got to spend time riding in Berlin besides in the Mellowpark and at the Playgrounds, so the idea came up pretty easy.
Does Berlin have a special meaning to you because you were born there?
Not really to be honest, I only lived there for a couple months so I can´t remember. I always liked the city but never really got a chance to spend more than a weekend there so I was excited to check it out.
What was the project like?
Basically I had a nice apartment right in the city, and invited a lot of friends over to go ride every day haha. The city has so much to offer that i felt it was about time to explore Germanys capitol briefly. We pretty much just went out everyday to go ride and explore the different areas.
Who all came over to visit you?
The list is pretty long and starts with my good friends Mario and Kicza, Slayer and Janek, Lantschner but also my brother and his crew from Siegen. Matthias Dandois and Anthony Perrin came over from France, too. The list is too long, but you´ll see in the edit who all showed up.
Does Berlin have much to offer as far as spots are concerned?
Yeah Berlin definitely has a lot of spots to offer, just not really in the city, more in the outside areas. So it was kind of a pain in the ass to go out all the way. At the end it was absolutely worth it, especially with all the Communistic architecture in the Eastern Parts of the City. Rails, Rails, Rails!
Do you think you can compare it to BCN in some way?
Nah not really to be honest. The cities are completely different and so is the vibe. Spotwise BCN definitely has more crazy spots, but Berlin is still up there. I wouldn´t define Berlin as the next BMX hotspot still, just because everything is spread out but it definitely has its very own charme, like spotwise. I love the raw style!
What were your three favourite spots in Berlin to ride street?
That's too hard to say after 2 months of riding different spots almost every day. But pretty much everything in Marzahn was sick! To be honest I think we went to so many good spots that it's impossible to just define 3 now.
You have seen many hotel rooms in your life already, what made this apartment different from being just like a hotel room?
It felt like home after just a couple days, so that was pretty cool. Also just chilling, as well as partying at the awesome place in the center of Berlin was nice… At the same time it kinda sucked because it made it really hard to leave.
Did you do much cooking, laundry and cleaning in the 2 month stay?
Haha yeah actually I did. The apartment was on the 7th floor so it was a little bit annoying to go down just for a snack. I rather went shopping once a week and then just cooked and chilled after coming back from riding.
Who would you like to thank for the opportunity to make your project a reality?
Definitely RedBull for hooking it up with the place, and Claudi for checking it. Also thanks to Marc and Tom for showing us around, as well as Mayol for being a sick roommate. Also I'd like to thank everyone who came over to ride and chill, thanks for making the experience such a good one!
Everyone keep your eyes peeled for the main edit in about two weeks. I'm really excited about it, and I hope you guys too!


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Boots Here
Rhythmic breathing pushes you forward as the scenery glides past. You have a long way to go, but concentration is on your side. But, your brand new boots are hurting your feet. You should have left them in the car. You`ve got other boots with you, but the new boots are too heavy to carry and the scenery is too sparse to hide them. How can you ensure that if you leave them you won`t lose them?
AnswerLeave the boots far apart. Nobody will pick up a single boot.
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Robinson Cano reportedly asked for a 10-year deal worth more than $300 million in initial contract talks with the New York Yankees, but team owner Hal Steinbrenner indicated that isn't a realistic scenario for the franchise.
"I don't feel this organization is ready to do something like that," Steinbrenner said Tuesday on the Michael Kay Show on ESPN New York 98.7 FM. "No, I do not.
"We'll see. I know that is a number that is out there now. We'll see if he gets it, how much he wants to be in New York. But, again, I can promise it is going to be a very, very solid offer that we do make because we are going to try. We are going to try the best we can to keep him."
The Yankees already feel burned by the 10-year deal third baseman Alex Rodriguez is currently playing on, and Cano will turn 31 years old on Oct. 22. However, he is also a career .309 hitter averaging 28 home runs and 102 RBIs over the past five seasons with the Yankees, including hitting .314 with 27 homers and 107 RBs this season.
Steinbrenner said he is "optimistic" a deal will be reached with the pending free agent, but acknowledged Cano could be wearing a different team's uniform next spring.
"I know that we are going to make him a very, very good offer," Steinbrenner told the show. "Is anybody an absolute must-to-sign? No. And that's nothing against Robby. (It's) just not reasonable to assume that about anybody. We are going to do what we can. We've certainly conveyed to Robby we want him back and we want him to be a career Yankee. We'll just have to see what transpires here."
The Yankees are also awaiting the result of Rodriguez's appeal of a 211-game suspension, which is currently in the arbitration process. If the suspension is upheld and Rodriguez misses the 2014 season, the Yankees stand to save around $31 million off next year's payroll.


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Gordon Freeman I presume
The orange box is actually a collection of five games by
acclaimed developer Valve. Half Life 2 is a lengthy first
person adventure that is still considered a classic. The two
expansions of Episodes one and two are also included making it
a complete pack (if you don't count the original half life game).
Portal is the surprise hit of the pack, a very clever puzzle game
with a difference. First person again, the player takes control of
a special gun that can fire two portals into the game area, when you
go through one portal you come out of the other. It's difficulty level
is very well done, it never feels impossible but it also not too easy.
It gets the balance just right. The story is good, especially near the
end. It also has a lot of good humour in it, which adds a lot to it.
Although the original Half Life 2 game does look old by today's
standards the campaign makes up for it by it's execution, style and
length. My only criticism of the game is that it sometimes feels a bit
cold, and a few times I spent quite a while wondering where to go next.
It's also strange that your character never speaks, adding to the coldness
of the game. I found that it gets better as you go through it so it's best to
Team Fortress 2 is a supposed classic but I'm not really an online
gamer so I can't really do it justice. The style is very well done, with
it's cartoon like look. It's just not a game I'd play for any length of time
but I understand it is still very popular among those who do.
At the price, it's a real bargain, even if you only play a few games from it.
It can also be picked up on Steam for PC cheap often and the Xbox 360 version I have
can be picked up cheap too. Now on to Portal 2.
This One Sucks, In A Good Way
We have a lot of wooden floor in our house. however there we do have a large carpet and out stairs which are awkward to clean with our larger vacuum cleaner so we at first looked for a cordless hand cleaner, but most seem to be under powered so we decided to go for this mains powered one which had good reviews from Argos
This is not really my main concern but for a modern cleaning device it looks good, in nice grey and orange, even a little futuristic. The actual design is quite ingenious, I like the way the detachable hose also powers the main cleaning area.
It is larger than your average battery powered hand held, and is heavier, but it more than makes up for this with its power. Its power to weight ratio is very good. The power cable is a generous six meters in length and tidies away neatly at the back for storage. The main cleaning area has rotating brushes that really gets up the hair. It is possible to have the suction without the rotating brushes if you so desire.
For those awkward to reach places there is built in hose attachment that you just pull out. It is stretchy and is on a rotating connector so it's very easy to get it where you want it.
Cleaning is a doddle, you can see how full the collector is thanks to the clear plastic used and by pushing the power button forward it detaches along with the filter. I just take it out to the bin and give it a good bang to get the dust and dirt out. The hardest part to clean is the brushes that do not detach, but that's a small thing.
I've used it for stairs, rugs and just getting up bits from our wooden floors as well as in the car where the hose really comes in useful.
Almost forgot, the "risor visor" as it's called means that the brushes can be opened toward the front rather than down to make it easier to clean stair risers, clever.
It is larger than your average battery powered hand held, and is heavier, but it more than makes up for this with its power. It really gets up a lot of hair from our carpets and rugs, it really is surprising how much It get s up, even more than our main cleaner. I am very impressed with the sucking performance.
It's not too heavy and considering the suction you get and I find it does a much better job that the larger VAX cleaner we have. I often just use this now. It won't replace a larger cleaner if you have lots of carpet but for small areas, stairs and car interiors it really is hard to beat and is excellent values. I'd buy this over a battery powered hand held cleaner any day of the week.
Letting Off Some Steam
A kettle is something most of us take for granted, but when it breaks then you realise just what a useful labour saving device it really is. Boiling a saucepan on a hob is such a pain when you do it a lot.
This Breville kettle was easy to pick from the large selection of cordless kettles available, it was on offer at Argos.
The speed of the boil was an important factor when choosing this kettle, I rarely boil a full kettle I usually measure out what I need to save power. The kettle draws three kilowatts, meaning it boils the water very quickly, even when full. It does seem quite noisy, this is not really a problem for me. It also won't boil with no water in it. I have tried this and it does work so that's nice to know.
The kettle itself is quite stylish with a chrome finish and black plastic on the base, handle and lid. The lid is attached to the kettle and doesn't come off, it is opened by a button at the top of the handle and has been fine so far. I find this to be a bit better than a regular lid and certainly flasher. The Breville has a 1.7 litre capacity, so that should be more than adequate for most households.
Unlike some kettles the pour is very nice, all the water generally goes in the mug or where I would like it to go, not on the work surface or worse, my hand.
Having a wireless kettle is a definitely a plus, it's easy to fit back on the base. The only thing I am wary of is the last wireless kettle I had was retired because the contacts between the base and kettle stopped working. Fingers crossed the same doesn't happen with this one. The kettle can be rotated a full 360 degrees on the base.
There is a large window on the kettle so you can see the water level and markings. The markings are made in cups, this is pretty useless for measuring I find because I use mugs of different sizes. But you can use it as a rough guide. When you switch it on, by pressing down on the plastic switch, it lights up a nice blue colour. It does look really nice.
There has been a problem however, I heard a rattling noise from the kettle and on close inspection found a large piece of plastic loose. It turned out to be the filter that attaches somehow to the spout on the inside. After many attempts trying to get it back in I had to admit defeat. It's not an essential part of the kettle but it doesn't bode too well for its longevity.
Other than the filter coming off I can't really fault this Breville Kettle. It boils water fast and is low maintenance. Looks good in my kitchen and fits in nicely with my chrome toaster. A star away for the filter coming off.
Hopefully The Fit Won't Hit The Shan
As Leslie Nielson once said, you take a chance getting up in the morning, crossing the street or sticking your face in a fan. Well, unless somebody's been tampering with this fan you should be ok.
The hot summer of 2013 has been a long time coming, and I have certainly enjoyed it. However, at night the house can remain very hot and humid. It also makes it harder to sleep. Without the expense of investing in a portable air conditioner unit for the rare British heat waves a good old desk fan can be a life saver.
The challenge desk fan is a budget fan that is available from Argos (where I purchased it) or popular online shops like Amazon. I got mine from Argos for the convenience and I was melting so needed a quick cool down.
Constructing the fan is easy enough, just put it together without using the instructions and when there's something left over refer to the instructions. I had the fan constructed and ready to go in about ten minutes. The build quality is very good for the price.
The fan itself won't win any design prizes, it's not all that aphetically pleasing but who cares when it only comes out a couple of times a year. Its size is just about right to be able to be stored away easily in the cooler months and to fit on my bedside table. It's a 12" fan. It's made of mostly white plastic.
There are three speed settings available, I have found generally that the first setting is usually more than adequate to keep me cool but I usually give it a quick blast at two or three for a quick cool down and switch it down to one.
As with most desk fans, you can set it to either a static position or to oscillate. To make the fan oscillate simply pull out the plunger on the top and it will start.
The fan is very quiet, with a little more noise on the higher setting, Just lately the guard has started to rattle a little so I've just wedged a small piece of card between the two sections and problem solved.
If you can get hold of one, they of course sell out quickly during hot weather then I can thoroughly recommend this fan. It's cheap and cheerful, and for how often you'll need it it's really is a bargain and should last you a good few years.
Make A Note Of This One
Tablet computers are the latest desirable tech item to have. Most associate this with the Apple iPad but these days, mostly thanks to Google's Android operating system, there are many viable alternatives. Samsung tablets have a good reputation, but the note has a little something that the other ones don't, e.g. a special pen, we'll get to that later.
The note itself has a 10" screen so is comparable to the iPad and similar in that respect. The resolution is 1280 x 800. So this does not really compare to the latest generation iPad and the so called "Retina" display or the amazingly high resolution displays of the latest Google Nexus range. Of course the up side of this is that the screen uses less power and consequently doesn't need such a big battery making it lighter.
The engine room of the note is by no means lacking. It boasts a 1.4 quad core processor that makes it one of the more powerful tablets on the market currently, of course this moves so fast it's impossible to keep up. I have found the response of the note to be excellent, apps to run very fluidly with no noticeable lag.
Operating System
The version of Android installed is 4.1.2, also known bizarrely as Jellybean, you may have noticed that the version names have been going up alphabetically. This means it will run practically any apps available on the Google Play store. It is very stable and easy to use. I have had no difficulties whatsoever and it's also quite flashy. The on screen keyboard is also very nice to use and has next word prediction.
Battery Life
The batter life of the note is very respectable at about eight hours from a full charge. I have used it extensively for both work and pleasure and have not felt the need to charge has been too frequent.
The key selling feature to the Galaxy Note is the S-Pen. This is not just a stylus, it won't work on any other tablet. The screen is designed specifically to work with the S-Pen and Samsung have included software to take advantage of it. This includes hand writing and equation recognition. The responsiveness of the pen is excellent, you can tell it's specifically designed for this use. The recognition software is also highly accurate.
The Note has a 5 Megapixel rear camera and a 1.9 Megafixed front facing camera. I've not used the 5MP camera but have used the front one when using Skype and found it to be perfectly adequate. I can't really see the point in using a tablet as a camera when a regular camera is so much more convenient, will probably has an optical zoom and you don't look like a fool using it.
I have the 16gb version, but this can be expanded with a Micro SD slot. This is a great addition and helped me decide to get the note over the Nexus 10 or iPad that do not have card slots to expand the disk space. There is no USB port on the note, but you can cheaply purchase an official adapter which plugs into the power socket, giving you a removable USB port. This adapter also comes with an SD card reader adapter.
The Samsung Galaxy Note is a worthy addition to their range of tablets and I find very useful when I don't want to use my laptop or need to work on the move. It is a high performance tablet, it's very responsive and well built. The design is appealing, and I have found it comfortable to use for both work and pleasure. Many apps are now being customised for tablets so most look great.
The S-Pen has come in very useful for me for my work, I find it great to be able to quickly jot down notes and the equation recognition and transcription app has been a godsend to me, I know that will be of limited interest but it's impressive. Video play back is excellent and with a stable Wi-Fi connection is lag free.
I am very pleased that I purchased the note over other tablets. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to be more productive on their tablet. It does everything I wanted and much more besides.
Like A Bridge Over Troubled Water
Almost every device you buy these days has wireless built in, but what about your older hardware and sometimes a wired connection is just not practical? This is the answer.
This device is one of the most useful bit of tech kit I have purchased. Although it is classed as gaming bridge, in reality it's just a wireless bridge that can be used to give wireless connectivity to any device with an Ethernet port. This could be games consoles, Blu-Ray players, old computers etc.
The reason I bought mine was to give my older Xbox 360 wireless. I can honestly say it works a treat. I didn't want to pay the extortionate price Microsoft were charging for the official device.
The device itself is reasonably small, cream, and has a single antenna. There is a USB port for power and of course an Ethernet port to connect to your device. There is a power adapter provided or you can use USB to power it. I use USB, there is a lead with two USB connections on it but I've found that I only need to connect it to one USB port for it to work.
There are indicator lights on the front that show if the LAN is connected and if the wireless is transmitting/receiving. These are handy and I like to see them flickering to know everything is hunky dory.
A word of warning though, the setup disc that came with the device does not work with Vista or above. I have Windows 7. However if you connect the device to your PC you can get onto the web portal and set it up from there. It's not very intuitive, it took a couple of attempts, but after a few minutes I had it setup and working with my Xbox.
I have also used the device on a Blu-ray player to access the streaming features and an old desktop PC. It was just plug and play. I have also used it on my PVR to access the BBC iPlayer.
I have had it working now for over a year and it had not let me down. The little lights just keep flashing, very satisfying. I got this from Amazon for under £20, considering MS were charging over £50 I am quids in and have a move flexible device.
The Great Hollywood Escape
Based on actual events, Iranians storm the US embassy in Tehran in the late 70s in response to the US giving asylum to the Shah. In the chaos that ensues in the embassy six people escape and go on the run. However their identities will not remain hidden forever as shredded paper is being reassembled to find the missing six.
A CIA operative devises a daring escape plan involving scouting for locations in Iran for a fake film. It's a long shot, the odds of success are very low. Will they escape with their lives?
Ben Affleck is both director and star. His character Tony Mendez in real life was of Mexican/Italian descent, so Affleck doesn't look a lot like him, but I read that Mendez himself had no problem with Affleck portraying him. I enjoyed his direction and performance, it seemed effortless.
Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranson's star is shining very brightly at the moment and rightly so, he is a skilled and versatile actor and his albeit small part here is very memorable.
John Goodman is excellent as a Hollywood makeup artist who is contacted by the CIA as he has worked on disguises before. As you'd expect his character is a lot of fun as is the excellent Alan Arkin as a producer used to give the film credibility.
The actors playing the hostages themselves provide good performances, but are ultimately unmemorable. There is a couple which provides some emotional involvement, but I can't really remember much about them.
Argo is one of the few best picture films I've really liked. I was a little apprehensive as Ben Affleck's reputation has not been golden of late while his pal Matt Damon's has gone from strength to strength. From the opening scenes of the storming of the embassy I was hooked.
This is a Hollywood dramatization of what is commonly known as the 'Canadian Caper'. As you'd expect a lot of the narrow escapes did not actually happen. There wouldn't be much tension if it was too easy and I'm sure in real life the tension was still very high. Don't expect this to be a documentary about the real events. If anything it's encouraged me to look into the real events and I am glad I have, they are very interesting.
I found the film exciting from beginning the end and despite the serious subject there are much needed respites of comedy. The acting is excellent from everyone, I particularly like Cranson's performance, despite it being small. I also really got a feel of being in the late 70s, the music and locations used really worked as did the costumes.
On the whole I thoroughly enjoyed Argo and look forward to what Affleck gives us next (please not another Pearl Harbour!).
Main Cast List
Ben Affleck - Tony Mendez
Bryan Cranston - Jack O'Donnell
Alan Arkin - Lester Siegel
John Goodman - John Chambers
Victor Garber - Ken Taylor
Directed By: Ben Affleck
Running Time: 120 Minutes
Certificate: PG-13
Emancipate This
Abraham Lincoln, "Honest Abe" is amongst the most famous of US Presidents. His assassination while out at the Theatre by a confederate conspiracy guaranteed his immorality in the mind of most Americans. He is held up with JFK and George Washington, considering this fact there have been few films made about him.
The film starts very violently, showing a civil war battle with no holds barred. This does not last long and in a way reminded me of the start of Saving Private Ryan, shock tactics to draw the viewer in. If the violence is too much for you don't worry as it doesn't last long and is only at the start of the film.The remainder of the film is about Lincolns battle to get his 13th Amendment to ban slavery passed.
Acting is of course excellent as you'd expect especially from Daniel Day Lewis. He really looks the part, however the thing I noticed most straight away was his voice. It's very high pitched and floaty. A little research has uncovered that most experts, based on eye witness reports, believe he got the voice right. This role gave him his record breaking third Oscar.
Sally Fields is good as Lincoln's wife, she does not have a lot of screen time but is almost our view of the emotions Lincoln goes through.
Tommy Lee Jones has quite a large part as Thaddeus Stevens, a devoted anti-slavery campaigner and almost more important the Lincoln himself as a reformer. Jones gives his usual fine performance, including his limp.
Joseph Gordon-Levett seems to be in every other film these days, I still remember him as Tommy from Third Rock from the Sun. He's doing very well for himself these days. He plays Lincoln's son who wants to join the army and doesn't want special treatment. He is very good here.
The soundtrack is not memorable at all, I can't remember there even being one even though I know there had to be. This is more of a dialogue film really.
I have to say I am disappointed with Lincoln. It could have been so much more. It really only goes into the 13th Amendment, which is of course important but not all that Lincoln was or what made him who he was. The civil war is not covered in the depth I would have liked. Even the famous Gettysburg address is not seen, which is his most famous speech. I visited the Lincoln memorial a few weeks ago and it is very moving.
I'm not sure why Spielberg didn't show his earlier life, even a little of his childhood to give some perspective. Spielberg has covered slavery better in my opinion in the almost forgotten film Amistad.
That said, if nothing else it does encourage researching the life of the 16th president of the United States and 19th Century American history.
Main Cast List
Daniel Day-Lewis - Abraham Lincoln
Sally Field - Mary Todd Lincoln
Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Robert Lincoln
Tommy Lee Jones - Thaddeus Stevens
Directed By: Steven Spielberg
Running Time: 150 Mins.
Certificate: PG-13
My God Jim, I'm An Actor Not A Doctor
Are you a closet trekkie, I am. I grew up with re-runs of the original series growing up and still have a soft spot for the intrepid crew of the Enterprise, boldly going where nobody else really wants to go.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first of the so called re-boot films. It had action and humour, stayed true to the original while still carving out it's own path. The casting I through was inspired and I'm pleased to say all the original cast are back. It was something of a surprise how good it actually was, making a sequel almost inevitable.
The basic premise of the plot is Captain Kirk has been demoted for not following protocol but this comes into check when an unusual attack happens that kicks off a dramatic chase across space for the perpetrator.
Zachary Quinto is excellent again as Spock, this is probably the best casting decision of the lot. In this one I feel he does come across too human at times, Spock I believe always got frustrated when he used human emotions.
Chris Pine is brilliant again as Jim Kirk, although he'll never beat the cheesiness of William Shatner he gives it a good go. He is a very likeable character and has excellent chemistry with Quinto.
Bones gets to use some of the now cheesy lines that we know him so well for, "My God Jim......" etc. DeForrest Kelley would be proud. Casting genius here again.
I didn't find Simon Pegg's Scotty as distracting in this film, I found his performance over the top but it seems to be reined in a bit this time. He didn't get a massive amount of screen time.
Used less in this film I feel is Zoe Salandria as Uhura. She really just comes across as part of the scenery a lot of the time.
Benedict Cumberbatch is riding high at the moment and his performance is very good, it's not his fault but I found that he was not a bad enough bad guy. I won't reveal his characters true identity as it would spoil the surprise. I like the ambiguity of his character also, it did keep me guessing as to his true intensions.
Robocop himself Peter Weller has a short but sweet role as a Starfleet commander, it's nice to see him back, he's looking old now, I can't believe he hasn't had more good roles in the past.
The special effects are excellent as you would expect from a modern science fiction film like this.I watched this in a 3D screening, and despite being a conversion from 2D it works very well. Some scenes better than others. Some of the talky scenes did look a bit cardboard, where the layers are very obvious. The best 3D parts are the action sequences, especially the bit in space.
I thoroughly enjoyed this Star Trek but not quite as much as the first film (a familiar story). The main weaknesses are an inconsistent baddie or perhaps baddies would be a better description. They also use a get out of jail card badly by using old Spock, I love to see Leonard Nimoy but he should have been used differently. As a visual spectacle it can't be faulted.
So, despite a few flaws which I hope they address if they make another one I thoroughly enjoyed this slice of escapism. I'm not sure I'd bother with the 3D version again however.
Main Cast List
Chris Pine - Kirk
Zachary Quinto - Spock
Zoe Saldana - Uhura
Karl Urban - Bones
Directed By: J. J. Abrams
Running Time: 132 Mins.
Certificate: PG-13
More Wolf Pack Trouble
The supposedly final chapter to the hangover trilogy promises to break the formula from the first two films. The second film was almost a carbon copy of the first film. They say "if it aint broke don't fix it", well film makers should at least mix it up a bit and that's what they have done here.
This time the wolf pack as they are known are conducting an intervention with odd ball Alan but of course things don't quite go to plan.
Plot wise this is certainly head and shoulders over the last film, it's not going to be taxing your brain but that's a good thing here. There aren't as many laugh out loud moments as the first film but there are still enough to carry it through. I never got bored.
The whole cast have returned here and there are a few new faces too, and some old ones from the first film. The real star of the show is Zack Galifianakis (what a surname) who plays the oddball Alan, he gets all the best lines. The others are almost just supporting actors.
Comedian Ken Jeong returns as the unpredictable Lesley Chow. After Zack has the best comedy moments, I like the way they make him hard to read, is he good or bad? I think a bit of both but good hearted really.
Bradley Cooper is easy on the eye for the girls and puts in a good performance. It's good to see he still does comedy rolls now considering how big he has now become.
Melissa McCarthy, who is new to me, has a small but memorable part as a bizarre love interest. She play the part very well. It's a nice diversion from the main plot too.
Soundtrack wise this is pretty much standard fare. There is a salute to the first film musically over the end credits.
As promised the film does break with the formula of the first films while still keeping the premise of three guys getting into trouble. The comedy performances are all good, especially Galifianakis and Jeong. There's a good enough plot to carry it all off.
There are some scenes that could be considered tasteless, however I think that considering the previous form of these films they are to be expected.
This is not in the same league as the first Hangover film, but as a fun couple of hours it works. Hopefully this will be the last one as any more would really be pushing it too far. It's not a film I'd want to keep but will be looking out for when it comes onto TV.
After the credits start to roll there is an extra scene that is actually worth waiting for. It's not right at the end so it's not too bad.
Main Cast List
Bradley Cooper - Phil
Ed Helms - Stu
Zach Galifianakis - Alan
John Goodman - Marshall
Ken Jeong - Chow
Melissa McCarthy- Cassie
Directed By: Todd Phillips
Running Time: 100 mins
Batman Finishes
The massacre at a Batman premier in America has cast a shadow over the film and is a tragedy that the film will always have to carry with it. This and the death of Heath Ledger after The Dark Knight has even given rise to labelling the films as cured, of course that is absurd.
Let's put that behind us and look at the film on its own merits. Bruce Wayne has become a recluse, his injuries are both mental and physical. This of course also means that Batman has been missing too.
He is persuaded to come out of retirement after meeting a cunning and attractive cat burglar, but mainly the threat of new bad guy Bane. Bane and his gang appear to be after a fusion device that was built by Bruce Wayne but scrapped when he realised it could be used as a weapon. Only Batman can save the city.
The highly anticipated final chapter to Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy seemed to be a long time in the making. I for one have enjoyed the films so far, unlike most I prefer Batman Begins to The Dark Knight but both are excellent. Was it worth the wait?
The plot of the film is quite messy, there is a lot going on and there is little time to get your breath back and process what you're seeing. The pacing was a lot better in the previous films, but he is trying to get a lot in.
The special effects are of course excellent, as we've come to expect from Nolan with less reliance on CGI as other action films. Where CGI is used it is quite noticeable. There are some truly breath taking stunts, my hat is off to them.
The acting is still excellent, there are of course some big names returning, my favourite being Gary Oldman who always excels. Anne Hathaway is the newcomer and she gets it perfect, a seductive and action packed performance. Also new is Joseph Gordon-Levitt who seems to be in lots of films these days. I always remember him as Tommy from Third Rock from the Sun, he seems to be a new Nolan regular.
I have to report I have mixed feeling about this film. It is a very dark film with little humour to provide relief. It's also a very messy film, Nolan seems to have squeezed in every idea he could think of, and this has made the film quite long too.
The acting is generally excellent, Nolan certainly has his favourite actors. The most interesting performance is cat woman, Batman almost feels like a secondary character in his own film.
It's nice to see that Nolan has not been seduced by 3D, which seems to be used more and more these days in action films, I can certainly live without it and the inflated ticket prices at the cinema.
There is also a problem with plausibility, for a film grounded in a futuristic reality there are certainly a lot of superhuman feats. After all Bruce Wayne is just a man, the knocks he takes would kill or totally paralyse any normal person.
I would recommend seeing this concluding film, especially if you've seen the first two as it doesn't really stand up on its own.
Main Cast List
Christian Bale - Bruce Wayne
Gary Oldman - Commissioner Gordon
Tom Hardy - Bane
Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Blake
Anne Hathaway - Selina
Directed By: Christopher Nolan
Running Time: 165 Mins
Certificate: PG-13
As The Crowe's Arrows Fly
On his way back from the crusades with King Richard the Lionheart an unfortunate skirmish has dire consequences for England. Robin Longstride is in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Robin Hood is not your typical Robin Hood movie, being Ridley Scott it was never going to be just the traditional story that we all know. It is however set in the same period in history, the time of Richard The Lionheart's crusades and his notoriously bad brother John.
From the trailers I was expecting this to be Gladiator in tights, which would be no bad thing. It's true there are similarities to Gladiator but not as many as I was expecting.
As with all Ridley Scott film, it looks very impressive, not as impressive as some of his other work, Gladiator included but good nonetheless. The sets don't seem as convincing as some other of Scotts historical pieces. The first battle is nice to look at for sure.
The soundtrack won't be winning any awards like it did with Blade Runner and Gladiator, it's just an average classical soundtrack that blends in very well but is not memorable in any way.
I'm not totally convinced at the choice of Russell Crowe as Robin, he seems to be in every other Scott film these days and that's starting to get a bit clichéd now, just like Johnny Depp and Tim Burton are. I do like Crowe but there were bound to be comparisons to Gladiator with him in the title role, and I don't think he is convincing enough here.
I wasn't at all convinced by some of the people who would become the merry men, especially Friar Tuck with his strong mancunian accent, I think he was in the terrible (IMHO) Full Monty, he seems to be playing the same role here.
The best performance on show here by far is the excellent Max von Sydow as Marion's father, he steals the scenes he is in.
I couldn't help but notice the Saving Private Ryan styling of the main battle, slow mo underwater shots with arrows killing drowning soldiers. The final battle really had some bizarre moments, you'll have to see it to see what I mean, Scott seems to have forgotten about his usual attention to detail and relative accuracy in that scene for sure. They also seem to have had WWII style landing craft, albeit made out of wood, complete with retractable ramps at the front in Medieval times, I think not.
The biggest problem with Robin Hood is that it feels underdeveloped; the story could have been tightened for sure. The end battle and the ending in general leaves a little to be desired. Having said that, a second viewing helps with the enjoyment with lowered expectations and it's not taxing so is not a bad escapism.
I know Ridley Scott is getting on now and he seems to have a lot of projects on the go, but I think he should take more time in future, he must have at least one more classic in him. This film has prequel written all over it, although there's no sign yet of one.
Main Cast List
Russell Crowe - Robin Longstride
Cate Blanchett - Marion Loxley
Max von Sydow - Sir Walter Loxley
William Hurt - William Marshal
Mark Strong - Godfrey
Oscar Isaac - Prince John
Directed By : Ridley Scott
Running Time : 140 Mins
Certificate : PG-13
One Control To Rule Them All
Remote controls, everyone loves them, unless they've got missing down the side of the sofa. This remote control won't stop that happening, but it will stop it happening so much. You can safely put those other remotes in a safe place that you'll forget.
The beauty of universal remotes is that you no longer have to go hunting for the multitude of remotes that get distributed around living rooms these days. The downside is that lose it or worse break it and you lose them all, and it's times to find that safe place you've forgotten.
The Logitech remote is programmed from a website, you connect your remote to your PC (not included) and a small app downloads, you then go to the Logitech website and create an account. When you have done this you can start configuring your remote. I found all three devices already stored in the database. This gives you a good start but I still configured the buttons to my liking as there were some in places I didn't want and some function were not configured at all.
One of the best features of the remote is the main power button. It turns on my TV and PVR at the same time. I did not do anything to configure this, it just did it for me. I'm sure if you have a surround sound system you could configure that to come on also. It does require both devices to be on or off. There is of course a power button just for the device you have selected.
The remote is quite ergonomic and is a nice size. It fits in my hand very well and I find that the buttons are all easy to reach. It's taken a little time to get used to but now I can use pretty much press the button I want without looking at it.
The remote takes two AAA batteries, I have had them in now for about six months now and they are still holding up, the only thing that seems to have changed is the range is slightly reduced, so that's not bad I feel.
Logitech do more expensive remotes with more features that control more devices and even have their own displays. If you need more than four devices on one remote by all means pay the extra but for the majority I'm sure four is enough and there is no screen on this one to drain the battery faster.
Summing up, I'm very pleased with my Logitech universal remote control, it's stood up well to the knocks, is responsive and feels nice. There's not much more you can ask for really.
This version has a gloss finish, if you want to save a little cash you can get the non-glossy version for a few pounds less, it's exactly the same otherwise. I picked mine up from eBay for less than I could find at other online shops.
Into The Blu
Since Blu-Ray has become the standard for high definition optical media the prices of the players
has been quite rapidly declining. It's now possible to get a decent Blu-Ray player at sub £100 prices.
I had been resisting Blu-Ray for quite a while but now the prices have come down I have taken the plunge. I looked at a number of players and decided on the Toshiba as it had all the features I was looking for and goes nicely with my Toshiba TV.
The Toshiba BDX2100 could be seen as a budget player. The design of the box is very nice and it fits in very nicely under my TV. It's a nice size too and relatively thin. The LCD display on the front looks a little old fashioned when playing discs but to be honest I don't really notice that anymore and it's not visible when turned off or on stand by.
The picture quality and sound quality when playing Blu-Rays is excellent. With a well encoded Blu-Ray you can really see the difference to standard DVD. There are a few settings for the way Blu-Rays are displayed, I tend the prefer the default setting.
I have had no problems in playing back any disks at all, including one disk that I imported from America that says it's not region encoded. However, it's probably best to stick to region B (Europe) if possible as the manual states only region B disks are compatible.
The remote control is a nice size and fits in my hand well. The buttons are nicely layed out, although a number of them serve no purpose so I presume they are also supplied with more expensive models. The player responds to the controls well although sometimes it takes a few presses to wake it up from stand by.
The USB port allows you to play most formats, there's very few that have failed to play. It will play HD
files. It also supports the MKV format which is very handy as this is now commonly used. The Media player on the machine is very good, the menus are well laid out and the colour scheme and fonts used make everything easy to read and professional looking. File names that are longer than can be displayed are scrolled when highlighted. I am very happy with the USB functionality of the player.
As this is a budget player there are is no support for on demand services that other players supply, such as iPlayer, 4OD etc. If this is important to you then look elsewhere. The only internet service supported is Blu-Ray Live, and to be honest I've not even bothered to connect it up to the internet as I don't have any interest in the standard extra features let alone online ones. If you do want it though it is there and it supports the latest version. There is no wifi built in so you'll have to connect with a cable or wireless bridge.
My biggest problem with the player is the noise the mechanism makes, it's fine when just playing but when you first turn it on or move around the disk it makes some very loud mechanical noises that does make me a little concerned about the build quality. So far it's been fine, but I can't see it lasting as long as my old Sony DVD player that's about ten years old now and still going strong. At the price however I can't complain about a little clunkyness.
For the price I paid I can't really fault this player, blu-rays play very well and it does a very good job of upscaling standard DVDs.
The picture and sound quality of blu-rays is excellent. The USB functionality is better than I was expecting. The lack of internet features doesn't bother me but could be a deal breaker if you don't have other methods of accessing them. Now the price of the Blu-Rays themselves have
come down now is a good time to invest.
It's All Alien To Me
When it was announced that Ridley Scott was working on an Alien prequel I was very excited. As time moved on Scott distanced himself from the prequel idea and said that the new film was just set in the Alien world. Nonetheless I was hooked and now I have finally seen it.
At almost two hours in length I was surprised how fast the time went, a sign of a good film in my eyes. Praise has to go to the special effects team, Scott really knows how to make a film look good, and good it certainly does look. Even in this day and age of effect heavy films, it stands head and shoulders above most. Scott is a very visual director, and has been criticised for style over substance but I think he get's the balance right more often than not.
Fans of the artwork of H.R. Giger will not be disappointed, I don't think he had a massive input but his
work is still very apparent and that is no bad thing as his work never fails to amaze me and sometimes
disturb. It's nice to see some of this work come to life again. If you are not familiar with his work I strongly recommend looking it up.
The film has been criticised for the throwaway nature of a lot of the characters. I must admit
that during the film I had no idea of the names of some of them, however the main characters I thought
were fleshed out enough. There were only seven characters in the original Alien, there are many more
here but there's no way they could all have back stories so most are there for the ride. Some of the
characters seem to act very strangely towards each other and make some puzzling decisions. I'm not sure if this is where some of the cuts were made.
Michael Fassbender excels as the android David, I don't think that's a secret as he appeared as an android in the viral marketing that preceded the films release. He is a bit like the Ash character from Alien rather than Bishop from Aliens, in that he seems mysterious and running his own agenda, but this is not at all clear cut. His actions have generated a lot of speculation in the forums. I couldn't help but think of the human looking Cylons from the new Battlestar Galactica series when he was on screen.
Charlize Theron as hard nosed Meredith Vickers does not get as much screen time as I was expecting but when she is she is very good, her character is a little ambiguous at times which I liked. She is aboard the Prometheus to make sure the mission goes smoothly.
Idris Elba is the only other character that had any real input despite a small amount of screen time as the Captain of the Prometheus. He is often the voice of reason.
Guy Pearse is almost unrecognisable as the ageing Peter Weyland, Weyland you may remember from the previous Alien films is the name of the corporation that seems hell bent on recovering the Alien for their own ends and is often referred to as simply "The Company". The art department have make up have done a great job making him look old, not sure why they didn't employ an older actor and save the hassle. Guy appears as himself at his current age in some viral videos that have been released promoting the film.
Strangely for a futuristic special effects laden movie the music is pretty much forgettable. I was kind of expecting something more in the Vangelis style but a bit more traditional sounding, but we just got a generic movie soundtrack that does seem to repeat itself a bit too often. For a director known for stunning soundtracks in film like Blade Runner and Gladiator I find it surprising. I won't be rushing out the buy the CD.
Ridley Scott is known for his director's cuts, I have read that there could be 20 - 30 minutes of footage
reinserted into the film when it comes out on DVD. I hope this is the case as some areas could do with
more explaining, and may clean up some of odd things that happen.
If you've ever wondered about the so called "Space Jockey", the large creature found in the derelict spacecraft in Alien then you will not be disappointed, but in true Ridley Scott style a lot is still left open to your own interpretation, even more so than Blade Runner.
On the whole I enjoyed Prometheus, it's not up there with Alien but it's very difficult to surpass a film
that is considered a classic and has spawned many sequels itself. I'm not sure why Scott has said it's not
a prequel, in my eyes there is too much here for it not to be, however there is enough unique for it not to
be considered a direct prequel and it could easily take a couple more films to link it back to Alien if it ever
I like how the film has left people discussing between themselves and on forums. There are a lot of different interpretations for the film as a whole and why certain characters behave like they do. For me the way it does link into Alien is one of the main strengths of the film, and of course it's left open for a sequel and I hope there is one, preferably directed by Ridley Scott again.
Main Cast List
Noomi Rapace - Elizabeth Shaw
Michael Fassbender - David
Charlize Theron - Meredith Vickers
Idris Elba - Janek
Guy Pearce - Peter Weyland
Logan Marshall-Green - Charlie Holloway
Directed By: Ridley Scott
Running Time: 124 mins


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BLM approves major mine in central Nevada
November 27, 2012
EUREKA – Federal land managers have approved a major mine project in central Nevada, saying it will provide an average of 400 long-term jobs.
U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials announced Friday that a record of decision has been signed for the Mount Hope Molybdenum Mine after six years of review.
Eureka Moly LLC's open-pit mine will disturb some 8,100 acres of public land and 260 acres of private land located within the 22,886-acre project area about 25 miles northwest of Eureka, according to the BLM.
The project life of the mine includes 44 years of mining and ore processing, and 30 years of reclamation.
"We anticipate that the Mount Hope project will become an important contributor to economic development and job opportunities in northern Nevada for decades to come," company CEO Bruce D. Hansen told the Elko Daily Free Press (http://bit.ly/QgYerA).
Christopher Cook, manager of the BLM's Mount Lewis Field Office, said the decision marked a culmination of extensive coordination with various county, state and federal governmental agencies.
Recommended Stories For You
"We greatly appreciate all the effort that has been put forth throughout the process to make this project both an economic and environmental success through numerous design features and continued monitoring and mitigation to address emergent issues in the future," he said in a statement.
But in response to the BLM's decision, Eureka County commissioners issued a news release criticizing both the federal agency and the mining company for failing to resolve many issues concerning the mine's potential environmental impact, including water consumption.
"Many outstanding issues still remain, which we have strived to resolve with BLM and (Eureka Moly) over the past six years," commissioners said. "Ultimately, these issues must be addressed. We are disheartened with the choice of BLM and EML to delay addressing these issues by saddling future decision makers and Eureka County citizens with this responsibility."
Molybdenum is a metallic element used as an alloy agent in steel manufacturing. It can be used for a wide range of applications, including solar cells, engines, airplanes and military equipment.
The mine contains 1.3 billion pounds of molybdenum in proven and probable reserves, according to a company statement. Molybdenum currently sells for $11.10 per pound.
Construction is expected to begin next year, with production at the mine beginning by late 2014.


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SAN DIEGO - At least Lache Seastrunk doesn't lack for confidence.
With the Holiday Bowl against UCLA coming up Thursday, Baylor's sophomore tailback told the Sporting News late last week what he thought of his own abilities. He said the Bruins (9-4) will be getting a look at next year's best college football player.
"I feel like there's no back who can do what I do," Seastrunk said in the interview. "I know I'm the fastest back in the country. I know I'm the best back in the country. Nobody's going to work harder."
Seastrunk continued: "I'm going to win the Heisman. I'm going to win it in 2013. If I don't, I'm going to get very close. I'm shooting for that goal.
"I will gladly say it."
The Oregon transfer has shown considerable promise, but has yet to crack even 20 carries in a game this season. After the Bears (7-5) started 0-4 in the Big 12, coach Art Briles gave the former five-star recruit a shot and was rewarded with the discovery of a new star tailback.
Seastrunk, still sharing the rushing load with junior Glasco Martin, has averaged more than 138 yards in his past five games - four of which were victories. Two performances stand out: his career-high 185 yards in an upset of then-No. 1 Kansas State, and a 178-yard showing in the season-ending win over Oklahoma State.
The latter included a 76-yard touchdown run that Seastrunk completed despite cramping up at midfield.
"I think if you look at his numbers the last few weeks of the season, he's certainly got to be discussed for (next year's Heisman)," UCLA head coach Jim Mora said.
Based on a small sample size, Seastrunk is averaging 7.6 yards per carry. The Bruins' defense has allowed 4.07 yards per opposing carry.
Even so, announcing your own Heisman candidacy is at least a bit of a social faux pas.
"Anyone that says they're going to win the Heisman publicly - no," UCLA tight end Joseph Fauria said. "You can't do that. Doesn't happen.
"Guys that are humble win the Heisman."
But will those words end up on every one of the Bruins' lockers?
"It was pretty funny," safety Andrew Abbott said. "I feel good for him. I'm glad he has that confidence. His coach backed him up, so he's fine. We don't worry about it.
"It's just pillow talk to us."
Added senior defensive end Datone Jones: "I've been playing against Heisman contenders my whole UCLA career. Guys that have been in the race. LaMichael James, Matt Barkley, Mark Sanchez, Andrew Luck, Jake Locker. How many more do you want me to name?
"He's a great guy, he's a great player but I wouldn't put myself up on that pedestal. I just go out there and get it."
Tearin' it up
San Diego State's practice facilities have been a pleasant replacement for UCLA's Spaulding Field. Whether they stay pleasant remains to be seen.
"We appreciate San Diego State for accommodating us," Fauria said, smiling.
"I think we tore up their field, though. That grass is done. It's not gonna last all week."
firstname.lastname@example.com twitter.com/thejackwang


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A better look at the next deluxe figure...
For a great selection of video game action figures and collectibles, check out BigBadToyStore.com, ToyWiz.com, PastGenerationToys.com, HobbyLinkJapan.com, and Sekaido.com.
For a great selection of video game t-shirts and apparel, check out TShirtGurus.com and 80sTees.com.
NECA provides a packaged look at Big Daddy Rosie, the latest deluxe action figure in their 7-inch scale BioShock 2 collection.
Rosie joins other BioShock 2 Series 2 characters late June/July including Ladysmith Splicer and a Little Sister and Eleanor Lamb 2-Pack. Check them out HERE.


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More Surfaces
Quarry Tiles »
Double-Stacked Tiles »
Aluminum Pan »
Cheap Pizza Stone »
King Arthur Baking Stone »
Emile Henry Stone »
Pizza Screen »
Pizza Screen and Baking Stone »
Parchment and Baking Stone »
Fibrament Baking Stone
It's hard to believe I haven't tested every possible pizza cooking surface yet, but I'm still at it. This time, we're talking heavy metal. As in cast iron. Specifically, the Lodge cast-iron pizza pan.
This pan came highly recommended by several loyal Serious Eats readers, and right off the bat it's clear that it has got several things going for it. For one, it's not breakable. A reoccurring complaint with just about every other stone is that they can crack from thermal shock or from general clumsiness. It takes a lot of dedication to break a cast-iron pan.
In addition, this 9 pound, 14 ounce pan is so heavy-duty that it can be used on the stovetop, under a broiler, or on a grill. Heck, when not making pizza, it can be used as a griddle. In fact, that will help season it. The pan comes pre-seasoned, but as any owner of cast-iron cookware knows, it only gets better with more seasoning. However, it's not like it's going to be used to cook scrambled eggs. Pizza dough won't present a sticking problem, even on the first visit to the oven.
A slight downside to this pan is that it's not completely flat. Handle-to-handle the pan measures 18 1/2 inches, but the lipped baking surface measures 14 inches in diameter. Pizzas that exceed the 14 inches, or dough that lands off-center on the pan, will run into the lip instead of having a bit of dough drooping over the edge.
As usual, I preheated the oven at 550 degrees for 1 hour. At 45 minutes, the pan was at 539 degrees, and it was at the same temperature at 1 hour. The pizza baked for exactly 8 minutes and emerged fully cooked.
This was the first pizza that had burnt spots...er, I mean lovely char ... on several spots on the bottom. And crisp? Yes, it was. As I was cutting into it, there was a nice reassuring crunching sound. The crust was about as good as it gets.
The Lodge pizza pan sells for $35.
About the author: Donna Currie has been cooking for fun and writing for pay since the days when typewritten articles traveled by snail mail. When she combined those talents in a food column for a newspaper in her area, she realized that writing about food is almost as much fun as eating. You can find her on her blog, Cookistry or follow her on Twitter at @dbcurrie.


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Some people need to get a life...
Some people need to get a life...
Now I've disappeared off the list completely?
If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed. -Mark Twain
178th......that puts me somewhere in Sussex County League 2 in the football pecking order!
North Stand Chat
Link not taking me anywhere
Vy nam is not on any list! All dos who name is on de list vill be shot!
shame you can't do a list of the threads that were worth reading.
I eat Mantis Shrimps for breakfast
North Stand Chat
bless you my child.
A newbie has stumbled across the legal high that is NSC, thinking he's just going to try it and walk away the same soul. You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.
Mattress shopping
It's a shame I've semi retired from NSC, as I could of easily hit the 500 mark by now.
Apologies all.
It's a deal, it's a steal, it's the sale of the f*cking century.


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KEXP Reviews
|Browse by one of the following:
- (Kill Rock Stars)
Thao Nguyen & co. follow up 2008's excellent We Brave Beestings and All with another first-rate album of smartly crafted indie-pop. Know Better Learn Faster is a breakup album so it's a little darker, with a few more downbeat songs than usual. That said, there are plenty of exuberant moments to be found here, along with some intriguing stylistic detours incorporating everything from backwoods gospel to various shades of Afro-pop. 9/15/2009 - Don Yates
Other Thao with the Get Down Stay Down album reviews:
We Brave Bee Stings and All - 1/8/2008