AB01 - Top ten machines developed by Dyson

2006 Dyson launches, the Dyson Airblade™ hand dryer. It is the fastest, most hygienic hand dryer: drying hands in just ten seconds

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/picture-galleries/8759473/Top-ten-machines-developed-by-Dyson.html?image=6 

Facebook criticised for 'tracking' logged-out users

The controversy was sparked by Nik Cubrilovic, an Australian technology entrepreneur, who found that even after he logged out of the social network, it delivered “cookies” to his web browser that could be used to track visits to other websites.

Cookies are small text files used by websites to store user preferences and the contents of online shopping carts, among other functions.

When users log out of websites cookies are often deleted, but Mr Cubrilovic found that Facebook only altered them, while continuing to store data such as his account ID.This unique identifier could be used to track logged-out users when they visit other websites that have integrated Facebook functions, such as the “Like” button, he said.

“Logging out of Facebook only de-authorizes your browser from the web application, a number of cookies (including your account number) are still sent along to all requests to facebook.com,” Mr Cubrilovic said in a widely-shared blog posting.

“The only solution is to delete every Facebook cookie in your browser, or to use a separate browser for Facebook interactions.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/8789942/Facebook-criticised-for-tracking-logged-out-users.html 

Amazon to launch iPad tablet rival

Amazon is set unveil a colour, touchscreen update to its popular Kindle e-reader on Wednesday, and many analysts reckon it may sell 5million of units before Christmas.

The rumoured launch is hotly anticipated because Amazon already sells digital books, films and music, and as such is better placed than traditional hardware manufacturers to challenge Apple’s iPad tablet. Amazon is likely to use a heavily adapted version of Google’s Android platform.

The Kindle could sell for approximately half the price of an iPad, although the first models are likely to use a 7” screen rather than the iPad’s 10”. An event has been scheduled in New York on Wednesday evening.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/amazon/8789587/Amazon-to-launch-iPad-tablet-rival.html 

Goodbye, geek chic: Will glasses soon be history?

Tavi Gevinson, 15-year-old fashion blogger, recently launched her online magazine, Rookie. Making the press rounds, she looked typically cool with her Cleopatra eye makeup and thrift-store shifts, but something was different: no eyeglasses. Asked where her trademark round rims had gone, she said, “I was tired of them.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/relationships/news-and-views/katrina-onstad/goodbye-geek-chic-will-glasses-soon-be-history/article2172860/ 

The next big tech revolution? The global brain

Get ready for the global brain. That was the grand finale of a presentation on the next generation of the Internet I heard last week from Yuri Milner. Group of Eight leaders had a preview of Mr. Milner’s predictions a few months earlier, when he was among the technology savants invited to brief the world’s most powerful politicians in Deauville, France.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/chrystia-freeland/the-next-big-tech-revolution-the-global-brain/article2176342/ 

Is it too early to be Christmas shopping?

Summer is still fresh in the memory, and yet Christmas shopping in the US and the UK is already under way. But is September just too soon?

Leaving the warm Virginia sunshine outside and walking into the bulk-buy Costco store in Pentagon City, it's easy to spot the Christmas aisles.

They're the ones that twinkle from the starry lights on the trees or, to be more precise, the Pre-Lit, Easy-Shape Christmas Trees, which are yours for $259.99 (£165).

Follow the stars and you're confronted by row upon row of wrapping paper, decorative ribbons and hand-painted Nativity sets. And even flameless, LED candles.

The scene is one that warms many hearts in December, when the advent calendar is being demolished. But in September?

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14956224

Britische Universitäten Was dem Tourismus nicht nützt, ist entbehrlich

Was sich nicht auszahlt, hat kein Existenzrecht: Die englische Wissenschaftspolitik bringt die Universitäten auf Rentabilitätskurs und treibt die Geisteswissenschaften an die Kioske.

Ekelhaft und schmachvoll sei das Vorgehen der englischen Koalitionsregierung, so zürnt die Royal Historical Society (RHS) ob der politisch herbeigeführten Schwindsucht der akademischen Autonomie. Die britischen Geisteswissenschaftler werden gerade Zeugen davon, wie die Parolen der Konservativen und Liberaldemokraten ihrer Forschungsagenda oktroyiert werden: So soll der Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) - die Regierungsbehörde, die geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung unterstützt - fortan einen Großteil der von ihr jährlich verteilten rund 100 Millionen Pfund jenen Institutionen zukommen lassen, die an Regierungsslogans wie der „Big Society“ oder einem anderen der insgesamt sechs Schwerpunkte forschen.

http://www.faz.net/artikel/C31399/britische-universitaeten-was-dem-tourismus-nicht-nuetzt-ist-entbehrlich-30337901.html

TalkTalk tops UK complaints list

TalkTalk is the most complained about provider of broadband and phone services, according to the latest data from industry regulator Ofcom.

From April to June, it topped the list of angry customer correspondence, while Virgin Media attracted fewest complaints.

However, Ofcom noted that TalkTalk had got better since its last report.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15018161 

Pope admits Church contains 'bad fish' on Germany visit

The Pope said on the flight from Rome that he understood why some people – especially sex abuse victims and their loved ones – might say "this is no longer my Church".

But he urged Catholics to see the Church was made of both good and bad, and was struggling to right the wrongs committed in its ranks.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/8781169/Pope-admits-Church-contains-bad-fish-on-Germany-visit.html 

Economy enters 'dangerous phase'

The global economy has entered a "dangerous new phase" of sharply lower growth, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The organisation warned that continuing political and economic woes in the US and eurozone could force them back into recession.

The IMF says the prognosis for economies in the developed world is "weak and bumpy expansion"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14984087

Measuring Metros: Are These the World's Best Cities for Visitors?

How do you take the measure of a city? Is it statistical, like population? Environmental? Everyone wants a pleasant climate. Or it could be sociological – low crime rates and plenty of cultural happenings, to name a few, help improve standard of living. But Travel + Leisure magazine is concerned with only one facet of a city: visitor value.

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/09/20/measuring-metros-are-these-worlds-best-cities/#ixzz1YZ5mvYk3

For Love or Real Estate: The Cost of Getting Divorced in China

In China, nothing quite kills the romance like the threat of losing real estate. Last month, the country's Supreme Court rolled out a new interpretation of China's Marriage Law that changes the way property disputes are handled after a divorce. Since then, couples across China have been thinking more seriously about tying the knot: in the southwest city of Chongqing alone, marriage registrations fell by 30% in the weeks after the changes were made.

 

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2094016,00.html

David Attenborough joins campaign against creationism in schools

Sir David Attenborough has weighed into a campaign calling for creationism to be banned from the school science curriculum and for evolution to be taught more widely in schools.

The naturalist joined three Nobel laureates, the atheist Richard Dawkins and other leading scientists in calling on the government to tackle the "threat" of creationism.

Gordon Brown's government issued guidance to all schools that the subject should not be taught to pupils, but neither they nor the coalition government enshrined the recommendation in law.

In a statement on a new campaign website, the 30 scientists and campaign groups including the British Science Association demanded creationism and "intelligent design" be banned outright.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8769353/David-Attenborough-joins-campaign-against-creationism-in-schools.html

Why I Can No Longer Teach U.S. Military History

This past August, I wrote a letter to the chair of my department explaining why I am no longer willing to teach U.S. military history. Although I taught the class regularly and, I believe, successfully for nearly 30 years, a situation I encountered last semester makes continuing to do so untenable.

It wasn't a classroom-management problem: In spite of my gender and lack of military service, asserting authority in the classroom has never been a problem. And over the years, student evaluations and university accolades have suggested that I am an accomplished teacher.

No, the discomfort I endured last semester was something new. From the start, I realized that many students in the class were not as interested in exploring the seminal issues of U.S. military history as they were in finding solace, seeking closure, or securing an understanding of their own—or, in many cases, their loved ones'—recent military experiences.

http://chronicle.com/article/Why-I-Can-No-Longer-Teach-US/129054/ 

Scrawny Calves? Try Some Wundersocks with Your Lederhosen

Looking embarrassed, the customer pulls down his pants. Standing there in his underpants and shirt he tries to climb into a pair of Lederhosen as fast as he can. Welcome to "Lederhosenwahnsinn" — which translates into Lederhosen Madness — Herbert Lipah's second-hand store. It doesn't have a changing room but does offer a selection of 2,500 pairs of vintage Lederhosen. In front of the store in Moosach, 8 km (5 mi) outside Munich, Germany, is a sign that reads: "Last Lederhosen store before the Autobahn."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2093585,00.html#ixzz1YNWKz95L

Is the US love affair with housework over?

Sales of domestic cleaning products in the US have been falling for four years. So are Americans becoming less keen on sparkling homes?

The country that gave the world the vacuum cleaner may be falling out of love with housework.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14908756 

Back Off, Mom. How helicopter parents make kids fat

Parents, if you want your kids to get more exercise, you'd be wise to get out of their way.
In a new study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers sought to observe how kids play in parks. Their overarching goal was to help park designers create public spaces that would better entice kids to run around and exercise. But along the way, the authors discovered something else: the single biggest barrier to children's physical activity had less to do with park design itself and more to do with the hovering presence of a parent.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/09/16/back-off-mom-parents-who-hover-impede-kids-activity/#ixzz1YJZbVMnr

The UK's oldest bike shop looks to the future

Some retailers open a new store each week. But not Pearson Cycles, the UK’s oldest bicycle shop. The 150-year-old company, which is based in Sutton, south London, has just opened its second ever shop.

Its expansion may be glacial, but co-owner Will Pearson believes that the company has hit on the right formula for success.

Pearson Cycles is an old-school retailer whose ethos revolves around high levels of customer service and attention to detail. Mr Pearson is the fifth generation of the family to run the business since it was founded in 1860, and he is not in the least bit bothered that it has taken so long to branch out.

“We have a slow roll-out programme; one store every 150 years,” he says.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8769189/The-UKs-oldest-bike-shop-looks-to-the-future.htmll

 

China falls back in love with the bicycle

The humble bicycle, for decades the workhorse of the Communist proletariat, is this year's surprise fashion accessory in China. 

 The rivers of cyclists that used to flow through Chinese cities, all mounted on sturdy Flying Pigeon bikes and wearing monochrome Mao suits, have long dried up.

Instead, for two decades China has been a nation of drivers, embracing the car the point of gridlock and even outlawing bicycles from key thoroughfares in Shanghai.

But for a new generation of Chinese, inspired by the West and Japan, the bicycle is once again in vogue. This year, colourful custom-made bikes have adorned the shop windows of Shanghai's trendiest boutiques as well as advertising campaigns for brands like Lee and Levi's.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8762228/China-falls-back-in-love-with-the-bicycle.html

Canes belong in sex shops not in the classroom

A survey of parents published today suggests, rather surprisingly, that around half want the cane brought back to restore discipline in the classroom. But Gerard Kelly editor of the Times Educational Supplement, which conducted the survey, says teachers need to have the confidence to use the powers they do have. 

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8767328/Canes-belong-in-sex-shops-not-in-the-classroom.html

Electric thinking cap promises a new era of high-voltage learning

Oxford scientists believe that applying a small current to a specific part of the brain helps people learn. Nick Collins tested their device 

I’ve got rubber pads strapped to my head and someone is about to fire an electric current through my brain.

It’s meant to make me cleverer, but this doesn’t feel too smart to me.

My palms are sticky, my fingers are trembling and it’s hard to tell if that’s sweat pouring down my temples or water from the sponge that will conduct the charge through my skin.

The pads on my head begin to heat up and there’s a strange tingling sensation, then all of a sudden — nothing at all.

“I can’t feel anything,” I tell Prof Heidi Johansen-Berg, the smiling neurologist sitting to my left.

“That’s because it’s working. You only feel it when I’m increasing the current. There’s electricity going through your brain right now.”
The reason I’m letting an Oxford academic shoot a charge through my skull is that she tells me it will make me a faster learner. It sounds like a modern version of electroshock therapy, the experimental treatment carried out on psychiatric patients in the 1940s and a staple of countless horror films.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8767134/Electric-thinking-cap-promises-a-new-era-of-high-voltage-learning.html

 

Good teachers 'boost test results by 45 per cent'

Children can lose up to half of their marks in end of year tests after being taught by a poor teacher, research suggests. 

Pupils from poor backgrounds suffer the most in lessons led by the worst performing staff, it was revealed.

A study commissioned by the Sutton Trust charity found that replacing a bad teacher with the most highly effective performers was worth the equivalent of an extra year’s learning.

The disclosure underlines the extent to which Government plans to raise standards in the classroom hinge on their ability to attract the best graduates into the profession.

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8766060/Good-teachers-boost-test-results-by-45-per-cent.html

 

Bring back the cane to improve pupil discipline, say parents

Half of parents believe that the cane should be reintroduced to restore order to the classroom, research suggests.

 Some 49 per cent of mothers and fathers are in favour of corporal punishment to crack down on the worst offenders, it was revealed.

The vast majority of parents also want greater use of other back-to-basics discipline measures including detention, expulsion and forcing badly behaved children to write lines.

Even a fifth of secondary school pupils themselves support the reintroduction of caning or smacking.

The disclosure comes amid claims from Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, that “adult authority” has been eroded in too many schools. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8766021/Bring-back-the-cane-to-improve-pupil-discipline-say-parents.html

A history of the driving test

Motorists were obliged to take a driving test from June 1 1935. 

However the test was suspended for the duration of the 1939-45 war before being reintroduced on November 1 1946.

It was suspended again during the Suez crisis when learners were briefly allowed to drive unaccompanied.

Up until 1975 learner drivers had to demonstrate their ability to use hand signals.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/8762972/A-history-of-the-driving-test.html

 

Yeah!!! Facebook More Important than Toilets that Flush, Say British

Sure, Americans may cumulatively spend 53 billion minutes per month on Facebook, but at least users in the U.S. understand that social media is less important than the ability to, for example, flush away human waste...unlike Facebook addicts in the United Kingdom.
A study, carried out by the London Science Museum, has discovered that more Britons would prefer to live without a flushing toilet than abandon Facebook. Also on the list of things that people in the United Kingdom are more willing to give up than Facebook: fresh vegetables, fresh fruit and the chance to shower.

Read more: http://techland.time.com/2011/09/14/facebook-better-than-flushing-toilets-say-british/#ixzz1XxdeKu00

Windows 8 soll Tablets erobern

Microsoft macht Ernst: Das nächste Windows wird anders aussehen, anders funktionieren als seine Vorgänger. Der Konzern setzt ganz auf Touchscreens, verspricht trotzdem totale Kompatibilität, viele neue Geräte - und ein großzügiges Geschenk an Entwickler.

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/gadgets/0,1518,786005,00.html#ref=rss 

Das On-Leid

Mit der Verbreitung von Smartphones wird die Informationsflut allgegenwärtig – und der Mangel an Aufmerksamkeit zur Epidemie. Wie viel online macht krank?

 http://mobil.zeit.de/zeit-wissen/2011/05/Online-Sucht

The Christmas Shopping Season Now Starts … in September?

It doesn’t seem to matter that September is closer to Christmas in July than actual Christmas, or that back-to-school shopping has barely ended, or that Halloween and Thanksgiving shopping have barely begun. With retailers’ quest to continually expand the winter holiday shopping season, you’re bound to see stockings, ornaments, and outdoor Santa displays any day now—if they’re not there already—on the shelves of stores such as Costco, Kmart, J.C. Penney, Sears, Lowes, and Walmart.

Read more: http://moneyland.time.com/2011/09/13/the-christmas-shopping-season-now-starts-%e2%80%a6-in-september/#ixzz1Xris3EwG

Downgrading the American Dream

The American Dream has been downgraded, too.
Writer James Truslow Adams coined the phrase American Dream and defined it in grand terms in 1931, when he called it “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.”

Read more: http://moneyland.time.com/2011/09/13/downgrading-the-american-dream/#ixzz1XrfaOV5P

The Interrupted Reading: The Kids with George W. Bush on 9/11

There has rarely been a starker juxtaposition of evil and innocence than the moment President George W. Bush received the news about 9/11 while reading The Pet Goat with second-graders in Sarasota, Fla.
Seven-year-olds can't understand what Islamic terrorism is all about. But they know when an adult's face is telling them something is wrong — and none of the students sitting in Sandra Kay Daniels' class at Emma E. Booker Elementary School that morning can forget the devastating change in Bush's expression when White House chief of staff Andrew Card whispered the terrible news of the al-Qaeda attack. Lazaro Dubrocq's heart started racing because he assumed they were all in trouble — with no less than the Commander in Chief — but he wasn't sure why. "In a heartbeat, he leaned back and he looked flabbergasted, shocked, horrified," recalls Dubrocq, now 17. "I was baffled. I mean, did we read something wrong? Was he mad or disappointed in us?"
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2069582,00.html#ixzz1Xlws6b1E

Got a Job Offer? Why You Should Ask for an Implausibly High Salary

Upon being offered a job, the first step should be to pause and enjoy your good fortune. (Jobs are pretty scarce, if you haven’t heard.) Then, to start salary negotiations, toss out a ridiculously high dollar figure. The request may seem like a joke ($100K for an administrative assistant gig? Ha!), but there are indications it’ll help you get more money regardless.

Read more: http://moneyland.time.com/2011/09/12/got-a-job-offer-why-you-should-ask-for-an-implausibly-high-salary/#ixzz1XlwFIGWO

What Did You Buy for the 9/11 Anniversary?

No comment on this one!

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2092823,00.html

How American Colleges Can Better Serve Chinese Applicants

The ethical debate over whether to use paid agents to recruit students abroad has polarized college admissions officials in the United States. No one disputes that the best interest of students must be protected, but their voices are conspicuously absent from the discussion.
For a Chinese-language newspaper, I recently did a report on the use of such agents in China. A study done at Iowa State University and published in the Journal of College Admission suggests that most Chinese undergraduates enrolled at American colleges had relied on intermediaries to help them navigate the admissions process. Through dozens of interviews with agents, students, and experts, it became clear to me why that is. A tremendous disconnect exists between Chinese students and American universities.

http://chronicle.com/article/How-American-Colleges-Can/128861/

What the Meaning of ‘Is Is’ Is

Redundant is almost always hurled as a negative epithet, but repetition can be an effective rhetorical device. Shorn of all redundancy, Shakespeare’s “most unkindest cut of all” would be pretty vanilla, and the ad slogan “Raid Kills Bugs Dead” would become the ho-hum “Raid Kills Bugs.” Meanwhile, Gertrude Stein’s “A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose” would have to be completely erased because the quotation is nothing but redundancy. (Completely erased is redundant as well—something is either erased or it isn’t. But I felt I needed the emphasis provided by completely.)

http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2011/09/11/what-the-meaning-of-is-is-is/?sid=wb&utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en

Christians in China: Is the country in spiritual crisis?

Many of China's churches are overflowing, as the number of Christians in the country multiplies. In the past, repression drove people to convert - is the cause now rampant capitalism?

It is impossible to say how many Christians there are in China today, but no-one denies the numbers are exploding.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14838749

$5 Friday: How to Eat Healthy for Five Bucks a Pop

How much does it really cost to eat healthy? The organizers of a new slow-food challenge say you can do it for five dollars a person per meal.
Launching Sept. 1 with a Day of Action, the "$5 Challenge" is meant to inspire people to cook slow-food meals — using whole foods rather than processed ones — for as much as it would cost to buy a combo meal at a fast-food restaurant. The idea is to "take back the 'value meal'," according to the Slow Food USA website.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/09/09/5-friday-how-to-eat-healthy-for-five-bucks-a-pop/#ixzz1XimVEFey

Great digital expectations

Digitisation may have came late to book publishing, but it is transforming the business in short order

TO SEE how profoundly the book business is changing, watch the shelves. Next month IKEA will introduce a new, deeper version of its ubiquitous “BILLY” bookcase. The flat-pack furniture giant is already promoting glass doors for its bookshelves. The firm reckons customers will increasingly use them for ornaments, tchotchkes and the odd coffee-table tome—anything, that is, except books that are actually read.

http://www.economist.com/node/21528611

IKEA Redesigns Classic Bookshelf, Foreshadows the Demise of Books

Citing a changing climate in the reading world, the furniture authorities are putting a new spin on the old bookshelf – redesigning it to store anything but books.
The storage mavens at IKEA have noticed a shift in what consumers are storing in their bookshelves. After all, a Kindle can hold thousands more books than a wooden tower in the living room. According to The Economist, IKEA will release a new version of its classic BILLY bookshelf next month, one that's focused less on storing books than storing, well, anything and everything else. The company is finding that customers use their shelves increasingly for “ornaments, tchotchkes and the odd coffee-table tome,” and less so for reading material.

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/09/10/ikea-redesigns-classic-bookshelf-foreshadows-the-demise-of-books/#ixzz1Xf1eLBPw

Media Infographic: The Rise of E-Readers

More than one in ten Americans now own e-readers. Here, we take a look at what that means for the state of reading in America.

http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1109/the-rise-of-e-readers/flash.html

Teacher's iPad Experiment Shows Possibilities for Classroom Technology

School districts across the country are plunking down major cash for iPads—even for kindergarten classrooms—but there hasn't been much research about whether using them actually boosts student achievement. So James Harmon, a veteran English teacher from the Cleveland area, decided to conduct his own experiment (PDF). His finding? His students learned better with the aid of iPads—if used correctly. 

http://www.good.is/post/teacher-s-ipad-experiment-shows-possibilities-for-classroom-technology/ 

Let's raise a glass to China's wine

Chinese wine makers have beaten the French at their own game by winning a coveted Decanter award for best Bordeaux Varietal.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/8747202/Lets-raise-a-glass-to-Chinas-wine.html 

For sale: houses with libraries

The beautifully restored library is just one of many typical rooms in this Grade II listed house. The vaulted entrance hall, seven bedrooms and drawing room all have striking original features. Outside there are paddocks and a lake plus a walled garden with outbuildings in 27 acres of land.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/propertypicturegalleries/8750467/For-sale-houses-with-libraries.html

Millions of Hotmail users cut off by Microsoft 'cloud' failure

Millions of users of Hotmail and other Microsoft services worldwide were unable to access their online accounts this morning after the firm's "cloud" suffered a major technical failure. 

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8752156/Millions-of-Hotmail-users-cut-off-by-Microsoft-cloud-failure.html

 

The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom

Allan Bloom died in 1992, but after reading The Closing of the American Mind you'll wonder what he might have thought about universities today. The subtitle, How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students says it all. In his 1987 book, Bloom, then a professor of political science and philosophy at the University of Chicago, issues a scathing critique of how America educates its young people and the decline of intellectuality in national life in general. He critiques the contemporary university, saying it is failing students. A chief point of Bloom's argument is that the "great books" of Western thought — those by philosophers such as Rousseau, Locke and Nietzsche whose names are better known than their theories — have been devalued as a source of wisdom in favor of professors who "simply would not and could not talk about anything important." For anyone who cares about the state of higher education in the U.S., Bloom's insight puts his treatise high on the list of great books.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2088856_2089193,00.html

Slow Down! Why Some Languages Sound So Fast

Here's one of the least-interesting paragraphs you've ever read: "Last night I opened the front door to let the cat out. It was such a beautiful night that I wandered down to the garden to get a breath of fresh air. Then I heard a click as the door closed behind me."
OK, it becomes a little less eye-glazing after that, with the speaker getting arrested while trying to force the door back open. Still, we ain't talking Noel Coward here. All the same, this perfectly ordinary passage and a few others like it are part of an intriguing study just published in the journal Language — a study that answers one of the longest-standing questions about human speech.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2091477,00.html#ixzz1XNDzXeKC

David Hockney's iPad art

David Hockney explains why the iPhone and iPad inspire him. 

One day last summer I got a text message from David Hockney. It read: “I’ll send you today’s dawn this afternoon, an absurd sentence I know, but you know what I mean.” Later on it duly arrived: pale pink, mauve and apricot clouds drifting over the Yorkshire coast in the first light of a summer’s day. It was as delicate as a Turner, luminous as stained glass and as hi-tech as any art being made in the world today. Hockney had drawn it on his iPhone. 

See art and read the rest of the article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/8066839/David-Hockneys-iPad-art.html 

David Hockney to reveal more than 100 new paintings of Yorkshire in Olympic exhibition

David Hockney, Britain's greatest living artist, is hoping an exhibition of more than 100 new paintings of the Yorkshire countryside will become as famous as his work in California and the Grand Canyon. 

The 74-year-old, who moved back to his native Yorkshire to work on the landscapes almost 10 years ago, has been given his own blockbuster show at the Royal Academy of Art in London.

The exhibition of 180 pictures, the vast majority new, and of Bridlington, a seaside town in east Yorkshire, are to go on show from January as part of his 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

Employing a variety of mediums including water colour, oil paint, film, photography and even iPad, the work features the countryside of the Yorkshire throughout the seasons.

Mr Hockney, better known for his swimming pool scenes in California, said that he believed that his latest work was as good as anything he had done before.

"Every artist will always say that his latest work is his best," he said at the press launch of the exhibition in London.

Read the rest of the article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/8747531/David-Hockney-to-reveal-more-than-100-new-paintings-of-Yorkshire-in-Olympic-exhibition.html

Free speech is in retreat throughout the West

There's a sizzling piece by Mark Steyn in the current issue of National Review, which reveals quite how far democracies have gone in restricting free speech.
Citing, among many, the example of a musician on the Isle of Wight who was charged with racism after performing Kung Fu Fighting in the hearing of a Chinese couple, he makes the point that it is no longer possible to infer the legal status of words from the words themselves:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100103466/free-speech-is-in-retreat-throughout-the-west/

Downturn heightens pension crisis

Britain faces a retirement crisis after one in six people stopped paying into to their pension in the wake of the recession, official figures have disclosed. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/pensions/8747946/Downturn-heightens-pension-crisis.html