inkycircus

Chatty paper

CAN SPEAKING PAPER FIGURE OUT A WAY TO MAKE MONEY LITERALLY TALK? (PHOTO: MANJIDES)

A team from Mid Sweden University have produced a prototype billboard embedded with conductive inks and printed speakers, so that when you touch it it plays audio at you. The article in BBC News says that the inventors think it could be useful in product packaging - and I do see the temptation. However, I don't really need my yoghurt to tell me how many grammes of fat it has or exactly how tasty it is. That would cause quite the cacophony in supermarkets.

Seems to me that this would be more useful for blind people, as a high-tech version of braille. But there'd presumably have to be some way of listening privately though (a printed headphone jack perhaps), otherwise you could reach the end of your intellectual magazine only to find it suddenly starts shouting out all the adverts for sex phone lines that are printed at the back. Very embarrassing.

Number one child

FAMILIES. CAN'T LIVE WITH EM, CANT LIVE WITHOUT EM. (PHOTO: AVALORE)
Families disagree a lot, that's what makes them fun. They are also unequal, with every family member being treated differently. Whether this is positive or negative rather depends on the family. Much as every parent would wish to be and try to be impartial and fair, it is simply impossible to treat all your children the same. I would lay money on the fact the most oft-spoken sentence in a family with more than one child is "It isn't FAIR".

I am a younger sibling, and I know for a fact that my older brother thought I got away with murder. He got to stay up late? So did I. He started getting pocket money? So did I. Very unfair. But it was the way that I used to provoke him until he hit me then go crying to mum, who would then of course take my side because I was smaller and a girl, that really broke his spirit and destroyed any faith he ever had in his parents.

Naturally, I just thought I was getting my revenge because he was older and got to do everything first. Naturally, he thought it was yet another example of how much our parents preferred me to him. And there's the key point. Whatever real or imagined imbalance in the way we were treated, we didn't agree about it. (We do now, as he still thinks they liked me better and I agree with him. Kidding). According to a study of family dynamics done in Illinois, that disagreement is pretty common. But in the families which communicated the best, any real or imagined imbalance was less of a problem. The moral of the story is that families should talk more, which is always a good idea. Of course the idea of teenaged siblings who communicate well with each other is about as likely as a low-flying pig, so this is a lesson for parents more than children. If you have to treat your children differently, for example with extra time or help, make sure the other kid knows why. It's basic psychology but it makes so much sense.

PS - If you need a good way to open communication with your family, why not try one of these little gizmos from Popgadget?

Here's the Eurekalert press release.

Goin green. Or not.

I admit it, I wanted a G-wiz. Small, cute, electric, no congestion charge, free parking, no road tax, what's not to love? And as a scooter user, I loved the idea of a green vehicle that was covered and wouldn't expose me to the elements. From the sounds of things they don't go that fast, but my scooter has a top speed of about 37.5mph so speed is not of the essence to me. They're moderately expensive, but that's manageable if they're efficient and safe. I've just gone right off the idea now that I know what happens to them when they crash. Experts at the Transport Research Lab crashed a G-wiz at speed, and the thing just flew apart. Turns out they're only subject to the same safety regulations as a quadricycle, which means they're not very safe at all. The car's maker GoinGreen emphasised the safety record, but from now on in their reputation will probably be about as dented as the crash test dummies legs are. I still like the idea of an environmentally friendly vehicle, but I don't like the idea of being squished. I'll just have to keep saving up for that Prius.

More via Top Gear Magazine. Official statement from GoinGreen here.

What's in a name? A lot apparently.

SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CALL YOUR DAUGHTER ANNA? FLAKY.
A newborn baby girl represents a whole world of potential. Will she grow up to be a rocket scientist? A nail technician? A doctor? A trophy wife? Who knows. But a new study shows that the name you choose to bestow on your daughter could affect her choice of career and whether or not she'll follow the path of enlightenment to a career in science.

If you give her a daft name she'll obviously suffer years of playground taunting and CV angst. Says the author of the study Professor Figlio "If you want to give your child a name that connotes low status, then you need to be aware of the consequences." Indeed. But it goes further than that. Give her a fluffy girly name and she's less likely to go into brainy subjects like science. Whether that's because she views herself as a ditzy dink or because everyone else thinks she's a flake because of her name isn't clear. Either way, a flaky name is a Bad Thing. Professor Figlio has even drawn up a list of names he thinks are the biggest obstacles to a young girls career because of their silly soppy femininity. Sarah. Emma. Anna. Nuff said.

Original story in the Daily Mail.

Print your own house

Cliches are cliches for a reason. Despite knowing that I was being the least original person ever in doing DIY on Easter weekend, I couldn't quite help myself. Something about the delicious springlike weather gave me the urge to pick up my power drill. However, I was also a ginormous cliche in that I didn't actually do DIY, I failed to do DIY and got in a grump. So tonight I get to redo the grouting that I messed up yesterday, refix the wine rack to the wall with the correct length of screw this time, and buy a new doorbell to replace the one I spent 2 hours trying to fix yesterday. So it continues.

Once I'd given up on the grout and sat down with a cup of tea and a piece of easter egg, I started to read this story on ABC news. It's all about how some scientists are making a 4m x 5m printer to print a house. They'll use a type of rapid prototyping that builds a product up in layers, then uses a laser to bond the layers together. It's normally done with plastic, but this project will use cement, gypsum, clay, or lime, squeezed out like toothpaste by the mega-printer. It sounds quite nifty, the printer will build up walls with spaces inside for doors, wires and insulation, and so could enable reasonably sophisticated house design. But looking beyond that, I don't think it'll let me put down my tools for good just yet - it'll take a good 4 years for the team to build their printer and their one prototype wall. You also can't build a brick wall with a printer, so they'll probably end up producing concrety pod houses instead of nice brick semis. I actually wouldn't mind living in a pod house, except my wine rack might not fit on the curvy walls. Come to think of it, with my DIY skills that's probably a good thing. Bring on the printed houses, I say.

(PHOTO: RISSMU)

Pity the trolley dollies

Jet lag aint fun. But if you want to go on your hols to a far flung location on the other side of the world, you're going to mess up your body clock and suffer when you're back on home turf. I never really know how you're meant to counter jet lag, so I usually just try to sleep as much as I can on the plane, drink lots of water (cure for everything), and avoid the nap of doom (when you get home mid afternoon, think you'll just lay your head down for 2 minutes, and wake up 8 hours later feeling like death). But a new study claims that jet lag can leave you at risk of stomach problems, menstrual disturbance, and maybe even short periods of psychiatric disturbance.

We are built to operate on a time clock, to be awake a certain amount of time and asleep the rest, and it seems reasonable to say that messing with that programme probably isn't terribly healthy. But just not getting enough sleep is one thing, bouncing around the globe and never giving your body a chance to recover is quite another. Small amounts of discomfort caused by mixing up them time-zones is manageable, either because you've just had a nice holiday, or because you know that after a few nights back under your own duvet, you'll be right as rain again. But if it was your job to globetrot, what then? So we're left with the standard scientific refrain - more research is needed. What physical, chemical or biological effect does persistent jet lag have on frequent flyers? I see some "research" long haul trips on the horizon for sure...

Via ABC Australia. PHOTO: A GLITCH.

The lonliness of the long distance runner

My cousin is training for the Flora London Marathon at the moment, and is doing spectacularly well - she did a 3 hour, 18 mile run on Sunday. a)I myself probably couldn't even run for 18 metres, b)how she didn't get bored for all that time just running I'll never know. But anyway. The marathon is one of those things that pushes human ability to the max. One should think only of the original marathon runner, Pheidippides, who ran 26 miles from the town of Marathon to Athens with glad tidings, and then dropped dead - it's not a feat to be taken lightly. But for some people, the promise of torn muscles, chafed thighs, jogger's nipple, blisters, kidney problems, heart problems, dead toenails, dehydration, exhaustion and sunburn isn't enough of a challenge, and they have to run a marathon at the arctic. With two false hips, like Warrant Officer Steve Boswell.  Or in space, like NASA astronaut Sunita Williams.

For me, and we've already established that I'm quite lazy, being blasted up into space would be quite a good get-out clause for not having to run the marathon after all. But no. Sunita plans to follow through on the Boston marathon motto - 'It's all about the promises' - and to tether herself to a treadmill in the space shuttle for 3+ hours, and cover the 26 miles anyway, at the same time as her fellow runners in Boston. She'll incidentally have put a girdle round the earth twice in the process, actually travelling just over 50,000 miles before she reaches the metaphorical finishing line. How's that for going the distance?

Via BBC News. And you can see a pic of Sunita on her treadmill there too. PHOTO: PAUL KELEHER

Random medical cure o the day

IF YOU DON'T HAVE A WART BUT YOU DO HAVE DUCT TAPE YOU COULD ALWAYS MAKE A LITTLE HOUSE FOR YOUR BRUSSEL SPROUTS. (PHOTO: !ALEX!)
Got a wart? Fearing social rejection and humiliation? Fear not. All you need to re-enter society as a newly smooth individual is a roll of duct/duck tape. Nobody knows why it gets rid of warts, but it does. All you have to do is put a piece of tape over your wart and leave it for a week or so, then have a go at the weakened wart with a pumice stone, and you'll be sorted. That's if you can stand the shame of walking around for a week with tape on your face, but we have to suffer to be beautiful.

And if you ever find yourself in a late night pub argument about whether the versatile silvery tape is named after a vent or an aquatic bird, the answer is that there is no answer. It was developed in WW2 as a waterproof sealing for ammunition cases, and rumour has it that was made to withstand water like a duck's back. But it's certainly used to fix ducts, and plenty more besides, and has been since long before any mention of ducks came along. A company sells the tape under the brand name 'Duck Tape', but wikipedia opts for the duct spelling. Duct or duck, the fact remains that the tape is fabulously useful. And it gets rid of warts. So there.

Via The Boston Globe.

A blackcurrant flavoured David & Goliath story

As far as I can determine, every family has their own Miracle Cure for when sickness strikes. Many of my close friends are Jewish, so obviously chicken soup features fairly high on their lists. For my boyfriend's family, it's scrambled eggs that is the cure for all ills. In my family, the miracle cure is ribena. It's partly a comfort thing, when you're poorly people bring you treats, and one of those treats is a nice, sweet flask of iced ribena for you to drink while you snuggle on the sofa under a duvet, and it's partly a health thing, to do with the claims printed on the ribena labels that the drink contains health boosting vitamin C. Well, apparently that's a Big Fat Lie.

Back in 2004, two schoolgirls in New Zealand were trying to think of a science experiment to do, and decided to test a couple of popular drinks to determine their vitamin c levels. Despite the ambitious claims from ribena owner Glaxo SmithKline that their drink contains four times the amount of vitamin c that orange juice has, 14 yr-olds Anna Devathasan and Jenny Suo found that the blackcurrant beverage had almost no detectable vitamin c. They were so suprised that they did their test again, but found the same result. No vitamin c to speak of. Whoops. They fired off a letter containing their claims to the pharmaceuticals giant and got no reply (quel suprise). But they refused to take no for an answer, and got the Commerce Commission (the New Zealand consumer watchdog), on board, and they set a court action in motion. Fast forward three years, and GSK have been fined £80,000 for making misleading claims, and ordered to put ads in major metropolitan newspapers to atone for telling whoppers. A drop in the ocean for a megabucks corporation, but a truly fantastic one in the eye nonetheless.

(PHOTO: PASI)

Wherever I lay my geeky hat

GEEKY HOTEL ROOM, INKYCIRCUS STYLE. ALSO KNOWN AS A MESSY HOTEL ROOM. OOPS.

Staying in hotels is fun at the best of times, but how much better is it when your room is stacked to the ceiling with gadgets and gizmos? Fun as all the little mini shampoos and shoe polishers are, it's the little extras like top speed (ideally free) wifi, flat screen tvs and motorized curtains that really make the hotel experience a special one. A specially geeky one, that is. Well, if you are a geek who likes to stay in swanky hotels, the kind folks over at Hotel Chatter have drawn up a list of their Top Five Geek Hotels in the World. From New York's Tribeca Grand istudio suites complete with ipods and G5 computers, to the switched-on Hotel @ MIT in Boston via the hobbit-themed round-windowed Woodlyn Park in New Zealand, there's something there for everyone. I might have to go and pay a few of these hotels a visit. Purely in the name of research, of course.