A no-name PMP selling for $179 at Brando — purveyor of all things inexpensive, electronic and often USB-powered — may not ordinarily make the grade for us, but this so-called Gadmei P83 device has one somewhat notable trick up its sleeve. It packs an 8-inch, 1,280 x 768 display that’s able to do glasses-free 3D video. Of course, you’re left to yourself to actually hunt down or provide your own compatible video files, and the PMP itself is decidedly ordinary otherwise: 4GB of storage, an SD card slot for expansion, and the usual media playback capabilities and nothing more (no one’s going to confuse this for a tablet). Still curious? Head on past the break for a video that offers a slightly more accurate depiction of the device than the image above. Continue reading Gadmei P83 PMP does glasses-free 3D for $179 Gadmei P83 PMP does glasses-free 3D for $179 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Jun 2011 04:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Young specialists with broadcasting flair were sought by BBC Radio 3 and research council to bring fresh voices to the public They are, in theory, the brightest of our bright young things: 10 academics chosen in an X Factor-style talent search with specialist subjects that range from the history of fan mail to the significance of the desert in modern culture. The Guardian can name the winners of a competition to find a new generation of thinkers and communicators, pictured as they gathered on Monday at the BBC. The talent search was a collaboration between Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Matthew Dodd, head of speech programming at Radio 3, said they wanted to find academics with a flair for broadcasting earlier in their career. “We felt that the people in academia we were dealing with were often very established with published books who were on air regularly,” he said. “We are looking for people with the most interesting ideas who want to share their knowledge and can make fantastic programmes.” It began with whittling down more than 1,000 applications – “far in excess of what we expected,” says Dodd – to select 57 finalists at a series of day-long workshops and auditions. He said: “It was a revelation to us how media savvy they were. The notion of being in an ivory tower was a long, long way away. They were all brimming with ideas and eager to spread their knowledge. There was none of the gaucheness that a stereotype of the scholar might throw up.” The list was then whittled down to the 10 winners. One is Alexandra Harris, who won last year’s Guardian First Book award for Romantic Moderns, her revisionist work on culture between the wars. Harris, an English lecturer at Liverpool University, got through with her specialist subject on how the weather – and more specifically being cold – has influenced English art, music and literature, although she admitted “it is research which is very new and I’m just starting.” She called the New Generation Thinkers scheme a fantastic opportunity and added: “I’ve never been a believer in the ivory tower university and all the people who have inspired me have been just terrific communicators who have made their research buzzing and relevant. “It also felt like a breath of hope at this point where it’s just cuts, cuts, cuts and this sense of academia being irrelevant and the government turning its back on the humanities. In a way, I wanted to apply just to say, ‘I love the sound of this scheme.’” Another of the 10 is Philip Roscoe, a lecturer at University of St Andrews school of management, who is looking at how economics shapes the moral landscape in everyday settings, including internet dating, an industry he called “social engineering on a massive scale”. He said much academic research is important and interesting but is a hard-sell in terms of generating headlines. “The prospect of being able to make some programming about the ideas and the concepts behind the research and take some time and do it properly was very appealing.” The others and their specialist subjects are Corin Throsby, Cambridge University, the history of fan mail; David Petts, Durham University, the commercialisation of British archaeology; Jon Adams, London School of Economics, on crowding in the modern city; Laurence Scott, Kings College London, on the image and significance of the desert in modern culture; Lucy Powell, University College London, a literary exploration of prisons; Rachel Hewitt, Queen Mary, University of London, on the 1790s: the Age of Despair; Shahidha Bari, also Queen Mary, on the Arabian Nights; and Zoe Norridge, York University, on cultural responses to the Rwandan genocide. All 10 can be heard on the next 10 editions of Night Waves from tonight and they will then develop their broadcasting ideas further with Radio 3 as well as appear in special New Generation Thinkers debates. Radio 3 Higher education BBC Lecturers Entertainment Mark Brown guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Young specialists with broadcasting flair were sought by BBC Radio 3 and research council to bring fresh voices to the public They are, in theory, the brightest of our bright young things: 10 academics chosen in an X Factor-style talent search with specialist subjects that range from the history of fan mail to the significance of the desert in modern culture. The Guardian can name the winners of a competition to find a new generation of thinkers and communicators, pictured as they gathered on Monday at the BBC. The talent search was a collaboration between Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Matthew Dodd, head of speech programming at Radio 3, said they wanted to find academics with a flair for broadcasting earlier in their career. “We felt that the people in academia we were dealing with were often very established with published books who were on air regularly,” he said. “We are looking for people with the most interesting ideas who want to share their knowledge and can make fantastic programmes.” It began with whittling down more than 1,000 applications – “far in excess of what we expected,” says Dodd – to select 57 finalists at a series of day-long workshops and auditions. He said: “It was a revelation to us how media savvy they were. The notion of being in an ivory tower was a long, long way away. They were all brimming with ideas and eager to spread their knowledge. There was none of the gaucheness that a stereotype of the scholar might throw up.” The list was then whittled down to the 10 winners. One is Alexandra Harris, who won last year’s Guardian First Book award for Romantic Moderns, her revisionist work on culture between the wars. Harris, an English lecturer at Liverpool University, got through with her specialist subject on how the weather – and more specifically being cold – has influenced English art, music and literature, although she admitted “it is research which is very new and I’m just starting.” She called the New Generation Thinkers scheme a fantastic opportunity and added: “I’ve never been a believer in the ivory tower university and all the people who have inspired me have been just terrific communicators who have made their research buzzing and relevant. “It also felt like a breath of hope at this point where it’s just cuts, cuts, cuts and this sense of academia being irrelevant and the government turning its back on the humanities. In a way, I wanted to apply just to say, ‘I love the sound of this scheme.’” Another of the 10 is Philip Roscoe, a lecturer at University of St Andrews school of management, who is looking at how economics shapes the moral landscape in everyday settings, including internet dating, an industry he called “social engineering on a massive scale”. He said much academic research is important and interesting but is a hard-sell in terms of generating headlines. “The prospect of being able to make some programming about the ideas and the concepts behind the research and take some time and do it properly was very appealing.” The others and their specialist subjects are Corin Throsby, Cambridge University, the history of fan mail; David Petts, Durham University, the commercialisation of British archaeology; Jon Adams, London School of Economics, on crowding in the modern city; Laurence Scott, Kings College London, on the image and significance of the desert in modern culture; Lucy Powell, University College London, a literary exploration of prisons; Rachel Hewitt, Queen Mary, University of London, on the 1790s: the Age of Despair; Shahidha Bari, also Queen Mary, on the Arabian Nights; and Zoe Norridge, York University, on cultural responses to the Rwandan genocide. All 10 can be heard on the next 10 editions of Night Waves from tonight and they will then develop their broadcasting ideas further with Radio 3 as well as appear in special New Generation Thinkers debates. Radio 3 Higher education BBC Lecturers Entertainment Mark Brown guardian.co.uk
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Food must be imported and water use tightly regulated to protect dwindling supply, a leading groundwater expert has warned China needs to reduce food production on its dry northern plains or aquifers will diminish to a “dire” level in 30 years, the country’s leading groundwater expert has warned. Zheng Chunmiao, director of the Water Research Centre at Peking University, said the world’s most populous country will have to focus more on demand-side restraint because it is becoming more expensive and difficult to tap finite supplies below the surface. “The government must adopt a new policy to reduce water consumption,” Zheng told the Guardian. “The main thing is to reduce demand. We have relied too much on engineering projects, but the government realises this is not a long-term solution.” Zheng’s comments are based on his studies of the aquifers under the North China plain, one of the country’s main wheat growing regions. He said the water table is falling at the rate of about a metre a year mainly due to agriculture, which accounts for 60% of demand. “The water situation in the North China plain does not allow much longer for irrigation,” Zheng said. “We need to reduce food production even though it is politically difficult. It would be much more economical to import.” The government will be reluctant to accept such a radical step, which could weaken the country’s ability to feed itself. But it may not have a choice. Over the past 10 years, Zheng estimates the annual water deficit in northern China at 4bn cubic metres. This is increasingly made up from underground sources, which account for 70% of water supplies. Although some aquifers remain 500 metres thick, others are emptying at an alarming rate. This has created depletion cones, the deepest of which is at Hengshui near Xizhuajiang. Before trimming agricultural production, the government will try to improve usage efficiency. Plans are now being drawn up to measure and centrally manage the remaining resources, which are currently under the control of regional governments that often tend to draw up water unsustainably for the short-term benefit of the local economy. The Yellow River Conservancy Commission – which has the nation’s most advanced river management network – is expected to serve as a model. “The government is considering a system similar to ours that will collect data on underground water resources and connect it to our Yellow River monitoring system,” said Pei Yong, director of the water regulation division. “I think it will start three or four years from now.” Even before this begins, controls on underground water use are slowly being tightened. Well digging – once a lucrative, ubiquitous and poorly regulated business – is already feeling the pinch. Kaifeng Well Drilling – a company in Henan – charges 100-500 yuan for each metre drilled, but it has recently laid off workers because it gets permission for only two wells a year now, compared to about 30 in the 1980s. “Business is very bad. Many firms have had to change business,” said the director, who only gave his surname, Wang. “The controls are very tight now. You only get permission to drill in areas with severe water shortages.” Such restrictions are said to have slowed the rate of aquifer depletion, but the situation remains critical. Zheng said much more needs to be done, including demand reduction, water transfers and greater use of desalination plants. “We will get there because we have to,” he said. “If nothing changes, then in 30 years, we will face a dire situation.” Water Food Drought China Jonathan Watts guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Food must be imported and water use tightly regulated to protect dwindling supply, a leading groundwater expert has warned China needs to reduce food production on its dry northern plains or aquifers will diminish to a “dire” level in 30 years, the country’s leading groundwater expert has warned. Zheng Chunmiao, director of the Water Research Centre at Peking University, said the world’s most populous country will have to focus more on demand-side restraint because it is becoming more expensive and difficult to tap finite supplies below the surface. “The government must adopt a new policy to reduce water consumption,” Zheng told the Guardian. “The main thing is to reduce demand. We have relied too much on engineering projects, but the government realises this is not a long-term solution.” Zheng’s comments are based on his studies of the aquifers under the North China plain, one of the country’s main wheat growing regions. He said the water table is falling at the rate of about a metre a year mainly due to agriculture, which accounts for 60% of demand. “The water situation in the North China plain does not allow much longer for irrigation,” Zheng said. “We need to reduce food production even though it is politically difficult. It would be much more economical to import.” The government will be reluctant to accept such a radical step, which could weaken the country’s ability to feed itself. But it may not have a choice. Over the past 10 years, Zheng estimates the annual water deficit in northern China at 4bn cubic metres. This is increasingly made up from underground sources, which account for 70% of water supplies. Although some aquifers remain 500 metres thick, others are emptying at an alarming rate. This has created depletion cones, the deepest of which is at Hengshui near Xizhuajiang. Before trimming agricultural production, the government will try to improve usage efficiency. Plans are now being drawn up to measure and centrally manage the remaining resources, which are currently under the control of regional governments that often tend to draw up water unsustainably for the short-term benefit of the local economy. The Yellow River Conservancy Commission – which has the nation’s most advanced river management network – is expected to serve as a model. “The government is considering a system similar to ours that will collect data on underground water resources and connect it to our Yellow River monitoring system,” said Pei Yong, director of the water regulation division. “I think it will start three or four years from now.” Even before this begins, controls on underground water use are slowly being tightened. Well digging – once a lucrative, ubiquitous and poorly regulated business – is already feeling the pinch. Kaifeng Well Drilling – a company in Henan – charges 100-500 yuan for each metre drilled, but it has recently laid off workers because it gets permission for only two wells a year now, compared to about 30 in the 1980s. “Business is very bad. Many firms have had to change business,” said the director, who only gave his surname, Wang. “The controls are very tight now. You only get permission to drill in areas with severe water shortages.” Such restrictions are said to have slowed the rate of aquifer depletion, but the situation remains critical. Zheng said much more needs to be done, including demand reduction, water transfers and greater use of desalination plants. “We will get there because we have to,” he said. “If nothing changes, then in 30 years, we will face a dire situation.” Water Food Drought China Jonathan Watts guardian.co.uk
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The utility at the heart of Japan’s nuclear crisis, Tokyo Electric Power Co, faced pressure today from angry shareholders to shut all its reactors in a sign of growing Japanese opposition to nuclear energy. Activist shareholders may struggle, however, to convince long-term institutional investors, which own most of the stock, to approve a resolution to abandon atomic energy. Dai-ichi Life Insurance is the biggest shareholder of Tepco, as the company is known. Many shareholders at a rowdy annual general meeting in Tokyo heaped scorn on the utility’s executives over their handling of the March disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant and the company’s subsequent slide to near bankruptcy. In…
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More than 5,000 police officers to guard central Athens as striking workers plan to march on parliament Greece is facing major disruption on Tuesday as unions begin a 48-hour general strike before a parliamentary vote on harsh austerity measures demanded in return for international rescue loans. Protest rallies in Athens are due to converge on parliament as industrial action called in protest against tax hikes was expected to disrupt or halt most public services. More than 5,000 police have been deployed to guard central Athens where anti-austerity demonstrations earlier this month ended in scenes of violence as protesters clashed with riot officers. “We expect a dynamic and massive participation in the strike and the march to the centre of Athens. We will have 48 hours of working people, unemployed, young people in the streets,” Spyros Papaspyros, leader of public sector union ADEDY, told Reuters. Doctors, paramedics, journalists, postal workers and private sector employees were all expected to join the protest. Stoppages by Greek air traffic controllers are likely to disrupt flights and ferry departures from Athens are also expected to be hit. The unions are angry that the proposed austerity package would raise taxes on minimum wage earners and other Greeks in addition to earlier cuts that have driven unemployment past 16%. Parliament must approve and implement the programme this week if Greece is to receive a scheduled bailout loan of €110bn from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Without the loan Greece risks becoming the first eurozone country to default on its debts – an event that could trigger a crisis in other economically weak European countries and have major global consequences. “These measures are a massacre for workers’ rights. It will truly be hell for the working man. The strike must bring everything to a standstill,” Thanassis Pafilis, a member of parliament for the pro-strike Greek Communist party, told Associated Press. The three-day parliamentary debate over the austerity package came as France, among eurozone nations scrambling to prevent a default, suggested rolling over some Greek debt for 30 years. The proposal by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, offered hope to Greece’s socialist prime minister, George Papandreou, before the debate. “I call on you to vote for survival, growth, justice, and a future for the citizens of this country,” Papandreou told politicians. Unable to offload its sovereign debt, Greece is dependent on bailout loans and is banking on a new rescue package to cover a 2012 financial hole. Although any further assistance is likely to be dependent on approval of austerity measures, Papandreou said he hoped the terms of a second bailout would be better than the first. “I call on Europe, for its part, to give Greece the time and the terms it needs to really pay off its debt, without strangling growth, and without strangling its citizens,” he said. Theodoros Pangalos, the deputy prime minister, rejected suggestions Greece might be forced to abandon the euro and return to its old currency, the drachma. “There would be riots everywhere, shops would have empty shelves and people would be jumping out of windows … It would also be disastrous for the entire economy of Europe,” he told the Spanish daily El Mundo. Greece Europe Protest European debt crisis European banks Barry Neild guardian.co.uk
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Higher education white paper promises to give students more power to ensure they get their money’s worth, but Labour brands reforms a ‘complete shambles’ University courses with a poor track record of employment will be “named and shamed” under government proposals to give students a clearer choice of degree and curb the costs of tuition fee loans. Measures to open up the sector and give more power to students to ensure they get their money’s worth are reforms tied to the government’s plans to triple tuition fees to £9,000 from 2012, due to be outlined in the government’s long-awaited white paper on higher education on Tuesday. In what is seen as the most radical shakeup of the higher education system in decades, the white paper is expected to contain measures to allow popular universities to take in any student who gains at least two A grades and a B at A-level, allowing these institutions to grow. Universities charging low fees, including higher education colleges, could also be told that they can increase their numbers in a move that will be seen as a way to encourage institutions to lower their fees. The proposals were criticised by Labour and the National Union of Students, who warned that the reforms would see the quality of degree courses suffer and leave students open to “market chaos” in the higher education sector. The government also wants to see courses that are not valued by employers either scrapped or overhauled. Ministers will ask for the publication of detailed information about the employment and earning outcomes of specific degrees, to limit losses to the taxpayer from students who fail to repay their loans. At present, two-thirds of universities are seeking to charge the maximum £9,000 fee from next year, despite wide variations in employability. Universities will be required to publish comparable data on teaching hours and accommodation costs, and to account for how fee income is spent. In a round of broadcast interviews given ahead of the publication of the white paper, David Willetts, the universities minister, said the government was looking for a “transformation” in the amount of information students receive. “There are some courses that are far better at preparing young people for the world of work than others. At the moment, the student finds it very hard to get that information,” he told BBC Breakfast. “In future, they are going to be able to see ‘if I do biological sciences at one university, I have got a much better chance of a job in a pharmaceutical company than if I do biological sciences at a different university’. Yes, all that information should be out there and we are insisting for the first time that it should be available for prospective students.” Willetts said he wanted to see education institutions compete both on fees, but also on the “quality of the experience” for students as the government dismantles the system of quotas on student places. He told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme that UK universities should dispense with the public sector “mindset”. “They are not, they do not belong to the public sector. What they do receive is a large amount of public money … what we will be saying today is if there are alternative providers that come in they may be FE colleges, of course should have the opportunity of offering higher education but they should be regulated on the same basis as everyone else and I think there’s a great opportunity here. “Existing universities have been over-regulated so we’re going to cut back the burden of regulation The ones outside the system often have not been regulated at all.” John Denham, the shadow business secretary, branded the reforms a “complete shambles” and accused the government of “making it up as it goes along”. “Whatever we get this afternoon wasn’t any part of the proposals that were put to the House of Commons last December,” Denham told Sky News. “Remember, the government cut higher education funding by 80%, which is why we have this huge increase in fees. They then said very few universities would charge £9,000 – most of them want to charge £9,000. “So what’s happening here is that they’re trying to drive down the cost of some courses, but I fear very much at the expense of quality of higher education and the stability of some universities and we will do our students no favours if we give them a cut-price, low-quality degree when what they need is a really good quality higher education.” Aaron Porter, president of the National Union of Students, said the reforms would leave the majority of students facing “complete market chaos”. “To use proposals for more information as a justification for lifting the cap on fees to £9,000 is outrageous and will not fool students and their families. It’s the price, rather than educational standards, that will have tripled,” said Porter. “Ministers are at risk of creating stability for the perceived best but complete chaos for the rest. The vast majority of university entrants, who don’t get the very best grades, will be treated to complete market chaos and real uncertainty about their universities and courses.” The white paper comes as research revealed that graduates are facing record levels of competition for jobs, with more than 80 fighting for every position, research suggests. Employers are now receiving 83 applications on average for each job – almost double the numbers of two years ago (49), and nearly treble compared with three years ago (31) according to the Association of Graduate Recruiters. Higher education Students Student finance David Willetts University funding Jeevan Vasagar Jessica Shepherd Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk
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After arriving by scooter for the LA premiere of his new romantic comedy, ‘Larry Crowne,’ Tom Hanks reveals how he had a close shave on the vehicle during filming, with Julia Roberts on the back. (June 28)
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Showtime (by Ahorn) vimeiro 1,45 Showtime (by Ahorn) GP 1.60 DjEro Rough Series Vol 6 Spanish Version RoxieKat says: Marlene is funny # ShowTime #TheBigC
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