March 1, 2011
Bone conduction is the transmission of sound to the inner ear through the bones of the skull. Because the skull conducts low frequencies better than air, people perceive their own voices to be lower and deeper than others do. Bone conduction is ears-free, thus providing extended use comfort and safety, has high sound clarity in very noisy environments, and can be used with hearing protection.
However, some implementations require more power than headphones, and the overall clarity is not on par with traditional headphones and microphone due to reduced frequency bandwidth. One example of a bone conduction speaker is a piezo-electric flexing disc about 40mm across and 6mm thick used by scuba divers. Bone conduction transmission is also useful for individuals with impaired hearing.
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March 1, 2011
Lowcountry cuisine is the cooking traditionally associated with the South Carolina Lowcountry and Georgia coast. It shares features with Southern cooking, but with rich diversity of seafood from the coastal estuaries, its concentration of wealth in Charleston and Savannah, and a vibrant Caribbean cuisine and African cuisine influence, Lowcountry cooking also has strong parallels with New Orleans and Cajun cuisines.
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March 1, 2011
Seafood boil is the generic term for any number of different kinds of social events in which shellfish is the central element. Regional variations dictate the kinds of seafood, the accompaniments and side dishes, and the preparation techniques (boiling, steaming, baking, or raw). In some cases, a boil may be sponsored by a community organization as a fundraiser or a mixer. In this way, they are like a fish fry, barbecue, or church potluck supper.
But boils are also held by individuals for their friends and family for weekend get-togethers and on the summer holidays of Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. There are also companies that can cater a boil for large and small events. While boils and bakes are traditionally associated with coastal regions of the United States, there are notable exceptions. For example, the Fiesta Oyster Bake (San Antonio) began in 1916 as an alumni fund raiser for St. Mary’s University. It is now attended by over 70,000 people during its two day run and is a major music and cultural event in the city.
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March 1, 2011
Hallucigenia [huh-loo-suh-jane-ee-uh] is an extinct genus of animal found in British Columbia, Canada. The genus name was coined by English paleontologist, Simon Conway Morris in 1979. He named the genus Hallucigenia, because of its ‘bizarre and dream-like quality’ (like a hallucination).
Hallucigenia was initially considered by Stephen Jay Gould to be unrelated to any living species, but most palaeontologists now believe that the species was a relative of modern arthropods.
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March 1, 2011
Opabinia [oh-puh-bin-ee-uh] is an extinct animal found in Cambrian fossil deposits. Its sole species, Opabinia regalis, is known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia. The discoverer of Opabinia, American paleontologist, Charles Doolittle Walcott, named it after a local mountain, Opabin Peak in the Canadian Rockies.
Thirty specimens of Opabinia are known and each ranges in size from 40-70 mm. The most intriguing feature of Opabinia are its five eyes found on the dorsal surface of the head.
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March 1, 2011
Diania is an extinct genus of animal found in China, represented by a single species: cactiformis. Known during its investigation by the nickname ‘walking cactus,’ this remarkable organism belongs to a group known as the armored lobopodians and has a simple worm-like body with robust, spiny, and apparently jointed legs.
Its significance is that jointed legs are the defining character of the arthropods and Diania may thus be very close to the origins of the most diverse group of animals on the planet. Diania also suggests that that arthropodization (i.e. the appearance of hard ring-like, joints around the legs), evolved before arthrodization (i.e. hard, ring-like segments, around the body).
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March 1, 2011
Ubuntu [ooh-boon-too] is an ethic or humanist philosophy focusing on people’s allegiances and relations with each other. The word has its origin in the Bantu languages of southern Africa. Ubuntu is seen as a classical African concept. Ubuntu translates to, ‘I am what I am because of who we all are.’
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March 1, 2011
Ubuntu [ooh-boon-too] is a free operating system that uses the Linux kernel (the central component of most computer operating systems). The word ‘ubuntu’ is an old African word meaning ‘humanity.’ With an estimated global usage of more than 12 million users, Ubuntu is designed primarily for desktop use, although netbook and server editions exist as well. Web statistics suggest that Ubuntu’s share of Linux desktop usage is about 50%, and indicate upward-trending usage as a web server.
Ubuntu is sponsored by the UK-based company Canonical Ltd., owned by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. Canonical generates revenue by selling technical support and services tied to Ubuntu, while the operating system itself is entirely free of charge.
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March 1, 2011
Ubuntu Cola [ooh-boon-too] is a soft drink certified by The Fairtrade Foundation, a charity based in the United Kingdom that works to empower disadvantaged producers in developing countries by tackling injustice in conventional trade, in particular by promoting and licensing the Fairtrade Mark, a guarantee that products retailed in the UK have been produced in accordance with internationally agreed Fairtrade standards.
Ubunto Cola is made with Fairtrade sugar from Malawi and Zambia, and is the first UK cola to be Fairtrade certified. It is available for sale in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Ireland, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland, and online, in cans, 500 ml PET plastic bottles, and 275 ml glass bottles.
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March 1, 2011
Com Truise is the stage name of Seth Haley, an American electronic musician originally from Oneida, New York, and later, Princeton, New Jersey. The name is a spoonerism of Tom Cruise. Originally an Art Director, he turned in his resignation prior to his first release as Com Truise. Prior to this, Seth Haley was a Drum and Bass DJ until he fell into the 80’s style that he is known for today.
His synthesizer-heavy production work, influenced by 1980s musical styles, was first offered on the ‘Cyanide Sisters’ EP, which was initially a free download from the AMDISCS label and was reissued digitally by Ghostly International. A remix of his appeared on the ‘Tron: Legacy Reconfigured’ album soon after. In 2011 he released his first full-length album, ‘Galactic Melt.’ Haley also performs with a live drummer, Rory O’Connor.
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March 1, 2011
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the US. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as ‘the flagship of the left.’ Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City. It has bureaus in Washington, D.C., London, and South Africa, with departments covering Architecture, Art, Corporations, Defense, Environment, Films, Legal Affairs, Music, Peace and Disarmament, Poetry, and the UN. The publisher and editor is Katrina vanden Heuvel.
According to its founding prospectus of 1865, ‘The Nation will not be the organ of any party, sect, or body. It will, on the contrary, make an earnest effort to bring to the discussion of political and social questions a really critical spirit, and to wage war upon the vices of violence, exaggeration and misrepresentation by which so much of the political writing of the day is marred.’ Notable contributors have included Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., Bertrand Russell, Hunter S. Thompson, Leon Trotsky, George Orwell, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John Steinbeck, Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Frost, Frank Lloyd Wright, Jean-Paul Sartre, and John Maynard Keynes.
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March 1, 2011
The Weekly Standard is an American neoconservative opinion magazine published semi-weekly since 1995 by News Corporation. Currently edited by founder William Kristol and Fred Barnes, the Standard has been described as a ‘redoubt of neoconservatism’ and as ‘the neo-con bible.’
Many of the magazine’s articles are written by members of conservative think tanks located in Washington, D.C.: the American Enterprise Institute, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and the Hudson Institute. The magazine’s website blog, titled the ‘Daily Standard,’ is edited by John McCormack and Daniel Halper and produces daily articles and commentary.
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