The Daily Omnivore

The Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania is commonly referred to as ‘The Cradle of Mankind.’ The old name for the Gorge was Olduvai Gorge, which was a mispronunciation of Oldupai. The Gorge was re-named in 2005 to correct this mistake. Oldupai is the Maasai word for the wild plant which grows in the gorge that is used as an antiseptic and natural bandage. Excavation work there was pioneered by Louis and Mary Leakey beginning in 1931 and continued into the twenty-first century by Professor Fidelis Masao of the Open University of Tanzania supported by Earthwatch; there have also been teams from Rutgers University.

The earliest archaeological deposit, known as Bed I, has produced evidence of campsites and living floors along with stone tools made of local basalt and quartz. Since this is the site where these kinds of tools were first discovered, these tools are called Oldowan. It is now thought that the Oldowan toolmaking tradition started about 2.6 million years ago. Above this, in Bed II, pebble tools begin to be replaced by more sophisticated handaxes of the Acheulean industry and made by H. ergaster. This layer has not yet been successfully dated, but likely falls between 1.75 and 1.2 million years.

ReplayGain is a method, published by David Robinson in 2001, to normalize the perceived loudness of audio in computer audio formats such as MP3 and Ogg Vorbis. It works on a track/ album basis, and is now supported in a growing number of media players including iTunes, VLC,  and Winamp. Replay Gain works by analyzing an audio track to measure peak levels and perceived loudness. The difference between the measured perceived loudness and the desired target loudness is calculated; this is considered the ideal replay gain value. The target loudness of almost all Replay Gain utilities is 89 dB.

Usually, the gain value and the peak value are then stored as metadata in the audio file, allowing Replay Gain-capable audio players to automatically attenuate or amplify the signal such that tracks play at a similar loudness level. This avoids the common problem of having to manually adjust volume levels when playing audio files from albums that have been mastered at different levels. Should the original levels of audio be desired (e.g., for burning back to hard copy), the metadata can simply be ignored.

OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. The ‘organic’ in OLED refers to organic material. Carbon is the basis of all organic matter. Examples of carbon-based substances include sugar, wood and the majority of plastics. ‘Light Emitting Diode’ describes the process of converting electric energy into light. OLEDs are used in television screens, computer monitors, mobile phones, watches, advertising, information and indication; they can also be used in light sources for general space illumination and in large-area light-emitting elements. An OLED display functions without a backlight. Thus, it can display deep black levels and can be thinner and lighter than liquid crystal displays and more power efficient. Similarly, in low ambient light conditions such as dark rooms, an OLED screen can achieve a higher contrast ratio than an LCD screen using either cold cathode fluorescent lamps or the more recently developed LED backlight. It can also be made up to 85% transparent and printed on flexible substrates.

The layer of organic material is sandwiched between two conductors (an anode and a cathode), which in turn are sandwiched between a glass top plate (seal) and a glass bottom plate (substrate). When electric Current is applied to the two conductors, a bright, electroluminescent light is produced directly from the organic material. OLED has more control over color expression than LCD because it only expresses pure colors when an electric Current stimulates the relevant Pixels. There are two main families of OLEDs. Those based upon small molecules, and more recently, those employing polymers.