Canon 5D Mark II used to shoot entire House season finale, director says it's 'the future'

May 17, folks. That's the date when the grumpy doctor you wish you were and the snazzy camera you wish you owned will join forces on American network television. The final episode in this season's run of House has been shot exclusively using Canon's 5D Mark II, and the show's director Greg Yaitanes has been taking questions about the experience on Twitter. PetaPixel have helpfully collated the Q&A session into a coherent pseudo-interview, which you'll be able to find at the source below. The major takeaway is that the crew liked the experience and didn't have to do an overwhelming amount of work to adapt to the different shooting method. Guess after SNL and its own movie, the 5D Mark II just had to go and do a guest appearance on its favorite TV show.

Engadget. Apr 13, 2010.

400 HK parents sign up for place at Harrow

International school to take up to 750 local students

More than 400 Hong Kong parents have put their children's names down for the city's first international boarding school - months before building work is due to begin.


Plans for the campus of Harrow International School Hong Kong, which will be built on the site of a former military barracks in Tuen Mun, were unveiled yesterday at the British Consulate in Admiralty.


The school is being set up under a franchise agreement with Harrow School in Britain by Harrow International Management Services, which won a government tender for the site last year and is close to sealing a land grant.


Executive headmaster Mark Hensman, who is leading the project, said the school aimed to recruit 50 per cent of its 1,500 students from the territory - the maximum number permitted by the government - but had set no minimum quota for local students.


"An international school should reflect the culture of the local environment, so it is very important that we have a large number of Hong Kong students," he said. "Our ideal is 50:50.


"We have had nearly 400 registrations of interest to date - all from Hong Kong.


"We will be marketing the school from Indonesia to Korea and Japan and from the Philippines right across to possibly the Indian subcontinent."


Hensman said children aged seven and above would be selected using tests of English, maths and non-verbal reasoning and interviews from August next year. Younger children would be observed in play sessions for English ability and social skills.


The school would provide scholarships and bursaries for around 10 per cent of students. Scholarships would go to students with special or all-round ability in academic study, music or sport.


Plans for the 3.7-hectare campus feature a nine-storey building set around a football pitch, three tennis courts and one multi-purpose sports pitch. The HK$700 million building, which is being bankrolled by Hong Kong tycoon Daniel Chiu, will provide 33.3 square metres of space per student in a campus that is less than one-fortieth the size of its mother school in London.


The first phase of construction, due to be completed in 2012, also includes an indoor swimming pool, an underground sports centre and a housing block for 50 teachers. A performing arts centre and extra boarding house are due to be added later.


Students will be allocated to eight "houses" - following the traditional pastoral system of British independent schools - with each house occupying one floor. There will be 44 students to five staff per house, with separate wings for boys and girls.


Hensman said day students would also be allocated to houses for the school's extensive programme of extra-curricular activities and homework, on which students were required to spend two hours per day after lessons. The school's 100 teachers, who would have to live on campus, would be recruited mainly from the UK, he said.


Permanent secretary for education Raymond Wong Hung-chiu, who met with the Harrow team yesterday, said the school would "definitely" help to address the educational needs of expatriate families and attract overseas students to Hong Kong.


"We will continue to monitor the provision of international school places and take the necessary measures to meet the demand of the community," he said.


SCMP. Apr. 14, 2010.

KFC Launches All-Meat Sandwich, No Fooling

The KFC Double Down, a sandwich that the fast-food chain felt compelled to assure consumers was actually real and not an April Fools' Day prank, will land with a greasy thud in KFC locations across the U.S. on April 12, an advertisement on KFC’s website said Saturday.

The Double Down features bacon and Monterey Jack cheese surrounded not by a bun but by two fried chicken fillets.

KFC describes the sandwich as “so meaty, there’s no room for a bun!” Consumer affairs website Consumerist called it “mysteriously tempting (and potentially lethal).”

The Double Down was initially tested in Omaha, Neb. and Providence, R.I. last July before KFC decided to take it nationwide, CTNow.com reported.

According to KFC.com, which has a countdown to the launch of the Double Down, the sandwich is available with Original Recipe chicken or original chicken. The grilled option provides fewer calories and less fat than the Original (which has 540 calories and 32 grams of fat), but also a whopping 1430 grams of sodium -- more than half of the U.S.Department of Agriculture’s recommended daily allowance.

Myfoxla.com.

iPad: Easy enough for a five-year-old?

fastcompany

Apple iPad: roundup of reviews

Here is what the critics had to say about the latest offering from Apple:



Stephen Fry, writing in Time magazine:


"It is possible that the public will not fall on the iPad, as I did, like lions on an antelope.
"But for me, my iPad is like a gun lobbyist's rifle: the only way you will take it from me is to prise it from my cold, dead hands."



David Pogue, writing in the New York Times:

"You can get a laptop for much less money – with a full keyboard, DVD drive, USB jacks, camera-card slot, camera, the works.
"[But] the iPad is so fast and light, the multitouch screen so bright and responsive, the software so easy to navigate, that it really does qualify as a new category of gadget."
"Some have suggested that it might make a good goof-proof computer for technophobes, the aged and the young; they're absolutely right."

Walt Mossberg, writing in the Wall Street Journal:


"If people ... see it as a way to replace heavier, bulkier computers much of the time – for web surfing, email, social networking, video- and photo-viewing, gaming, music and even some light content creation – it could be a game-changer the way Apple's iPhone has been."


Xeni Jardin, writing in BoingBoing:


"There's something about tilting and steering and braking with a device you hold in your hands, just like a steering wheel, that's so much more viscerally pleasing than a big old shelf-bound console.
"Manic, non-stop use revealed a number of things: battery life is better than I anticipated … orientation lock is great for when I'm sharing YouTube clips with family, or web browsing in bed.
"It fits well in my lap for tweeting when eating during lunch break, and it's easy to wipe off a stray mayo glop."

Ed Baig, writing in USA Today:

"The iPad is not so much about what you can do – browse, do email, play games, read e-books and more – but how you can do it.
"That's where Apple is rewriting the rule book for mainstream computing. There is no mouse or physical keyboard. Everything is based on touch."

The Telegraph. Apr 2, 2010.

Google search goes blank in China

Web users in China unable to get search results from Google after company makes changes to its site resulting in technical glitch



Internet users across China reported today that they were unable to get search results from Google, after the company made changes to its site that fell foul of the country’s “Great Firewall”.


The US company closed its China-based site last week, carrying out its pledge to stop censoring its search engine due to alleged cyber-attacks coming from inside the country. Instead, users from the mainland are now redirected to Google’s Hong Kong site.


Yesterday, in cities across China, internet users said they were able to reach the homepage but any searches beyond that brought up a blank page and error messages. Even innocuous words such as “Manchester United”, “Sandra Bullock” or “Beijing Olympics” were crashing pages since 5pm today.


Google said that the problems were due to a technical glitch on its part. In the past 24 hours, the letters "gs_rfai" started appearing in Google’s search parameters worldwide. A Google spokeman said: “because this parameter contained the letters rfa the great firewall was associating these searches with Radio Free Asia, a service that has been inaccessible in China for a long time - hence the blockage. We are currently looking at how to resolve this issue."


Google said it is looking at how to resolve the problem. Separately, it also said its mobile services in China were partly blocked on Sunday and Monday. Three days ago, Google’s mobile search function was partially blocked in China by authorities, leaving mobile phone users unable to use the Google search function.


In an interview last week, Google co-founder Sergey Brin implied that the move to the Hong Kong based site had been discussed with Chinese authorities and indirectly approved by them.


Under the “one country, two systems” slogan championed by by Deng Xiaoping, China’s former leader, Hong Kong retains the freedom of speech and British law left behind after the UK ceded the territory to China in 1997.


In January, the search firm said it was no longer willing to self-censor searches blaming increasing internet censorship and Chinese hackers attempts to infiltrate the data of human rights activists in the country.Beijing said Google’s closure of its mainland site was “totally wrong”, and argued that governments worldwide controlled internet content. It has consistently denied internet hacking, which is illegal in China.


The Times. Mar 30, 2010.

Why Does a Salad Cost More Than a Big Mac?

In the United States, the Farm Bill, a massive piece of federal legislation making its way through the US Congress, governs what children are fed in schools and what food assistance programs can distribute to recipients. The bill provides billions of dollars in subsidies, much of which goes to huge agribusinesses producing feed crops, such as corn and soy, which are then fed to animals. By funding these crops, the government supports the production of meat and dairy products—the same products that contribute to America's growing rates of obesity and chronic disease. Fruit and vegetable farmers, on the other hand, receive less than 1 percent of government subsidies.

The US government also purchases surplus foods like cheese, milk, pork, and beef for distribution to food assistance programs—including school lunches. It is not required to purchase nutritious foods.


When the House of Representatives debated the bill in July, PCRM, along with many other health and public interest groups, supported the Fairness in Farm and Food Policy Amendment, which was offered by Reps. Ron Kind (D-WI) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ). This amendment would have limited government subsidies of unhealthy foods, cut subsidies to millionaire farmers, and provided more money for nutrition and food assistance programs for Americans and impoverished children overseas.

Unfortunately, politics doomed the reform effort. At the eleventh hour, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) feared that freshman representatives who voted to cut subsidies might risk losing their seats in farm states in the 2008 elections, endangering the Democratic majority. The reform amendment was defeated 117 to 309.

Nonetheless, Congress did make some modest changes to the Farm Bill’s subsidy programs at the very last minute.

This fall, the Senate will have its turn debating and voting on the bill. PCRM will need your help again to encourage senators to cut subsidies for unhealthy foods and increase support for fruits, vegetables, and vegetarian foods. Other groups, including the American Medical Association and the President’s Cancer Panel, are also calling on Congress for sweeping reforms.

Good Medicine.