The BBC have announced that series six of Doctor Who will kick off with a two-parter set in the US “penned by “Who supremo” Steven Moffat.”
In the special two-parter co-produced with BBC America, key scenes will be filmed in Utah for a story set in the late Sixties in which the Doctor, Amy and Rory find themselves on a secret summons that takes them on an adventure from the desert in Utah right to the Oval Office.
Shooting for the scenes in America will start in mid-November Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill will be joined by Alex Kingston who reprises her role as River Song.
“The Doctor has visited every weird and wonderful planet you can imagine, so he was bound get round to America eventually! And of course every Doctor Who fan will be jumping up and down and saying he’s been in America before. But not for real, not on location – and not with a story like this one! Oh, you wait!” – Steven Moffat
The new series follows on from the Doctor Who Christmas Special guest starring Katherine Jenkins and Michael Gambon which is due to broadcast on Christmas Day. Series six will start airing on BBC One in spring 2011 and the second half of the series in autumn 2011.
Research by the Ohio State University has found that persistent exposure to light at night may lead to weight gain, even without changing physical activity or eating more food.
By studying mice the researchers found that mice exposed to a relatively dim light at night over eight weeks had a body mass gain that was about 50 percent more than other mice that lived in a standard light-dark cycle.
“Although there were no differences in activity levels or daily consumption of food, the mice that lived with light at night were getting fatter than the others,” said Laura Fonken, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in neuroscience at Ohio State University.
The study appears this week in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
As they’re not less active or eating more, the results suggest that the weight gain is because the mice living with light at night eat at times they normally wouldn’t.
In one study, mice exposed to light at night – but that had food availability restricted to normal eating times – gained no more weight than did mice in a normal light-dark cycle.
“Something about light at night was making the mice in our study want to eat at the wrong times to properly metabolize their food,” said Randy Nelson, co-author of the study and professor of neuroscience and psychology at Ohio State.
If these results are confirmed in humans, it would suggest that late-night eating might be a particular risk factor for obesity, Nelson said.
Mice exposed to dim light-at-night showed higher levels of epididymal fat, and impaired glucose tolerance – a marker of pre-diabetes.
“When we restricted their food intake to times when they would normally eat, we didn’t see the weight gain,” Fonken said about the mice. “This adds to the evidence that the timing of eating is critical to weight gain.”
So how does light at night lead to changes in metabolism? The researchers believe the light could disrupt levels of the hormone melatonin, which is involved in metabolism. In addition, it may disrupt the expression of clock genes, which help control when animals feed and when they are active.
Overall, the findings show another possible reason for the obesity epidemic in Western countries.
Researchers have long associated prolonged computer use and television viewing as obesity risk factors, but have focused on how they are associated with a lack of physical activity.
“It may be that people who use the computer and watch the TV a lot at night may be eating at the wrong times, disrupting their metabolism,” Nelson said. “Clearly, maintaining body weight requires keeping caloric intake low and physical activity high, but this environmental factor may explain why some people who maintain good energy balance still gain weight.”
Why wear ordinary shoes when you can wear hilarious pieces of art on your feet instead. Designer Kobi Levi specialises in creating unusual footwear that lie somewhere inbetween fashion and art.
Levi describes his personal shoe creations as “artistic footwear” making each pair in his studio by hand. “the shoe is my canvas. the trigger to create a new piece comes when an idea, a concept and/or an image comes to mind. the combination of the image and footwear creates a new hybrid and the design/concept comes to life. the piece is a wearable sculpture.”
His latest collection includes shoes by the name of “blow” “xxx pump” and “market trolley” proving that inspiration can literally come from anywhere.
Take a look at more of Kobi Levi’s collection on design boom [design boom]
Taiwan-based technology company Shohero has introduced a power strip that protects more than just electronics. Wet Circuits resists water so that even if you get caught in a short-term flood, your appliances stay on and no one gets electrocuted. The design boasts child safety measures,as well as overheating protection, spark prevention and a lifespan four times longer than standard competitors.
Perfect for electronics in the kitchen, outdoors or anywhere else they might get splashed, the power strips sell for $70 from the Wet Circuits site.
Have I Got News For You returns to BBC One on Thursday 14 October for ten weeks. And the first guest host will be the hugely popular, Bafta-nominated actor Benedict Cumberbatch, critically acclaimed star of the recent hit series Sherlock. His first time as guest host Benedict comments:
“I’m very excited and honoured and, like a moth to the flame, I am terrified but cannot resist! I have watched the show since its inception, and my family and I used to make it a routine TV date to relish. How could I resist the chance for the audience to witness my being shot down in flames by the wit of Merton and Hislop?” – Benedict Cumberbatch
Nominated for a Bafta for his role in Small Island, Cumberbatch will be seen on the big screen as the star of two major films, Steven Spielberg’s version of War Horse and Working Title’s movie version of John Le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
This will be the 138th show hosted by a guest presenter in the eight years since Angus Deayton left in October 2002.
Other guest hosts appearing in the new series include John Bishop, Chris Addison, Jo Brand, Jeremy Clarkson, Martin Clunes, Lee Mack, Miranda Hart and Alexander Armstrong. Guests include James Blunt, Reginald D Hunter, Janet Street Porter, Nick Robinson, Grayson Perry and Ross Noble.
Have I Got News For You returns to BBC 1 on the 14th October at 9pm
Films set in London can’t help but resonate with it’s residents and ‘The Fighter’s Ballad’ opens with various shots of London and it’s landmarks so from the start I expected it to portray some of the characteristics and problems of present day London. And I wasn’t disappointed. Set and filmed in St Leonard’s Shoreditch Church, round the corner from the hedonistic playground of the youthful and trendy that is Hoxton, a world weary Reverend (Clive Russell) carries out his mundane day to day duties to a dwindling congregation.
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St Leonard’s is also the setting for the television show ‘Rev’ and has been described as “one of the country’s most bleakly beautiful buildings.” It’s name might be familiar from the nursary rhyme ‘Oranges and Lemons’ and Shakespeare is said to have worshipped there but these days the flock is the homeless and drug addicts.
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The plot continues when a violent, desperate man breaks into the Church bringing with him the anxiety and anger of contemporary society. This is The Fighter (Peter Cadwell) and as his name suggests he’s violent. He’s also a soul in turmoil, seeking meaning in life, faith and redemption.
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The Fighter’s Ballad is an adaptation of an original stage play written by Peter Cadwell who plays The Fighter. Although film is very dialogue heavy, the performances were strong enough to carry it off. Russell’s portrayal of Reverend John was natural, utterly convincing and at times very moving. Russell’s grand stature (6’6″) didn’t prevent him from coming across as a vulnerable character. Cadwell, more used to the stage, brought an energy to the nameless fighter that’s not often seen on a screen. The Fighter’s dialogue being lyrical and almost rap-like, the extra energy came in handy bringing the angry, troubled character to life.
The film is superbly shot, if a little dark in places, on digital SLR cameras. They make full use of the dereliction of the building and the features inside. A grand piano covered in water stained dustsheet says everything about this supposed sanctuary surrounded by gritty inner London.
It takes a lot to get Genevieve and I excited. Rugby stars Ugo Monye, Danny Care, Nils Mordt and Seb Stegmann stripping off to help Ghanaian children’s charity AfriKids, managed to do it though.
Perfectly toned Rugby stars Ugo Monye, Danny Care, Nils Mordt and Seb Stegmann got their kit off in support of Deutsche Bank’s charity of the year, AfriKids, bringing London Fashion Week to a close with The Alternative London Fashion Event. I have never heard grown women scream so much in my life.
Monye made his first public appearance for the Ghanaian children’s charity AfriKids, bringing along his England Rugby pals to bare all (well, almost!) for the evening and support the event, at the exclusive One Mayfair. The beautiful converted church setting showcased some of the world’s most recognised designer’s autumn and winter collection pieces, alongside some African designers connected to AfriKids. Not only did the England stars parade in the designer underwear, but guests also bid for the skimpy items protecting their modesty in an auction at the end of the night.
Thanks to the likes of Jaeger, Ted Baker, The Couture Gallery, Wolford, Frank Usher and many other designers who donated pieces from their latest collections, nearly £20,000 was generated on the night which will go directly to help improve life for Ghana’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged children, including the ‘spirit children’.
During the evening the audience were also given the chance to bid for a dinner date with Ugo and former England Captain Nick Easter
About AfriKids.
AfriKids is a Child Rights organisation set up nearly a decade ago to work on traditional children’s projects including foster homes, schools and street child centres and also more groundbreaking initiatives which tackle complex cultural issues, including child trafficking, child labour and the spirit child phenomenon. During her gap year in 1997, Georgie Fienberg, Founder of AfriKids, realised that there was a dire need to prevent the deaths of so-called ‘spirit children’. ‘Spirit Children’ are those whose mothers die during childbirth, which are then regarded by African society and culture as outcasts to live and survive on the fringes of society.
As well as financing and delivering sustainable child rights projects, AfriKids owns and runs businesses, including a medical centre, an eco-lodge and several ethical trade programmes. AfriKids aims for its Western office, based in London, to be redundant by 2018.
BlackBerry makers RIM have unveiled their latest toy ‘The BlackBerry PlayBook’ and are pointing it squarely at the “let’s pretend it’s work but shh it’s actually fun” generation.
The professional-grade tablet boasts unmatched power and web performance. Perfect for either large organizations or an “army of one”, the BlackBerry PlayBook is designed to give users what they want, including uncompromised web browsing, true multitasking and high performance multimedia, while also providing advanced security features, out-of-the-box enterprise support and a breakthrough development platform for IT departments and developers.
“RIM set out to engineer the best professional-grade tablet in the industry with cutting-edge hardware features and one of the world’s most robust and flexible operating systems,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “The BlackBerry PlayBook solidly hits the mark with industry leading power, true multitasking, uncompromised web browsing and high performance multimedia.”
Measuring less than half an inch thick and weighing less than a pound, the BlackBerry PlayBook, with its 7″ high resolution display is ultra portable. One of it’s main selling points is multi-tasking. Its performance is jointly fueled by a 1 GHz dual-core processor and the new BlackBerry Tablet OS which supports true symmetric multiprocessing.
Another of PlayBook’s big selling points is its “Uncompromised Web Browsing” with support for Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1, Adobe® Mobile AIR® and HTML-5, the BlackBerry PlayBook provides users with an uncompromised, high-fidelity web experience and offers them the ability to enjoy all of the sites, games and media on the web. For more than a decade, the mobile industry has worked to bridge the gap between the “real web” and mobile devices through various apps and technologies and, in fact, a significant number of mobile apps today still simply serve as a proxy for web content that already exists on the web. RIM are also encouraging developers and content publishers to work with them to develop applications and content.
The BlackBerry PlayBook features dual HD cameras for video capture and video conferencing that can both record HD video at the same time…possibly to capture the scene you’re looking at and the look of amazement on your face at the same time…and an HDMI-out port for presenting creations on external displays. The BlackBerry PlayBook also offers rich stereo sound.
For those BlackBerry PlayBook users who carry a BlackBerry smartphone, it will also be possible to pair the tablet and smartphone using Bluetooth. This means they can opt to use the larger tablet display to seamlessly and securely view any of the email, BBM™, calendar, tasks, documents and other content that resides on (or is accessible through) their smartphone. They can also use their tablet and smartphone interchangeably without worrying about syncing or duplicating data.
The BlackBerry Tablet OS is built upon the yummiest sounding operating system – the QNX® Neutrino® microkernel architecture. It’s been used in everything from planes, trains and automobiles to medical equipment and the largest core routers that run the Internet.
The Specifications and Key features of the BlackBerry PlayBook include:
7″ LCD, 1024 x 600, WSVGA, capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch and gesture support
BlackBerry Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
1 GHz dual-core processor
1 GB RAM
Dual HD cameras (3 MP front facing, 5 MP rear facing), supports 1080p HD video recording
Video playback: 1080p HD Video, H.264, MPEG, DivX, WMV
